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Maine · Nonprofit

Wild Seed Project

Wild Seed Project (Maine) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,047,041 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($243,883). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$1.1M
Funders on record
31
Grants received
$1.0M
Net assets
$543k
15/31 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 44%
01What it does

What Wild Seed Project does

Mission

Inspire people to take action and increase the presence of native plants grown from seed.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Seed and Plant Stewardship: Focusing on both conservation and access, we ethically hand-collect and distribute seeds from over 100 species of northeast native plants each year and host a plant sale in the fall.

    $234,040 spent$156,366 earned by the program
    33% of program spending
  2. Nature-Based Education: Hands-on and place-based learning provides participants with actionable tools to shift their gardening practices to be more ecologically supportive and climate resilient. Our yearly guides provide home gardeners with how-to guidance.

    $225,373 spent$45,190 earned by the program
    31% of program spending
  3. Native Plant Installations: We demonstrate ecology-in-action in cities, suburbs and rural areas through educational native plant installations that restore biodiverse and wildlife-friendly habitats statewide.

    $97,165 spent$33,509 earned by the program
    14% of program spending
  4. Other program services, not described on the e-filed return.

    $161,959 spent$93,669 earned by the program
    23% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $718,537.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($115k) Expenses 100 ($81k) Net assets 100 ($58k)2018 Revenue 116 ($134k) Expenses 126 ($102k) Net assets 156 ($90k)2019 Revenue 157 ($180k) Expenses 174 ($140k) Net assets 225 ($130k)2020 Revenue 268 ($308k) Expenses 257 ($207k) Net assets 399 ($230k)2021 Revenue 499 ($574k) Expenses 485 ($391k) Net assets 716 ($414k)2022 Revenue 755 ($869k) Expenses 757 ($610k) Net assets 1164 ($672k)2023 Revenue 604 ($695k) Expenses 1051 ($846k) Net assets 903 ($521k)2024 Revenue 418 ($481k) Expenses 760 ($613k) Net assets 674 ($389k)2025 Revenue 971 ($1.1M) Expenses 1193 ($961k) Net assets 940 ($543k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (971)Expenses (1193)Net assets (940)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $415k to $692k (+67%).

$60k
$90k
$130k
$235k
$415k
$692k
$721k
$469k
$561k
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

70% of Wild Seed Project’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 2,303 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$34k
’17
$32k
’18
$40k
’19
$101k
’20
$183k
’21
$258k
’22
−$151k
’23
−$132k
’24
$156k
’25
3.5
months of
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.

'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed78101014111310
Joined·+3+3+3+5+1+3+1
No longer listed·2131414
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $3k → $308k.

6 of 31 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 58% 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 Wild Seed Project’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 31 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

Wild Seed Project has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% 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

58% 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 Wild Seed Project.

23%
largest funder
62%
top three
~7
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 99% · 2018 100% · 2019 59% · 2020 37% · 2021 30% · 2022 37% · 2023 57% — 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

40% of Wild Seed Project's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 48% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y

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

58% of Wild Seed Project'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 $445k that is directly attributable, 72% of it comes from funders outside Maine, across 11 states.

ME
MN
WI
NY
MA
PA
CA
KY
MD
AR
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Maine out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $602k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Wild Seed Project has grown faster than three-quarters of the 1,209 environment nonprofits its size.

Operating margin14% · above the median
Months of reserve3.5mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)33% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,209 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like Wild Seed Project

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 Maine

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

75% of spending goes to programs.

Program 75%Management 11%Fundraising 15%

Governance

8
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

87%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Wild Seed Project: 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.

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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 Wild Seed Project?
Wild Seed Project (Maine) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,047,041 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($243,883). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does Wild Seed Project have?
IRS filings report 31 organizations giving $1,047,041 in grants to Wild Seed Project, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Wild Seed Project?
DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC is the largest funder on record, with $243,883 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Wild Seed Project find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maine. 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 Wild Seed Project →

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 31 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