Massachusetts · Nonprofit
SMART FROM THE START INC
SMART FROM THE START INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,259,868 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,030,650). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.6M
- Funders on record
- 35
- Grants received
- $9.3M
- Net assets
- $393k
What Smart From the Start Inc does
Mission
To prevent the academic achievement gap among young children living in the lowest income families and communities. Smart empowers parents and caregivers in under-served communities with the tools, resources and support they need to break cycles of chronic school underachievement and generational poverty.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
To empower and provide low income families and communities with the tools, resources and support necessary to break cycles of chronic underachievement in education and generational poverty through initiatives, programs and activities including, but not limited to (I) parenting workshops, (ii) family support programs, (iii) adult education and family literacy courses, and (iv) school readiness activities.
$3,166,645 spentof which $277,915 as grants96% of program spendingOver the last two summers, 50 of our youth, family leaders and their children, along with our staff team and some board members, embarked on a civil rights summer pilgrimage. Together, we journeyed through 18 states from boston all the way down to louisiana, ending our journey in tennessee. It was nothing short of life changing for the youth and family leaders. They returned home with new perspectives, ideas, action plans and enthusiasm and our youth, in particular, with a new sense of patriotism and commitment. We visit historically relevant sites; meet people with great knowledge to share; and learn about the stories, struggles, trials, and triumphs of powerful, brilliant and gifted enslaved, oppressed and persecuted americans who helped build this country while studying how their fight for equality informs our own.
$149,188 spent4% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,315,833.
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 2023 to 2024, from $592k to $2.8M (+381%).
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 20% · 2018 28% · 2019 31% · 2020 43% · 2021 60% · 2022 50% · 2023 52% · 2024 33% · 2025 55%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of SMART FROM THE START INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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
Cherie Craft
CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 15 funders, grant income rose $528k → $1.1M.
5 of 35 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 46% 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 SMART FROM THE START INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 35 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
SMART FROM THE START INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% 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 SMART FROM THE START INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 53% · 2018 52% · 2019 38% · 2020 24% · 2021 17% · 2022 20% · 2023 47% — 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
52% of SMART FROM THE START 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
56% of SMART FROM THE START INC's grant income comes from Massachusetts funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.3M 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
SMART FROM THE START INC has grown faster than half 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 SMART FROM THE START 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
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 SMART FROM THE START 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
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
93%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 4 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SMART FROM THE START 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 SMART FROM THE START INC?
- SMART FROM THE START INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,259,868 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,030,650). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SMART FROM THE START INC have?
- IRS filings report 35 organizations giving $9,259,868 in grants to SMART FROM THE START INC, 21 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SMART FROM THE START INC?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $2,030,650 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SMART FROM THE START 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 35 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