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Maine Farmland Trust

Maine Farmland Trust protects farmland, supports farmers, and advances the future of farming.

$1.1M
Granted FY2025still arriving
15
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$414k
Largest
01What you fund
0196% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172025.

Food & Nutrition$2.5MEnvironment$270kScience & Tech$65kOther$0
02FY2025 · 15 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 15 grants below total $938,630 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $1,091,762 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $153,132 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 · FY2025

  • Under $10k2 grants · $11k
  • $10k–50k7 grants · $93k
  • $50k–250k5 grants · $421k
  • $250k+1 grant · $414k
$15,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$28M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Niweskok$413,702
Dostie Farm$138,634
Individual grant recipient$107,457
Brigreen Farms$65,000
Individual grant recipient$55,000
Second Frost Farm$55,000
Misty Brook Farm$18,090
Individual grant recipient$15,000
Individual grant recipient$15,000
Lost & Found Farm$15,000
New Learning Journey Inc$10,000
Little Ridge Farm$10,000
Six River Farm$10,000
Buckle Farm$5,661
4 Labs Farm$5,086
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:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 82% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%GOOD SHEPHARD FOOD BANK: $13k → 7%STONERIDGE FARMS INC: $15k → 9%DANDELION SPRING FARM: $50k → 9%THE MILKHOUSE LLC: $50k → 12%SAP HOUND MAPLE COMPANY: $65k → 13%NEW ROOTS COOPERATIVE FARM: $50k → 13%UNIVERSITY OF MAINE FOUNDATION: $25k → 15%CIRCLE B FARMS: $49k → 15%Dostie Farm: $139k → 15%TIDE MILL CREAMERY: $42k → 16%TWO FARMERS FARM: $50k → 9%PUMPKIN VINE FAMILY FARM: $50k → 9%APPLE CREEK FARM LLC: $50k → 9%THE MILKHOUSE LLC: $11k → 12%WESTERN FOOTHILLS LAND TRUST: $11k → 13%Brigreen Farms: $65k → 13%SOUTHPAW FARM: $50k → 13%DOSTIE FARM: $15k → 15%BROADTURN FARM INC: $38k → 7%MOON UNIT LLC (COPPER TRAIL FARM): $46k → 9%PHAT BITCHIN FARMERS: $50k → 9%HERBAL REVOLUTION: $40k → 11%FARMER KEV'S ORGANICS: $50k → 12%Second Frost Farm: $55k → 13%EMERY FARM: $43k → 9%CRESCENT RUN FARM: $38k → 9%IRONWOOD FARM: $50k → 12%Old Crow Ranch: $55k → 13%MAINE HARVEST CREDIT UNION: $313k → 13%BALFOUR FARM: $65k → 15%BUMBLEFOOD ORGANIC FARM: $50k → 7%MORNING DEW FARM LLC: $50k → 9%Brodis Blueberries: $15k → 11%Misty Brook Farm: $18k → 12%Keith Hunter: $107k → 13%Lost & Found Farm: $15k → 7%SHEEPSCOT VALLEY FARM INC: $50k → 9%DHARMA FARM: $47k → 11%MISTY BROOK FARM: $15k → 12%BUCKLE FARM: $87k → 13%Fields Fields Blueberries: $15k → 9%DHARMA FARM: $18k → 11%MAINE ORGANIC FARMERS & GARDENERS A: $72k → 13%BUCKLE FARM: $50k → 13%BAHNER FARM: $50k → 13%Niweskok: $414k → 13%HALL BROOK FARM: $29k → 13%HALL BROOK FARM: $21k → 13%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.

28%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$808k · 14 repeat orgs$2.1M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +90% since the first grant, against +28% for the ones you funded once.

14 repeat relationships — 3 still active in FY2025, 11 since wound down; 12 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

14
29

Total granted

$808k
$1.4M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+90%
+28%

Still filing today

29%
24%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 17% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $776k 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
EnvironmentFood & NutritionHealthCommunity ImprovementOther

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

  • HI
    HEALTHY ISLAND PROJECT INC
    2× · 2020–2022 · $16k · revenue +90%
  • GW
    GREAT WORKS REGIONAL LAND TRUST
    2× · 2018–2020 · $14k · revenue ×12
  • CM
    Coastal Mountains Land Trust
    2× · 2017–2019 · $11k · revenue +44%

Funded once

  • MH
    MAINE HARVEST CREDIT UNION
    one grant, 2019 · $313k
  • MO
    MAINE ORGANIC FARMERS AND GARDENERS ASSOCIATIONgraduated
    2× · 2017–2020 · $72k · revenue +71%
  • SH
    SAP HOUND MAPLE COMPANY
    one grant, 2023 · $65k

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
Wetlands Foundation
Environment
2
Presumpscot Regional Land Trust

We engage with communities to conserve, steward, and provide access to local lands and clean water for current and future generations to enjoy.

3
Protect Maine's Fishing Heritage Foundation
Environment
4
Maine Farmland Trust

Maine Farmland Trust protects farmland, supports farmers, and advances the future of farming.

