Tricklebee Cafe
Legal name: Tricklebee Cafe Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 320467578
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Milwaukee, WI, United States
- Phone
- 414-488-2477
- Rating
- 63
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Food Banks, Pantries
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $345,175
- Expenses
- $295,178
- Assets
- $614,134
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
12 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- REV CHRISTIE MELBY-GIBBONS (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- REV CHRISTIE MELBY-GIBBONS (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $92,905 total reported compensation
- TEANNIA TROTTER (CAFE MANAGER): $19,133 total reported compensation
- JULIO NIEVES (KITCHEN ASSISTANT): $17,672 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Tricklebee Cafe is a pay-what-you-can community cafe that offers healthy meals, food-service training, and spiritual nourishment. Tricklebee Café is a pay-what-you-can community café that offers healthy meals, food-service training, and spiritual nourishment. We are a ministry of the Moravian Church in America. What We Offer. Our Vision By providing fresh, healthy, locally-grown food to anyone regardless of ability to pay, we address food insecurity by feeding the immediate need of hunger, while providing resources to educate and inspire people to make a habit of healthy eating. Access to healthy food helps people to better care for themselves and their neighbors, which heals and strengthens community. Why We Do It.
What it reported doing in 2025
Spent $70,604 on food supplies and merchandise in 2025 to prepare meals for over 10,000 customers in our pay-what-you-can cafe. And spent $3,016 in programs 2025.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 89% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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 - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 26
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Accountability: 82
- Sustainability: 57
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 31.4%; rating input score 31
- Program expense ratio: 24.9%; rating input score 25
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
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: 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 9 controls in place; rating input score 56
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 14.5%; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.08; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 50.6%; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 21.8% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -6.2% per year; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 9.5% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 3 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 31.4% of revenue deployed · 24.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 5 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $74K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $93K · 12 people listed
- Consistency: 19 of 19 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 6 filing years from 2020 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 8 filed money-flow records
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 31/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 25/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 8 not reported.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 3/100.