Roots & Dreams and Mustard Seeds Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
823012805
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2023
Forms available
Form 990 2023, Form 990-EZ 2022
Location
Hinsdale, MA, USA
Phone
4133452794
Rating
85
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Community Improvement, Capacity Building N.E.C.

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$231,240
Expenses
$231,240
Assets
$371,504
Liabilities
$24,200

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2023. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

27 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Michael Hitchcock (President, Co-Director)

Highest reported compensation

  • Michael Hitchcock (President, Co-Director): $44,044 total reported compensation
  • Nicole Fecteau (Treasurer, Co-Director): $40,129 total reported compensation
  • Mariam Orengo (Director, Mercado De Vida Worker, Stipend): $10,937 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2023. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Roots & Dreams and Mustard Seeds Inc. believes that economic participation and ownership is key to the empowerment of our most vulnerable community members. This type of participatory cooperative model aspires to true equity and justice, where everyone has a voice in their work, housing, local, state and national government and can easily access basic needs that extends to social, educational and artistic endeavors. Organized and led by members with lived experience of poverty, projects include co-op business development, food justice, transportation access, mutual aid, youth and arts programming, and a community owned real-estate project that holds our community center and developing cooperative businesses.

What it reported doing in 2023

Community Owned Real-estate - We've had a long standing goal of modeling community owned real-estate here in Pittsfield, MA, where community members are empowered to share in the creating and designing of its resources and programming. Donated to us right in downtown, and sitting in the nexus of Pittsfield's two most impoverished neighborhoods, the building serves low income and vulnerable groups in a variety of ways, including being retrofit to support vulnerable groups creating cooperative businesses. 117 Fenn St. holds a small inlet commercial kitchen, now being readied to be rehabbed for Spring activation once the grant contract is complete, which will support six BIPOC chefs, including the producer cooperative, La Cocineras Latinas. 119 Fenn St. holds the Marcado De Vida free grocery and clothing market, located within the general community center. At 129 Fenn St. we are recommissioning the former bar space into a larger shared commercial kitchen, supporting 18 displaced chefs and 2 urban farmers. Finally, thanks to the Massachusetts Transformational Development Initiative, the acquisition grant of 131 and 133 Fenn St., the building connected to ours, has been added to the community owned block and 131 Fenn St. will become a People's Art Gallery, supporting over 23 local artists while 133 Fenn St. the King Kone ice cream shop, will continue working with 11 members to successfully convert it to worker owned. Community Preservation Funds, distributed in this next fiscal year, will be used to rehabilitate many parts of the building, foundation, roof, plumbing and electric alongside Massachusetts transformational development funds to activate the people's art gallery and this section will be used to report rehabilitation grant money as it is dispersed in the next fiscal year. We are very excited to see how the building will further serve and empower vulnerable community members and families in Pittsfield, MA. As of this fiscal year, normal expenses, grants and revenue for it's general running are being placed in this section.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and program spending has declined or grown slowly.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 89
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 86
  • Sustainability: 39
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 6 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 0%; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.61; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.07; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 56.4%; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -5.6% per year; rating input score 0; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 21.5% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 45.6% per year; rating input score 100; 96th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 12 of 12 board members independent · 6 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $231K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $44K · 27 people listed
  • Consistency: 42 of 42 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 2 filing years from 2020 to 2023
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 27 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 41/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 53/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 3/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 31/100.