Washington · Nonprofit
Hilltop Urban Gardens
Hilltop Urban Gardens (Washington) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,597,549 to it, the largest being SOCIAL JUSTICE FUND NORTHWEST ($582,561). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $320k
- Funders on record
- 18
- Grants received
- $1.6M
- Net assets
- $139k
What Hilltop Urban Gardens does
Mission
Serve as a fiscal sponsor organization for other organizations doing work such as: ? Food Security: Growing and distributing healthy food ? Housing and Economic Stability: Investing in Community Based Housing and Economic Development Strategies1 ? Educational Opportunities: Build skill knowledge and resource through educational programming ? Wellness: Create and support opportunities for community well-being
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2024 return the organization reported a significant change in how it conducts a program.
As of December 31 2024 Tacoma SEED disbanded. Hilltop Urban Gardens acquired Tacoma SEEDs EIN and organization and Canoe Urban Gardens incorporated separately.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 3).
In 2024 Hilltop Urban Gardens HUG advanced racial equity food sovereignty and social justice in Tacomas Hilltop neighborhood through innovative initiatives in reproductive justice food production agricultural education and cultural preservation. HUG served 551 community members-including 265 youth 49 volunteers and 35 Black Sunday attendees-by offering programs that ranged from weekly Black Sunday gatherings for cultural celebration and mental health support to a Farm to Preschool Program and Agricultural Academy that engaged 62 children in hands-on sustainability at the HUG Farm. The organization also produced and distributed 1,000 lbs of food through its Black Food Sovereignty program and established 12 culturally relevant BIPOC residential food growing sites via the Urban Food Network while transforming a barren 4,800 sq ft lot into the Wellness and Ecology Park a new hub for food production herbal farming and community healing. HUG further bolstered community resilience and healing through its Black Birthworker Initiative BBI which supported 12 Black birth workers and hosted four seasonal community herbal clinics. The BBI Community Blessingway events held in March and August…
$377,020 spent$3,328 earned by the program65% of program spendingIn 2024 Canoe Journey Herbalists expanded our first aid training program as well as our container garden program and were able to serve more individuals and families than ever. On Canoe Journey itself we were able to host 40 BIPOC healers many of whom were trained by the organization and took on new leadership roles within the organization. In 2024 Canoe Journey Herbalists also expanded the Elder services program as well as youth programming.
$200,274 spentof which $3,792 as grants35% of program spendingNot described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $577,294.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2019 to 2020, from $49k to $683k (+1295%).
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 3% · 2021 0% · 2022 0% · 2023 0% · 2024 9%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of Hilltop Urban Gardens’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (91% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 6 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
AshLee Day
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 3 funders, grant income rose $30k → $350k.
6 of 18 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 48% 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 Hilltop Urban Gardens’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
Hilltop Urban Gardens leans on a few funders — its largest provides 36% of grant income and the top three 67%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
90% 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 Hilltop Urban Gardens.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 38% · 2020 39% · 2021 56% · 2022 52% · 2023 64% — 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
21% of Hilltop Urban Gardens's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
81% of Hilltop Urban Gardens's grant income comes from Washington funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $772k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
Hilltop Urban Gardens has grown faster than three-quarters of the 21,616 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 21,616 human services nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like Hilltop Urban 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 Washington
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
93% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
75%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Hilltop Urban 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.
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 Hilltop Urban Gardens?
- Hilltop Urban Gardens (Washington) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,597,549 to it, the largest being SOCIAL JUSTICE FUND NORTHWEST ($582,561). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Hilltop Urban Gardens have?
- IRS filings report 18 organizations giving $1,597,549 in grants to Hilltop Urban Gardens, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Hilltop Urban Gardens?
- SOCIAL JUSTICE FUND NORTHWEST is the largest funder on record, with $582,561 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Hilltop Urban Gardens find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. 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 Hilltop Urban Gardens →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2019–2024), and the filings of 18 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