About
A narrow mission, run honestly.
We install permanent, code-compliant standby power at the homes of active emergency responders in New Jersey. We do one thing. The people who do the work are paid in full. We publish what we find.
Lifeline Power began with a straightforward observation from inside the electrical trade: the systems that keep a house running through a multi-day outage are ordinary, well-understood equipment. A standby generator, a properly sized transfer switch, a permit, an inspection, and a crew that knows what it is doing. There is nothing experimental about it.
What is not ordinary is the price against an emergency responder's wage. That is the entire problem, and it is the kind of problem a community can actually solve.
What we are, legally
Lifeline Power is a program, not a separate entity. It operates under Ripple Foundation, a New Jersey charitable trust recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as exempt under section 501(c)(3), EIN 33-6478496. Our determination letter is posted here rather than described.
Ripple Foundation is classified as a private foundation under Internal Revenue Code section 509(a). That classification carries real consequences we would rather state plainly than bury: we file Form 990-PF instead of Form 990, we are subject to the excise tax rules on self-dealing under section 4941, and the charitable deduction limits available to our donors are lower than those for a public charity. See IRS Publication 526 for how that affects your own return.
Plain language
A charitable trust is a form of nonprofit organization created by a trust agreement rather than by filing corporate articles with the state. It is governed by trustees instead of a board of directors. Under N.J.S.A. 3B:31-79, a trustee signing on behalf of the trust signs in that capacity, which is why our documents read “Louis Zimick, Trustee of Ripple Foundation” and “Elizabeth Zimick, Trustee of Ripple Foundation” and never “Ripple Foundation, Inc.” Ripple Foundation is governed by two co-trustees. It has no president, no executive director, and no board of directors, and nobody here holds a title of that kind.
A private foundation is the default IRS classification for a 501(c)(3) that has not demonstrated broad public financial support. It is not a lesser status, but it is a stricter one.
The principle we will not trade away
No electrician works unpaid on a Lifeline Power job. Electricians are working people, and many of them live paycheck to paycheck. Asking a journeyman to give up a day's wages so that we can advertise a lower cost per project does not remove the cost. It moves it onto a family that can carry it least.
Zimick Electric, a New Jersey licensed electrical contractor, completed the first installation as licensed electrical contracting donated to Ripple Foundation. It donated the equipment, materials, permitting, and labor, and paid its crew in full, with payroll taxes, workers' compensation, and benefits. Every dollar given to Ripple is still going to the next family.
What we will not claim
We will not tell you that generators are proven to keep responders on duty. That study has not been done. The two that come closest found no association, and we are not going to quietly leave that out.
What is documented is the burden itself, and the recommendation to address it. We are building against the documented part and measuring the rest. Our accountability page holds the details.