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Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture at a glance

· 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.

$271k
Granted FY2025still arriving
19
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$35k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% 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
02FY2025 · 19 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k8 grants · $22k
  • $10k–50k11 grants · $249k
$10,000
Median grant
4
States reached
$6.4M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE CARROT PROJECT$35,000
COASTAL FOODSHED$30,000
CONSERVATION LAW FOUNDATION$25,000
MARION INSTITUTE$25,000
LAND FOR GOOD INC$25,000
BERKSHIRE AGRICULTURAL VENTURES$25,000
ECO AG COLLABORATIVE (MOMENTUM AG)$24,122
MA FOOD SYSTEM COLLABORATIVE (MFSC)$20,000
BOSTON FARMS COMMUNITY LAND TRUST INC$20,000
AMERICAN FARMLAND TRUST$10,000
REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL$10,000
FREED SEED FEDERATION INC$5,000
MA SHEEP AND WOOLCRAFT FAIR$2,980
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS JUNG LAB (206 PAIGE LABORATORY)$2,595
MA FOOD SYSTEM COLLABORATIVE (MFSC)$2,500
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY24–24, $25k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%SEMAP: $25k → 11%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 9% of Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 97% of the giving stays in MA; by stated purpose, 84%.

Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculturelessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 13% directed abroad (not shown)
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

74%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$791k · 12 repeat orgs$273k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +31% since the first grant, against +11% for those funded once.

12 repeat relationships: 8 still active in FY2025, 4 since wound down; 9 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

12
12

Total granted

$791k
$175k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+31%
+11%

Still filing today

83%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 64% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $97k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
Food & NutritionEnvironmentCommunity ImprovementEducationAnimalsHuman ServicesOther
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.

Backed again, and grew

  • THIRD SECTOR NEW ENGLAND INC
    4× · 2020–2025 · $158k · revenue +31%
  • TH
    THE HAROLD GRINSPOON FOUNDATION
    2× · 2023–2024 · $150k · revenue +203%
  • CONSERVATION LAW FOUNDATION INC
    5× · 2021–2025 · $100k · revenue +4%

Funded once

  • WC
    WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY
    one grant, 2021 · $25k · revenue +11%
  • TL
    THE LIVESTOCK INSTITUTE OF SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND INCgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $25k · revenue +77%
  • SM
    SOUTHEASTERN MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL PARTNERSHIP INC
    one grant, 2024 · $25k · revenue 0%
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Sustainable Growers
—
2
Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota

Support the development and enhancement of sustainable farming systems through farmer-to-farmer networking, innovation, demonstration, and education.

Food & Nutrition
3
The Federation of Massachusetts Farmers and Gardeners Markets Inc

Mass farmers markets partners wtih farmers, consumers, and communities to improve the health of individuals, strenghten community vitality, and enhance local farm viability through farmers markets.

Food & Nutrition
4
Growsmart Maine

To build lasting prosperity without sacrificing the quality of life that defines maine.

Environment
5
Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Foundation

To engage and catalyze global seafood supply chains in rebuilding depleted fish stocks and reducing the environmental impacts of fishing and fish farming.

Animals
6
Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Hampshire

NOFA-NH actively promotes organic, regenerative, ecologically sound farming, gardening, eating, and land care practices for healthy communities. NOFA-NH helps people build local, just, and sustainable food systems.

Food & Nutrition
7
Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont

The northeast organic farming association of vermont promotes organic practices to build an ecomnomically viable, ecologically sound and socially just vermont agricultural system that benefits all living things.

Arts & Culture
8
Massachusetts Outdoor Heritage Foundation Inc Attn Susan Sacco
—
9
Marbleseed Inc

Marbleseed educates, inspires, and empowers farmers to thrive in a sustainable, organic system of agriculture.

Health
10
Northeast Organic Farming Association Ma Chapter Inc

To educate the public in the methods of organic farming, gardening, and homesteading.

Food & Nutrition
11
Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy

Iatp works locally and globally at the intersection of policy and practice to ensure fair and sustainable food, farm and trade systems.

