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Iowa · Nonprofit

SERO PROJECT INC

SERO PROJECT INC (Iowa) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,740,767 to it, the largest being WELLSPRING PHILANTHROPIC FUND INC ($368,000). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$1.3M
Funders on record
21
Grants received
$1.7M
Net assets
$719k
12/21 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 35%
01What it does

What Sero Project Inc does

Mission

Sero Project Inc. (sero) is a network of people with hiv and allies fighting for freedom from stigma and injustice. Sero is particularly focused on ending inappropriate criminal prosecution of people with hiv, including for non-disclosure of their hiv status, potential or percieved hiv exposure, or hiv transmission. Sero's hiv criminalization work includes raising public awareness through community education efforts and outreach to mobilize and advocate for reform.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Program

  1. Sero's hiv criminalization work includes raising public awareness through community education efforts and outreach to mobilize and advocate for reform.

    $1,064,847 spent$80,340 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,064,847.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.

100 = 20192019 Revenue 100 ($462k) Expenses 100 ($511k) Net assets 100 ($101k)2020 Revenue 125 ($580k) Expenses 100 ($512k) Net assets 112 ($113k)2021 Revenue 188 ($870k) Expenses 154 ($787k) Net assets 227 ($229k)2022 Revenue 731 ($3.4M) Expenses 203 ($1.0M) Net assets 243 ($246k)2023 Revenue 306 ($1.4M) Expenses 267 ($1.4M) Net assets 354 ($357k)2024 Revenue 278 ($1.3M) Expenses 231 ($1.2M) Net assets 712 ($719k)
201920202021202220232024
Revenue (278)Expenses (231)Net assets (712)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $984k to $2.8M (+183%).

$1.3M
$1.2M
$984k
$2.8M
$2.4M
$1.9M
201920202021202220232024
Total assetsTotal liabilities

How it's funded, over time

Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.

2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

90% of SERO PROJECT INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (51% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 8,611 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.

−$49k
’19
$68k
’20
$83k
’21
$2.3M
’22
$51k
’23
$103k
’24
18
months of
reserve

Leadership and staff

The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.

Board chair

Cecilia Chung

Board chair

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

201920202021202220232024
Listed556666
Joined·+0+1+0+1+0
No longer listed·00010
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $165k → $314k.

5 of 21 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 14% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

From the IRS filings of SERO PROJECT INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 20 of 21 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How concentrated its funding is

SERO PROJECT INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left

56% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund SERO PROJECT INC.

21%
largest funder
50%
top three
~9
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 91% · 2018 70% · 2019 63% · 2020 26% · 2021 59% · 2022 47% · 2023 59% — diversifying over time.

“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How long its funders stay

31% of SERO PROJECT INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y

Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.

Where its funders are

SERO PROJECT INC draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Iowa, across 5 states in all.

NY
MA
IN
CA
DC

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Iowa out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $243k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

SERO PROJECT INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 8,121 health nonprofits its size.

Operating margin8% · above the median
Months of reserve18.1mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)23% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 8,121 health nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

Organizations like SERO PROJECT INC

Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In Iowa

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

90% of spending goes to programs.

Program 90%Management 4%Fundraising 6%

Governance

6
board members
67%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention–Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

98%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

NY

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SERO PROJECT INC: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.

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Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds SERO PROJECT INC?
SERO PROJECT INC (Iowa) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,740,767 to it, the largest being WELLSPRING PHILANTHROPIC FUND INC ($368,000). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does SERO PROJECT INC have?
IRS filings report 21 organizations giving $1,740,767 in grants to SERO PROJECT INC, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of SERO PROJECT INC?
WELLSPRING PHILANTHROPIC FUND INC is the largest funder on record, with $368,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like SERO PROJECT INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Iowa. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.

Play a game about who funds Sero Project →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2019–2024), and the filings of 21 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing