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Oregon · Nonprofit

Growing Gardens

Growing Gardens (Oregon) receives grants from 81 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,445,261 to it, the largest being DIRECT RELIEF ($560,000). 51 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$2.4M
Funders on record
81
Grants received
$3.4M
Net assets
$1.5M
51/81 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 44%
01What it does

What Growing Gardens does

Mission

Growing Gardens uses the experience of growing food in schools, backyards and correctional facilities to cultivate healthy, equitable communities.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Youth grow: this program empowers pre-k-12 students to explore nature, culture, and food through hands-on stem-aligned classes, after school clubs focused on food justice and healthy cooking, and a high school internship in gardening, food systems, and leadership development. Since 2006, we have partnered with over 20 schools to design and implement garden education programs for elementary school children.

    $866,241 spentof which $82,670 as grants
    45% of program spending
  2. Home gardens: since Growing Gardens inception in 1996, this program has supported nearly 2,000 families to start home gardens, supporting fresh food access for over 1,000 adults and children annually. We partner with individuals, families, hospitals and affordable housing developments to build backyard organic gardens and provide three years of free gardening mentorship, including workshops, equipment and supplies, and support in building community-based leadership.

    $728,842 spentof which $3,000 as grants
    38% of program spending
  3. Lettuce grow: this program provides educational classes and gardening experiences to adults and juveniles who are incarcerated across the state of oregon. Through hands-on production in prison gardens and classes that provide horticultural credentials, and post-release job connections, we provide incarcerated adults and youth with workforce development in agricultural, horticultural, and food service fields. Currently we are providing classes and services to inmates in 13 adult facilities and 1 juvenile facility in oregon. On an average year we help to grow over 300,000 pounds of food on 23 acres.

    $248,396 spent
    13% of program spending
  4. Special projects

    $98,572 spent
    5% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,942,051.

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 ($633k) Expenses 100 ($555k) Net assets 100 ($138k)2018 Revenue 112 ($707k) Expenses 116 ($644k) Net assets 146 ($201k)2019 Revenue 154 ($976k) Expenses 140 ($777k) Net assets 291 ($400k)2020 Revenue 153 ($966k) Expenses 169 ($937k) Net assets 364 ($501k)2021 Revenue 259 ($1.6M) Expenses 234 ($1.3M) Net assets 608 ($838k)2022 Revenue 341 ($2.2M) Expenses 282 ($1.6M) Net assets 1056 ($1.5M)2023 Revenue 335 ($2.1M) Expenses 372 ($2.1M) Net assets 1093 ($1.5M)2024 Revenue 379 ($2.4M) Expenses 426 ($2.4M) Net assets 1120 ($1.5M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (379)Expenses (426)Net assets (1120)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 2021 to 2022, from $918k to $1.6M (+69%).

$238k
$240k
$442k
$666k
$918k
$1.6M
$1.8M
$2.3M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
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
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 11% · 2018 13% · 2019 14% · 2020 31% · 2021 56% · 2022 33% · 2023 56% · 2024 36%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

99% of Growing Gardens’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (81% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 11,814 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$78k
’17
$63k
’18
$199k
’19
$29k
’20
$337k
’21
$597k
’22
$51k
’23
$37k
’24
8.0
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.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Listed1211101314161716
Joined·+3+2+5+2+4+1+0
No longer listed·4321201
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 32 funders, grant income rose $97k → $782k.

11 of 81 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 28% 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 Growing Gardens’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 81 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

Growing Gardens has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% 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

61% 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 Growing Gardens.

16%
largest funder
33%
top three
~17
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 41% · 2018 26% · 2019 33% · 2020 17% · 2021 27% · 2022 13% · 2023 46% — 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

37% of Growing Gardens's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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

Growing Gardens draws 57% of its grant income from funders outside Oregon, across 19 states in all.

WA
MN
IL
WI
NY
MA
OR
NV
OH
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
DE
AZ
NC
TX
FL

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

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

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $977k arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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

Growing Gardens holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 11,274 human services nonprofits its size.

Operating margin2% · below the median
Months of reserve8.0mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)21% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,274 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

Government funding Growing Gardens receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $2.6M on record — $1.7M federal, $899k state.

Federal$1.7M
grants $1.7Mcontracts $0
19
21
22
23
25
Top agencies
  • Department of Agriculture$1.6M
  • Environmental Protection Agency$100k
State$899k
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Top programs
  • DISTRIBUTION TO NON-GOVERNMENTS$598k
  • DISTRIBUTION TO NON-PROFIT ORG$251k
  • PAYMENTS TO NON-GOVERNMENTS$49k
  • OTHER SERVICES$2k

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 Growing Gardens

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 Oregon

Nationally

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

82% of spending goes to programs.

Program 82%Management 8%Fundraising 10%

Governance

15
board members
87%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

90%

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

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

OR

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Growing Gardens: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 Growing Gardens?
Growing Gardens (Oregon) receives grants from 81 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,445,261 to it, the largest being DIRECT RELIEF ($560,000). 51 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Growing Gardens have?
IRS filings report 81 organizations giving $3,445,261 in grants to Growing Gardens, 51 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Growing Gardens?
DIRECT RELIEF is the largest funder on record, with $560,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Growing Gardens find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Oregon. 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 81 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