Alabama · Nonprofit
NEXT STEP FARMS
NEXT STEP FARMS (Alabama) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $272,738 to it, the largest being ALPHA FOUNDATION ($107,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $446k
- Funders on record
- 12
- Grants received
- $273k
- Net assets
- $491k
What Next Step Farms does
Mission
Next Step Farms provides a hands-on program for adults living with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The farm is a place where they can learn independent daily living skills using a small family farm-based theme. Our mission is to provide a safe and nurturing place.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Adult day program - the farm is a place where adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities can learn independent daily living skills using a small family farm-based theme. Our clients are learning skills to assist them in living meaningful and purposeful lives. The goal of Next Step Farms is to create basic agricultural, mechanical, culinary, finance, and data entry hands-on learning experiences. Eager hands plant and tend simple crops with loving guidance. Individuals enjoy caring for livestock by feeding the chickens and goats and cleaning their areas. We teach and practice technology skills by involving our students in basic scheduling, inventory and bookkeeping for some of the farm's activities. Our students also learn basic business skills by operating non-profit stands selling produce, eggs, vegetables and crafts to the public. Most of our students attend Next Step Farms through private pay subscription. The cost per day is 85 and several clients are supported through our client sponsors who make donations towards their costs. In fy 2025, we were able to serve 15 day program clients.
$205,466 spent$167,205 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $205,466.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 2022 to 2023, from $158k to $655k (+315%).
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.
66% of NEXT STEP FARMS’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (91% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 5 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
Robin Kramer
CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $15k → $36k.
6 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 45% 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 NEXT STEP FARMS’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
NEXT STEP FARMS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 39% of grant income and the top three 68%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
51% 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 NEXT STEP FARMS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 37% · 2022 37% · 2023 70% — 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
33% of NEXT STEP FARMS's funders are still giving 2 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
84% of NEXT STEP FARMS's grant income comes from Alabama funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $124k 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.
Against its field
NEXT STEP FARMS runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 13,917 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 13,917 human services nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like NEXT STEP FARMS
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 Alabama
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
62% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 NEXT STEP FARMS: 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 NEXT STEP FARMS?
- NEXT STEP FARMS (Alabama) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $272,738 to it, the largest being ALPHA FOUNDATION ($107,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NEXT STEP FARMS have?
- IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $272,738 in grants to NEXT STEP FARMS, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NEXT STEP FARMS?
- ALPHA FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $107,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NEXT STEP FARMS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Alabama. 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 Next Step Farms →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 12 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