North Carolina · Nonprofit
OUT OF THE GARDEN PROJECT
OUT OF THE GARDEN PROJECT (North Carolina) receives grants from 57 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,737,351 to it, the largest being NETWORK FOR GOOD ($411,477). 36 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $4.4M
- Funders on record
- 57
- Grants received
- $1.7M
- Net assets
- $495k
What Out of the Garden Project does
Mission
Our mission is to nourish families with food to grow learn and thrive.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Founded in 2008 as a small act of kindness to support food-insecure students at a single elementary school, ootgp has grown into the piedmont triad's largest independent nonprofit food assistance organization - serving more than 15,000 individuals each month without federal funding. What began with six backpacks has evolved into a comprehensive network of programs that meet both urgent needs and support long-term stability. Our programs include our nourish 2 thrive program which focuses on providing youth with the food they need to thrive. Serving over 300 students monthly through operation backpack (weekend meal bags) and an additional 500+ students and their families throughout the year through intentional emergency services. Our fresh mobile markets provides an average of 55 pounds per household and nourishes more than 115,000 individuals annually. We have hosted internships and have built a community with hundreds of volunteers, the majority of whom come back multiple times, learning while they give their time. Finally, our two low-risk commercial kitchen has more than 35 food entrepreneurs working to establish themselves in area markets with their home-made products.
$4,489,891 spentof which $4,003,587 as grants$48,197 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $4,489,891.
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 2019 to 2020, from $681k to $1.2M (+79%).
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: 2021 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of OUT OF THE GARDEN PROJECT’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (94% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 8 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
Elizabeth Crise
Incoming executive director
Board chair
Akir Khan
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 23 funders, grant income rose $41k → $285k.
13 of 57 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 49% 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 OUT OF THE GARDEN PROJECT’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 57 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
OUT OF THE GARDEN PROJECT has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
57% 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 OUT OF THE GARDEN PROJECT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 49% · 2018 45% · 2019 40% · 2020 30% · 2021 28% · 2022 26% · 2023 40% — 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
30% of OUT OF THE GARDEN PROJECT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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
62% of OUT OF THE GARDEN PROJECT's grant income comes from North Carolina funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $845k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
OUT OF THE GARDEN PROJECT's funding base is broadening — from 9 funders to 23 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,130 food & nutrition nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding OUT OF THE GARDEN PROJECT receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $221k on record.
- Department of Agriculture$221k
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 OUT OF THE GARDEN PROJECT
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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
96% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
85%
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 OUT OF THE GARDEN PROJECT: 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 OUT OF THE GARDEN PROJECT?
- OUT OF THE GARDEN PROJECT (North Carolina) receives grants from 57 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,737,351 to it, the largest being NETWORK FOR GOOD ($411,477). 36 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does OUT OF THE GARDEN PROJECT have?
- IRS filings report 57 organizations giving $1,737,351 in grants to OUT OF THE GARDEN PROJECT, 36 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of OUT OF THE GARDEN PROJECT?
- NETWORK FOR GOOD is the largest funder on record, with $411,477 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like OUT OF THE GARDEN PROJECT find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. 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 Out of the Garden Project →
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 57 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