Skip to content
Plinth
Foundation Dossiers
Plinth

· Public charity

Edward H Daveis Benevolent Fund

Support the Maine Community Foundation (MCF) and its charitable and educational purposes.

$101k
Granted FY2024still arriving
10
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$10k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.

Youth Development$242kArts & Culture$114kEducation$77kHuman Services$35kRecreation & Sports$25kPhilanthropy$23kEnvironment$16kHousing & Shelter$16kOther$0
02FY2024 · 10 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 10 grants below total $89,487 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $101,487 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $12,000 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k4 grants · $29k
  • $10k–50k6 grants · $60k
$10,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$2.5M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
The Center for Grieving Children$10,000
Mayo Street Arts$10,000
317 Main Street Community Music Center Inc$10,000
Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Maine$10,000
Portland Housing Services Corporation$10,000
Telling Room$10,000
Maine Audubon Society$9,987
LearningWorks$7,000
Foundation for Portland Public Schools$6,500
Yellow Tulip Project$6,000
02The need
03

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.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY17–24, $94k) land where the poverty rate runs at 7%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 7%LearningWorks: $7k → 7%Mayo Street Arts: $10k → 7%Olympia Snowe Womens Leadership Institute: $9k → 7%Olympia Snowe Women's Leadership Institute: $9k → 7%Olympia Snowe Womens Leadership Institute: $9k → 7%Mayo Street Arts: $8k → 7%Mayo Street Arts: $8k → 7%Olympia Snowe Womens Leadership Institute: $6k → 7%Olympia Snowe Women's Leadership Institute: $6k → 7%LearningWorks: $6k → 7%Mayo Street Arts: $6k → 7%Catherine Morrill Day Nursery: $5k → 7%The Opportunity Alliance: $8k → 7%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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.

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.

03Your edge
repeat funding

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.

76%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$457k · 22 repeat orgs$147k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +44% since the first grant, against +17% for the ones you funded once.

22 repeat relationships — 9 still active in FY2024, 13 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

22
19

Total granted

$457k
$141k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+44%
+17%

Still filing today

100%
95%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 93% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $6k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
Human ServicesYouth DevelopmentArts & CulturePhilanthropyEducationHealthOther

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

  • BG
    Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Maine
    4× · 2018–2024 · $38k · revenue +292%
  • OS
    Olympia Snowe Women's Leadership Institute
    5× · 2017–2023 · $38k · revenue +23%
  • TT
    The Telling Room
    5× · 2018–2024 · $35k · revenue +8%

Funded once

  • PP
    Portland Public Schools
    one grant, 2017 · $13k
  • CC
    Catholic Charities Maine
    one grant, 2023 · $10k · revenue -20%
  • LO
    League of Women Voters of Maine Education Fund Inc
    one grant, 2022 · $10k · revenue -47%

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

04Your field

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.

1
Maine Media College

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…

—
2
Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center

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.

Human Services
3
Maine Arts Academy

The Academy is dedicated to academic excellence, commitment to the performing arts, leadership, integrity, and a virtuous code of conduct, all of which prepare students to meet the demands of a contemporary world through thoughtful…

Education
4
Maine GearShare

To provide access to outdoor gear and know-how through a collaborative, equity-centered approach.

Recreation & Sports
5
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
6
Maine Climate Action Now

MCAN catalyzes transformative education and action in response to the climate crisis. We seek to honor, unite and amplify the voices of youth, frontline communities, and others historically excluded from the climate conversation and…

Environment
7
Maine Jewish Film Festival

The Maine Jewish Film Festival celebrates filmmakinginspiring conversation through the lens of global Jewish experience. Innovative programming invites a diverse statewide audience into the dialogue. Many of our programs include guest…

Arts & Culture
8
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Maine Inc

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…

Health
9
Maine Donor Alliance Fund

To build a permanent and powerful progressive movement in Maine. We will promote a healthy, just, equitable democracy through research, engagement, and education of Maine's citizens. We will engage in democracy expansion, voter engagement,…

Education
10
Maine Philanthropy Center

The Maine Philanthropy Center (MPC) is the state's leading resource that provides opportunity, leadership and support to advance the effectiveness of philanthropy in Maine and its ability to make a meaningful difference. It helps grant…

Education
11
Autism Society of Maine d/b/a Asm

The Autism Society of Maine provides education and resources to support the valued lives of individuals on the autism spectrum and their families.

