Downtown South Bend Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
351546291
IRS 990 coverage
2011–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
South Bend, IN, USA
Phone
5742821110
Rating
78
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,341,548
Expenses
$1,156,164
Assets
$516,193
Liabilities
$39,365

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

Leadership & pay

38 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • MATT KAHN (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • WILLOW WETHERALL (EXEC DIRECTO): $113,111 total reported compensation

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

Overview

Mission

Downtown south bend, inc. Is committed to the advancement and vitality of downtown through offering business resources, support, initiatives, and incentives; presenting marketing and events to attract visitors; and highlighting downtown as the center for arts, dining, and entertainment.

What it reported doing in 2025

Dtsb hosted 9 ribbon cuttings and welcomed 17 new business openings. 59% were women or minority-owned with an estimated 80 new jobs created in 2025. We planned, promoted, and implemented more than 40 events in 2025, engaging over 80,000 attendees. We facilitated 2,000+ hours of dedicated downtown safety patrols. We partnered with mural mania to beautify our city center with 6 new murals. We worked with small-scale developers to advance the revitalization of 14 long-vacant buildings and maintained downtown beautification efforts by planting approximately 5,600 annuals and perennials. We promoted downtown events & businesses via our website and social media channels, generating approximately 811,376 accounts reached, 4.9 million views, and 62,800 engagements across meta platforms, along with 60,392 unique websit visitors during the year. The downtown outreach ambasador conducted more than 1,000 outreach interactions with individuals experiencing homelessness, connecting individuals with community resources, service providers, shelt, healthcare, and other available assistance.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 67% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
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. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 75
  • Transparency & Controls: 86
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 45
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 73.3%; rating input score 73
  • Program expense ratio: 85.1%; rating input score 85
  • Fundraising efficiency: $18.9 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 22nd 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: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 13.8%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.45; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.08; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 9.8%; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -0.9% per year; rating input score 0; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 0.2% per year; rating input score 100; 12th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 3.6% per year; rating input score 100; 29th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 73.3% of revenue deployed · 85.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 28 of 28 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment
  • Leadership: top reported pay $113K · 38 people listed
  • Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
  • Filing history: 15 filing years from 2011 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 8 not reported.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 54/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 22/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 38/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 38/100.