Massachusetts · Nonprofit
GREENROOTS INC
GREENROOTS INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 98 organizations whose IRS filings report $13,984,865 to it, the largest being BARR FOUNDATION ($2,828,108). 54 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.3M
- Funders on record
- 98
- Grants received
- $14M
- Net assets
- $12M
What Greenroots Inc does
Mission
Greenroots works to achieve environmental justice and greater quality of life through collective action, unity, education and youth leadership across neighborhoods and communities. We do so through deep community engagement and empowerment, youth leadership and implementation of innovative projects and campaigns.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
See schedule oclimate justice, waterfront revitalization and energy democracyin order to address the serious environmental and climate impacts facing the frontline communities of chelsea and east boston, greenroots engages residents of these two cities to implement innovative campaigns to: develop waterfront access; address urban heat island, flooding and sea-level rise; increase green space and tree canopy cover; and work towards energy democracy and resilience. Some of our present campaigns and projects include acquiring and revitalizing the forbes site; implementing the cool block; fostering the tree keepers program and caminatas verdes; increasing access and ecological restoration to the mill creek, chelsea creek and island end river; advancing a community-owned energy microgrid; increasing literacy around energy bills and advancing initiatives to help chelsea and east boston rate-payers save money while being more energy efficient.
$2,596,571 spentof which $633,000 as grants74% of program spendingSee schedule ofood justice greenroots works to address food insecurity by intertwining urban growing spaces together with our teaching kitchen, where nutrition, health and culture are the focal points. Greenroots manages and supports six urban growing spaces: la finca (our urban farm), anita's place youth garden, marlborough st. Community garden, chelsea community garden, suffolk st. Community garden and mace public housing garden; and a hydroponic freight farm that provides year round indoor growing and harvesting. We implement an "urban farm to table" concept by marrying the growing spaces with our teaching kitchen. In our teaching kitchen's inaugural year, we hosted over 2,050 participants across 178 events. Through our food justice initiatives, we are providing fresh, nutritious and culturally relevant produce all while engaging hundreds of community members, stakeholders and volunteers.
$230,438 spent7% of program spendingSee schedule ohealth equity & mobilitygreenroots' health equity work addresses chelsea's and east boston's compromised public health and disproportionate environmental impacts. Greenroots advances health equity and mobility by engaging and empowering residents in campaigns to: monitor and understand air quality data and ways to reduce air pollution; eliminate all potential sources of lead poisoning; implement measures addressing urban heat impacts; identifying indoor health concerns; improve access to mobility via public transportation; and advancing multimodal pathways.
$665,938 spent19% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,492,947.
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 2021 to 2022, from $3.1M to $6.6M (+111%).
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 1% · 2021 19% · 2022 2% · 2023 3% · 2024 3% · 2025 13%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
93% of GREENROOTS INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
Roseann Bongiovanni
Executive director
Board chair
Sandra Perdomo
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 35 funders, grant income rose $180k → $3.2M.
13 of 98 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 11% 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 GREENROOTS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 98 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
GREENROOTS INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% 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
53% 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 GREENROOTS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 28% · 2018 22% · 2019 31% · 2020 21% · 2021 32% · 2022 26% · 2023 33% — 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
39% of GREENROOTS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
89% of GREENROOTS INC's grant income comes from Massachusetts funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
GREENROOTS INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 1,074 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,074 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding GREENROOTS INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $824k on record — $150k federal, $674k state.
- Environmental Protection Agency$150k
- (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$672k
- (HH) CONSULTANT SVCS (TO DEPTS)$3k
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 GREENROOTS 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
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
75%
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 GREENROOTS 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 GREENROOTS INC?
- GREENROOTS INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 98 organizations whose IRS filings report $13,984,865 to it, the largest being BARR FOUNDATION ($2,828,108). 54 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does GREENROOTS INC have?
- IRS filings report 98 organizations giving $13,984,865 in grants to GREENROOTS INC, 54 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GREENROOTS INC?
- BARR FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,828,108 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GREENROOTS 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 98 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