Human Services
12
The Camden Childrens House Montessori School

Founded in 1979, the Childrens House Montessori School cultivates curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking in young learners, while nurturing a sense of care for each other, the environment, and the world.

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Center for Grieving Children and the most unlike its peers is Maine Audubon Society. 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 34 years old; the field is 18. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number18%6%<5yr14%9%5–10yr20%18%10–20yr19%21%20–35yr14%18%35–55yr14%29%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value18%3%<5yr14%4%5–10yr20%24%10–20yr19%23%20–35yr14%16%35–55yr14%31%55yr+

The field is 18% startups (under 5 years old) — 6% of your grantees by number, and just 3% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 10% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/42
the rest of the field
10%
231/2,236

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.

04the grantee network

41 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. 41 of the 42 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
17
Early backer (in before they grew)
41/41
Grantees still filing
30/41
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Maine — $37,500 · Youth DevelopmentBoys & Girls Clubs of Southe…The Telling Room — $35,000 · Youth DevelopmentThe Telling RoomTHE CENTER FOR GRIEVING CHILDREN — $34,000 · Youth DevelopmentTHE CENTER FOR GRIEVING CHIL…Peaks Island Children's Workshop — $16,700 · Youth DevelopmentPeaks Island Children's Work…My Place Teen Center Inc — $15,000 · Youth DevelopmentMy Place Teen Center IncMAINE BOYS TO MEN — $7,500 · Youth DevelopmentOUR PLACE PORTLAND INC — $7,000 · Youth DevelopmentOlympia Snowe Women's Leadership Institute — $37,500 · Human ServicesOlympia Snowe Women's …MAYO STREET ARTS — $31,000 · Human ServicesMAYO STREET ARTSLEARNINGWORKS — $13,000 · Human ServicesLEARNINGWORKSCatholic Charities Maine — $10,000 · Human ServicesCatholic Charities Mai…Good Will Home Association — $10,000 · Human ServicesGood Will Home Associa…The Opportunity Alliance — $7,500 · Human ServicesThe Opportunity Allian…Portland Parks Conservancy — $5,000 · Human ServicesCatherine Morrill Day Nursery — $5,000 · Human ServicesUnited Way Inc — $36,000 · PhilanthropyUnited Way …Foundation for Portland Public Schools — $16,500 · PhilanthropyFoundation …Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation — $10,000 · PhilanthropyWolfe's Nec…317 Main St Community Center Inc — $20,000 · Arts & Culture317 Main St…A Company of Girls — $10,000 · Arts & CultureA Company o…PALAVER STRINGS INC — $7,500 · Arts & CulturePALAVER STR…PORTLAND MAINE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA — $7,500 · Arts & CulturePORTLAND MA…PORTLAND STAGE COMPANY — $7,500 · Arts & CulturePORTLAND ST…MAINE HUMANITIES COUNCIL — $5,000 · Arts & CultureMAINE HUMAN…CHILDREN'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE OF MAINE — $5,000 · Arts & CultureCHILDREN'S …Young Mens Christian Association of Southern Maine — $17,500 · OtherYoung Mens Christian Associa…Portland Public Schools — $12,500 · OtherPortland Public SchoolsLeague of Women Voters of Maine Education Fund Inc — $10,000 · OtherLeague of Women Voters of Ma…YOUTH AND FAMILY OUTREACH — $20,000 · OtherYOUTH AND FAMILY OUTREACHPortland Community Squash — $20,000 · OtherPortland Community SquashMaine Audubon Society — $16,487 · OtherMaine Audubon SocietyPORTLAND HOUSING SERVICE CORPORATION — $16,000 · OtherPORTLAND HOUSING SERVICE COR…Locker Project — $15,000 · OtherLocker ProjectYOUTH-LED JUSTICE — $7,500 · OtherIn Her Presence — $7,500 · OtherGULF OF MAINE RESEARCH INSTITUTE — $6,500 · Other+1 more — $5,000 · OtherWOODFORDS FAMILY SERVICES — $12,500 · EducationEDUCARE CENTRAL MAINE — $10,000 · EducationPortland Public Library — $7,500 · EducationRIPPLEFFECT INC — $17,500 · HealthThe Yellow Tulip Project — $6,000 · Health
Youth Development$152,700Human Services$119,000Philanthropy$62,500Arts & Culture$62,500Other$153,987Education$30,000Health$23,500

