Massachusetts · Nonprofit
FINDING COMMON PURPOSE INC
FINDING COMMON PURPOSE INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $814,300 to it, the largest being ANN ARBOR AREA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($223,667). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.1M
- Funders on record
- 10
- Grants received
- $814k
- Net assets
- $332k
What Finding Common Purpose Inc does
Mission
Root cause is a nonprofit research and consulting firm that partners with nonprofits, philanthropies, government, and businesses to advance solutions to today's toughest social issues.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Our advisory and education practice offers an array of services designed to help our partners in the nonprofit, philanthropic and government sectors to: design and advance collective action projects; assess and strengthen practices of measurement, learning and improvement; and plan and execute strategies that enable people to succeed from one life stage to the next. In addition, the organization works directly with community providers, along with individuals and families, in order to shape policies and services and learn how people experience barriers to success based on race, class, gender and/or geography. The organization also develops research, data, case studies, and tools to support mission-driven organizations and their effors to improve people's lives.
$1,686,630 spent$1,323,564 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,686,630.
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 2017 to 2018, from $1.5M to $1.9M (+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.
Government-grant reliance: 2020 12% · 2021 24%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 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
Erin Rodriguez
Executive director & presi
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 3 funders to 2 funders, grant income fell $69k → $21k.
5 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 56% 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 FINDING COMMON PURPOSE 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
FINDING COMMON PURPOSE INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 27% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
71% 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 FINDING COMMON PURPOSE INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 45% · 2019 99% · 2020 59% · 2021 71% · 2022 100% · 2023 94% — 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
17% of FINDING COMMON PURPOSE 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
56% of FINDING COMMON PURPOSE INC'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 $358k that is directly attributable, 56% of it comes from funders outside Massachusetts, across 4 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $457k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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 FINDING COMMON PURPOSE INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.1M on record.
- (HH) CONSULTANT SVCS (TO DEPTS)$1.1M
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 FINDING COMMON PURPOSE 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
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
64%
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 FINDING COMMON PURPOSE 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 FINDING COMMON PURPOSE INC?
- FINDING COMMON PURPOSE INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $814,300 to it, the largest being ANN ARBOR AREA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($223,667). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does FINDING COMMON PURPOSE INC have?
- IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $814,300 in grants to FINDING COMMON PURPOSE INC, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FINDING COMMON PURPOSE INC?
- ANN ARBOR AREA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $223,667 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FINDING COMMON PURPOSE 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