Wisconsin · Nonprofit
OPEN SOURCE SEED INITIATIVE INC
OPEN SOURCE SEED INITIATIVE INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $118,050 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($105,050). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 89% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2k
- Funders on record
- 3
- Grants received
- $118k
- Net assets
- $116k
What Open Source Seed Initiative Inc does
Programs
Communications with open source seed breeders, seed companies & nursery partners through a website (osseeds.org), quarterly email updates and regular podcasts. Ossi maintains a list of crop varieties pledged as "freed seed and provides a link on its website to commercial sources for them. Ossi has 600+ pledged varieties from 50 breeder-partners. Ossi devotes its pro bono hours to maintaing and growing these partnerships. Ossi's website links its 81 seed company partners from 9 countries to each of their varieties and through its partners reaches at least 250,000 potential customers each year.
$1,400 spentOssi international advocacy. Ossi expanded its international advocacy in 2024 by inviting and arranging for a representative from seed savers network kenya and a representative from argentina bioleft to attend a 2025 organic seed growers conference to interact with attendees regarding open source seeds worldwide. This invitation followed 2024 trips by ossi kloppenburg and tipping to kenya to interact with open source seed advocates where they brainstormed joint projects including participatory breeding of various vegetable crops, support for a seed enterprise in kenya and enhanced advocacy at upcoming international meetings.
$7,600 spentPoint of sale marketing initiatives for ossi-pledged varieties: we piloted the use of plant tags by four ossi cooperator nurseries in spring 2024. The tags identify the seedling plants in the containers as ossi pledged. They include a qr code links to ossi's web page. These tags were distributed free for inclusion in seedling pots and containers..
$1,650 spentOpen source plant breeding forum: ossi's online plant breeding forum continues to provide a tool for breeders of all kinds to interact, share information and cooperate. Anyone may join the forum, which can be accessed at http://opensourceplantbreeding.org/forum/. Ossi is grateful to joseph lofthouse for founding and managing the forum. It has averaged about 3,000 new posts per year with average visits of about 32 people per day. Breeding tomatoes and sweet potatoes and breeding for climate change are among the most popular topics. Also, ossi connects with local food systems advocates through paid articles and advertising such as the 2024 collaborations with the reap food group in madison, wi to educate consumers about open source seeds and plants.
$500 spent
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990-PF.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 $83k to $101k (+22%).
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
Carol Deppe
Board chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990-PF.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2022: the base held at 1 funder, grant income rose $20k → $20k.
1 of 3 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 89% 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 OPEN SOURCE SEED INITIATIVE INC’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
OPEN SOURCE SEED INITIATIVE INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 89% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
89% 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 OPEN SOURCE SEED INITIATIVE INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 67% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% — broadly stable.
“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.
Where its funders are
89% of OPEN SOURCE SEED INITIATIVE 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 $13k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Wisconsin, across 2 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $105k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
OPEN SOURCE SEED INITIATIVE INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 2,230 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,230 food & nutrition nonprofits under $100k, FY2024
Organizations like OPEN SOURCE SEED INITIATIVE 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 Wisconsin
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for OPEN SOURCE SEED INITIATIVE 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 OPEN SOURCE SEED INITIATIVE INC?
- OPEN SOURCE SEED INITIATIVE INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $118,050 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($105,050). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 89% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does OPEN SOURCE SEED INITIATIVE INC have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $118,050 in grants to OPEN SOURCE SEED INITIATIVE INC, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of OPEN SOURCE SEED INITIATIVE INC?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $105,050 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like OPEN SOURCE SEED INITIATIVE INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Wisconsin. 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 Open Source Seed Initiative →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2020–2024), and the filings of 3 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