Skip to content
Libra Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Libra Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$4.3M
Granted FY2025still arriving
56
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$3.8M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0199% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Food & Nutrition$32MHealth$13MEducation$4.5MArts & Culture$2.3MRecreation & Sports$928kAnimals$646kEnvironment$361kHuman Services$335kOther$0
02FY2025 · 56 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k43 grants · $215k
  • $10k–50k11 grants · $150k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $50k
  • $250k+1 grant · $3.8M
$5,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$157M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
PINELAND FARMS INC$3,845,000
FORT KENT OUTDOOR CENTER$50,000
PORTLAND STAGE COMPANY$20,000
PORTLAND MUSEUM OF ART$20,000
PORTLAND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA$20,000
FARNSWORTH ART MUSEUM$20,000
MAINE MARITIME MUSEUM$10,000
SALVATION ARMY - NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND DIVISION$10,000
GOOD SHEPHERD FOOD BANK$10,000
PEREGRINE CORPORATION DBA STRIVE$10,000
MAINE PUBLIC$10,000
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY$10,000
ISLAND INSTITUTE$10,000
CENTER FOR MAINE CONTEMPORARY ART$5,000
CENTER FOR GRIEVING CHILDREN$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 (FY17–25, $201k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 40% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%STEP UP PARENTS: $5k → 5%BATH AREA FAMILY YMCA: $25k → 9%DOWNEAST COMMUNITY PARTNERS: $5k → 11%DOWNEAST COMMUNITY PARTNERS: $5k → 11%DOWNEAST COMMUNITY PARTNERS: $5k → 11%SWEETSER: $10k → 9%DOWNEAST COMMUNITY PARTNERS: $5k → 11%DOWNEAST COMMUNITY PARTNERS: $5k → 11%DOWNEAST COMMUNITY PARTNERS: $5k → 11%BANGOR YMCA: $10k → 15%DOWNEAST COMMUNITY PARTNERS: $5k → 11%DOWNEAST COMMUNITY PARTNERS: $5k → 11%AUTISM SOCIETY OF MAINE: $5k → 12%PENQUIS COMMUNITY ACTION PROGRAM INC: $5k → 15%AUTISM SOCIETY OF MAINE: $5k → 12%YMCA CAMP OF MAINE: $5k → 12%AUTISM SOCIETY OF MAINE: $5k → 12%AUTISM SOCIETY OF MAINE: $5k → 12%YMCA CAMP OF MAINE: $5k → 12%AUTISM SOCIETY OF MAINE: $5k → 12%AUTISM SOCIETY OF MAINE: $5k → 12%YMCA CAMP OF MAINE: $5k → 12%AUTISM SOCIETY OF MAINE: $5k → 12%EASTERN AREA AGENCY ON AGING: $5k → 15%MOBIUS INC: $10k → 9%AUTISM SOCIETY OF MAINE: $5k → 12%LINCOLN COUNTY CHILDREN'S SERVICES DBA COASTAL KIDS PRESCHOOL: $8k → 9%PENQUIS COMMUNITY ACTION PROGRAM INC: $5k → 15%SOUTHERN MAINE AGENCY ON AGING: $10k → 7%RIDING TO THE TOP: $8k → 7%GREATER PORTLAND IMMIGRANT WELCOME CENTER: $5k → 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.

98%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$58M · 91 repeat orgs$1.5M to everyone else

91 repeat relationships: 54 still active in FY2025, 37 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

91
96

Total granted

$58M
$1.5M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+40%
+44%

Still filing today

78%
71%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $10k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureHealthHuman ServicesEducationEnvironmentFood & NutritionOther
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

  • PF
    PINELAND FARMS INC
    9× · 2017–2025 · $36M · revenue +17% · 58% of their budget
  • M
    MaineHealth
    3× · 2017–2019 · $4.1M · revenue +239%
  • FA
    FOXCROFT ACADEMY TRUSTEES OF
    7× · 2018–2024 · $3.7M · revenue +17%

Funded once

  • SUNRISE COUNTY ECONOMIC COUNCILgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $243k · revenue +155%
  • TF
    The Foundation for Maine's Community Colleges
    one grant, 2017 · $100k · revenue -70%
  • NL
    NORTHERN LIGHT CA DEAN HOSPITAL
    one grant, 2021 · $100k
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
Protect Maine's Fishing Heritage Foundation
Environment
2
Maine Museum of Photographic Arts

The mission of the Maine Museum of Photographic Arts is to inspire, engage and educate through the exhibition, preservation and collection of photographic works. The Museums programs address contemporary, historical, cultural and…

Arts & Culture
3
Wetlands Foundation
Environment
4
Penobscot Bay Medical Center

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…

—
5
Midcoast Conservancy

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.

Environment
6
Maine & Company

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…

—
7
Maine GearShare

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

Recreation & Sports
8
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
9
Maine Film Center

To enrich, educate, and entertain the community through film and art.

