Grantmakers › Massachusetts

Massachusetts Woodlands Institute Inc

Shelburne Falls, MA · EIN 04-3562879. Reported 30 grants totalling $473,299 to 20 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

20organizations funded
$14,628median reported grant
$473,299granted, 2020-2024
50%of grantees funded again the next year
14%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Massachusetts Woodlands Institute Inc, the IRS classifies it under environment rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE C32) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 20 distinct organizations, with 14% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 50% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 56% median for grantmaking charities -- lower than the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $14,628. Half of what it reported fell between $6,953 and $21,590; the smallest was $2,377 and the largest $40,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
Under $5,000
1 grant
$5,000 - $10,000
10 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
13 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
6 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Town of StockbridgeStockbridge, MA$67,574442024
Town of NatickNatick, MA$65,203222021
Town of Great BarringtonGreat Barrington, MA$65,003332022
Town of ReadingReading, MA$55,680442024
Town of Mt WashingtonMount Washington, MA$40,000112023
Town of MonsonMonson, MA$27,361112024
Town of HatfieldHatfield, MA$24,895222024
Egremont Land Trust IncS Egremont, MA$21,590112022
Town of Great BarringtonGreat Barrington, MA$18,375112023
Town of SherbornSherborn, MA$17,850112024
WeymouthbraintreeregrecreationconservdistBraintree, MA$14,777112024
Town of EgremontEgremont, MA$9,750112024
Town of AshlandAshland, MA$8,297112021
Town of MiddleboroughMiddleborough, MA$6,953112023
Town of WindsorWindsor, MA$5,884112024
Town of BlandfordBlandford, MA$5,484112024
Town of ClintonClinton, MA$5,473112021
Town of BernardstonBernardston, MA$5,420112024
Town of GoshenGoshen, MA$5,353112023
Town of GreenfieldGreenfield, MA$2,377112020

5 of 20 (25%) received money in more than one year over the 5 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

It also reported 5 groups of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 1 of 20 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Environment
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20203$44,204$14,839
20216$118,262$16,869
20224$63,694$16,052
20237$107,417$14,473
202410$139,722$12,263

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

Great Barrington, MA
$83K
Stockbridge, MA
$68K
Natick, MA
$65K
Reading, MA
$56K
Mount Washington, MA
$40K
Monson, MA
$27K
Hatfield, MA
$25K
S Egremont, MA
$22K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.

Center for Technology and Civic Life11 shared recipientsNew England Foundation for the Arts3 shared recipientsProject Bread-the Walk for Hunger Inc3 shared recipientsThe Boston Athletic Association2 shared recipientsEos Foundation2 shared recipientsNational Philanthropic Trust2 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $14,628 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Massachusetts.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Massachusetts Woodlands Institute Inc's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.

Address of record on the latest return: Po Box 450, Shelburne Falls, MA, 01370.

EIN 04-3562879 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.