Worcester County Food Bank Inc
Shrewsbury, MA · EIN 04-3071457. Reported 55 grants totalling $1,746,310 to 40 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
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:
- What kind of organization it is. For Worcester County Food Bank Inc, the IRS classifies it under food & nutrition rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE K31Z) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 40 distinct organizations, with 17% 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.
- How much its list changes. 36% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and well below 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 $10,000. Half of what it reported fell between $6,000 and $15,000; the smallest was $6,000 and the largest $301,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
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.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States Catholic Conference | Washington, DC | $301,693 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Project Bread - the Walk for Hunger Inc | East Boston, MA | $301,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Main South Community Development Corporation | Worcester, MA | $228,750 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Community Legal Aid Inc | Worcester, MA | $200,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Greater Worcester Community Foundation Inc | Worcester, MA | $200,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| United Way of Central Massachusetts Inc | Worcester, MA | $61,000 | 2 | 1 | 2022 |
| Third Sector New England Inc | Boston, MA | $56,250 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Friendly House Inc | Worcester, MA | $41,717 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| The Salvation Army | West Nyack, NY | $39,000 | 5 | 3 | 2024 |
| Society of St Vincent De Paul in the Archdiocese of Boston Inc | Stoughton, MA | $26,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Spanish American Center Inc | Leominster, MA | $22,500 | 2 | 1 | 2024 |
| Centro Las Americas Inc | Worcester, MA | $21,000 | 2 | 1 | 2024 |
| Society of St Vincent De Paul Diocesan Council of Worcester Inc | Leominster, MA | $16,500 | 2 | 1 | 2024 |
| South Middlesex Opportunity Council Inc | Framingham, MA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| United Way of Tri County Inc | Framingham, MA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Jeremiahs Inn Inc | Worcester, MA | $13,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Yes We Care | Worcester, MA | $13,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Catholic Charities Diocese of Worcester Inc | West Boylston, MA | $12,000 | 2 | 1 | 2024 |
| Swnc Camp Street | Worcester, MA | $12,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Daily Bread Food Pantry Inc | Milford, MA | $10,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Ginnys Helping Hand Inc | Leominster, MA | $10,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Northborough Helping Hands Association Inc | Northborough, MA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| El Buen Samaritano Food Program Inc | Worcester, MA | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Montachusett Veterans Outreach Center Inc | Gardner, MA | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Mustard Seed Catholic Worker Community Inc | Worcester, MA | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| National Council of the United States Society of St Vincent De Pa | Maryland Hts, MO | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Pernet Family Health Service Inc | Worcester, MA | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Oxford Ecumenical Council Inc | Oxford, MA | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Veterans Inc | Worcester, MA | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Farm School Inc | Athol, MA | $6,400 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Ampleharvest Org | Newfoundland, NJ | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Feed My Starving Children | Coon Rapids, MN | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Food Share Inc | Southbridge, MA | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Gardner Cac | Gardner, MA | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Mary Queen of the Rosary | Spencer, MA | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Our Fathers Table Inc | Fitchburg, MA | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| St Annes Church | Shrewsbury, MA | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Webster Dudley Food Share Inc | Webster, MA | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Wesley United Methodist Church | Worcester, MA | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| YWCA Central Massachusetts Inc | Worcester, MA | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
7 of 40 (18%) 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.
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.
- Project Bread
TO SUPPORT THE MAKE HUNGER HISTORY CAMPAIGN - Food Pantries and Shelters in Worc County
EMERGENCY GRANT/COVID 19 GRANT - Greater Worcester Community Foundation
PROVIDE GRANT FUNDING TO ORGANIZATIONS TO INCREASE ACCESS TO HEALTHY FOODS - Third Sector New England
MASS FOOD SYSTEM COLLABORATIVE - FOOD SECURITY ADVOCACY - United Way of Central Ma
HOT MEALS - HAITIAN REFUGEES
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 27 of 40 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.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 7 | $651,000 | $100,000 |
| 2021 | 5 | $236,443 | $37,943 |
| 2022 | 3 | $117,250 | $31,000 |
| 2023 | 1 | $35,717 | $35,717 |
| 2024 | 39 | $705,900 | $7,500 |
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
79% of its giving went to organizations in Massachusetts. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
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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.
How to approach this grantmaker
- 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.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $10,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Massachusetts.
- 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.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Worcester County Food Bank 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: 474 Boston Turnpike, Shrewsbury, MA, 01545.
EIN 04-3071457 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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