Food & Nutrition
5
Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust Inc

Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust conserves and stewards vital natural areas, supports a vibrant local food system, and connects people with the natural world through inclusive education and recreation programs. Our goal is to protect our…

Environment
6
Massachusetts Outdoor Heritage Foundation Inc Attn Susan Sacco
7
Kestrel Land Trust

Kestrel land trust conserves and cares for forests, farms, and riverways in the connecticut river valley of western massachusetts while nurturing an enduring love of the land

Environment
8
Land Peace Foundation

The Land Peace Foundation is an Indigenous led educational organization that is dedicated to preserving the Indigenous way of life and cultivating strong Indigenous leadership. We are also deeply committed to stewarding responsible climate…

Arts & Culture
9
Sebasticook Regional Land Trust

The mission of the SRLT is to recognize and conserve the rich wild and workinglandscape of Central Maine's Sebasticook River watershed through conservation,stewardship and education. Our focal programs are land conservation for…

Environment
10
Kennebec Estuary Land Trust

The mission of the Kennebec Estuary Land Trust is to conserve, restore, and instill appreciation of the land and water resources of the Kennebec Estuary for the benefit of today's communities and future generations.

Environment
11
Maine Audubon Society

Maine Audubon works to conserve Maine's wildlife and habitat by engaging people of all ages in education, conservation, and action. We are helping the people of Maine become the nation's most informed and effective stewards of wildlife and…

Environment
12
Piscataquog Land Conservancy

The Piscataquog Land Conservancy is a nonprofit land conservation organization founded in 1970. Its purpose is to conserve the natural and scenic environment of the Piscataquog, Souhegan and Nashua River watershed communities of southern…

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Midcoast Conservancy and the most unlike its peers is The William a Farnsworth Library and Art Museum 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

18 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 18 of the 56 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)
7
Early backer (in before they grew)
18/18
Grantees still filing
14/18
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

MAINE HARVEST CREDIT UNION — $312,500 · OtherMAINE HARVEST CREDIT UNIONDostie Farm — $160,464 · OtherDostie FarmBUCKLE FARM — $151,077 · OtherBUCKLE FARMIndividual grant recipient — $107,457 · Other+39 more — $1,609,755 · Other+39 moreNiweskok — $413,702 · Food & NutritionNiweskokMAINE ORGANIC FARMERS AND GARDENERS ASSOCIATION — $71,634 · Food & NutritionMAINE ORGANIC FARME…+1 more — $13,000 · Food & NutritionTHREE RIVERS LAND TRUST — $14,835 · EnvironmentGREAT WORKS REGIONAL LAND TRUST — $13,912 · EnvironmentCoastal Mountains Land Trust — $11,258 · EnvironmentNEW LEARNING JOURNEY INC — $10,000 · EnvironmentMidcoast Conservancy — $5,735 · EnvironmentROYAL RIVER CONSERVATION TRUST — $5,087 · EnvironmentHEALTHY ISLAND PROJECT INC — $15,570 · HealthHEALTHY ACADIA — $10,000 · HealthUniversity of Maine Foundation — $25,000 · EducationLAND IN COMMON INC — $10,000 · Community Improvement
Other$2,341,253Food & Nutrition$498,336Environment$60,827Health$25,570Education$25,000Community Improvement$10,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetMAINE ORGANIC FARMERS AND GARDENERS ASSOCIATION — $71,634 over 2y, 1.6% of budgetUniversity of Maine Foundation — $25,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetHEALTHY ISLAND PROJECT INC — $15,570 over 2y, 4.8% of budgetTHREE RIVERS LAND TRUST — $14,835 over 2y, 2.1% of budgetGREAT WORKS REGIONAL LAND TRUST — $13,912 over 2y, 3.3% of budgetGood Shepherd Food Bank — $13,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCoastal Mountains Land Trust — $11,258 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetWESTERN FOOTHILLS LAND TRUST — $11,227 over 1y, 3.3% of budgetLAND IN COMMON INC — $10,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetHEALTHY ACADIA — $10,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetROYAL RIVER CONSERVATION TRUST — $5,087 over 1y, 1.2% 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.

  • Who funds Niweskok
  • Who funds MAINE ORGANIC FARMERS AND GARDENERS ASSOCIATION
  • Who funds University of Maine Foundation
  • Who funds HEALTHY ISLAND PROJECT 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.

Maine Community Foundation IncME26.8× affinity11 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Maine Community Foundation Inc · Onion Foundation · Quimby Family Foundation · Davis Conservation Foundation · Elmina B Sewall Foundation · The Nature Conservancy · Momentum Conservation · Maine Coast Heritage Trust · Morton-Kelly Charitable Trust · William P Wharton Trust UW Art 2(D) · Edward C Johnson Fund · John Sage 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 Maine Farmland Trust 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
202122232425
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    4report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%
    typical government reliance, FY2025

    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.

    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 56 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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