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Biddeford and Mechanics Savings Charitable Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Biddeford and Mechanics Savings Charitable Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$167k
Granted FY2025still arriving
29
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$25k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0199% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Food & Nutrition$207kHuman Services$172kYouth Development$117kPhilanthropy$111kEducation$83kHealth$70kCrime & Legal$57kHousing & Shelter$51kOther$0
02FY2025 · 29 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k24 grants · $97k
  • $10k–50k5 grants · $70k
$5,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$52k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
United Way of Southern Maine$25,000
Trinity Jubilee Center$15,000
Presumpscot Regional Land Trust$10,000
My Place Teen Center$10,000
Tedford Housing$10,000
Safe Voices$8,333
Tree Street Youth$8,333
Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project$7,500
Seeds of Hope Neighborhood Center$5,000
The Drop-In Center$5,000
University of Southern Maine Foundation$5,000
Valo$5,000
University of New England$5,000
The Locker Project$5,000
Preble Street$5,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY20–25, $102k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 19% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%Church Community Outreach Services: $4k → 12%Church Community Outreach Services: $5k → 9%Community Outreach Services: $4k → 9%Church Community Outreach Services: $3k → 9%Church Community Outreach Services: $3k → 9%Church Community Outreach Services: $3k → 9%Southern Maine Agency on Aging: $5k → 9%Biddeford Food Pantry: $4k → 9%Biddeford Food Pantry: $4k → 9%Biddeford Food Pantry: $3k → 9%The Drop-In Center: $10k → 13%The Drop-In Center: $5k → 13%Biddeford Food Pantry: $3k → 9%Biddeford Food Pantry: $3k → 9%Biddeford Food Pantry: $2k → 9%York County Community Action: $2k → 9%Sweetser: $10k → 9%Preble Street: $5k → 7%Sweetser: $10k → 9%Sweetser: $10k → 9%ProsperityME: $5k → 7%Windham Neighbors Helping Neighbors: $2k → 7%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

84%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$759k · 31 repeat orgs$144k to everyone else

31 repeat relationships: 21 still active in FY2025, 10 since wound down; 8 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

31
32

Total granted

$759k
$107k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+32%
+43%

Still filing today

77%
53%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 77% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $38k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’20’21’22’23’24’25
Human ServicesFood & NutritionEducationYouth DevelopmentHealthCommunity ImprovementOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • MP
    My Place Teen Center Inc
    6× · 2020–2025 · $82k · revenue +208%
  • TJ
    Trinity Jubilee Center Inc
    6× · 2020–2025 · $55k · revenue +739%
  • SV
    Safe Voices
    5× · 2021–2025 · $50k · revenue +20%

Funded once

  • UW
    United Way of York County
    one grant, 2020 · $17k
  • EE
    Ecology Education Inc (aka The Ecology School)
    one grant, 2021 · $10k
  • PT
    PINE TREE SOCIETY INC
    one grant, 2021 · $5k · revenue +3%
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Maine Needs Inc

We strive to help individuals and families in Maine meet their basic, material needs by providing donated clothing, hygiene products, household items, and other necessities. We focus our work on those starting life over from scratch:…

Human Services
2
Eastern Area Agency on Aging

It is the mission of Eastern Area Agency on Aging to be the best source of information, options, and services for seniors, adults with disabilities, and caregivers.

Human Services
3
Machias Area Food Pantry

The primary mission of the Machias Area Food Pantry is to provide good healthy food to individuals and families who are food insecure throughout Washington County, Maine.

Food & Nutrition
4
Maine Council on Aging

A broad multi-disciplinary network that works to ensure we can all live healthy, engaged, and secure lives as we age in our homes and communities. With the voices of people with lived experience, we work on policy issues related to…

Unclassified
5
Southern Maine Affordable Housing

To provide quality affordable housing

Housing & Shelter
6
Penobscot Community Health Center

Penobscot Community Health Center (PCHC) is a non-profit organization incorporated in 1997 that is governed by a Board of community volunteers and is the largest Federally Qualified Health Center in Maine. PCHC is driven by its mission…

Health
7
Mainely Teeth Llc

Providing Dental services to low-income individuals who are uninsured,underinsured, or have other significant financial barriers to accessing care.

—
8
Fork Food Lab

Fork Food Lab is a nonprofit food business incubator and shared commercial kitchen focused on growing the local food economy. We support the growth of sustainable Maine-based businesses by providing entrepreneurs with work space,…

Environment
9
Winthrop Food Pantry

Provide free food and personal care items to families in need in Winthrop and Wayne, ME.

