Massachusetts · Nonprofit
ROOT NS INC
ROOT NS INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 83 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,916,070 to it, the largest being ESSEX COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($2,156,229). 47 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.1M
- Funders on record
- 83
- Grants received
- $5.9M
- Net assets
- $1.1M
What Root Ns Inc does
Mission
Root's mission is to help young adults create a pathway to independence through food service training and employment. By developing essential life and work readiness skills, youth leave root prepared for success in the workplace.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Root works to address two critical issues: job training for young people facing barriers to employment and local food insecurity. The two are highly interconnected - if individuals don't have the training and opportunity to earn a living wage, they have a significantly higher chance of facing food insecurity for themselves and their families. By operating root as an employment social enterprise, providing workforce development for young people and employing them in work that serves the community, through catering by root, the harborpoint event space, and a community catering initiative addressing local food insecurity, root provides a double benefit to underserved and marginalized individuals and communities.
$1,553,736 spent$393,516 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,553,736.
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 2024 to 2025, from $2.3M to $1.5M (−35%).
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: 2018 26% · 2019 5% · 2020 9% · 2021 8% · 2023 33% · 2024 20%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
76% of ROOT NS INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as 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 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
Nate Berkowitz
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018, and between the FY2021 and FY2022, and between the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 12 funders to 31 funders, grant income rose $425k → $870k.
12 of 83 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 58% 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 NS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 83 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 NS INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 36% 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
65% 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 NS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 57% · 2018 36% · 2019 44% · 2020 30% · 2021 29% · 2022 22% · 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
51% of ROOT NS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
58% of ROOT NS 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 $2.5M that is directly attributable, 70% of it comes from Massachusetts funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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 NS INC's revenue grew 107% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 655 food & nutrition nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding ROOT NS INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.5M on record.
- (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$1.5M
- (EE) ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES$11k
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 NS 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
67% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
89%
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 ROOT NS 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 NS INC?
- ROOT NS INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 83 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,916,070 to it, the largest being ESSEX COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($2,156,229). 47 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ROOT NS INC have?
- IRS filings report 83 organizations giving $5,916,070 in grants to ROOT NS INC, 47 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ROOT NS INC?
- ESSEX COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $2,156,229 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ROOT NS 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 Root Ns →
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 83 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