Massachusetts · Nonprofit
ACT Institute Inc
ACT Institute Inc (Massachusetts) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,123,750 to it, the largest being BARR FOUNDATION ($1,345,550). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
ACT Institute Inc's funding base is broadening — from 1 funders to 2 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,184 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- Cogswell Benevolent Trustshared funders
- Elemental Excelerator Incportfolio match
- Breakthrough Energy Action Incportfolio match
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 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.
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 22% · 2018 33% · 2019 32% · 2020 35% · 2021 42% · 2022 4% · 2023 29%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of ACT Institute Inc’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $148k → $341k.
3 of 9 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 3% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $780k from 5 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Boston Foundation Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money ACT Institute Inc raised.
From the IRS filings of ACT Institute Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
ACT Institute Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 63% of grant income and the top three 97%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
35% 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 ACT Institute Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 65% · 2021 69% · 2022 91% · 2023 74% — 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
40% of ACT Institute Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 22% give in more than one year at all.
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
98% of ACT Institute Inc's grant income comes from Massachusetts funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $56k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 9 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Cogswell Benevolent Trustshared fundersNH · backs 45 organizations that share your funders
- Elemental Excelerator Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Breakthrough Energy Action Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Deployus Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Climate Emergency Fundportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Energy Action Fundportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Local Jobs & Economic Development Fund Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions Forumportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Breakthrough Energy Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Climate Jobs National Resource Center Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Yawkey Foundation IIshared funderslocalMA · backs 40 organizations that share your funders · funds 191 organizations near you
- United Way Of Massachusetts Bay Incshared fundersMA · backs 78 organizations that share your funders
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Organizations like ACT Institute Inc
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Alliance for Climate Transition Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ACT Institute 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.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds ACT Institute Inc?
- ACT Institute Inc (Massachusetts) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,123,750 to it, the largest being BARR FOUNDATION ($1,345,550). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ACT Institute Inc have?
- IRS filings report 9 organizations giving $2,123,750 in grants to ACT Institute Inc, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ACT Institute Inc?
- BARR FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,345,550 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ACT Institute Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 9funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing