Massachusetts · Nonprofit
ROOT CAPITAL INC
ROOT CAPITAL INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 74 organizations whose IRS filings report $89,685,502 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($25,039,250). 41 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $22M
- Funders on record
- 74
- Grants received
- $90M
- Net assets
- $52M
What Root Capital Inc does
Mission
Root capital seeks to increase incomes and stabilize employment for farmers in africa, south-east asia, and latin america. Root capital does this through a proven channel: support for agricultural businesses that collect and market the crops of thousands of farmers. Through a unique combination of capital, training, and access to global markets, root capital helps agricultural businesses increase farmer incomes, empowers women, conserves ecosystems, and creates opportunities for the next generation.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Root capital provides agricultural businesses with a unique combination of credit and capacity building. The organization also catalyzes change in the broader sector through evaluation and shared learning. Please refer to the organization's website for further information and statistics on program accomplishments.finance: root capital typically provides loans and lines of credit ranging from $50,000 to $4 million to small and growing businesses, that source from small-holder farmers, with a focuses on those businesses not reached by commercial lenders.most root capital loans can be categorized as follows:1) lines of credit, with tenors of one to three years and are used for working capital to finance the cost of purchasing and processing raw material sourced from smallholder farmers.2) term loans, granted from time to time, with maximum tenors of seven years are provided in connection with the working capital financing to finance certain fixed asset purchases and investments, including equipment, infrastructure improvements, and agricultural inputs. Root capital assesses prospective clients and evaluates them on a series of financial, social, and environmental criteria. Social…
$11,844,451 spent$9,365,931 earned by the program62% of program spendingAdvise: root capital's advisory services program provides targeted training to current and prospective clients in topics such as financial management, governance, agronomic capacity, digital business intelligence, climate resilience, gender equity, and more. Root capital's financial advisory services are designed to prepare businesses with growth potential to qualify for credit, to shepherd more prospective clients into our portfolio, and to mitigate the risk of lending to these businesses.root capital's advisory services program provides financial training to clients prior to receiving a loan and during the life of the loan as needed.though financial management training is the core offering of the organization's advisory program, root capital also provides complementary non-financial advisory services to help businesses overcome different challenges and position them for greater impact.
$4,946,108 spentof which $360,960 as grants26% of program spendingCatalyze: root capital seeks to catalyze a thriving financial market to support historically underserved rural small and growing businesses. The program's strategy is to:1. Innovate - conduct r&d, study impact at the household and business levels, and look for ways to increase impact.2. Accelerate - share learning from work with like-minded peers to build common standards and practices necessary for the industry to thrive and scale.through industry associations root capital plays a leadership role in building the enabling environment for rural small and growing business finance.as a non-profit committed to alleviating rural poverty, root capital seeks to maximize the positive social and environmental impact of our work. Economic, community, and environmental sustainability are all part of our core values.economic sustainability - root capital clients link small-scale farmers to markets that can offer higher and more stable prices than they have historically received. Root capital clients also generate employment including managers, accountants, agricultural extension staff, drivers, and workers at processing plants.community sustainability - farmer associations encourage…
$2,440,958 spent13% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $19,231,517.
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 2021 to 2022, from $101M to $130M (+29%).
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: 2017 4% · 2018 8% · 2019 4% · 2020 7% · 2021 1% · 2022 2% · 2023 17% · 2024 14% · 2025 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
48% of ROOT CAPITAL INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (96% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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
William Foote
Founder & CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 17 funders to 23 funders, grant income rose $3.5M → $8.7M.
21 of 74 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 43% 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 ROOT CAPITAL INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 74 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
ROOT CAPITAL INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 28% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
48% 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 ROOT CAPITAL INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 27% · 2018 33% · 2019 35% · 2020 16% · 2021 65% · 2022 76% · 2023 32% — growing more concentrated.
“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
40% of ROOT CAPITAL INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
ROOT CAPITAL INC draws 87% of its grant income from funders outside Massachusetts, across 20 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $38M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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
ROOT CAPITAL INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 174 international nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 174 international nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding ROOT CAPITAL INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $9.5M on record.
- Agency for International Development$9.5M
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 ROOT CAPITAL 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
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
73%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 38 states
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Root Capital Mexico Ac · exempt
- Asociacion Accder · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ROOT CAPITAL 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 ROOT CAPITAL INC?
- ROOT CAPITAL INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 74 organizations whose IRS filings report $89,685,502 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($25,039,250). 41 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ROOT CAPITAL INC have?
- IRS filings report 74 organizations giving $89,685,502 in grants to ROOT CAPITAL INC, 41 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ROOT CAPITAL INC?
- NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $25,039,250 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ROOT CAPITAL 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.
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 74 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