Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
THE EXPERIMENTAL FARM NETWORK COOPERATIVE
THE EXPERIMENTAL FARM NETWORK COOPERATIVE (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $573,071 to it, the largest being RSF SOCIAL FINANCE INC ($290,750). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 86% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $418k
- Funders on record
- 9
- Grants received
- $573k
- Net assets
- $278k
What The Experimental Farm Network Cooperative does
Mission
From our Articles of Incorporation: "To coordinate the efforts of its staff, members, and the general public to facilitate the creation of new crops and growing systems, and work toward a permaculture-based, environmentally sustainable, climate change-mitigating agricultural system. EFN's mission includes, but is not limited to, encouraging the adoption and wider use of the following: organic farming practices; soil conservation; composting; seed-saving; perennial crop plants; agroforestry; renewable energy sources; sustainable building practices; bicycle-powered human transportation, trade, and waste-disposal systems; recycling; open source technology and open network philosophy; cooperative organization of agricultural enterprises and societies; and land banks and other means of connecting would-be farmers with land."
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Seed production, conservation, and distribution: The Experimental Farm Network Cooperative produced or collected over 500 varieties of heirloom and open-pollinated seeds, intended for sale or free distribution. We managed a collection of over 2,000 rare heirloom vegetable, grain, and herb varieties. We conducted variety trials and plant breeding research on over 100 different species. We performed research in agroecological farming methods and educated members of the public on our work. Over the past year, we continued making advancements on various in-house research projects, including perennial grain sorghum, perennial leaf beets, Chilean pine nuts, strawberries, chinquapin chestnuts, hazelnuts, mayapples, perennial wheat, perennial rye, and other perennial crops. Customers made 7,595 purchases, a 3% decrease from the previous year, through our online store (which has become our primary means of disseminating seeds for breeding projects, research, and to inspire growers to become breeders and researchers themselves), and we also shared free seeds with an estimated 10,000 people through more than 200 local and regional seed hubs through our Cooperative Gardens Commission project…
$202,345 spent$309,203 earned by the program76% of program spendingPublic education, outreach, and travel: We attended various farming conferences and other public events, speaking to audiences about our work. We traveled extensively to build relationships with other farmers, plant breeders, and seed growers. For each of these activities, our overarching long-term goal is the development of new crops and growing methods for carbon-sequestration, improved soil health, and ecosystem services.
$27,253 spent$15,000 earned by the program10% of program spendingIn 2022, we continued and expanded our work of seed rematriation (defined similarly to "repatriation", but using a word that recognizes and honors the role of women as seed-keepers in most traditional societies), which involves identifying and growing seeds connected to a particular historical community, returning regenerated seeds to the communities from which they originally came (and/or individuals living in diaspora), and developing long-term mutually-beneficial relationships with members of those communities, including through offering programmatic support wherever possible. Our most important rematriation success-story involved a collaboration with Native Roots Farm Foundation, a Nanticoke-led organization aiming to revive the agricultural life of the Nanticoke people (indigenous to parts of modern-day Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey) through land conservation and education. In 2023, we expanded access to two types of Nanticoke squash, a winter squash simply known as "Nanticoke Squash" (Cucurbita maxima), and a summer squash known in English as "Maycock" (Cucurbita pepo), from the Nanticoke word for squash, "Macac", as well as a Lenape sweet corn variety. This work also…
$4,750 spent2% of program spendingIn 2023, we served as fiscal sponsor for five projects related to our core mission, including a lost apple identification project (which seeks to find and identify historically known apple varieties before they are lost) directed by Michael Clifford, Greenbridge CDC (a Lenape-led organization that works to restore degraded traditional lands of the Lenape people in Delaware), the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library (which preserves critical crop biodiversity from the Fertile Crescent), an urban farming focused design, installation, and community-process facilitation project (Root Catalyst), and a food-share program for new parents led by a community-based farm in Philadelphia (Dirtbaby Farm). We provide oversight of their projects, all of which conducted important charitable work in 2023.
$31,777 spent$119,277 earned by the program12% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $266,125.
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 $246k to $354k (+44%).
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.
25% of THE EXPERIMENTAL FARM NETWORK COOPERATIVE’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $41k → $166k.
6 of 9 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 86% 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 THE EXPERIMENTAL FARM NETWORK COOPERATIVE’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
THE EXPERIMENTAL FARM NETWORK COOPERATIVE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 51% of grant income and the top three 81%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
99% 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 THE EXPERIMENTAL FARM NETWORK COOPERATIVE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 86% · 2021 84% · 2022 54% · 2023 60% — 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
0% of THE EXPERIMENTAL FARM NETWORK COOPERATIVE's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 56% 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
86% of THE EXPERIMENTAL FARM NETWORK COOPERATIVE'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 $83k that is directly attributable, 93% of it comes from funders outside Pennsylvania, across 3 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $490k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
THE EXPERIMENTAL FARM NETWORK COOPERATIVE has grown faster than three-quarters of the 4,264 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,264 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like THE EXPERIMENTAL FARM NETWORK COOPERATIVE
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 Pennsylvania
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
100% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 THE EXPERIMENTAL FARM NETWORK COOPERATIVE: 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 THE EXPERIMENTAL FARM NETWORK COOPERATIVE?
- THE EXPERIMENTAL FARM NETWORK COOPERATIVE (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $573,071 to it, the largest being RSF SOCIAL FINANCE INC ($290,750). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 86% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does THE EXPERIMENTAL FARM NETWORK COOPERATIVE have?
- IRS filings report 9 organizations giving $573,071 in grants to THE EXPERIMENTAL FARM NETWORK COOPERATIVE, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE EXPERIMENTAL FARM NETWORK COOPERATIVE?
- RSF SOCIAL FINANCE INC is the largest funder on record, with $290,750 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE EXPERIMENTAL FARM NETWORK COOPERATIVE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Pennsylvania. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 9 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