True Life Counseling
Legal name: True Life Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 300815454
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2019–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2018
- Location
- Forest Hill, MD, United States
- Phone
- 443-761-2504
- Rating
- 61
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Religion Related N.E.C.
- Affiliation
- Religious (unspecified)
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $243,963
- Expenses
- $238,171
- Assets
- $72,135
- Liabilities
- $1,461
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- RON POWELL (CEO)
- WAYNE FINNERTY (President)
Highest reported compensation
- RON POWELL (CEO): $98,508 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
True Life-Discipleship Counseling is a Christian discipleship counseling ministry that provides personal and spiritual help—teaching Christians freedom from sin and emotional/relational bondage through Jesus-centered, Holy-Spirit-enabled discipleship. True Life-Discipleship Counseling, a non-denominational, non-profit incorporation, has deep roots in northern Maryland communities. Serving local churches and individuals, our Discipleship Counseling is designed for personal and spiritual help that spans a wide spectrum of needs. From weary heavy laden Christians who are struggling to experience the rest and freedom promised in God’s word, to anyone caught in a season of anxiety, guilt, depression, anger, and many other emotional issues. It teaches Christians how to be free from sin’s powerful grasp, and from the behavioral and emotional bondage that undermines relationships. Special...
What it reported doing in 2025
Training and teaching
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- 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 the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of voting board members are independent and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 73
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Accountability: 16
- Sustainability: 29
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 69.5%; rating input score 70
- Program expense ratio: 71.2%; rating input score 71
- Fundraising efficiency: $708.93 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 0%; rating input score 0; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 2.4%; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.3; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 41.4%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -1% per year; rating input score 0; 25th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 5.6% per year; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 15.5% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 69.5% of revenue deployed · 71.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 0 of 4 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $170K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $99K · 4 people listed
- Consistency: 21 of 22 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 7 filing years from 2019 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 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 — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 41/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 17/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 6/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 34/100.