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
90 cents of each dollar spent went to programs.
Form 990 Part IX, line 25, columns B–D. Every line is in By the numbers.
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Who runs it and what they're paid
9 people listed on the 990; $63K 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.
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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.
Questions for The Utopian Seed Project INC
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Crop Trials
Continued construction of large two-bay gutter connect greenhouse. Hosted farm tours. Crop Highlights: 10 variety yard long bean trial for SESE, First planting of C. maxima and C. moschata diverse landraces for Ultracross, Large planting of first generation Okra Ultracross and discovery of A.
Southern Sare Video Program
A project to create a Southeast Seed video series. The project traveled across 12 states and interviewed over 50 farmers, community gardeners, seed savers, seed growers and seed advocates. The footage was weaved together to tell the story and seed saving of six southern crops: corn, okra, southern peas, collards, sweet potatoes and…
Heirloom Collard Project
Growing and developing the Collard Ultracross, Supporting seed stewards for heirloom collard project varieties, Develop media and outreach via heirloomcollards.org, Collard Corner event at the annual CFSA Sustainable Ag Conference
Funders
Who pays for it.
From grant filings on record. Receipts are incomplete: individual donors are never listed.
Grants
By the numbers
The FY2022 990, line by line.
Download 990
| Line | Start FY22 | End FY22 |
|---|---|---|
| Cash and savingsLn 1–2 | $122K | |
| Total assetsLn 16 | $0 | $209K |
| LiabilitiesLn 26 | $0 | $106 |
| Net assetsLn 32 | $0 | $209K |
| Line | Total | Programs | Management | Fundraising |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pay of current officers, directors and key staffLn 5 | $63K | $57K | $6K | $0 |
| Other salaries and wagesLn 7 | $9K | $9K | $0 | $0 |
| Payroll taxesLn 10 | $5K | $5K | $513 | $0 |
| Accounting feesLn 11c | $6K | $0 | $6K | $0 |
| Advertising and promotionLn 12 | $1K | $1K | $0 | $50 |
| Information technologyLn 14 | $650 | $650 | $0 | $0 |
| TravelLn 17 | $2K | $1K | $320 | $11 |
| Conferences, conventions and meetingsLn 19 | $2K | $2K | $130 | $0 |
| Depreciation, depletion and amortizationLn 22 | $5K | $5K | $0 | $0 |
| InsuranceLn 23 | $4K | $4K | $451 | $0 |
| All other expensesLn 24e | $76K | $73K | $3K | $0 |
| Total functional expensesLn 25 | $175K | $158K | $17K | $61 |
Filing history
| Year | Money in | Money out | In minus out | Net assets | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 Latest | $880K | $528K | $352K | $654K | 990 PDF |
| FY2024Filed with the IRS May 7, 2025 | $401K | $311K | $90K | $302K | 990 PDF |
| FY2023Filed with the IRS May 15, 2024 | $236K | $233K | $3K | $0 | 990 PDF |
| FY2022 ViewingFiled with the IRS May 15, 2023 | $282K | $175K | $107K | $209K | 990 PDF |
| FY2021Filed with the IRS May 6, 2022 | $129K | $52K | 990 PDF | ||
| FY2020Filed with the IRS May 10, 2021 | $92K | $52K | 990 PDF |
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Schedules filed Part IV
See the full FY2022 990 (6 parts)
Part I · Summary $281,578 revenue, 12 lines filed
Part VI · Governance 8 of 8 board members independent, 2 to look at
Part VIII · Statement of revenue $281,578 across 6 lines filed
Part IX · Statement of functional expenses $174,885 across 11 lines filed
Part X · Balance sheet $209,416 assets, 10 lines filed
Part XI · Reconciliation of net assets $209,310 net assets at year end
Form 990 e-file (XML) FY2022 from the IRS · Classification, formation year and address from the IRS Business Master File
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