Food & Nutrition
12
Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative

To build resillient communities in central New Hampshire by providing access to sustainable local energy and local food leading to economic stability, a clean environment and healthy living.

Environment
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Third Sector New England Inc; the most unlike its peers is University of Massachusetts Massachusetts 4-H Dairy. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

27 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 27 of the 33 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
4
Early backer (in before they grew)
25/27
Grantees still filing
15/27
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

BERKSHIRE AGRICULTURAL VENTURES INC: $50,000 · Food & NutritionBERKSHIRE AGRICULTURAL VENT…COMMUNITY INVOLVED IN SUSTAINING AGRICULTURE INC: $40,000 · Food & NutritionCOMMUNITY INVOLVED IN SUSTA…MILL CITY GROWS INC: $39,857 · Food & NutritionMILL CITY GROWS INCCOASTAL FOODSHED: $30,000 · Food & NutritionCOASTAL FOODSHEDAMERICAN FARMLAND TRUST: $30,000 · Food & NutritionAMERICAN FARMLAND TRUSTTHE LIVESTOCK INSTITUTE OF SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND INC: $25,000 · Food & NutritionTHE LIVESTOCK INSTITUTE OF …ECOAG COLLABORATIVE INC: $24,122 · Food & NutritionECOAG COLLABORATIVE INCJust Roots Inc: $10,000 · Food & Nutrition+1 more: $5,000 · Food & NutritionTHE HAROLD GRINSPOON FOUNDATION: $150,000 · OtherTHE HAROLD GRINSPOON FOUND…THE LIVESTOCK INSTITUTE SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND MEAT PROCESSING: $25,000 · OtherTHE LIVESTOCK INSTITUTE SO…MASSACHUSETTS AQUACULTURE ASSOCIATION: $19,675 · OtherMASSACHUSETTS AQUACULTURE …CUTTYHUNK SHELLFISH FARMS: $18,000 · OtherCUTTYHUNK SHELLFISH FARMSPIONEER VALLEY GROWERS ASSOCIATION: $15,000 · OtherPIONEER VALLEY GROWERS ASS…+6 more: $19,948 · Other+6 moreCONSERVATION LAW FOUNDATION INC: $100,000 · EnvironmentCONSERVATION LAW FOUND…LAND FOR GOOD INC: $50,000 · EnvironmentLAND FOR GOOD INCREGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL INC: $30,000 · EnvironmentREGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL…WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY: $25,000 · EnvironmentWORCESTER COUNTY HORTI…MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY: $10,000 · EnvironmentTHIRD SECTOR NEW ENGLAND INC: $157,500 · Community ImprovementTHIRD SECTOR NEW ENGLA…BOSTON FARMS COMMUNITY LAND TRUST INC: $45,000 · Community ImprovementBOSTON FARMS COMMUNITY…SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS NETWORK OF MASSACHUSETTS INC: $9,000 · Community ImprovementTrustees of Tufts College: $78,800 · Education+1 more: $2,595 · EducationTHE MARION INSTITUTE INC: $25,000 · PhilanthropySOUTHEASTERN MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL PARTNERSHIP INC: $25,000 · Human ServicesMARTHA'S VINEYARD SHELLFISH GROUP INC: $4,000 · Animals
Food & Nutrition$253,979Other$247,623Environment$215,000Community Improvement$211,500Education$81,395Philanthropy$25,000Human Services$25,000Animals$4,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

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
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 90%3%10%23%40%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 7%
  • Coastal Foodshed: 66% of income from government
  • Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture Inc: 35% of income from government
  • Just Roots Inc: 15% of income from government
  • Trustees of Tufts College: 13% of income from government
  • Mill City Grows Inc: 7% of income from government
  • Regional Environmental Council Inc: 6% of income from government
  • Third Sector New England Inc: 3% of income from government
  • Worcester County Horticultural Society: 2% of income from government
  • The Marion Institute Inc: 1% of income from government
  • Berkshire Agricultural Ventures Inc: 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
9get no government money at all
4report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
1rely on government for over half their income
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.
05Through Plinth

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.

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