Massachusetts · Nonprofit
WORCESTER ROOTS PROJECT
WORCESTER ROOTS PROJECT (Massachusetts) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $280,249 to it, the largest being GREATER WORCESTER COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($106,500). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $193k
- Funders on record
- 17
- Grants received
- $280k
- Net assets
- $76k
What Worcester Roots Project does
Mission
working with communities facing economic or environmental injustice, training and empowering youth, supporting development of related urban worker cooperatives. We re-established youth programming.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Programs
We continued supporting our partners and others in the cooperative and new economy movements, with a Coop Academy again in 2025, and outreach. We trained 20 people on how to start cooperative businesses, trained a youth cohort on food justice, and reached ~200 individuals at tabling events.
$18,037 spentof which $350 as grants13% of program spendingEl Salón continued to organize art galleries, artisan markets, and participatory creative workshops utilizing various spaces across the community and engaging with a diverse group of artists and community members.
$31,062 spentof which $38,400 as grants23% of program spendingFrederick Douglass readings and Music Mania Television Studios LLC's charitable projects, primarily comedy training workshops, are managed by a former member of Future Focus Media, a former cooperative incubated by Worcester Roots from 2011 to 2015.
$29,349 spentof which $30,640 as grants22% of program spendingWorcester Community Energy Action (WCEA), DBA RENEW Worcester, is a grassroots cooperatively run not-for-profit energy democracy organization promoting democratic control of the energy system in Worcester. RENEW works to develop projects that prioritize community benefits over shareholder profits, connecting residents to affordable and accessible renewable energy as an important intervention in the intersecting crises around climate, housing, and racial justice and the shaping of a just and sustainable future.
$26,540 spentof which $82,131 as grants19% of program spendingPush Worcester continues to organize youth development and leadership opportunities utilizing skateboarding, while working to distribute skateboard gear to youth who face barriers to access.
$3,007 spent2% of program spendingHealing Garden Institute is committed to food justice, urban agriculture, education and entrepreneurship at several Worcester locations. In 2025 our primary activities were designing and building a demonstration garden for the community, therapeutic gardening, and collaborating with other garden projects in Worcester.
$28,308 spentof which $28,800 as grants21% of program spending
The 6 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $136,303.
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 $20k to $136k (+592%).
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.
100% of WORCESTER ROOTS PROJECT’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations 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. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
Leadership and staff
Chief executive
Thidi Tshiguvho
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 6 funders, grant income rose $9k → $117k.
3 of 17 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 45% 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 WORCESTER ROOTS PROJECT’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
WORCESTER ROOTS PROJECT leans on a few funders — its largest provides 38% of grant income and the top three 73%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
75% 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 WORCESTER ROOTS PROJECT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 78% · 2018 42% · 2019 51% · 2020 34% · 2021 63% · 2022 96% · 2023 44% — 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
31% of WORCESTER ROOTS PROJECT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 41% 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
95% of WORCESTER ROOTS PROJECT's grant income comes from Massachusetts funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $127k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
WORCESTER ROOTS PROJECT runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 2,433 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,433 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding WORCESTER ROOTS PROJECT receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $103k on record.
- (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$103k
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 WORCESTER ROOTS 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 Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
94%
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 WORCESTER ROOTS 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.
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 WORCESTER ROOTS PROJECT?
- WORCESTER ROOTS PROJECT (Massachusetts) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $280,249 to it, the largest being GREATER WORCESTER COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($106,500). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does WORCESTER ROOTS PROJECT have?
- IRS filings report 17 organizations giving $280,249 in grants to WORCESTER ROOTS PROJECT, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WORCESTER ROOTS PROJECT?
- GREATER WORCESTER COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $106,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WORCESTER ROOTS PROJECT 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 Worcester Roots 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 17 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