California · Nonprofit
COMMON ROOTS FARM
COMMON ROOTS FARM (California) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $795,329 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($176,474). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $431k
- Funders on record
- 21
- Grants received
- $795k
- Net assets
- $1.4M
What Common Roots Farm does
Mission
To provide farm-based employment skills, training and volunteer opportunities to people living with intellectual/developmental disabilities in an inclusive setting of an urban farm.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Common Roots Farm's mission is to bring together people with and without disabilities to grow healthy food, beautiful flowers, and build relationships that sustain everyone. We accomplish this by operating a production farm growing 25+ food crops and 30+ flower varieties for sale directly to the public. We offer internships and volunteer opportunities to people with developmental disabilities, host educational farm-based work days, and host social events to help break the isolation so common to people with disabilities. Our sales outlets include a farm share/community supported agriculture subscription (csa) program, a farm stand, wholesale customers and value-added production of shelf-stable products.in our most recent season we employed two young men with intellectual disabilities who had previously completed internships with common roots. We provided volunteer opportunities for over 200 people, with a focus on supporting volunteers with disabilities and their caregivers in participating in our farm operation. We offered regular, weekly volunteer opportunities to people with and without disabilities throughout our farm season. Our volunteers assisted with all aspects of our…
$191,932 spent$33,437 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $191,932.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $865k to $1.1M (+30%).
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.
84% of COMMON ROOTS FARM’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (54% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 6 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
Heidi Cartan
Executive director
Board chair
Janie Whiteford
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $19k → $180k.
7 of 21 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 58% 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 COMMON ROOTS FARM’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
COMMON ROOTS FARM has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% 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
86% 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 COMMON ROOTS FARM.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 65% · 2018 79% · 2019 48% · 2020 36% · 2021 43% · 2022 28% · 2023 28% — 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
50% of COMMON ROOTS FARM's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
58% of COMMON ROOTS FARM's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $336k that is directly attributable, 61% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $460k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
COMMON ROOTS FARM runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,448 employment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,448 employment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like COMMON ROOTS FARM
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
86%
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 COMMON ROOTS FARM: 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 COMMON ROOTS FARM?
- COMMON ROOTS FARM (California) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $795,329 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($176,474). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does COMMON ROOTS FARM have?
- IRS filings report 21 organizations giving $795,329 in grants to COMMON ROOTS FARM, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of COMMON ROOTS FARM?
- AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $176,474 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like COMMON ROOTS FARM find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 21 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