Serve Marketing

Legal name: Serve Incorporated

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
200059596
IRS 990 coverage
2014–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2021
Location
Milwaukee, WI, US
Phone
(414) 431-4400
Rating
75
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Nonprofit Management

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$141,526
Expenses
$207,602
Assets
$208,063
Liabilities
$55,944

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

12 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • TAMALYN POWELL (PRESIDENT)
  • GARY MUELLER (VICE PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • LAUREN SUTTER (EXECUTIVE DIR.): $10,000 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

To help shine a light on underserved causes.

What it reported doing in 2024

Serve marketing is the nation's only all-volunteer, non-profit advertising agency whose mission is to give underserved issues and charities a strong voice in the community. Serve is sponsoring the mighty small moments program, a movement to provide education to milwaukee families about brain development. Serve is working on a youth coalition campaign for mental health called the 1more campaign. The coalition group is voices of hope.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 68% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 53% for direct work, and 47% for grants.

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 expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 83
  • Transparency & Controls: 88
  • Accountability: 74
  • Sustainability: 21
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 83.1%; rating input score 83
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 13th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 95.8%; rating input score 96; 56th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 3 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 38
    • 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: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -46.7%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.27; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 4.8%; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -2.7% per year; rating input score 0; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -5% per year; rating input score 0; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -2.8% per year; rating input score 0; 15th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 12 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 83.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 12 of 12 board members independent · 3 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $172K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $10K · 12 people listed
  • Consistency: 23 of 24 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 6 filing years from 2014 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
  • 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.

  • Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 6/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 41/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 17/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 33/100.