—
10
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
11
Maine Medical Association

To support maine physicians, advance the quality of medicine in maine, and promote the health of all maine people.

—
12
MaineGeneral Health

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.

Health
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Children's Museum and Theatre of Maine; the most unlike its peers is Libra Future Fund Inc. 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

145 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. 145 of the 189 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.

4
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
54
Early backer (in before they grew)
141/145
Grantees still filing
116/145
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

PINELAND FARMS INC: $35,810,000 · Arts & CulturePINELAND FARMS INC+34 more: $1,935,450 · Arts & CultureMaineHealth Services: $7,809,088 · HealthMaineHealth ServicesMaineHealth: $4,100,000 · HealthMaineHealth+15 more: $674,060 · Health+15 moreFOXCROFT ACADEMY TRUSTEES OF: $3,692,983 · EducationPRESIDENT AND TRUSTEES OF BATES COLLEGE: $200,000 · Education+14 more: $340,290 · EducationIndividual grant recipient: $450,000 · OtherFORT KENT OUTDOOR CENTER: $376,666 · OtherNORDIC HERITAGE SKI CLUB: $250,000 · OtherMAINEHEALTH DBA PEN BAY WALDO HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION: $250,000 · OtherLIBRA FUTURE FUND INC: $208,035 · OtherGood Shepherd Food Bank: $144,000 · Other+93 more: $2,252,632 · OtherGULF OF MAINE RESEARCH INSTITUTE: $544,000 · AnimalsMAINE STATE SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF ANIMALS: $40,000 · AnimalsSUNRISE COUNTY ECONOMIC COUNCIL: $243,062 · Community ImprovementMaine Association of Nonprofits: $58,000 · Community ImprovementMOOSEHEAD LAKE REGION ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORP: $20,000 · Community ImprovementPENQUIS CAP INC: $40,000 · Human ServicesAUTISM SOCIETY OF MAINE d/b/a ASM: $40,000 · Human ServicesDOWNEAST COMMUNITY PARTNERS INC: $40,000 · Human ServicesFURNITURE FRIENDS: $35,000 · Human ServicesBATH AREA FAMILY YMCA: $25,000 · Human ServicesYOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION: $15,000 · Human ServicesPROSPERITYME: $10,000 · Human ServicesSweetser: $10,000 · Human ServicesBANGOR YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION: $10,000 · Human ServicesSouthern Maine Agency on Aging: $10,000 · Human ServicesPortland Parks Conservancy: $10,000 · Human ServicesMOBIUS INC: $10,000 · Human Services+5 more: $30,750 · Human Services
Arts & Culture$37,745,450Health$12,583,148Education$4,233,273Other$3,931,333Animals$584,000Community Improvement$321,062Human Services$285,750

