Massachusetts · Nonprofit
EQUITY TRUST INC
EQUITY TRUST INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,940,121 to it, the largest being NOVO FOUNDATION ($1,465,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $709k
- Funders on record
- 10
- Grants received
- $1.9M
- Net assets
- $2.5M
What Equity Trust Inc does
Mission
To promote and provide access to land, housing, capital, and economic opportunities for disadvantaged and low-income people; to promote the conservation of land and natural resources; and related charitable and educational purposes.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2025 return the organization reported starting a significant new program.
Property and values: education about and promotion of community forms of land ownership, decommodification of land, repairing historic land theft, and economics based on principles of social justice and environmental sustainability.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 2).
Equity trust fund: enabling socially conscious lenders and donors to support the preservation of affordable working farms, the development of affordable housing, and the implementation of other socially beneficial and environmentally sustainable projects. The fund added three new projects in 2025. The current porfolio as of the end of the year included thirty-three projects representing the full range of the fund's mission.
$129,670 spentof which $30,800 as grants$123,398 earned by the program34% of program spendingEducation and technical assistance to promote the establishment and sustainability of environmentally sound farms that benefit their local communities. Support access to farmland for historically marginalized people and communities and the permanent protection of farmland and farm infrastructure and their affordability for working farmers. In 2025, equity trust's work focused on farm land access for farm workers and immigrant farmers; guidance to land trusts and land owners on innovative strategies for protecting and stewarding working farms; and responding to assistance requests from community groups, farmers, land owners, and land trusts from around the country.
$73,606 spent$2,870 earned by the program19% of program spendingEducation and technical assistance to existing and emerging community land trusts with a mission to hold and steward land for permanently affordable housing, food production, local enterprises, and/or community space; support for groups engaged in development of complementary strategies for community stewardship of land and property.
$83,750 spent$1,533 earned by the program22% of program spendingProperty and values: education about and promotion of community forms of land ownership, decommodification of land, repairing historic land theft, and economics based on principles of social justice and environmental sustainability.
$62,321 spentof which $10,000 as grants16% of program spendingProperty stewardship: equity trust owns and stewards permanently preserved and affordable farm properties in new york and new hampshire, holds conservation easements permanently protecting farm properties in california and massachusetts, and supports affordable housing by stewarding land and holding affordability restrictions in massachusetts and connecticut.
$31,180 spent$5,049 earned by the program8% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $380,527.
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 $9.1M to $6.5M (−29%).
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.
76% of EQUITY TRUST INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
James Oldham
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 5 funders, grant income rose $25k → $235k.
3 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 6% 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 EQUITY TRUST INC’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
EQUITY TRUST INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 76% of grant income and the top three 90%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 80% · 2018 99% · 2019 82% · 2020 81% · 2021 65% · 2022 51% · 2023 64% — 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
57% of EQUITY TRUST INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 80% 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
EQUITY TRUST INC draws 99% of its grant income from funders outside Massachusetts, across 5 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $120k 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.
Against its field
EQUITY TRUST INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding EQUITY TRUST INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $559 on record.
- REFUNDS - GENERAL $559
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 EQUITY TRUST 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
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
42%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Equity Trust Hudson Valley Farm Affordability Fund LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for EQUITY TRUST 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 EQUITY TRUST INC?
- EQUITY TRUST INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,940,121 to it, the largest being NOVO FOUNDATION ($1,465,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does EQUITY TRUST INC have?
- IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $1,940,121 in grants to EQUITY TRUST INC, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of EQUITY TRUST INC?
- NOVO FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,465,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like EQUITY TRUST 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 10 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