Vapor Ministries
Legal name: Vapor Ministries Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 264463549
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2012–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Sylacauga, AL, United States
- Phone
- 256-208-2060
- Rating
- 76
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Thrift Shops
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $19,837,790
- Expenses
- $13,762,775
- Assets
- $21,790,617
- Liabilities
- $4,491,558
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Johnathon M McElveen (President)
- Sommer L'Hoste (VIce President and Secreta)
Highest reported compensation
- Sommer L'Hoste (VIce President and Secreta): $117,422 total reported compensation
- Katie Price (Treasurer): $112,076 total reported compensation
- Johnathon M McElveen (President): $93,815 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Meet needs. Feed souls. Elevate God. Vapor Ministries is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. © 2025 Vapor Ministries. All rights reserved. 338 Talladega Springs Rd. Sylacauga, AL 35151.
What it reported doing in 2025
Vapor Ministries, Inc. makes grants to Vapor Sports Ministries, Inc., a related tax exempt charitable organization, which operates centers for humanitarian aid and disciple-making through sports-based outreach. These centers are located in Nairobi, Kenya; N'gong, Kenya; Togoville, Togo; Sokome, Togo; Dilaire, Haiti; Ferrier, Haiti; and Ouanaminthe, Haiti. At these centers, Vapor Sports Ministries, Inc. provides full-time jobs for impoverished individuals, provides impoverished children with free-of-charge memberships in sports leagues, supplies critical care humanitarian aid grants and supplies high volumes of clean water to these communities.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 93% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 62% for direct work, and 38% for grants.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of total spending goes to programs. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 65
- Transparency & Controls: 94
- Accountability: 69
- Sustainability: 67
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 57.3%; rating input score 57
- Program expense ratio: 80.7%; rating input score 81
- Fundraising efficiency: $25.02 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
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: 99.7%; rating input score 100; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 70%; rating input score 70; 11th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 6 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 30.6%; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.58; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.21; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 2.3%; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 16.2% per year; rating input score 100; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 16.9% per year; rating input score 100; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 21.7% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 4 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 57.3% of revenue deployed · 80.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 10 board members independent · 6 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $11.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $117K · 10 people listed
- Consistency: 33 of 34 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 13 filing years from 2012 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 4 filed related-organization links
- 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 57/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 9 not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 43/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 51/100.