Solar Education Research Group Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 463930228
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2014–2016
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2016
- Location
- Tuckahoe, NY, USA
- Phone
- 8456571972
- Rating
- 88
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Research Institutes and/or Public Policy Analysis
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $6,467
- Expenses
- $38,511
- Assets
- $48,138
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2016. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
3 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Lee Smith (President)
People named in this filing
- Lee Smith (President)
- Samara Levine (Consultant)
- Brian Pugh (Staff Person)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2016. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Solar Education Research Group, Inc. (SERG) was established in 2013 to stimulate investment in solar power and maximize the economic benefit to communities from investments in solar in the following ways: Training workers in the solar industry by preparing them to work with the tools and techniques used to design, install and maintain solar power systems, thus increasing their value in the solar industry and building a better trained solar workforce; Advancing the development of the solar power market by researching technical issues facing the solar industry and workforce; Developing new training protocols and manuals for the solar industry; and, Field-testing new tools and techniques for designing and maintaining solar power systems. SERG's trainings are available to members of the public, including individuals, businesses, not-for-profits and trade unions. SERG is a registered New York State Not-For-Profit Corporation and 501(c)(3) tax-exempt entity.
What it reported doing in 2016
Prepared and implemented statewide solar training plan in conjunction with the Workforce Development Institute.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Investment-supported. 100% of the money available for current operations came from recurring investment income.
- 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
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 97
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 26
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 90.9%; rating input score 91
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -495.5%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.25; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 90.9%; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 126% per year; rating input score 100; 99th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 2.4% per year; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 48.5% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 90.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $35K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 3 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 1 filed schedules
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2014 to 2016
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 2/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 54/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 0/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Automatic revocation: this organization had its federal tax-exempt status automatically revoked.