Skip to content

North Carolina · Nonprofit

Center for Agricultural and Food Entrepreneurship

Center for Agricultural and Food Entrepreneurship (North Carolina) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $617,555 to it, the largest being THE GOLDEN LEAF INC ($238,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$2.6M
Funders on record
5
Grants received
$618k
Net assets
$3.4M
3/5 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 31%
01What it does

What Center for Agricultural and Food Entrepreneurship does

Mission

To provide educational assistance and technical training for limited resource individuals engaged in value-added food and agricultural production. Specific types of training include adherence to all regulatory issues affecting food production and distribution, use and maintenance of equipment necessary for food processing, and product formulation and development.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Our programing provides educational assistance and technical training for limited resource individuals engaged in value-added food and agricultural productions. Specific types of training include adherence to all regulatory issues affecting food production and distribution; use and maintenance of equipment necessary for food processing; and product formulation and development.

    $346,593 spent$381,812 earned by the program
    100% of program spending
  2. The Center for Agricultural and Food Entrepreneurship also has an organizational purpose to incubate and support new small businesses in a shared use kitchen, developing products in the State of North Carolina and surrounding area.

The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $346,593.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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.

100 = 20182018 Revenue 100 ($427k) Expenses 100 ($383k) Net assets 100 ($643k)2019 Revenue 91 ($388k) Expenses 100 ($381k) Net assets 101 ($650k)2020 Revenue 109 ($467k) Expenses 102 ($391k) Net assets 113 ($725k)2021 Revenue 79 ($337k) Expenses 95 ($365k) Net assets 109 ($698k)2022 Revenue 104 ($444k) Expenses 106 ($406k) Net assets 115 ($737k)2023 Revenue 171 ($732k) Expenses 116 ($444k) Net assets 159 ($1.0M)2024 Revenue 149 ($637k) Expenses 153 ($587k) Net assets 167 ($1.1M)2025 Revenue 619 ($2.6M) Expenses 154 ($588k) Net assets 524 ($3.4M)
'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (619)Expenses (154)Net assets (524)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $1.5M to $3.8M (+156%).

$656k
$660k
$814k
$786k
$790k
$1.5M
$1.5M
$3.8M
'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 12% · 2022 22% · 2023 26% · 2024 8% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

85% of Center for Agricultural and Food Entrepreneurship’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (61% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 4,434 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$45k
’18
$7k
’19
$76k
’20
−$27k
’21
$39k
’22
$288k
’23
$50k
’24
$2.1M
’25
10
months of
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

Michael McDonald

Executive Director

Board chair

Joel Mowery

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed8991010111213
Joined·+6+1+2+2+4+1+1
No longer listed·5112300
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 3 funders, grant income rose $100k → $230k.

1 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 12% 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 Center for Agricultural and Food Entrepreneurship’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

Center for Agricultural and Food Entrepreneurship leans on a few funders — its largest provides 39% of grant income and the top three 86%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

51% 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 Center for Agricultural and Food Entrepreneurship.

39%
largest funder
86%
top three
~4
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 90% · 2023 54% — 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.

Where its funders are

100% of Center for Agricultural and Food Entrepreneurship's grant income comes from North Carolina funders.

NC

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’19
’23
North Carolina out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $75k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Center for Agricultural and Food Entrepreneurship runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 2,127 community improvement nonprofits its size.

Operating margin78% · top quartile
Months of reserve10.1mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)30% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,127 community improvement nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Government funding Center for Agricultural and Food Entrepreneurship receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $99k on record.

Federal$99k
grants $99kcontracts $0
Top agencies
  • Department of Agriculture$99k

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 Center for Agricultural and Food Entrepreneurship

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 North Carolina

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

68% of spending goes to programs.

Program 68%Management 30%Fundraising 2%

Governance

11
board members
91%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

96%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Part of a family of 2 related entities

  • WNC Blue Ridge Food Ventures · disregarded
  • WNC FoodWorks · disregarded

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Center for Agricultural and Food Entrepreneurship: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 Center for Agricultural and Food Entrepreneurship?
Center for Agricultural and Food Entrepreneurship (North Carolina) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $617,555 to it, the largest being THE GOLDEN LEAF INC ($238,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Center for Agricultural and Food Entrepreneurship have?
IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $617,555 in grants to Center for Agricultural and Food Entrepreneurship, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Center for Agricultural and Food Entrepreneurship?
THE GOLDEN LEAF INC is the largest funder on record, with $238,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Center for Agricultural and Food Entrepreneurship find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. 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 Center for Agricultural and Food Entrepreneurship →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 5 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing