· Public charity
Friends of Acadia
Friends of Acadia preserves, protects, and promotes stewardship of the outstanding natural beauty, ecological vitality, and distinctive cultural resources of Acadia National Park and surrounding communities for the inspiration and enjoyment of current and future generations.
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 · $52k
- $10k–50k4 grants · $75k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $311k
- $250k+3 grants · $9.7M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Acadia National Park | $9,056,616 |
| Schoodic Institute at Acadia | $364,721 |
| Downeast Transportation | $297,000 |
| Maine Department of Transportation | $225,000 |
| Appalachian Mountain Club | $86,301 |
| American Conservation Experience | $27,699 |
| Student Conservation Association | $19,075 |
| University of Maine | $15,058 |
| College of the Atlantic | $13,000 |
| Easton School Department | $7,500 |
| Holden Elementary School | $7,500 |
| Ellsworth School Department | $7,500 |
| Day Mountain Regional Middle School | $7,500 |
| Teens Take on Climate Inc | $7,500 |
| Sheepscot Valley RSU 12 | $7,500 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 1% of your 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.
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +25% since the first grant, against -99% for the ones you funded once.
9 repeat relationships — 9 still active in FY2024, 0 since wound down; 7 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, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $131k 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
- DTDOWNEAST TRANSPORTATION INC7× · 2017–2024 · $1.6M · revenue +37%
- TSTHE STUDENT CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION INC3× · 2022–2024 · $42k · revenue +25%
COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC2× · 2023–2024 · $41k · revenue +14%
Funded once
- SRSUMMER RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION TOWN OF MOUNT DESERT INCone grant, 2020 · $108k · revenue -99%
- OMOrono Middle Schoolone grant, 2023 · $10k
- BLBlackpeoplewhohike LLCone grant, 2022 · $7k
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.
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.
Adk is the only non-profit organization in new york state dedicated to the conservation, preservation, and responsible recreational use of the new york state forest preserve and other parks, wild lands, and waters vital to our members and…
The mission of the atlantic coast conservancy is to provide 21st century solutions and sound scientific applications for conservation of critical natural resources in the face of a changing climate, focusing on the southeasthern united…
The mission of the mount desert land & garden preserve is to conserve and share the beauty of our historic lands and gardens.
The organization represents 14 conservation districts. it is committed to build on partnerships with the state and federal government to protect and conserve the commonwealth's natural resources.
To preserve and protect land surrounding the appalachian trail in maine for public benefit.
The adirondack council ensures the ecological integrity (clean water and air, wildlife habitat, etc.), wild character (solitude, scenic beauty, etc.), and vibrant communities of new york's six-million-acre adirondack park. the adirondack…
The nantucket conservation foundation owns, protects, and stewards over 9,000 acres of land and coastal shoreline, conserves nantucket's rare and significant natural resources, and engages in impactful ecological research to inform…
Amazon conservation unites science, people, and innovation to protect the amazon - the greatest wild forest on earth. as guardians of the most iconic forest on the planet, we bring together the power of the latest science and technology…
Conserving land, water and wildlife habitat for the communities of northwest hancock county. protecting our legacy of: abundant wildlife habitat and biodiversity clean water rural character and scenic beauty working forests and farms…
The mission of wildcoast is to conserve coastal and marine ecosystems and address climate change through natural solutions. our staff is dedicated to conserving threatened and endangered coastlines and wildlife in california and mexico.…
To enable understanding and forecasting of the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and invasive species on continental-scale ecology by providing support for infrastructure and consistent methodologies to support research and…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Student Conservation Association Inc and the most unlike its peers is College of the Atlantic. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
9 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. 9 of the 19 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 DOWNEAST TRANSPORTATION INC ↗
- Who funds SCHOODIC INSTITUTE AT ACADIA NATIONAL PARK ↗
- Who funds SUMMER RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION TOWN OF MOUNT DESERT INC ↗
- Who funds Appalachian Mountain Club ↗
- Who funds THE STUDENT CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC ↗
- Who funds American Conservation Experience ↗
- Who funds MAINE NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATORY ↗
- Who funds TEENS TAKE ON CLIMATE INC ↗
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: The Nature Conservancy · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund
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 Friends of Acadia 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.
- Appalachian Mountain Club — 1% 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.