Groundswell International Inc
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
What it says it does
Groundswell International strenghtens communities to build healthy farming and food systems from the ground up.
- Income
- $5.1 million
- Spending
- $4.7 million
- Spent on programs
- 89%
- Reserves
- 3.7 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- donations and private grants, 99%
- Employees
- 6
- Volunteers
- 13
- Highest pay
- $171,542, executive director
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
Good: 80 out of 100. Higher than 57% of charities in its peer group (international, $1m to $10m).
Reserves
20 of 35Spendable reserves would cover 3.7 months of spending.
Debt
20 of 20It owes 1% of what it owns.
Living within its means
15 of 15Income exceeded spending by 8% of income.
Income trend
10 of 15Income fell 2% on the year before.
Spending floor
15 of 1589% of spending went to programs and raising each dollar of donations cost 6 cents.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
Strong: 100 out of 100. Higher than 64% of charities in its peer group (international, $1m to $10m).
Independent board
25 of 2513 of 13 voting board members are independent.
Conflict of interest policy
15 of 15Has a written conflict of interest policy.
Whistleblower policy
8 of 8Has a written whistleblower policy.
Record keeping policy
7 of 7Has a written policy on keeping and destroying records.
Board minutes
5 of 5Keeps minutes of board meetings.
Board sees the tax return
10 of 10Gave the board a copy of this return before filing it.
Pay set independently
5 of 5Sets its chief executive's pay through independent review and comparison.
Independent check of accounts
15 of 15Its accounts were audited by an independent accountant.
No reported misuse
10 of 10Reports no diversion of assets, excess benefits or loans to insiders.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Impact evidence
Describes programs. Its tax return describes what it does but we have found no measurable results in it.
Programs described in its return (3)
- $4.2 million spent. Groundswell International, Inc. (Groundswell) strengthens communities to build healthy farming and food systems from the ground up. Groundswells global network includes 16 non-governmental organizations supporting 865 community-based organizations groups organized into three Regional Programs for action-learning and amplification: Latin America and the Caribbean (Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico), South Asia (India, Nepal), and West Africa (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Senegal). In 2025, collectively, the Groundswell network supported 273,771 smallholder farmers to strengthen their production, resilience, and wellbeing. Our work improved the lives of 2,148,203 people from 1,320 marginalized communities by addressing the root causes of environmental degradation, food insecurity, poverty, climate vulnerability, and social marginalization. We support
- a practical approach that builds participants capacities to experiment with ecological farming strategies, spread effective solutions, and develop complementary strategies to meet their basic needs and lead ongoing processes to improve human and social wellbeing and environmental regeneration. While programming in each region, as well as at the country level, is designed to respond to the local context, Groundswell programs everywhere: -Work with farmer leaders to test and adopt agroecological methods and spread them to more people through farmer-to-farmer training, allowing these farmers to produce more healthy food and restore hundreds of thousands of hectares of degraded land. -Empower women farmers to participate in savings and credit groups, improve ecological
- production, gain access to productive assets, and diversify their livelihoods, which in turn improves their families food security, incomes, and resilience. -Strengthen local markets and increase farmers incomes through savings and credit groups and community-based agricultural enterprises that add value to locally grown crops. -Nourish vulnerable families by explicitly integrating gender equity and nutrition into agricultural programs. Our holistic approach links agroecological farming to family nutrition. -Support citizens to engage with local decision-makers on enabling local policies and produce influential case studies, policy briefs, and impact reports based on learning across our network, to share with other stakeholders to expedite the necessary transition to agroecology. West Africa -- We continued to work with our partners Agrecol Afrique in Senegal; Association Nourrir Sans Detruire (ANSD) in Burkina Faso; the Center for Indigenous Knowledge and Organizational Development (CIKOD) in Ghana; and Sahel Eco in Mali. In 2025, we added two new partners to our network both based in Northern Ghana, Urbanet and Center for Ecological Agriculture and Livehoods. Our West Africa program focuses on supporting dryland farming households to transition from conventional agriculture to agroecological and regenerative farming and food systems that allow them to mitigate and adapt to climate change; strengthen local management of biodiversity; and generate nature-based solutions to increase food security and incomes. In 2025, across these four Sahelian countries, Groundswell- supported programs that engaged 254,654 smallholder farmers through cascading, farmer-to-farmer training; contributed to regenerating 231,747 hectares of land; and programs benefitted 1,853,223 people. Latin America and the Caribbean - In 2025, we worked with partners EkoRural in Ecuador; Partenariat pour le Developpement Local (PDL) in Haiti; Qachuu Aloom and Asociacion Comunitaria Flor del Cafe aldea El Durazno in Guatemala; and Asociacion de Comites Ecologicos del Sur del Honduras (ACESH) and Vecinos Honduras. In these five countries, in 2025, we supported 17,233 smallholder farmers to improve their farming, create sustainable rural livelihoods, and strengthen their communities resilience. Groundswell programs with partners in the region benefitted 112,080 people (about the seating capacity of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum) and helped regenerate 5797 hectares of land.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Legitimacy checks
Is it registered with the IRS? Passed.
Listed in the IRS master file of tax-exempt organizations as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Has the IRS revoked its tax-exempt status? Passed.
Not on the IRS automatic revocation list.
Source: Automatic revocation of exemption list, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Are donations tax-deductible? Passed.
On the IRS list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
Source: Publication 78 data: organizations eligible for tax-deductible contributions, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Is it keeping up with its IRS filings? Passed.
Most recent return on file covers the year ending December 2025.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
How long has it been tax-exempt? Passed.
Recognized by the IRS since August 2010.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Is it in good standing with state regulators? Passed.
Not on California's list of charities barred from soliciting. Other states are not yet checked.
Source: May Not Operate or Solicit for Charitable Purposes list, California Attorney General, Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, file dated October 21, 2026.
Ratings and checks are our reading of public records, using the published method. They are not a statement about anyone's honesty. If you work for this organization, you can send corrections or results, confirm you want gifts through Veridonate, or ask to be removed from giving.