· Private foundation
Cara Charitable Foundation Inc
Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k7 grants · $18k
- $250k+1 grant · $334k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| OUR KATAHDIN | $334,000 |
| MILLINOCKET MEMORIAL LIBRARY | $5,000 |
| INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE INC | $5,000 |
| CAMDEN PUBLIC LIBRARY | $2,000 |
| LIFEFLIGHT FOUNDATION | $2,000 |
| PENOBSCOT BAY YMCA | $1,500 |
| MAINE PUBLIC BROADCASTING CORPORATION | $1,500 |
| FINDING OUR VOICES | $1,000 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Your human-services grants (FY17–24, $46k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
Which US states your grants reach
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
14 repeat relationships — 7 still active in FY2024, 7 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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
- OKOur Katahdin6× · 2019–2024 · $1.6M · revenue +257%
ST ANDREW'S SCHOOL OF DELAWARE INC2× · 2017–2018 · $85k · revenue +44%- GSGood Shepherd Food Bank4× · 2020–2023 · $58k · revenue +50%
Funded once
- MMMARLBORO MEETING HOUSEone grant, 2019 · $25k
- TOTOWN OF MILLINOCKETone grant, 2023 · $16k
WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INCone grant, 2022 · $10k · revenue -40%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
Maine Media Workshops & College educates and inspires visual artists and storytellers to achieve their creative potential. We provide lifelong learning opportunities for those pursuing the fine arts and media-related professions. We are…
To enhance, every day, the health of our patients, our families and our communities. We do that through a range of health care services for people of all ages, in a variety of care settings.
The mission of Islesboro Islands Trust is to enhance the quality of residents' lives through the preservation of open space, educate all residents as to the value of the island's natural ecosystems, and act as an environmental advocate on…
To provide access to outdoor gear and know-how through a collaborative, equity-centered approach.
MaineHealth is a voluntary, not-for-profit community and referral system of hospitals, dedicated to providing high quality health care services to all persons who seek care regardless of their sex, race, religion, age, color, sexual…
Penobscot Bay Medical Center (PBMC) is an acute care hospital that offers inpatient and outpatient care, diagnostic, therapeutic and rehabilitative services, patient and community education, and a full range of specialty services through…
The mission of Midcoast Conservancy is to protect vital lands and waters on a scale that matters and to inspire wonder and action on behalf of all species and the Earth.
The Maine Community Foundation brings people and resources together to build a better Maine.
Kennebunk Land Trust's mission is to permanently conserve and steward land to benefit natural and human communities.
Maine & Company is a private, non-profit business development sales organization. Its purpose is to improve Maine's success in attracting new business and expanding and retaining existing business by providing a focused, statewide sales…
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Maine creates, finds and supports programs that directly improve the health and well being of children statewide; provides affordable home away from home lodging which increases access to medical care for…
The Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center serves as a hub of collaboration that strengthens the immigrant community through language acquisition, economic integration and civic engagement.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Make-a-Wish Foundation of Maine and the most unlike its peers is International Rescue Committee Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 29 years old; the field is 21. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 16% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 9% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
22 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 22 of the 26 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds Our Katahdin ↗
- Who funds ST ANDREW'S SCHOOL OF DELAWARE INC ↗
- Who funds Good Shepherd Food Bank ↗
- Who funds LifeFlight Foundation ↗
- Who funds International Rescue Committee INC ↗
- Who funds ST ANNE'S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds Millinocket Regional Hospital ↗
- Who funds MILLINOCKET MEMORIAL LIBRARY ↗
- Who funds PENOBSCOT BAY YMCA ↗
- Who funds Homeworthy ↗
- Who funds WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC ↗
- Who funds SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EQUESTRIAN SPORTS ↗
- Who funds Maine Public Broadcasting Corporation ↗
- Who funds MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF MAINE ↗
- Who funds Olympia Snowe Women's Leadership Institute ↗
- Who funds EQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE ↗
- Who funds OUTDOOR SPORT INSTITUTE INC ↗
- Who funds Northern Forest Center Inc ↗
- Who funds THE CAMDEN CHILDRENS HOUSE MONTESSORI SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds NURTURING MINDS INC ↗
- Who funds PAWS Animal Adoption Center ↗
- Who funds Finding Our Voices ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Maine Community Foundation Inc · Elmina B Sewall Foundation · Bangor Savings Bank Foundation · Reny Charitable Foundation · Trowbridge Foundation · Messler Family Foundation · Arthur K Watson Trust Xxxxx5001 · Northern Forest Center Inc · Fisher Charitable Foundation · The Ayco Charitable Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization Cara Charitable Foundation Inc funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
- St Anne's Episcopal School — 0% of income from government
- St Andrew's School of Delaware Inc — 0% of income from government
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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Cara Charitable Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to Cara Charitable Foundation Inc through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.
Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.