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Connecticut · Nonprofit

FORGE CITY WORKS INC

FORGE CITY WORKS INC (Connecticut) receives grants from 45 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,926,642 to it, the largest being THE MELVILLE CHARITABLE TRUST INC ($3,005,000). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$5.6M
Funders on record
45
Grants received
$8.9M
Net assets
$1.2M
31/45 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 64%
01What it does

What Forge City Works Inc does

Mission

Forge city works uses the power of food to transform people, neighborhoods, and our city by creating food-based career pathways, providing equitable, affordable food access, and operating food-based social enterprise businesses.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Job training: our job training program prepares low-income residents with barriers to employment for jobs each year, focusing on both soft skills and technical culinary skills. Most participants are opportunity youth (ages 18-24 who are disconnected from school and work). Participants earn minimum wage during training and work 20-25 hours/week for about 16 weeks in level 1 while they master initial skills, then move up to level 2 internships. Wages earned by trainees in the program in 2025 totaled $255,208. In 2025, 40 participants started the program; 82% of participants exiting the program successfully completed level 1 training. In 2025, 76% of graduates found work within 90 days of exiting the program with average starting wages of 17% over minimum wage. We hire trainees too: 15-20% of our hourly workforce are training graduates.

    $1,701,616 spent$680,369 earned by the program
    30% of program spending
  2. Fire by forge: in 2023, we opened fire by forge, an upscale casual, pan-american-inspired cafe, restaurant, and bar with equity strategies embedded in the financial model. Our job training program is hosted at the restaurant, which enables us to train on a much broader range of jobs, and offers the potential for transitional employment. Many of our employees live in our frog hollow neighborhood.

    $3,360,294 spent$2,397,490 earned by the program
    60% of program spending
  3. The grocery on broad: opened in 2024, our neighborhood grocery offers healthy staples and fresh foods. The sliding scale pricing offers up to a 50% discount in 2025 to low-income neighbors, which equated to $170,263 in savings to our community. In 2025, we served about 600 families.

    $571,304 spent$161,993 earned by the program
    10% of program spending

The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,633,214.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($1.9M) Expenses 100 ($2.2M) Net assets 100 ($469k)2018 Revenue 125 ($2.4M) Expenses 96 ($2.1M) Net assets 162 ($759k)2019 Revenue 115 ($2.2M) Expenses 104 ($2.3M) Net assets 146 ($683k)2020 Revenue 84 ($1.6M) Expenses 80 ($1.7M) Net assets 115 ($539k)2021 Revenue 93 ($1.8M) Expenses 69 ($1.5M) Net assets 173 ($813k)2022 Revenue 121 ($2.3M) Expenses 86 ($1.9M) Net assets 261 ($1.2M)2023 Revenue 399 ($7.6M) Expenses 192 ($4.2M) Net assets 983 ($4.6M)2024 Revenue 316 ($6.0M) Expenses 285 ($6.2M) Net assets 924 ($4.3M)2025 Revenue 293 ($5.6M) Expenses 297 ($6.4M) Net assets 255 ($1.2M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (293)Expenses (297)Net assets (255)Peer revenue range

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 $1.5M to $4.9M (+230%).

$521k
$940k
$759k
$939k
$1.0M
$1.5M
$4.9M
$5.4M
$2.4M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 4% · 2018 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

42% of FORGE CITY WORKS INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (60% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 4,444 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$278k
’17
$290k
’18
−$76k
’19
−$145k
’20
$274k
’21
$414k
’22
$3.4M
’23
−$215k
’24
−$891k
’25
0.7
months of
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

Benjamin Dubow

Executive director

Board chair

Ojala Naeem

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed151817181816191517
Joined·+4+5+1+4+0+6+0+5
No longer listed·16042343
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 21 funders, grant income rose $210k → $2.3M.

8 of 45 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 20% 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 FORGE CITY WORKS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 45 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

FORGE CITY WORKS INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 34% of grant income and the top three 69%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

54% 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 FORGE CITY WORKS INC.

34%
largest funder
69%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 69% · 2018 84% · 2019 48% · 2020 54% · 2021 60% · 2022 53% · 2023 33% — 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

48% of FORGE CITY WORKS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 69% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

92% of FORGE CITY WORKS INC's grant income comes from Connecticut funders.

VT
MN
MA
PA
CT
RI
CA
MO
DE
NC
SC
TX

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Connecticut out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.8M 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

FORGE CITY WORKS INC has grown faster than half of the 2,299 community improvement nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−16% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve0.7mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)14% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,299 community improvement nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Government funding FORGE CITY WORKS INC receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $963k on record.

State$963k
19
20
22
23
24
25
26
Top programs
  • State Aid Grants$639k
  • Pass thru Grant Non-State$242k
  • ARPA Beneficiary Award$50k
  • Catering Services$16k
  • Educ & Training For Employees$8k
  • Food And Beverages$5k

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 FORGE CITY WORKS 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 Connecticut

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

87% of spending goes to programs.

Program 87%Management 9%Fundraising 3%

Governance

14
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

96%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

CT

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FORGE CITY WORKS 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.

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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 FORGE CITY WORKS INC?
FORGE CITY WORKS INC (Connecticut) receives grants from 45 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,926,642 to it, the largest being THE MELVILLE CHARITABLE TRUST INC ($3,005,000). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does FORGE CITY WORKS INC have?
IRS filings report 45 organizations giving $8,926,642 in grants to FORGE CITY WORKS INC, 31 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of FORGE CITY WORKS INC?
THE MELVILLE CHARITABLE TRUST INC is the largest funder on record, with $3,005,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like FORGE CITY WORKS INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Connecticut. 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 Forge City Works →

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 45 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