Stand to Reason

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
330604522
IRS 990 coverage
2013–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-T 2020
Location
Signal Hill, CA, USA
Phone
5625957333
Rating
65
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Religion Related N.E.C.
Affiliation
Christianity

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$3,450,521
Expenses
$3,546,715
Assets
$3,096,487
Liabilities
$51,257

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

8 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • GREGORY P KOUKL (PRESIDENT/CEO)
  • MARGARET CROWLEY (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/SECRETA)

Highest reported compensation

  • GREGORY P KOUKL (PRESIDENT/CEO): $187,332 total reported compensation
  • MARGARET CROWLEY (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/SECRETA): $175,176 total reported compensation
  • DEREK WHITE (TREASURER): $127,726 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Stand to reason's vision is to provide the training to build a new generation of confident, courageous, yet winsome and attractive ambassadors for christ capable of restoring credibility to the christian world view. Our mission is to equip (see schedule o) confident, courageous, clear-thinking, and gracious christians who can represent jesus to the world. Our plan has five parts (broadcast, publications, internet, self-directed training curricula, and public speaking and seminars), and we are working our plan very intentionally.

What it reported doing in 2025

Stand to reason speakers taught at over 114 events in 2025, many of which involved multiple sessions over multiple days. Str hosted six reality student conferences in cities across the country (atlanta, ga; seattle, wa; minneapolis, mn; dallas, tx; philadelphia, pa; and dayton, oh) with nearly 11,000 total attendees. Str aired 49 radio broadcasts on a dozen affiliates across the country, and over 1.14 million podcast episodes were downloaded from countries around the world. Nearly 3.3 million pages were viewed on str's website, and our youtube videos received 1.2 million views. We also have over 23k learners enrolled in our online training courses at str university.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 92% 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 - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and most voting board members are independent. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and the filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 76
  • Transparency & Controls: 47
  • Accountability: 72
  • Sustainability: 29
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 79.5%; rating input score 80
  • Program expense ratio: 76.4%; rating input score 76
  • Fundraising efficiency: $18.47 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Grant itemization coverage: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 83.3%; rating input score 83; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 56
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -2.8%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.87; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 13.8%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 6.5% per year; rating input score 100; 44th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 7% per year; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 14.6% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 79.5% of revenue deployed · 76.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 5 of 6 board members independent · 5 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $2.7M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $187K · 8 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 11 filing years from 2013 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
  • 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 — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 8 not reported.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 56/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 19/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 29/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 24/100.