Massachusetts · Nonprofit
CRADLES TO CRAYONS INC
CRADLES TO CRAYONS INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 602 organizations whose IRS filings report $50,318,240 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($12,877,332). 354 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2026
- $49M
- Funders on record
- 602
- Grants received
- $50M
- Net assets
- $22M
What Cradles to Crayons Inc does
Mission
Cradles to crayons provides children, living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive at home, at school and at play. We supply these items(clothing, diapers, outerwear, backpacks) free of charge by engaging and connecting communities.
As stated on its FY2026 Form 990.
Program
The organization executes its mission by mobilizing widespread community and civic participation. At the community level, the organization partners with schools, corporations, faith-based organizations, and other community groups to conduct drives for children's goods and to obtain volunteers in its warehouse. In addition, the organization partners with a network of diverse social service agencies that order and distribute the organization's packages to individual children receiving services from those agencies. By involving individuals and local private, not-for-profit, and public-sector organizations in its mission, the organization is able to address the immediate needs of children, build long-term community ownership of the organization's mission, and raise awareness about the critical issues of poverty, homelessness and clothing insecurity. For the year ended march 31, 2026, the organization procured and distributed 8,591,250 diapers, 126,353 winter coats, 65,382 hygiene kits, and 1,794,403 articles of clothing to 351,707 children, among meeting other essential needs.
$46,765,568 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2026 Form 990. Program spending in total: $46,765,568.
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 2018 to 2019, from $9.8M to $22M (+128%).
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: 2021 5% · 2022 6% · 2023 1% · 2024 2% · 2025 2% · 2026 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of CRADLES TO CRAYONS 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. 3 of the last 10 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
Christine Louise Morin
CEO and president
Board chair
Dean Athanasia
Board chair
As listed on its FY2026 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 98 funders to 259 funders, grant income rose $2.0M → $6.5M.
54 of 602 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 48% 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 CRADLES TO CRAYONS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 602 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
CRADLES TO CRAYONS INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
56% 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 CRADLES TO CRAYONS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 20% · 2018 21% · 2019 33% · 2020 33% · 2021 31% · 2022 23% · 2023 19% — 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
51% of CRADLES TO CRAYONS INC'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
CRADLES TO CRAYONS INC draws 69% of its grant income from funders outside Massachusetts, across 36 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $24M arriving through sponsors registered in 22 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
CRADLES TO CRAYONS INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 13 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 13 human services nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2026
Government funding CRADLES TO CRAYONS INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.5M on record — $633k federal, $901k state.
- Department of Health and Human Services$633k
- MA$900k
- NJ$1k
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 CRADLES TO CRAYONS 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 Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
90% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 5 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CRADLES TO CRAYONS 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 CRADLES TO CRAYONS INC?
- CRADLES TO CRAYONS INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 602 organizations whose IRS filings report $50,318,240 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($12,877,332). 354 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CRADLES TO CRAYONS INC have?
- IRS filings report 602 organizations giving $50,318,240 in grants to CRADLES TO CRAYONS INC, 354 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CRADLES TO CRAYONS INC?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $12,877,332 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CRADLES TO CRAYONS INC 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.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2026 (financials across 2017–2026), and the filings of 602 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