Connecticut · Nonprofit
CITY SEED INC
CITY SEED INC (Connecticut) receives grants from 52 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,045,943 to it, the largest being THE MARTHA AND HUNTER GRUBB FOUNDATION INC ($400,000). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.4M
- Funders on record
- 52
- Grants received
- $2.0M
- Net assets
- $499k
What City Seed Inc does
Mission
To engage the community in growing a local food system that supports economic development, community development, and sustainable agriculture. We aim to accomplish this through a suite of food-based programs, including: improving access to fresh, healthy food through coordinating and managing a network of farmers markets with options for all income levels; providing cooking and nutrition education, with a focus on maximizing nutrition benefits; offering food-based business incubation services and supporting small-scale food entrepreneurs; and supporting culinary exchange through cooking classes as part of our sanctuary kitchen program.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Since launching the city's first farmers market in 2004, we have grown a network of year-round markets that connect over 60 connecticut farmers and producers to 60,000 customers, building inclusivity by accepting all nutrition support benefits and bringing markets to under-resourced neighborhoods. Cityseed's farmers markets offer a platform, along with subsidized vending fees and no-cost market kits, for local businesses, entrepeneurs, and farmers to exhibit and sell their products, prioritizing those from new haven neighborhoods and thus circumventing barriers to entry that rising entrepeneurs, especially entrepeneurs of color, may face. In 2022, our markets redeemed $65,000+ in nutrition program inventives for vulnerablecommunity members (seniours, children, mothers and low-income families); and launched the dixwell community house market in partnership with community collaborators to provide access to fresh local food, entrepreneurial businesses, and art in this underserved, black neighborhood.
$122,913 spent$51,045 earned by the program13% of program spendingCityseed provides food business incubation services and access to commercial kitchen space.
Sanctuary kitchen supports refugee and immigrant chefs and food entrepreneurs resettling in new haven while building intercultural understanding in the community.
$822,569 spent$344,578 earned by the program87% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $945,482.
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 2024 to 2025, from $745k to $1.6M (+119%).
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 9% · 2018 17% · 2019 19% · 2020 5% · 2021 11% · 2022 16% · 2023 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
73% of CITY SEED INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (94% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018, and between the FY2020 and FY2021 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 20 funders, grant income rose $124k → $604k.
11 of 52 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 21% 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 CITY SEED INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 52 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
CITY SEED INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
39% 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 CITY SEED INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 20% · 2018 27% · 2019 29% · 2020 42% · 2021 30% · 2022 20% · 2023 53% — growing more concentrated.
“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
37% of CITY SEED INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
62% of CITY SEED INC's grant income comes from Connecticut funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $430k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
CITY SEED INC has grown faster than half of the 605 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 605 food & nutrition nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding CITY SEED INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $3.7M on record — $1.3M federal, $2.4M state.
- Department of Agriculture$1.1M
- Department of Labor$150k
- Pass thru Grant Non-State$1.8M
- State Aid Grants$578k
- Management Consultant Services$500
- Educational Services$500
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 CITY SEED 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 Connecticut
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
93% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CITY SEED 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 CITY SEED INC?
- CITY SEED INC (Connecticut) receives grants from 52 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,045,943 to it, the largest being THE MARTHA AND HUNTER GRUBB FOUNDATION INC ($400,000). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CITY SEED INC have?
- IRS filings report 52 organizations giving $2,045,943 in grants to CITY SEED INC, 31 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CITY SEED INC?
- THE MARTHA AND HUNTER GRUBB FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $400,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CITY SEED INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Connecticut. 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 City Seed →
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 52 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