Vermont · Nonprofit
CAPSTONE COMMUNITY ACTION INC
CAPSTONE COMMUNITY ACTION INC (Vermont) receives grants from 67 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,036,474 to it, the largest being THE VERMONT COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($982,650). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $25M
- Funders on record
- 67
- Grants received
- $6.0M
- Net assets
- $10M
What Capstone Community Action Inc does
Mission
Capstone community action provides comprehensive services to help people achieve economic well-being with dignity and develops partnerships to strengthen vermont communities. Our commitment is: to alleviate the suffering caused by poverty, to work with individuals and families to move out of poverty, and to advocate for economic justice for all vermonters.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Early childhood and family development (head start):in 2024-2025, capstone's head start and early head start programs prepared 287 young children for future success in school and in life through the operation of licensed child care centers, partnerships with local schools, and provision of services to families in their homes. Capstone's whole family approach provides a full continuum of support including parent education, parent leadership opportunities, health, dental, and nutrition services, disability services, mental health services, as well as resources and referrals for other needed social services. Our brook street high school is a model family literacy program for teen parent education, high school, and college achievement. Both brook street high school and our learning together early childhood education programs are located in barre's historic brookside school and strive to break the barriers of intergenerational poverty for at-risk young families
$7,286,119 spentof which $284,215 as grants$200,876 earned by the program35% of program spendingWeatherization: capstone's weatherization team is dedicated to improving energy effciency and cost savings for low-income vermonters. We conduct home energy audits, installation of insulation, draft reduction, heating system efficiency improvements, installation of energy efficient lighting, hot water heater replacement or insulation, and more. In addition, this program offers emergency heating system replacements or repairs to ensure proper safety and functioning of home heating systems. In 2024-2025, the weatherization program serviced 448 homes, lowering average household energy use and creating healthier homes while reducing climate impact. Our 3e thermal program works with owners of multi-unit affordable housing to improve the energy efficiency, comfort, and safety of those occupying rental units. In 2024-2025, the 3e thermal program serviced 424 rental units.
$8,662,552 spentof which $3,699,007 as grants$557,882 earned by the program41% of program spendingFamily and community support services (fcss): provides crisis assistance to people in need of housing, utilities, and home heating fuel. Fcss provides 24/7 coverage during the winter season to ensure a lack of fuel does not create unsafe home conditions for low-income vermonters. This year, we provided 840 adults and 527 children with fuel assistance in the harsh winter season. Capstone's housing services support vermonters living in motels, encampments, or in their cars. Once housed, capstone services are critical to keeping homeless vermonters in safe temporary shelter or permanent homes. We find housing, vouchers, and rental assistance and collaborate with community partners to ensure access to a wide continuum of services. In 2025, we helped 1,453 men, women and children to access or maintain housing or provided navigation to unhoused vermonters.
$2,581,864 spentof which $1,487,474 as grants$34,333 earned by the program12% of program spendingCommunity economic development (ced):our food and nutrition programs address food insecurity for low-income vermonters. We operate one of the largest food shelves in the central vermont region. We served prepared meals and provided healthy food to hungry vermonters in 8,685 visits. Our child care food program supported 129 childcare providers and 1,097 kids received nutricious meals on a daily basis. Our money management programs include financial coaching, micro business counseling, and tax assistance. Capstone provides comprehensive financial coaching by helping individuals develop budgets, improve credit, reduce debt, and build savings. In 2024-2025, our financial coaching program helped 522 individuals to improve their financial stability. Microbusiness counseling assists self-employed, low-income vermonters with business basics and planning. In 2024-2025, capstone counseled 241 entrepreneurs. Our tax assistance program utilized 30 volunteers and helped 1,672 low-income vermonters file their taxes in 2025.capstone's community kitchen academy (cka) offers low-income vermonters training for a culinary career. Students attend 9-week training sessions to learn basic culinary…
$2,552,264 spentof which $813,131 as grants$155,864 earned by the program12% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $21,082,799.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2019 to 2020, from $11M to $13M (+20%).
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 79% · 2018 78% · 2019 76% · 2020 74% · 2021 75% · 2022 81% · 2023 75% · 2024 83% · 2025 82%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of CAPSTONE COMMUNITY ACTION INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (21% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
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.
Chief executive
Alison Lyndes-Calderara
Executive director
Board chair
Abby White
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018, and between the FY2018 and FY2019, and between the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 13 funders to 29 funders, grant income rose $114k → $1.3M.
13 of 67 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 40% 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 CAPSTONE COMMUNITY ACTION INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 67 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
CAPSTONE COMMUNITY ACTION INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
81% 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 CAPSTONE COMMUNITY ACTION INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 19% · 2018 32% · 2019 31% · 2020 34% · 2021 19% · 2022 24% · 2023 21% — broadly stable.
“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
56% of CAPSTONE COMMUNITY ACTION INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 43% 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
78% of CAPSTONE COMMUNITY ACTION INC's grant income comes from Vermont funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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.
Against its field
CAPSTONE COMMUNITY ACTION INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 2,396 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,396 human services nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding CAPSTONE COMMUNITY ACTION INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $171.2M on record — $59.5M federal, $111.7M state.
- Department of Health and Human Services$58.5M
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$750k
- Small Business Administration$200k
- Department of Agriculture$30k
- Weatherization$25.1M
- Wx ARPA Grants$15.3M
- Other Grants$14.8M
- Community Services Block Grant$7.0M
- Homeless Assistance HOP$6.9M
- Other Grants-Service Agreemnt$6.3M
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like CAPSTONE COMMUNITY ACTION 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 Vermont
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CAPSTONE COMMUNITY ACTION 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. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds CAPSTONE COMMUNITY ACTION INC?
- CAPSTONE COMMUNITY ACTION INC (Vermont) receives grants from 67 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,036,474 to it, the largest being THE VERMONT COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($982,650). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CAPSTONE COMMUNITY ACTION INC have?
- IRS filings report 67 organizations giving $6,036,474 in grants to CAPSTONE COMMUNITY ACTION INC, 29 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CAPSTONE COMMUNITY ACTION INC?
- THE VERMONT COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $982,650 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CAPSTONE COMMUNITY ACTION INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Vermont. 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 Capstone Community Action →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 67 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing