St Louis Health Equipment Lending Program Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 800144355
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2013–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2012
- Location
- St Louis, MO, USA
- Phone
- 3148974357
- Rating
- 78
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Health Support Services
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $333,799
- Expenses
- $438,157
- Assets
- $385,828
- Liabilities
- $99,316
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
9 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- KAREN LANTER (EXECUTIVE DI): $106,865 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
St. Louis help is dedicated to providing community members with donated medical equipment, promoting independence, health and environmental responsibility.
What it reported doing in 2025
In 2025, stlhelp served 2,787 individuals, including 1,566 older adults age 60 and over and 171 children, by providing essential equipment such as wheelchairs, walkers, hospital beds, and bathroom safety items that support safe mobility and independence. During the year, 8,058 pieces of medical equipment were loaned back into the community, significantly expanding access to needed equipment. Through equipment reuse and refurbishment, stlhelp diverted 196 tons of medical equipment from landfills, with a replacement value 2,647,811, preserving valuable resources while improving community health access. During 2025, the rural parish clinic, a mobile medical clinic providing health care services to uninsured and underinsured people in rural communities of the archdiocese of st. Louis, is partnering with the st. Louis health equipment lending program (help) to provide free durable medical equipment to its patients. The clinic will work with patients to identify and obtain equipment on an as-needed basis from st. Louis help, which provides free wheelchairs, walkers, canes, hospital beds and other durable medical equipment to anyone regardless of income.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 68% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Expenses are high relative to revenue and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 66
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 90
- Sustainability: 18
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 82.4%; rating input score 82
- Program expense ratio: 61.3%; rating input score 61
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -31.3%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.88; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.26; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 24.4%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 16.3% per year; rating input score 100; 79th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 5.5% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 15.1% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 82.4% of revenue deployed · 61.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 6 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $269K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $107K · 9 people listed
- Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 13 filing years from 2013 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 7/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 38/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 14/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 15/100.