Is it real?
Yes. Never revoked by the IRS. Latest filing on record: FY2025. IRS ruling in Jul 2020.
IRS Pub. 78 · IRS Auto-Revocation List · IRS Business Master File
Where the money goes
84 cents of each dollar spent went to programs.
Form 990 Part IX, line 25, columns B–D. Every line is in By the numbers.
Who runs it and what they're paid
7 people listed on the 990; $82K paid to officers and key staff.
Chris Smith’s $82K as Executive Director is at the 82nd percentile of top reported officer pay among 1171 $100K–1M food & agriculture nonprofits. Peer set: organizations in the same NTEE major field of work and revenue-size band, compared on each org’s own highest-paid officer/key-employee, from Form 990 Part VII / 990-PF Part VIII. Descriptive placement, not a verdict on whether the pay is appropriate.
Compensation history total reportable pay by year · 1 named individual · Part VII
| Name | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | FY2021 | FY2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Smith | $81,869 | $72,068 | $64,039 | $63,200 | $58,365 | $47,666 |
Total reportable compensation (Form 990 Part VII column D / Schedule J column E) by filing year, matched by name within this organization. The Schedule J base / bonus / deferred breakdown is not parsed into this dataset.
See The Utopian Seed Project INC executive salaries →Are you one of these people? Claim this org to confirm your role
Questions the 990 asks
The form asks each of these directly. These are the filed answers.
- Family or business ties among officersPt VI · Ln 2No
- Top official's pay set by an independent reviewPt VI · Ln 15aYes
Programs and updates
Promotes resilient food and farming through crop diversity, education, and seed sovereignty.
This section is blank until The Utopian Seed Project INC claims this page.
Know this organization? Claim it to add your story
Crop Trials
Our crop trials form the core research of our work. We conduct on-farm trials for crop and variety diversity. Our farms are also a site for education and learning, where we host interns, mentorship programs, and student groups.
Crop Stories
A multi-media project to celebrate and educate around crop diversity. In 2025 we published and distributed Peas, a crop-specific print magazine, recorded and launched an audio podcast companion to the Collard Magazine, and hosted Seed Story Gathering with video production.
Leichester Food Coalition
In 2025, we engaged with our hyper-local community to build deeper food and farming connections, which included a community dinner series, supporting the local Leicester Library Giving Garden, and supporting local food purchasing for local distribution.
Run this program? Claim this org to tell your story
Funders
Who pays for it.
From grant filings on record. Receipts are incomplete: individual donors are never listed.
Grants
By the numbers
The FY2025 990, line by line.
Download 990
| Line | Start FY25 | End FY25 |
|---|---|---|
| Cash and savingsLn 1–2 | $255K | $494K |
| Land, buildings, equipmentLn 10c | $11K | $16K |
| Total assetsLn 16 | $303K | $661K |
| LiabilitiesLn 26 | $1K | $6K |
| Net assetsLn 32 | $302K | $654K |
| Line | Total | Programs | Management | Fundraising |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grants to domestic organizationsLn 1 | $350 | $350 | ||
| Grants to domestic individualsLn 2 | $3K | $3K | ||
| Pay of current officers, directors and key staffLn 5 | $82K | $62K | $20K | $0 |
| Other salaries and wagesLn 7 | $172K | $147K | $25K | $0 |
| Pension plan contributionsLn 8 | $8K | $5K | $2K | $0 |
| Payroll taxesLn 10 | $21K | $18K | $3K | $0 |
| Accounting feesLn 11c | $18K | $0 | $18K | $0 |
| Other fees for servicesLn 11g | $78K | $77K | $2K | $0 |
| Advertising and promotionLn 12 | $4K | $4K | $348 | $146 |
| Information technologyLn 14 | $2K | $843 | $1K | $0 |
| OccupancyLn 16 | $15K | $14K | $850 | $0 |
| TravelLn 17 | $5K | $4K | $1K | $110 |
| Depreciation, depletion and amortizationLn 22 | $18K | $18K | $0 | $0 |
| All other expensesLn 24e | $101K | $93K | $6K | $2K |
| Total functional expensesLn 25 | $528K | $445K | $81K | $2K |
Filing history
| Year | Money in | Money out | In minus out | Net assets | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 Latest Viewing | $880K | $528K | $352K | $654K | 990 PDF |
| FY2024 | $401K | $311K | $90K | $302K | 990 PDF |
| FY2023 | $236K | $233K | $3K | $0 | 990 PDF |
| FY2022 | $282K | $175K | $107K | $209K | 990 PDF |
| FY2021 | $129K | $52K | 990 PDF | ||
| FY2020 | $92K | $52K | 990 PDF |
Want to add your own materials alongside these filings? Claim this org
Schedules filed Part IV
See the full FY2025 990 (4 parts)
Part VIII · Statement of revenue $879,795 across 9 lines filed
Part IX · Statement of functional expenses $527,669 across 14 lines filed
Part X · Balance sheet $660,719 assets, 13 lines filed
Part XI · Reconciliation of net assets $654,252 net assets at year end
Form 990 e-file (XML) FY2025 from the IRS · Classification, formation year and address from the IRS Business Master File
Similar organizations you could support · Compare with another nonprofit
Names, privacy, and removal requests More
The names, titles, and compensation shown on this page are reproduced from IRS Form 990 filings, which are public records.
Philanthropy.org does not alter the content of those filings. All information appears exactly as reported by the filing organization for the tax year shown.
We publish only information contained in the public IRS filing — and less than the filing contains. Our profile pages do not display street addresses, telephone numbers, personal email addresses, or other personal contact information, even where the filing includes them.
Many people share the same name. A name shown on this page reflects only what one organization reported in one IRS filing for one tax year. It should not be interpreted as identifying any other individual with the same or a similar name.
If you are no longer affiliated with the organization, your name will generally stop appearing in future IRS filings once the organization no longer reports you. Pages for tax years in which you were reported remain published because those filings remain part of the public record.
Philanthropy.org does not alter or remove IRS filing records. Removing a page from this website would not remove the underlying IRS filing, which remains publicly available from the IRS and other publishers of the same information.
If you believe the IRS filing itself is inaccurate, corrections must be made by the filing organization or the IRS directly.
If you ARE the filing organization, claim this org and add context
Made it to the end? Claim this organization