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetBoys & Girls Clubs of Southern Maine — $37,500 over 4y, 0.4% of budgetOlympia Snowe Women's Leadership Institute — $37,500 over 5y, 0.6% of budgetUnited Way Inc — $36,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetThe Telling Room — $35,000 over 5y, 1.3% of budgetTHE CENTER FOR GRIEVING CHILDREN — $34,000 over 5y, 0.8% of budgetMAYO STREET ARTS — $31,000 over 4y, 2.2% of budgetYOUTH AND FAMILY OUTREACH — $20,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budget317 Main St Community Center Inc — $20,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetPortland Community Squash — $20,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetRIPPLEFFECT INC — $17,500 over 2y, 1.2% of budgetPeaks Island Children's Workshop — $16,700 over 2y, 3.5% of budgetFoundation for Portland Public Schools — $16,500 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetMaine Audubon Society — $16,487 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetPORTLAND HOUSING SERVICE CORPORATION — $16,000 over 2y, 18% of budgetLocker Project — $15,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetMy Place Teen Center Inc — $15,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetLEARNINGWORKS — $13,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetWOODFORDS FAMILY SERVICES — $12,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetA Company of Girls — $10,000 over 2y, 3.3% of budgetWolfe's Neck Farm Foundation — $10,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetCatholic Charities Maine — $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetEDUCARE CENTRAL MAINE — $10,000 over 2y, 3.6% of budgetLeague of Women Voters of Maine Education Fund Inc — $10,000 over 1y, 3.6% of budgetGood Will Home Association — $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetMAINE BOYS TO MEN — $7,500 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetPALAVER STRINGS INC — $7,500 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetPORTLAND MAINE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA — $7,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetPortland Public Library — $7,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetThe Opportunity Alliance — $7,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPORTLAND STAGE COMPANY — $7,500 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetIn Her Presence — $7,500 over 1y, 2.6% of budgetOUR PLACE PORTLAND INC — $7,000 over 1y, 9.4% of budgetThe Yellow Tulip Project — $6,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetMAINE HUMANITIES COUNCIL — $5,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetHolocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine — $5,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetCHILDREN'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE OF MAINE — $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetCatherine Morrill Day Nursery — $5,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budget
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.

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.

Maine Community Found…Sam L Cohen FoundationDavis Family Foundati…Vincent B and Barbara…United Way IncHorizon Foundation IncSaco & Biddeford Savi…Onion FoundationAlbert B Glickman Fam…Virginia Hodgkins Som…Fisher Charitable Fou…Elmina B Sewall Found…
Maine Community Foundation IncME76× affinity40 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 · Davis Family Foundation · Vincent B and Barbara G Welch Supporting Organization · United Way Inc · Horizon Foundation Inc · Saco & Biddeford Savings Charitable Foundation · Onion Foundation · Albert B Glickman Family Foundation · Virginia Hodgkins Somers Foundation Inc · Fisher Charitable Foundation · Elmina B Sewall Foundation

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 Edward H Daveis Benevolent Fund 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.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%5%11%20%your 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
    8report 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

    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.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Edward H Daveis Benevolent Fund?

    Find your warmest path to Edward H Daveis Benevolent Fund 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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 42 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    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 camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home
    State money flows
    the interactive map of money crossing state lines