Massachusetts · Nonprofit
PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE INC
PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $513,320 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($174,622). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.2M
- Funders on record
- 30
- Grants received
- $513k
- Net assets
- $407k
What People Helping People Inc does
Mission
The mission is to help meet the basic needs of Burlington, MA's at-risk residents through sustained community-wide efforts focused on providing hunger relief, emergency financial aid, and holiday support.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
PHP Burlington Food Pantry: The Pantry provides supplemental food assistance on a weekly basis to help qualifying residents residents meet their nutritional needs. The pantry is set-up like a grocery store, but distribution continues to be done on a drive up basis. In total the Pantry distributed the equivalent of 370,956 pounds of food in addition to the distribution of donated Grocery Store Gift Cards totaling $8,275 (estimated at 6,600 pounds). As an alternate location to provide access to shelf stable items a Micropantry was established at the Burlington Public Library in July 2024 and accounted for approximately 5,000 ponds of food in 2025. Under the food pantry umbrella, the PHP Victory Garden is fully staffed by volunteers that produces fresh produce for pantry clients, which during the growing season accounted for approximately 2,800 pounds of food or an in kind value estimated at $5,300. Overall fresh produce accounted for 20% of the food distributed or a total of 72,371 pounds. Additionally, PHP runs a Lunch Program for kids that provides healthy food to eligible school-age children during school breaks. There were approximately 400 total visits to the lunch program in…
$934,489 spent$673,656 earned by the program87% of program spendingHoliday Program: Support the eligible families through Holiday Meals and the Wish Tree Program. While the majority items distributed for the Holiday programs are donated in kind, the organization will purchase open items for the Wish Tree to ensure wishes and basic needs requests are fulfilled for all the children. The total holiday gift program expenses are split between estimated in-kind donations of $115,775 and purchases of $11,468 partially offset in the year by donations labeled for Holiday and InGathering. Holiday Meals: Through a separate InGathering distribution, meals are distributed to the pantry clients on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. The Thanksgiving InGathering served 137 families. Several corporate sponsors support the program through in kind or cash donations. In December, PHP also distributed $3,075 of Grocery Store Gift Cards for the pantry clients to put towards a holiday meal. Wish Tree: Helps eligible families, providing children with gifts including clothing, shoes, bedding, toys, books and blankets, etc. The program distributed over 2,300 brand new items to 318 Children from 138 Families to fulfill basic needs and wishes. Additionally, gift cards were…
$127,243 spent$122,291 earned by the program12% of program spendingCovenant for Basic Needs: Established to meet the temporary, emergency needs of individuals and families who are in need of support to cover rent, utilities, emergency housing, medical needs, etc. Additionally, we have supported summer camps for children. All of the requests are screened by counselors at Burlington Youth & Family Services. Total Funding: $16,251, # of Claims: 36 Avg. Cost/Claim: $464 Avg. Monthly Funding: $1,354
$16,204 spent2% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,077,936.
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 $220k to $439k (+99%).
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 27% · 2022 5% · 2023 3% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 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
James Sheridan
Executive DIrector
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 9 funders, grant income rose $3k → $33k.
5 of 30 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 57% 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 PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 29 of 30 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
PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 34% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 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 PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 29% · 2021 31% · 2022 51% · 2023 36% — 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
38% of PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
57% of PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE 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 $221k that is directly attributable, 92% of it comes from Massachusetts funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $292k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 6,891 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 6,891 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $124k on record.
- (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$124k
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 PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE 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 Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
90% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE 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 PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE INC?
- PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $513,320 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($174,622). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE INC have?
- IRS filings report 30 organizations giving $513,320 in grants to PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE INC, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE INC?
- AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $174,622 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. 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 People Helping People →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 30 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