Food & Nutrition
10
Rural Community Action Ministry

Our purpose is to work with people to meet their needs for safe and adequate shelter, clothing, food and basic well-being in a manner that maintains or improves their self worth and dignity.

Human Services
11
Fair Tide

Fair Tide's mission is to reduce homelessness by providing Housing and support services to individuals and families in the seacoast. Through Fair Tide's permanent housing program, homeless households benefit from intensive case management…

Housing & Shelter
12
211 Maine Inc

211 Maine helps people in Maine find local resources so they can meet their needs and thrive.

Health
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is United Way of Mid Coast Maine Inc; the most unlike its peers is Saco Food Pantry. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

50 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 50 of the 72 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
16
Early backer (in before they grew)
49/50
Grantees still filing
37/50
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

United Way of Southern Maine: $97,437 · OtherUnited Way of Southern MaineSafe Voices: $49,999 · OtherSafe VoicesUNITED WAY OF ANDROSCOGGIN COUNTY INC: $34,136 · OtherUNITED WAY OF ANDROSCOGGIN COUNTY INCMid Coast Hunger Prevention Program: $17,500 · OtherUnited Way of York County: $16,699 · OtherHigh Street Congregational Church (Food Pantry): $15,500 · OtherFirst Congregational Church of Scarborough (Food Pantry): $15,500 · OtherWATERBORO COMMUNITY PANTRY: $15,500 · OtherUniversity of Southern Maine Foundation: $20,000 · OtherSEEDS OF HOPE NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER: $17,000 · Other+30 more: $116,500 · Other+30 moreTrinity Jubilee Center Inc: $55,000 · Food & NutritionTrinity Jubilee …Good Shepherd Food Bank: $23,000 · Food & NutritionGood Shepherd Fo…SACO FOOD PANTRY: $17,500 · Food & NutritionSACO FOOD PANTRYWESTBROOK FOOD PANTRY: $15,500 · Food & NutritionWESTBROOK FOOD P…Locker Project: $10,000 · Food & NutritionLocker Project+4 more: $9,500 · Food & Nutrition+4 moreSweetser: $30,000 · Human ServicesSweetserCHURCH COMMUNITY OUTREACH SERVICES INC: $20,500 · Human ServicesCHURCH COMMUNI…BIDDEFORD FOOD PANTRY: $17,500 · Human ServicesBIDDEFORD FOOD…DROP-IN CENTER: $15,000 · Human ServicesDROP-IN CENTERThe Opportunity Alliance: $12,500 · Human ServicesThe Opportunit…PROSPERITYME: $5,000 · Human ServicesSouthern Maine Agency on Aging: $5,000 · Human ServicesPREBLE STREET: $5,000 · Human Services+2 more: $4,000 · Human ServicesMy Place Teen Center Inc: $82,001 · Youth DevelopmentMy Place Teen …TREE STREET YOUTH INC: $23,333 · Youth DevelopmentTREE STREET YO…VALO: $5,000 · Youth Development+1 more: $2,500 · Youth DevelopmentMAINELY CHARACTER: $27,500 · EducationUniversity of New England: $20,000 · EducationPINE TREE SOCIETY INC: $5,000 · EducationYork County Community College Foundation: $2,700 · EducationTEDFORD HOUSING: $30,000 · Housing & ShelterAVESTA HOUSING MANAGEMENT CORPORATION: $10,000 · Housing & ShelterSt Mary's Health System: $21,000 · HealthCOMMUNITY DENTAL: $14,000 · HealthAndroscoggin Home Health Services Inc: $5,000 · Health
Other$415,771Food & Nutrition$130,500Human Services$114,500Youth Development$112,834Education$55,200Housing & Shelter$40,000Health$40,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetMy Place Teen Center Inc: $82,001 over 6y, 1.6% of budgetTrinity Jubilee Center Inc: $55,000 over 6y, 1.1% of budgetSafe Voices: $49,999 over 5y, 0.5% of budgetUNITED WAY OF ANDROSCOGGIN COUNTY INC: $34,136 over 2y, 1.7% of budgetSweetser: $30,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTEDFORD HOUSING: $30,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetMAINELY CHARACTER: $27,500 over 5y, 15% of budgetTREE STREET YOUTH INC: $23,333 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetGood Shepherd Food Bank: $23,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetSt Mary's Health System: $21,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetCHURCH COMMUNITY OUTREACH SERVICES INC: $20,500 over 6y, 2.2% of budgetUniversity of Southern Maine Foundation: $20,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetUniversity of New England: $20,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetMid Coast Hunger Prevention Program: $17,500 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetSACO FOOD PANTRY: $17,500 over 6y, 2.4% of budgetBIDDEFORD FOOD PANTRY: $17,500 over 6y, 1.3% of budgetSEEDS OF HOPE NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER: $17,000 over 4y, 1.5% of budgetUnited Way of York County: $16,699 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetWESTBROOK FOOD PANTRY: $15,500 over 5y, 8.5% of budgetDROP-IN CENTER: $15,000 over 2y, 13% of budgetCOMMUNITY DENTAL: $14,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetThe Opportunity Alliance: $12,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetAVESTA HOUSING MANAGEMENT CORPORATION: $10,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetPresumpscot Regional Land Trust: $10,000 over 1y, 1.9% of budgetLocker Project: $10,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetPINE TREE SOCIETY INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAndroscoggin Home Health Services Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE ROTARY FOUNDATION OF ROTARY INTERNATIONAL: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPROSPERITYME: $5,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetSouthern Maine Agency on Aging: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetPREBLE STREET: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUnited Way Inc: $3,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetYork County Community College Foundation: $2,700 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetBoys & Girls Clubs of Southern Maine: $2,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetStandish Food Pantry: $2,500 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetSOUTH PORTLAND FOOD CUPBOARD: $2,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetFALMOUTH FOOD PANTRY INC: $2,500 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetHEART OF BIDDEFORD: $2,500 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetPROJECT GRACE: $2,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetCommunity Concepts Inc: $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHABITAT FOR HUMANITY YORK COUNTY MAINE: $2,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetUNITED WAY OF MID COAST MAINE INC: $2,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetYORK COUNTY COMMUNITY ACTION CORPORATION: $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWINDHAM NEIGHBORS HELPING NEIGHBORS: $2,000 over 1y, 2.5% of budgetCENTRAL MAINE COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $2,000 over 1y, 2.5% of budgetJUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF MAINE INC: $2,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetSCARBOROUGH ECONOMIC DEV CORP: $500 over 1y, 0.2% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

