Massachusetts · Nonprofit
WALKBOSTON INC
WALKBOSTON INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,934,206 to it, the largest being BARR FOUNDATION ($651,450). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $488k
- Funders on record
- 29
- Grants received
- $1.9M
- Net assets
- $135k
What Walkboston Inc does
Mission
Walkmassachusetts makes walking safer and easier in massachusetts to encourage better health, a cleaner environment and vibrant communities.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Outreach, advocacy and education:advocacy efforts - walkmassachusetts's advocacy leads to safer streets, more walkable neighborhoods, community empowerment, and greater awareness of the health, economic and environmental benefits of walking. Walkmassachusetts speaks up for people walking in boston and across the commonwealth on many issues including traffic signal timing, neighborhood walking conditions, traffic calming strategies, vision zero, complete streets policies, and neighborhood slow streets programs. Our advocacy efforts include letter writing, speaking at public meetings, and building strategic relationships to advance the walking agenda. Through presentations, walks and discussions with residents, engineers, planners and agency staff, we also share our knowledge to support and empower people to speak up for walking in their own neighborhoods.outreach strategies - we work with fellow advocates to advance a vision of road design that safely and attractively serves the needs of people walking, biking, and riding transit, including persons with disabilities, while also helping to create a transportation future that reduces our dependence on single-occupancy vehicles. In…
$134,862 spent32% of program spendingTechnical assistance:technical assistance - walkmassachusetts provides mission-based walkability and advocacy consulting based on our over 30-year history of making places more walkable across the commonwealth. Our technical expertise and dedication to walkability that is rooted in the neighborhoods we serve galvanizes support and empowers people to advocate for safer, healthier, and more enjoyable streets. That said, we know that pedestrian safety means different things to different people depending on their age, gender, race, ethnicity, ability or experience. Our approach draws on the expertise and desires of residents, community-based organizations and municipal staff. We provide a wide variety of presentations and trainings, and facilitate discussions that are designed to engage people about walking, and the sidewalk and road design elements that affect the safety and quality of the walking environment.we also conduct multi-session training programs with resident groups and youth, where participants identify areas within their own communities that need walkability improvements, develop proposals for change, and present their ideas to local elected officials and other…
$280,665 spent$2,545 earned by the program67% of program spendingWalking policy and design:statewide project and policy review - our project reviews help ensure that transportation and development projects provide safe and connected pedestrian environments. We pay close attention to significant massdot roadway projects and large private development projects. In boston, we have been an active I-90 interchange project task force member for the past several years, working to broaden the scope of the transportation project to embrace the idea of improved, connected parkland along the banks of the charles river. We advocate for policies and guidelines to improve walking. Our voice for walking is strengthened by working with other mobility, environmental and public health organizations. We understand that housing, climate resiliency and public health policies all contribute to fostering neighborhoods where people can walk and feel a sense of belonging. Through membership in multiple issue-based coalitions, we have broadened our impact beyond transportation-specific policies to others that contribute to healthy, stable neighborhoods and seek mobility justice.age-friendly walking - walkmassachusetts is working to implement local policy and built…
$6,038 spent1% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $421,565.
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 $364k to $243k (−33%).
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: 2020 13% · 2021 21% · 2022 5% · 2023 6% · 2024 13%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of WALKBOSTON INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (73% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Chief executive
Brendan Kearney
Executive director
Board chair
Elizabeth Johnson
Board president
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $173k → $443k.
8 of 29 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 14% 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 WALKBOSTON 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
WALKBOSTON INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 34% of grant income and the top three 63%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
56% 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 WALKBOSTON INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 25% · 2018 35% · 2019 52% · 2020 41% · 2021 38% · 2022 35% · 2023 45% — 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
43% of WALKBOSTON INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
97% of WALKBOSTON 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. $271k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
WALKBOSTON INC's funding base is broadening — from 8 funders to 11 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,356 unclassified nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding WALKBOSTON INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $467k on record.
- (MM) PURCHASED CLIENT/PROGRAM SVCS$374k
- (HH) CONSULTANT SVCS (TO DEPTS)$45k
- (NN) INFRASTRUCTURE:$28k
- (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$18k
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 WALKBOSTON 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
68%
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 WALKBOSTON 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 WALKBOSTON INC?
- WALKBOSTON INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 29 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,934,206 to it, the largest being BARR FOUNDATION ($651,450). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does WALKBOSTON INC have?
- IRS filings report 29 organizations giving $1,934,206 in grants to WALKBOSTON INC, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WALKBOSTON INC?
- BARR FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $651,450 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WALKBOSTON 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 Walkboston →
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 29 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