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 budgetPINELAND FARMS INC: $35,810,000 over 9y, 58% of budgetMaineHealth Services: $7,809,088 over 8y, 4.2% of budgetMaineHealth: $4,100,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetFOXCROFT ACADEMY TRUSTEES OF: $3,692,983 over 7y, 20% of budgetGULF OF MAINE RESEARCH INSTITUTE: $544,000 over 9y, 2.2% of budgetTHE JACKSON LABORATORY: $300,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetNORDIC HERITAGE SKI CLUB: $250,000 over 5y, 89% of budgetSUNRISE COUNTY ECONOMIC COUNCIL: $243,062 over 1y, 7.3% of budgetLIBRA FUTURE FUND INC: $208,035 over 4y, 100% of budgetPRESIDENT AND TRUSTEES OF BATES COLLEGE: $200,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE WILLIAM A FARNSWORTH LIBRARY AND ART MUSEUM INC: $195,000 over 9y, 0.7% of budgetCHILDREN'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE OF MAINE: $192,000 over 9y, 3.7% of budgetPortland Museum of Art: $185,000 over 9y, 0.3% of budgetPORTLAND MAINE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: $180,000 over 9y, 0.5% of budgetPORTLAND STAGE COMPANY: $170,000 over 9y, 0.9% of budgetCOMMUNITY DENTAL: $166,373 over 7y, 1.7% of budgetGood Shepherd Food Bank: $144,000 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetMaine Maritime Museum: $100,200 over 9y, 0.5% of budgetUniversity of Southern Maine Foundation: $100,000 over 4y, 0.4% of budgetThe Foundation for Maine's Community Colleges: $100,000 over 1y, 3.0% of budgetTHE BARBARA BUSH FOUNDATION FOR FAMILY LITERACY INC: $100,000 over 2y, 1.4% of budgetBoys & Girls Clubs of Southern Maine: $90,000 over 8y, 2.0% of budgetMaine Public Broadcasting Corporation: $90,000 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetMAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $87,250 over 9y, 0.7% of budgetIsland Institute: $84,000 over 9y, 0.2% of budgetMid Coast Hospital: $75,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CROMWELL CENTER FOR DISABILITIES AWARENESS: $60,000 over 9y, 6.5% of budgetMaine Audubon Society: $60,000 over 8y, 0.9% of budgetMaine Association of Nonprofits: $58,000 over 9y, 1.2% of budgetMaine Farmland Trust: $52,000 over 9y, 0.3% of budgetPRESQUE ISLE COMMUNITY RECREATION ASSOCIATION INC: $50,000 over 1y, 80% of budgetMaine Coast Heritage Trust: $50,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetWOOD ISLAND LIFE SAVING STATION ASSOCIATION: $50,000 over 2y, 2.7% of budgetBANGOR SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: $44,000 over 9y, 0.6% of budgetOGUNQUIT PLAYHOUSE FOUNDATION: $42,500 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetMAINE STATE MUSIC THEATRE: $42,500 over 9y, 0.2% of budgetMUSEUM OF ART OGUNQUIT D/B/A OGUNQUIT MUSEUM OF ART: $42,500 over 9y, 0.7% of budgetHOME INC: $42,000 over 9y, 0.4% of budgetBAY CHAMBER CONCERTS INC: $42,000 over 9y, 0.4% of budgetMAINE STATE BALLET: $42,000 over 9y, 0.5% of budgetMAINE DISCOVERY MUSEUM: $42,000 over 9y, 1.0% of budgetPORTLAND OVATIONS: $42,000 over 9y, 0.5% of budgetPENOBSCOT MARINE MUSEUM: $42,000 over 9y, 0.6% of budgetPENOBSCOT THEATRE COMPANY: $41,000 over 9y, 0.4% of budgetPORTLAND CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC: $41,000 over 9y, 1.4% of budgetLEGAL SERVICES FOR MAINE ELDERS INC: $40,000 over 8y, 0.2% of budgetBigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences: $40,000 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetPENQUIS CAP INC: $40,000 over 8y, 0.0% 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 PINELAND FARMS INC ↗
  • Who funds MaineHealth Services ↗
  • Who funds MaineHealth ↗
  • Who funds FOXCROFT ACADEMY TRUSTEES OF ↗
  • Who funds GULF OF MAINE RESEARCH INSTITUTE ↗
  • Who funds THE JACKSON LABORATORY ↗
  • Who funds NORDIC HERITAGE SKI CLUB ↗
  • Who funds SUNRISE COUNTY ECONOMIC COUNCIL ↗
  • Who funds LIBRA FUTURE FUND INC ↗
  • Who funds PRESIDENT AND TRUSTEES OF BATES COLLEGE ↗
  • Who funds THE WILLIAM A FARNSWORTH LIBRARY AND ART MUSEUM INC ↗
  • Who funds CHILDREN'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE OF MAINE ↗
  • Who funds Portland Museum of Art ↗
  • Who funds PORTLAND MAINE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ↗
  • Who funds PORTLAND STAGE COMPANY ↗
  • Who funds COMMUNITY DENTAL ↗
  • Who funds Good Shepherd Food Bank ↗
  • Who funds Maine Maritime Museum ↗
  • Who funds University of Southern Maine Foundation ↗
  • Who funds The Foundation for Maine's Community Colleges ↗
  • Who funds THE BARBARA BUSH FOUNDATION FOR FAMILY LITERACY INC ↗
  • Who funds Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Maine ↗
  • Who funds Maine Public Broadcasting Corporation ↗
  • Who funds MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY ↗
  • Who funds Island Institute ↗
  • Who funds Mid Coast Hospital ↗
  • Who funds THE CROMWELL CENTER FOR DISABILITIES AWARENESS ↗
  • Who funds Maine Audubon Society ↗
  • Who funds Maine Association of Nonprofits ↗
  • Who funds Maine Farmland Trust ↗
  • Who funds PRESQUE ISLE COMMUNITY RECREATION ASSOCIATION INC ↗

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…Davis Family Foundati…Fisher Charitable Fou…Bangor Savings Bank F…Onion FoundationStephen & Tabitha Kin…Sam L Cohen FoundationJohn T Gorman Foundat…Elmina B Sewall Found…Simmons Foundation - …Morton-Kelly Charitab…Saco & Biddeford Savi…
Maine Community Foundation IncME138.3× affinity103 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Maine Community Foundation Inc · Davis Family Foundation · Fisher Charitable Foundation · Bangor Savings Bank Foundation · Onion Foundation · Stephen & Tabitha King Foundation Inc · Sam L Cohen Foundation · John T Gorman Foundation · Elmina B Sewall Foundation · Simmons Foundation - PerkinsThompson · Morton-Kelly Charitable Trust · Saco & Biddeford Savings Charitable Foundation

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 Libra Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Libra Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%6%25%56%100%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
    44report 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.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Libra Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Libra Foundation 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 from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 189 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 Libra’s 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