Seedmoney

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
562389230
IRS 990 coverage
2013–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2012
Location
Scarborough, ME, USA
Phone
2079560606
Rating
74
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Botanical, Horticultural, and Landscape Services

Reported finances

Revenue
$725,950
Expenses
$629,602
Assets
$760,906
Liabilities
$5,369

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Highest reported compensation

  • Roger Doiron (Founding Director): $131,922 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

SeedMoney partners with underserved communities in the U.S. and internationally to grow healthy food and build resilience through sustainable, community-led public gardens. We provide crowdfunding tools, challenge grants, and technical support to help schools, food banks, and grassroots groups establish and sustain their own community gardens. By helping communities help themselves, we improve food access, enhance food security, and strengthen local food systems while promoting environmental stewardship.

What it reported doing in 2024

SeedMoney operates a crowdgranting model that combines small institutional grants with community-powered crowdfunding to finance grassroots food garden projects worldwide. Each year, schools, food banks, community gardens, and grassroots groups apply to participate in the SeedMoney Challenge, a time-limited crowdfunding competition during which participating projects raise funds from their own networks. SeedMoney provides matching challenge grants to top-performing projects, multiplying the impact of community giving and creating strong incentives for grassroots fundraising. During the fiscal year, SeedMoney supported 319 community food garden projects through the 2024 Challenge, resulting in more than $471,000 in combined community contributions and SeedMoney grants distributed across 40 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and 26 additional countries. The program achieved a leverage ratio of 4.78 to 1, meaning every dollar SeedMoney granted from its own funds mobilized more than four additional dollars in community investment. Beyond financial support, SeedMoney provides participating projects with free campaign coaching, fundraising and storytelling guidance, communications resources, and technical assistance throughout the Challenge. The organization maintains an online platform that enables projects to manage donations, share their stories, and connect with supporters. SeedMoney also produces and distributes educational and outreach content, including its impact map, project directory, and "Why Food Gardens?" resource, to drive participation, recognize project achievements, and build public understanding of community food gardens as a tool for food access, food security, and environmental stewardship. Since 2003, SeedMoney has directed more than $3.6 million to over 3,360 community food garden projects across all 50 U.S. states and more than 60 countries.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 97% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 86% of its reported program spending out as grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and the filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 79
  • Transparency & Controls: 60
  • Accountability: 83
  • Sustainability: 56
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 77.3%; rating input score 77
  • Program expense ratio: 88.2%; rating input score 88
  • Fundraising efficiency: $20.55 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 16th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
    • Requires narrative reports: Fail
    • Conducts field audits: Fail
    • May suspend future funding: Fail
    • Requires financial reports: Fail
    • Conducts site visits: Fail
    • Requires grant agreements: Fail
    • May require repayment: Fail
  • Grant itemization coverage: 28.8%; rating input score 29; 27th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 80%; rating input score 80; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 13.3%; rating input score 67; 67th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.21; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 21%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 14.1% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 13.4% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 17.4% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 77.3% of revenue deployed · 88.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 4 of 5 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $556K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $132K · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 27 of 29 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, and grants
  • Filing history: 11 filing years from 2013 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 22 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 20 filed related-organization links
  • 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.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 7 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 29/100.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 59/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 49/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 14/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Foreign grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.