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Massachusetts · Public charity

Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture

The MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE was incorporated on march 7, 1792 by an act of the senate and the house of representatives in general court assembled in the commonwealth of massachusetts. The purpose of the society is to allocate the funds available to agricultural programs in the way which the society believes will…

$271k
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
19
Grants FY2025
10
Organizations funded FY2024
30%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$10,000
Largest grant, FY2025
$35,000
Organizations funded a year
4 to 11
FY2020 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
4
Total assets, FY2025
$6.4M

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 30% of the organizations Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture funded were first-time grantees, receiving 29% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 71% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $75k went to new ones.

50%100%’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’21’22’23’24
Food & NutritionEnvironmentEducationHuman ServicesCommunity ImprovementOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2025still arriving17$271k53%
FY202410$255k30%
FY202311$232k73%
FY20224$70k50%
FY20218$155k63%
FY20206$81kn/a
100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Food & Nutrition$723kEnvironment$202kCommunity Improvement$99kAnimals$32kEducation$3kYouth Development$3kScience & Tech$2k

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2020 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Third Sector New England Inc$157,50040%
The Harold Grinspoon Foundation$150,00020%
Conservation Law Foundation Inc$100,00050%
Trustees of Tufts College$78,80040%
Land for Good Inc$50,00024%
Berkshire Agricultural Ventures Inc$50,00021%
Boston Farms Community Land Trust Inc$45,00044%
Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture Inc$40,00021%
Mill City Grows Inc$39,85731%
Coastal Foodshed$30,0001n/a
Show all 33 grantees
All grantees of Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Third Sector New England Inc$157,50040%
The Harold Grinspoon Foundation$150,00020%
Conservation Law Foundation Inc$100,00050%
Trustees of Tufts College$78,80040%
Land for Good Inc$50,00024%
Berkshire Agricultural Ventures Inc$50,00021%
Boston Farms Community Land Trust Inc$45,00044%
Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture Inc$40,00021%
Mill City Grows Inc$39,85731%
Coastal Foodshed$30,0001n/a
Regional Environmental Council Inc$30,00030%
American Farmland Trust$30,00020%
Worcester County Horticultural Society$25,00010%
The Livestock Institute of Southern New England Inc$25,00011%
The Marion Institute Inc$25,00011%
Southeastern Massachusetts Agricultural Partnership Inc$25,000111%
The Livestock Institute Southern New England Meat Processing$25,0001n/a
Ecoag Collaborative Inc$24,12216%
Massachusetts Aquaculture Association$19,6752n/a
Cuttyhunk Shellfish Farms$18,0001n/a
Pioneer Valley Growers Association$15,0001n/a
Massachusetts Horticultural Society$10,00010%
Just Roots Inc$10,00010%
Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts Inc$9,00012%
Western Massachusetts Fibershed$7,0001n/a
Freed Seed Federation Inc$5,0001n/a
Martha's Vineyard Shellfish Group Inc$4,00011%
Ma Sheep and Woolcraft Fair$2,9801n/a
University of Massachusetts Amherst Foundation Inc$2,59510%
Nettlenook Farm$2,5001n/a
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS Massachusetts 4-H Dairy$2,500131%
New England Sheep and Wool Growers Association Inc$2,50012%
Essex North Shore Agricultural Technical Foundation Inc$2,468124%

Where it is load-bearing

Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 24 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetThird Sector New England Inc: $157,500 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetThe Harold Grinspoon Foundation: $150,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetConservation Law Foundation Inc: $100,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetTrustees of Tufts College: $78,800 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetLand for Good Inc: $50,000 over 2y, 3.8% of budgetBerkshire Agricultural Ventures Inc: $50,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetBoston Farms Community Land Trust Inc: $45,000 over 4y, 3.8% of budgetCommunity Involved in Sustaining Agriculture Inc: $40,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetMill City Grows Inc: $39,857 over 3y, 1.0% of budgetRegional Environmental Council Inc: $30,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetAmerican Farmland Trust: $30,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetWorcester County Horticultural Society: $25,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetThe Livestock Institute of Southern New England Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetThe Marion Institute Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetSoutheastern Massachusetts Agricultural Partnership Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 11% of budgetEcoag Collaborative Inc: $24,122 over 1y, 6.1% of budgetMassachusetts Horticultural Society: $10,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetJust Roots Inc: $10,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetSustainable Business Network of Massachusetts Inc: $9,000 over 1y, 2.5% of budgetMartha's Vineyard Shellfish Group Inc: $4,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst Foundation Inc: $2,595 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS Massachusetts 4-H Dairy: $2,500 over 1y, 31% of budgetNew England Sheep and Wool Growers Association Inc: $2,500 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetEssex North Shore Agricultural Technical Foundation Inc: $2,468 over 1y, 24% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 24.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Wild Geese Foundation…Southcoast Community …Harvard Pilgrim Healt…Clif Family FoundationBoston Foundation IncEastern Bank Foundati…The David S Howe Foun…Henry P Kendall Found…Farm Aid IncProject Bread-The Wal…Amelia Peabody Charit…Point32health Foundat…
Wild Geese Foundation IncMA15.6× affinity5 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Wild Geese Foundation Inc · Southcoast Community Foundation Inc · Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation Inc · Clif Family Foundation · Boston Foundation Inc · Eastern Bank Foundation · The David S Howe Foundation · Henry P Kendall Foundation · Farm Aid Inc · Project Bread-The Walk for Hunger Inc · Amelia Peabody Charitable Fund Trust · Point32health Foundation Inc

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Compare Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture?

Find your warmest path to Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

About Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture

How much does Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture give?
Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture reported 19 grants totaling $270,697 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 4 and 11 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.
What does Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture fund?
By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Food & Nutrition (68%), Environment (19%), Community Improvement (9%).
Who are Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: Third Sector New England Inc ($158k), The Harold Grinspoon Foundation ($150k), Conservation Law Foundation Inc ($100k).
Does Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 30% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Which funders back the same organizations as Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Wild Geese Foundation Inc, Southcoast Community Foundation Inc, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation Inc.
Where is Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture based?
Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture is based in MA.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 33 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home