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Massachusetts · Nonprofit

WORDS AS WORLDS INC

WORDS AS WORLDS INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $370,000 to it, the largest being Boston Foundation Inc ($219,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 67% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$118k
Funders on record
6
Grants received
$370k
Net assets
$1.0M
3/6 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 6%
01What it does

What Words as Worlds Inc does

Mission

Words as worlds seeks to gather community by hosting an array of events that feature local and national artists and writers whose work often challenges political paradigms.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. To accomplish its mission, words as worlds provides a broad array of events and programming: "live podcast recordings "weekly poetry mic "dj listening parties "based off the book: film screenings "author talks "teen open mic "children's story hour "writing workshops "tiny concert series "lectures & literary discussions "space rentals "screen-writing round table "comic book meet-up "gallery talks

    $269,944 spent$4,235 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $269,944.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2023, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2023, 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 = 20232023 Revenue 100 ($945k) Expenses 100 ($78k) Net assets 100 ($867k)2024 Revenue 59 ($559k) Expenses 228 ($177k) Net assets 144 ($1.2M)2025 Revenue 13 ($118k) Expenses 412 ($321k) Net assets 121 ($1.0M)
202320242025
Revenue (13)Expenses (412)Net assets (121)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 2023 to 2024, from $867k to $1.4M (+58%).

$867k
$1.4M
$1.2M
202320242025
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.

2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2023 100%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

90% of WORDS AS WORLDS INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (62% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 12,439 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 3 reported years ran a deficit.

$867k
’23
$381k
’24
−$202k
’25
15
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.

202320242025
Listed778
Joined·+0+2
No longer listed·01
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.

2 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 67% 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 WORDS AS WORLDS 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

WORDS AS WORLDS INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 59% of grant income and the top three 85%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

67% 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 WORDS AS WORLDS INC.

59%
largest funder
85%
top three
~3
effective funders

“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

67% of WORDS AS WORLDS 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 $123k that is directly attributable, 78% of it comes from funders outside Massachusetts, across 2 states.

MA
PA

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $248k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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

WORDS AS WORLDS INC is better cushioned than half of the 7,175 community improvement nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−171% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve15.0mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)−65% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,175 community improvement nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like WORDS AS WORLDS 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

05Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

84% of spending goes to programs.

Program 84%Management 13%Fundraising 3%

Governance

7
board members
86%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

MA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WORDS AS WORLDS 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.

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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 WORDS AS WORLDS INC?
WORDS AS WORLDS INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $370,000 to it, the largest being Boston Foundation Inc ($219,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 67% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does WORDS AS WORLDS INC have?
IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $370,000 in grants to WORDS AS WORLDS INC, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of WORDS AS WORLDS INC?
Boston Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $219,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like WORDS AS WORLDS 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 Words as Worlds →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2023–2025), and the filings of 6 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