Massachusetts · Nonprofit
Smarter in the City Inc
Smarter in the City Inc (Massachusetts) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $217,202 to it, the largest being Boston Foundation Inc ($197,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 91% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2018
- $59k
- Funders on record
- 3
- Grants received
- $217k
- Net assets
- $27k
What Smarter in the City Inc does
Mission
The corporation is formed for the purpose of promoting educational and charitable purposes and is being organized primarily to: (1) offer a free business accelerator for high-tech startups; (2) provide free office space, a meeting facility, mentorship, and professional assistance to those startups who are a part of our program; and (3) to provide and foster access to business knowledge, capital, networking, and connections within the smarter in the city alumni community and beyond. Further, a focus of the corporation will be to provide these services to demographically underrepresented communities in the high-tech sector in order to increase access to and diversity within the industry. The corporation's space and services are sponsored by foundation and public grants, as well as private/corporate donations.
As stated on its FY2018 Form 990-EZ.
Program
Business venture accelerator
The first program described on its most recent Form 990-EZ.
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 2017 to 2018, from $26k to $27k (+2%).
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.
95% of Smarter in the City Inc’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (77% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 2 reported years ran a deficit.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income fell $50k → $22.
2 of 3 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 91% 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 Smarter in the City Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
Smarter in the City Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 91% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 Smarter in the City Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 81% · 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“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.
Where its funders are
91% of Smarter in the City 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 $20k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Massachusetts, across 1 state.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $197k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
Smarter in the City Inc's revenue fell 46% between 2017 and 2018.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 6,132 community improvement nonprofits under $100k, FY2018
Organizations like Smarter in the City 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.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Smarter in the City 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 Smarter in the City Inc?
- Smarter in the City Inc (Massachusetts) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $217,202 to it, the largest being Boston Foundation Inc ($197,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 91% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Smarter in the City Inc have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $217,202 in grants to Smarter in the City Inc, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Smarter in the City Inc?
- Boston Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $197,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Smarter in the City 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 Smarter in the City →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2018 (financials across 2017–2018), and the filings of 3 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