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The Access Strategies Fund at a glance

· Private foundation

The Access Strategies Fund

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$427k
Granted FY2024still arriving
15
Grants FY2024still arriving
2
States reached
$110k
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, FY2017 to 2024.

Civil Rights$184kPhilanthropy$160kCommunity Improvement$113kPublic Benefit$65kHuman Services$32kEmployment$32kReligion$26kHousing & Shelter$6kOther$0
02FY2024 · 15 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k4 grants · $7k
  • $10k–50k9 grants · $260k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $160k
$30,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$7.7M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF WESTERN MA$110,000
THIRD SECTOR NEW ENGLAND$50,000
RESIST$35,000
COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF WESTERN MA$30,000
NEIGHBOR TO NEIGHBOR$30,000
MASS SENIOR ACTION COUNCIL$30,000
PIONEER VALLEY PROJECT$30,000
RIGHT TO THE CITY ALLIANCE$30,000
ARISE$30,000
WORCESTER INTERFAITH INC$25,000
MASSACHUSETTS VOTER EDUCATION$20,000
MASSACHUSETTS VOTER EDUCATION$2,500
RESIST$2,500
HAYMARKET PEOPLE'S FUND$1,000
CHINESE PROGRESSIVE ASSOCIATION$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 (FY17–24, $37k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%CHELSEA COLLABORATIVE INC: $500 → 16%CHELSEA COLLABORATIVE INC: $500 → 16%PIONEER VALLEY PROJECT: $30k → 17%EAST BOSTON SOCIAL CENTERS INC: $1k → 16%AYNI INSTITUTE: $1k → 16%BRAZILIAN WOMEN'S GROUP: $1k → 16%BRAZILIAN WOMEN'S GROUP: $500 → 16%asian american resource workshop: $900 → 16%ASIAN AMERICAN RESOURCE WORKSHOP: $500 → 16%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 27% of The Access Strategies Fund’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 85% of the giving stays in MA; by stated purpose, 90%.

The Access Strategies Fundlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address
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.

55%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$233k · 15 repeat orgs$190k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +108% since the first grant, against +31% for those funded once.

15 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2024, 11 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

15
9

Total granted

$233k
$14k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+108%
+31%

Still filing today

93%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 39% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $176k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’23’24
Community ImprovementCivil RightsHuman ServicesEducationEmploymentCrime & LegalOther
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× · 2017–2024 · $72k · revenue +44%
  • RI
    RESIST INC
    6× · 2018–2024 · $49k · revenue +931%
  • UR
    URBAN REVIVAL INC
    2× · 2021–2023 · $6k · revenue +6%

Funded once

  • BE
    BLACK ECONOMIC JUSTICE INSTITUTE IN C
    one grant, 2017 · $6k · revenue -72%
  • C
    COSECHA
    one grant, 2017 · $2k
  • EAST BOSTON SOCIAL CENTERS INCgraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $1k · revenue +178%
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
Massachusetts Nonprofit Network

The mission of the massachusetts nonprofit network is to unite and strengthen the nonprofit sector in the commonwealth through public policy, public awareness, and capacity building services.

Education
2
Aclu Foundation of Massachusetts Inc

Aclu foundation of ma was established to defend freedoms guaranteed in the constitution and bill of rights through public education and litigation.

Civil Rights
3
Urban Guild Inc

The corporation is organized to improve the quality of life in bostons urban communities by building capacity, environmental health, and providing economic opportunity in a manner that responds directly to community needs, interests, and…

Community Improvement
4
Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance Inc

Maha breaks down barriers facing first-time and first-generation home buyers and owners through education, counseling, advocacy, and grassroots organizing.

Housing & Shelter
5
League of Women Voters of Massachusetts

Lwvma, a nonpartisan organization, encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.

Civil Rights
6
The Network for Social Justice Inc

To foster a movement of systemic change to advance equity and inclusion in winchester and beyond.

Civil Rights
7
Massachusetts Business Roundtable Inc

The mission of the roundtable is to make massachusetts the most desirable place to live, work and do business by engaging private sector executives and public leaders to ensure access to a robust, diverse and talented workforce that…

—
8
Volunteer Lawyers Project of the Boston Bar Association Inc

The mission of the volunteer lawyers project of the boston bar association is to increase access to justice by delivering high quality pro bono civil legal services to eligible clients in the greater boston area.

Crime & Legal
9
Massachusetts Education & Career Opportunities Inc

Massachusetts education and career opportunities, inc. (massedco, inc.) is a statewide network of service sites that provides education and career advising to over 12,000 low-income, first generation individuals each year. massedco…

Education
10
Coop Careers Inc

Building a movement of diverse, upwardly mobile college grads overcoming underemployment through digital skills and peer connections.

Education
11
Jobs with Justice San Francisco

A long-term, strategic alliance of labor, community, faith-based, and student organizations working together to build greater economic power for workers and community members through employee rights at work and access to good jobs,…

Employment
12
Massachusetts Higher Education Assistance Corporation

The organization's primary exempt purpose is to provide access to and conduct activities in furtherance of higher education.

