Massachusetts · Nonprofit
GREENLIGHT FUND INC
GREENLIGHT FUND INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 247 organizations whose IRS filings report $86,126,920 to it, the largest being Boston Foundation Inc ($13,129,135). 161 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 60% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $15M
- Funders on record
- 247
- Grants received
- $86M
- Net assets
- $56M
What Greenlight Fund Inc does
Mission
The greenlight fund transforms the lives of children and families in high-poverty urban areas by creating infrastructure and a consistent annual process in cities to identify critical needs, import innovative entrepreneurial programs that can have a significant and measurable impact, and galvanize local and national support to help programs reach and sustain impact in the new city.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
To meet its mission in the thirteen cities where it operates, the greenlight fund does the following:- runs an annual process to identify critical community needs; searches the country to find innovative, results-oriented nonprofit approaches to meeting needs; conducts rigorous diligence on these nonprofits to understand their outcomes, revenue model, replicability, and potential fit on the local landscape; and selects one organization to import into the city that shows the greatest promise of making a significant, measurable impact as cost effectively as possible.- supports organizations it selects with financial and non-financial assistance. Greenlight typically provides around $600,000 over an organization's first four years in the new city, helps attract talented leadership to their local staff and boards, takes a seat on their local boards, facilitates partnerships and additional resources, and supports and monitors progress to become sustainable in the new location.- launches organizations in the community by showcasing them at events where they can build awareness and recruit new supporters.since its founding in boston in 2004, the greenlight fund has imported sixteen…
$12,500,358 spentof which $4,571,296 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $12,500,358.
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 2020 to 2021, from $24M to $42M (+77%).
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 15% · 2018 3% · 2020 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of GREENLIGHT FUND INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (60% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 8 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.
Board chair
John Simon
Chairperson
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 32 funders to 111 funders, grant income rose $3.3M → $13M.
52 of 247 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 60% 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 GREENLIGHT FUND INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 247 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
GREENLIGHT FUND INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
64% 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 GREENLIGHT FUND INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 37% · 2018 31% · 2019 21% · 2020 17% · 2021 51% · 2022 21% · 2023 24% — 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 GREENLIGHT FUND INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
60% of GREENLIGHT FUND 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 $35M that is directly attributable, 85% of it comes from funders outside Massachusetts, across 25 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $51M arriving through sponsors registered in 24 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
GREENLIGHT FUND INC is better cushioned than half of the 659 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 659 community improvement nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Organizations like GREENLIGHT FUND 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
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
86%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 14 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for GREENLIGHT FUND 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 GREENLIGHT FUND INC?
- GREENLIGHT FUND INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 247 organizations whose IRS filings report $86,126,920 to it, the largest being Boston Foundation Inc ($13,129,135). 161 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 60% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does GREENLIGHT FUND INC have?
- IRS filings report 247 organizations giving $86,126,920 in grants to GREENLIGHT FUND INC, 161 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GREENLIGHT FUND INC?
- Boston Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $13,129,135 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GREENLIGHT FUND 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 247 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