Roots & Dreams and Mustard Seeds Inc
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
What it says it does
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.
- Income
- $231,240
- Spending
- $231,240
- Spent on programs
- 100%
- Reserves
- -8.9 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- donations and private grants, 47%
- Employees
- 4
- Volunteers
- 42
- Highest pay
- $44,044, president, co-director
Source: Form 990 for the year ending August 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
Fair: 62 out of 100. Higher than 33% of charities in its peer group (community improvement, under $250k).
Reserves
0 of 35Spendable reserves are negative: it owes or has committed more than it holds.
Debt
20 of 20It owes 7% of what it owns.
Living within its means
12 of 15Income exceeded spending by 0% of income.
Income trend
15 of 15Income rose 53% on the year before.
Spending floor
15 of 15100% of spending went to programs and raising each dollar of donations cost 0 cents.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending August 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
Strong: 94 out of 100. Higher than 86% of charities in its peer group (community improvement, under $250k).
Independent board
25 of 2512 of 12 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
0 of 5Reports no independent review process for its chief executive's pay.
No reported misuse
10 of 10Reports no diversion of assets, excess benefits or loans to insiders.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending August 31, 2024, 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 (4)
- $41,046 spent. The Transportation Program provides critical rides to vulnerable people needing to get to new employment, as well as medical, social service and therapeutic programming. The program continues to be run by a dedicated volunteer group who receive a stipend for time committed to the program. The service is vital to an area that has very limited bus service. The program normally serves 120 - 170 vulnerable community members on a regular basis and over 1000 subsidized rides through out the year.
- $84,890 spent. Our Co-op Business Development program includes 73 participants developing seven different co-op businesses Included is Rose & Cole's Transport, Ecuadorian Cleaning, The Handy Man Co-op. The Artisan's Co-op, King Kone Iceceam Shop, and La Cocineras Latin.as and is expanding to include the sectors of child care and interpretation. Developing cooperative groups attend weekly one on one group meetings with their cooperative developer as well as bi-monthly classes, supporting them through the developmental stages of assess, implementation, governance, sustainability and growth. Aside from technical assistance, co-grant writing with teams has become a huge part of our program as lack of start-up capital is one of the greatest impedance to very low income groups developing cooperative businesses. As for our cooperative housing project, we are still researching down payment options to establish 12-24 units of limited equity co-op housing, with units providing a diminishing lease that acts as an equity builder for families living in multifamily residences, as an affordable housing option, as displacement continues to be a major issue in our city.
- $63,420 spent. Our community Programming includes Mercado De Vida, a free market for vulnerable families operating five days per week serving close to 600 low income families weekly and approximately 1800 people when including all household members. It partners with our urban garden, Madre Jardin, which teaches youth and adults to grow food together, in which families are encouraged to take produce home. Our community owned building project hosts our community center which includes our Mercado De Vida market but also offers navigation services to resource vulnerable people and families, youth and adult dance and art classes, our co-op business classes, a weekly wellness clinic, and member led educational workshops. During the summer, we run a bi-lingual youth camp, Corazonidos Community School, serving approximately 90 youths from pre-school to teen years, offering a Montessori-like whole child model that has tables set up for art, building, language, science, math, musical instruments as well as physical education games.
- $41,884 spent. 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.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending August 31, 2024, 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 August 2024.
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 July 2018.
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.
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