Massachusetts · Nonprofit
SILENT SPRING INSTITUTE INC
SILENT SPRING INSTITUTE INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 67 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,391,863 to it, the largest being Boston Foundation Inc ($1,831,500). 39 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 78% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.8M
- Funders on record
- 67
- Grants received
- $9.4M
- Net assets
- $4.6M
What Silent Spring Institute Inc does
Mission
Silent spring institute is dedicated to advancing science on the influence of environmental chemicals on women's health, with a focus on breast cancer prevention.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Founded in 1994, silent spring institute is an independent scientific research organization dedicated to uncovering the links between chemicals in our everyday environment and women's health, with a focus on breast cancer prevention. With nearly 200 peer-reviewed scientific articles published to date, we provide evidence to support the development of safer chemicals, safer products, and more health-protective policies. We highlight here some of our key accomplishments during the 2025 fiscal year. Program area 1 safer products: silent spring conducts research to evaluate consumer product safety and determine whether product safety policies adequately protect public health. This year: -we analyzed ingredient lists from more than 1,000 personal care products used by 70 black women and latinas in los angeles over the course of one week as part of the taking stock study, a partnership with black women for wellness, columbia university, and uc santa barbara. Our initial findings, published in may 2025 and featured in the washington post and npr, revealed the widespread use of cancer-causing formaldehyde and formaldehyde-releasing preservatives in beauty products marketed to women of…
$4,187,080 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $4,187,080.
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 2022 to 2023, from $4.8M to $6.4M (+31%).
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 39% · 2018 26% · 2019 32% · 2020 47% · 2021 41% · 2022 51% · 2023 59% · 2024 55% · 2025 56%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of SILENT SPRING INSTITUTE INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (51% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Mary Beth Terry Phd
Executive director (since 7/1/2024)
Board chair
Lisa Goodwin-Robbins Ra Ccs
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 24 funders to 30 funders, grant income rose $696k → $1.4M.
20 of 67 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 78% 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 SILENT SPRING INSTITUTE INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 67 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
SILENT SPRING INSTITUTE INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% 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
88% 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 SILENT SPRING INSTITUTE INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 23% · 2018 29% · 2019 35% · 2020 21% · 2021 27% · 2022 26% · 2023 28% — 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
53% of SILENT SPRING INSTITUTE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
78% of SILENT SPRING INSTITUTE 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 $2.1M that is directly attributable, 55% of it comes from funders outside Massachusetts, across 14 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $7.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
SILENT SPRING INSTITUTE INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 4,665 health nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,665 health nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding SILENT SPRING INSTITUTE INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $14.9M on record — $14.5M federal, $325k state.
- Department of Health and Human Services$12.4M
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$1.9M
- Environmental Protection Agency$250k
- (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$200k
- (HH) CONSULTANT SVCS (TO DEPTS)$125k
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 SILENT SPRING INSTITUTE 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
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 2 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SILENT SPRING INSTITUTE 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 SILENT SPRING INSTITUTE INC?
- SILENT SPRING INSTITUTE INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 67 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,391,863 to it, the largest being Boston Foundation Inc ($1,831,500). 39 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 78% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does SILENT SPRING INSTITUTE INC have?
- IRS filings report 67 organizations giving $9,391,863 in grants to SILENT SPRING INSTITUTE INC, 39 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SILENT SPRING INSTITUTE INC?
- Boston Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $1,831,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SILENT SPRING INSTITUTE 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 Silent Spring Institute →
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 67 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