  • Who funds My Place Teen Center Inc ↗
  • Who funds Trinity Jubilee Center Inc ↗
  • Who funds Safe Voices ↗
  • Who funds UNITED WAY OF ANDROSCOGGIN COUNTY INC ↗
  • Who funds Sweetser ↗
  • Who funds TEDFORD HOUSING ↗
  • Who funds MAINELY CHARACTER ↗
  • Who funds TREE STREET YOUTH INC ↗
  • Who funds Good Shepherd Food Bank ↗
  • Who funds St Mary's Health System ↗
  • Who funds CHURCH COMMUNITY OUTREACH SERVICES INC ↗
  • Who funds University of Southern Maine Foundation ↗
  • Who funds University of New England ↗
  • Who funds Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program ↗
  • Who funds SACO FOOD PANTRY ↗
  • Who funds BIDDEFORD FOOD PANTRY ↗
  • Who funds SEEDS OF HOPE NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER ↗
  • Who funds United Way of York County ↗
  • Who funds WESTBROOK FOOD PANTRY ↗
  • Who funds DROP-IN CENTER ↗
  • Who funds COMMUNITY DENTAL ↗
  • Who funds The Opportunity Alliance ↗
  • Who funds AVESTA HOUSING MANAGEMENT CORPORATION ↗
  • Who funds Presumpscot Regional Land Trust ↗
  • Who funds Locker Project ↗
  • Who funds IMMIGRANT LEGAL ADVOCACY PROJECT ↗
  • Who funds PINE TREE SOCIETY INC ↗
  • Who funds Androscoggin Home Health Services Inc ↗
  • Who funds THE ROTARY FOUNDATION OF ROTARY INTERNATIONAL ↗
  • Who funds PROSPERITYME ↗

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Maine Community Found…Sam L Cohen FoundationBangor Savings Bank F…Saco & Biddeford Savi…John T Gorman Foundat…Elmina B Sewall Found…Fisher Charitable Fou…Good Shepherd Food Ba…Stephen & Tabitha Kin…Simmons Foundation - …United Way IncVirginia Hodgkins Som…
Maine Community Foundation IncME64.7× affinity35 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Maine Community Foundation Inc · Sam L Cohen Foundation · Bangor Savings Bank Foundation · Saco & Biddeford Savings Charitable Foundation · John T Gorman Foundation · Elmina B Sewall Foundation · Fisher Charitable Foundation · Good Shepherd Food Bank · Stephen & Tabitha King Foundation Inc · Simmons Foundation - PerkinsThompson · United Way Inc · Virginia Hodgkins Somers Foundation Inc

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Biddeford and Mechanics Savings Charitable Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Biddeford and Mechanics Savings Charitable Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%5%11%20%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    13report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 72 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Biddeford and Mechanics Savings’ filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home