Massachusetts · Nonprofit
COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY OF SOMERVILLE
COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY OF SOMERVILLE (Massachusetts) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,878,177 to it, the largest being United Way Of Massachusetts Bay Inc ($994,293). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $11M
- Funders on record
- 22
- Grants received
- $1.9M
- Net assets
- $2.8M
What Community Action Agency of Somerville does
Mission
The mission of Community Action Agency of Somerville (caas) is to help local families and individuals achieve financial security while working to eliminate the root causes of economic injustice.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Head start is a comprehensive developmental preschool program that provides wrap-around services to over 200 low-income children and their families each year, including extensive supports in the economic, social, health, nutritional and psychological domains. Head start serves low-income residents of somerville and cambridge.
$7,173,522 spent75% of program spendingThe housing advocacy program (hap) provides eviction prevention services to approximately 450 low-income individuals at risk of homelessness each year. Hap serves low-income residents of somerville only. Community organizing and advocacy takes a systematic approach to reducing poverty by engaging low-income residents of somerville in collectively pushing for social change. Finally, we also provide a robust referral network to help to direct our low-income neighbors to other service providers and resources.
$2,339,680 spentof which $1,122,809 as grants25% of program spendingVolunteer income tax assistance (vita) offers free federal & state tax return preparation for low income families in the somerville area provided by trained volunteers. The program increases the capacity for low-income families to file returns, and improves the accuracy of the returns.
$34,197 spent0% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $9,547,399.
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.
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 $3.5M to $6.0M (+74%).
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 98% · 2018 99% · 2019 97% · 2020 97% · 2021 96% · 2022 97% · 2023 97% · 2024 99% · 2025 97%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
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.
Chief executive
David Gibbs
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $55k → $131k.
5 of 22 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 22% 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 COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY OF SOMERVILLE’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
COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY OF SOMERVILLE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 53% of grant income and the top three 75%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
85% 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 COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY OF SOMERVILLE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 73% · 2018 71% · 2019 66% · 2020 68% · 2021 92% · 2022 33% · 2023 30% — 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
45% of COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY OF SOMERVILLE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
96% of COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY OF SOMERVILLE's grant income comes from Massachusetts funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $409k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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.
Government funding COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY OF SOMERVILLE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $44.7M on record.
- Department of Health and Human Services$44.7M
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 COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY OF SOMERVILLE
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 Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
92% 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 COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY OF SOMERVILLE: 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 COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY OF SOMERVILLE?
- COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY OF SOMERVILLE (Massachusetts) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,878,177 to it, the largest being United Way Of Massachusetts Bay Inc ($994,293). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY OF SOMERVILLE have?
- IRS filings report 22 organizations giving $1,878,177 in grants to COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY OF SOMERVILLE, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY OF SOMERVILLE?
- United Way Of Massachusetts Bay Inc is the largest funder on record, with $994,293 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY OF SOMERVILLE 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.
Play a game about who funds Community Action Agency of Somerville →
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 22 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