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Community Labor United Inc; the most unlike its peers is Worcester Interfaith Inc. 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

29 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. 29 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
12
Early backer (in before they grew)
28/29
Grantees still filing
17/29
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS: $140,000 · PhilanthropyCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF W…RESIST INC: $48,500 · OtherRESIST INCARISE INC: $30,000 · OtherARISE INCNEIGHBOR TO NEIGHBOR: $30,000 · OtherNEIGHBOR TO NEIGHBORMASS VOTE EDUCATION FUND: $16,000 · OtherMASS VOTE EDUCATION FUNDURBAN REVIVAL INC: $6,000 · Other+4 more: $6,745 · OtherTHIRD SECTOR NEW ENGLAND INC: $72,000 · Community ImprovementTHIRD SECTOR NEW ENGLA…WORCESTER INTERFAITH INC: $25,000 · Community ImprovementWORCESTER INTERFAITH I…SOLIDAGO FOUNDATION: $20,000 · Community ImprovementSOLIDAGO FOUNDATION+4 more: $6,226 · Community ImprovementMassachusetts Voter Education Network Inc: $48,500 · Civil RightsMassachusetts Voter E…MASSACHUSETTS SENIOR ACTION COUNCIL INC: $30,000 · Civil RightsMASSACHUSETTS SENIOR …RIGHT TO THE CITY ALLIANCE: $30,000 · Civil RightsRIGHT TO THE CITY ALL…CENTER FOR LABOR EDUCATION AND RESEARCH INC: $6,000 · Civil Rights+2 more: $4,200 · Civil RightsPROTEUS FUND INC: $62,000 · EducationPROTEUS FUND…BLACK ECONOMIC JUSTICE INSTITUTE IN C: $5,500 · EducationBLACK ECONOM…PIONEER VALLEY PROJECT INC: $30,000 · Human ServicesBRAZILIAN WOMEN'S GROUP INC: $1,800 · Human ServicesASIAN AMERICAN RESOURCE WORKSHOP INC: $1,400 · Human ServicesEAST BOSTON SOCIAL CENTERS INC: $1,300 · Human Services+2 more: $2,000 · Human ServicesYOUTHBUILD GLOBAL INC: $500 · EmploymentCENTRO PRESENTE INC: $500 · Crime & Legal
Philanthropy$140,000Other$137,245Community Improvement$123,226Civil Rights$118,700Education$67,500Human Services$36,500Employment$500Crime & Legal$500

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS: $140,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetTHIRD SECTOR NEW ENGLAND INC: $72,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetPROTEUS FUND INC: $62,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetRESIST INC: $48,500 over 6y, 0.3% of budgetMassachusetts Voter Education Network Inc: $48,500 over 3y, 8.0% of budgetMASSACHUSETTS SENIOR ACTION COUNCIL INC: $30,000 over 1y, 5.8% of budgetRIGHT TO THE CITY ALLIANCE: $30,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetPIONEER VALLEY PROJECT INC: $30,000 over 1y, 5.0% of budgetARISE INC: $30,000 over 1y, 3.8% of budgetWORCESTER INTERFAITH INC: $25,000 over 1y, 10.0% of budgetSOLIDAGO FOUNDATION: $20,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetCENTER FOR LABOR EDUCATION AND RESEARCH INC: $6,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetURBAN REVIVAL INC: $6,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetBLACK ECONOMIC JUSTICE INSTITUTE IN C: $5,500 over 1y, 6.3% of budgetCENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY INC: $3,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCHINESE PROGRESSIVE ASSOCIATION: $2,400 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetNATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD MASSACHUSETTS CHAPTER INC: $2,200 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetCOMMUNITY LABOR UNITED INC: $2,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetBRAZILIAN WOMEN'S GROUP INC: $1,800 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetDUDLEY STREET NEIGHBORHOOD INITIATIVE INC: $1,726 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetASIAN AMERICAN RESOURCE WORKSHOP INC: $1,400 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetEAST BOSTON SOCIAL CENTERS INC: $1,300 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHAYMARKET PEOPLE'S FUND INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMOVEMENT STRATEGY CENTER: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLA COLABORATIVA INC: $1,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetAYNI INSTITUTE INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetYOUTHBUILD GLOBAL INC: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetALTERNATIVES FOR COMMUNITY AND ENVIRONMENT INC: $500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCENTRO PRESENTE INC: $500 over 1y, 0.1% 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.

The Hyams Foundation …Barr FoundationBoston Foundation IncCenter for Economic D…Third Sector New Engl…Amalgamated Charitabl…Solidago FoundationHerman and Frieda L M…Haymarket People's Fu…Proteus Fund IncJosephine and Louise …The Lenny Zakim Fund
The Hyams Foundation IncMA49.4× affinity21 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Hyams Foundation Inc · Barr Foundation · Boston Foundation Inc · Center for Economic Democracy Inc · Third Sector New England Inc · Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc · Solidago Foundation · Herman and Frieda L Miller Foundation · Haymarket People's Fund Inc · Proteus Fund Inc · Josephine and Louise Crane Foundation · The Lenny Zakim Fund

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 The Access Strategies Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Access Strategies Fund. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 140%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 3%
  • Youthbuild Global Inc: 69% of income from government
  • East Boston Social Centers Inc: 50% of income from government
  • La Colaborativa Inc: 34% of income from government
  • Third Sector New England Inc: 3% of income from government
  • Resist Inc: 2% of income from government
  • Brazilian Women's Group Inc: 0% of income from government
  • Asian American Resource Workshop Inc: 0% of income from government
  • Community Labor United Inc: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
14get no government money at all
5report 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 The Access Strategies Fund?

Find your warmest path to The Access Strategies Fund 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-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Access Strategies’ 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