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· Public charity

Maine Humanities Council

The MAINE HUMANITIES COUNCIL (the council) is a not-for profit corporation that is funded primarily by grants from the national endowment for the humanities (neh) and contributions from the public.

$131k
Granted FY2023
13
Grants FY2023
1
States reached
$10k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
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 FY2017–2023.

Arts & Culture$513kEducation$323kHuman Services$34kYouth Development$28kHealth$26kFood & Nutrition$22kHousing & Shelter$20kCivil Rights$16kOther$0
02FY2023 · 13 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 13 grants below total $96,215 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $131,213 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $34,998 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 · FY2023

  • Under $10k12 grants · $86k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
$7,500
Median grant
1
States reached
$4.5M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
CUMBERLAND COUNTY FOOD SECURITY COUNCIL$10,000
COBSCOOK INSTITUTE$7,500
PENOBSCOT THEATRE COMPANY$7,500
CLASSICAL UPRISING$7,500
UNION OF MAINE VISUAL ARTISTS$7,500
THE TELLING ROOM$7,500
INDIGO ARTS ALLIANCE$7,500
HEALTHY ACADIA$7,490
ISLAND READERS & WRITERS$7,412
WILD BLUEBERRY HERITAGE CENTER$7,250
MAINE ADULT EDUCATION ASSOCIATION$6,850
MAYO STREET ARTS$6,713
COLBY COLLEGE$5,500
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 (FY21–23, $20k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 29% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%TOGETHER PLACE PEER RUN RECOVERY CENTER: $6k → 15%GATEWAY COMMUNITY SERVICES MAINE: $8k → 7%MAYO STREET ARTS: $7k → 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.

37%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$371k · 27 repeat orgs$638k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +66% since the first grant, against +27% for the ones you funded once.

27 repeat relationships — 6 still active in FY2023, 21 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

27
85

Total granted

$371k
$584k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+66%
+27%

Still filing today

74%
62%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 44% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $54k went to new ones.

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

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23
Arts & CultureEducationHuman ServicesYouth DevelopmentHealthCommunity 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

  • IA
    Indigo Arts Alliance
    3× · 2021–2024 · $21k · revenue +245%
  • MA
    MAINE ADULT EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
    3× · 2020–2023 · $20k · revenue +29%
  • AM
    Abbe Museum
    4× · 2018–2024 · $18k · revenue +46%

Funded once

  • MW
    MAINE WRITERS AND PUBLISHERS ALLIANgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $15k · revenue +51%
  • SP
    SPEAKING PLACEgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $14k · revenue +185%
  • PT
    PASSAMAQUODDY TRIBE AT SIPAYIK
    one grant, 2022 · $8k

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 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
2
Monhegan Memorial Library

To maintain a library proving lending services to all residents of Monhegan Island, ME.

Education
3
Bowdoinham Public Library

To provide and maintain a public library which provides free services and programming to the residents of Bowdoinham (pop. c. 3000), lends books and other media, offers educational and reading programs for children, youth and people of all…

Education
4
Bangor Historical Society

Bangor Historical Society's Mission is to share the region's rich history with the community and its visitors through research, education and programs.

—
5
Buck Memorial Library

Library Services

—
6
Lincolnville Historical Society

To preserve collect and digitize the archive of the town of Lincolnville Maine's history ecology flora and fauna

Unclassified
7
Bangor Public Library Association

To provide free library services to the residents of the bangor area.

—
8
Peabody Memorial Library

Our mission is to provide services cultural activities technology education and to act as a social resource to improve the quality of life in our area

—
9
Mcarthur Library Association

Mission is to connect the Biddeford community with materials, programs, services, and other informational and cultural resources enabling fuller, better, and richer lives.

Education
10
Western Maine Play Museum

Our mission is to inspire children, connect families, and build community through exploration, learning, and play.

Arts & Culture
11
Chebeague Island Library

Operation of a community library on chebeague island, maine.

Education
12
Maine Maritime Museum

To connect people to the past, present, and future of Maine's waterways and their global reach.

Arts & Culture

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Children's Museum and Theatre of Maine and the most unlike its peers is First Amendment Museum At the Gannett House. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyCancer Support FoundationsCommunity Integration & Adv…Affordable Senior HousingCommunity Food PantriesFraternal Service Organizat…Maine Philanthropic & Envir…Regional Business ChambersCommunity Arts VenuesLocal History MuseumsRegional Healthcare Systems
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.

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 FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number16%6%<5yr12%12%5–10yr19%14%10–20yr18%36%20–35yr16%25%35–55yr18%7%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value16%5%<5yr12%12%5–10yr19%17%10–20yr18%35%20–35yr16%25%35–55yr18%6%55yr+

The field is 16% startups (under 5 years old) — 6% of your grantees by number, and just 5% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 2% lost their exemption, against 9% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
2%2/124
the rest of the field
9%
677/7,286

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

88 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. 88 of the 119 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)
30
Early backer (in before they grew)
86/88
Grantees still filing
64/88
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

+59 more — $473,741 · Other+59 moreIndigo Arts Alliance — $21,000 · Arts & CultureIndigo Arts AllianceAbbe Museum — $17,727 · Arts & CultureAbbe MuseumPENOBSCOT THEATRE COMPANY — $14,000 · Arts & CultureMAINE-WABANAKI REACH — $13,314 · Arts & CultureBRICK STORE MUSEUM INC — $12,800 · Arts & CultureWABANAKI CULTURAL PRESERVATION COALITION — $12,727 · Arts & CultureCenter Theatre Inc — $12,727 · Arts & CultureMAINE MUSEUM OF INNOVATION LEARNING AND LABOR — $12,727 · Arts & CultureTHE CENTER FOR INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTARY INC — $11,000 · Arts & Culture+22 more — $149,157 · Arts & Culture+22 moreISLAND READERS & WRITERS AN INITIATIVE FOR MAINE CHILDREN — $14,912 · EducationISLAND READERS & WR…PRESIDENT AND TRUSTEES OF BATES COLLEGE — $13,500 · EducationPRESIDENT AND TRUST…The President and Trustees of Colby College — $13,000 · EducationThe President and T…STONINGTON PUBLIC LIBRARY — $12,727 · EducationSTONINGTON PUBLIC L…Wilton Free Public Library — $12,727 · EducationWilton Free Public …DORCAS LIBRARY ASSOC — $12,727 · EducationDORCAS LIBRARY ASSO…WHITEFIELD LIBRARY — $7,500 · EducationPORTER MEMORIAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION — $7,500 · EducationFRIENDS OF SOLDIERS MEMORIAL LIBRARY — $7,500 · EducationCOMMUNITY LIBRARY — $7,500 · EducationLITERACY VOLUNTEERS OF FRANKLIN AND SOMERSET COUNTIES — $7,500 · EducationLONG LAKE PUBLIC LIBRARY — $7,500 · EducationBRIDGTON PUBLIC LIBRARY — $7,500 · EducationEASTPORT PUBLIC LIBRARY — $7,461 · EducationLITERACY VOLUNTEERS OF KENNEBEC — $7,200 · EducationHenry D Moore Parish House and Library — $7,000 · EducationNAPLES PUBLIC LIBRARY — $6,000 · Education+2 more — $10,227 · Education+2 moreThe Telling Room — $15,000 · Youth DevelopmentHARDY GIRLS HEALTHY WOMEN INC — $7,500 · Youth DevelopmentBOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF BORDER TOWNS — $5,814 · Youth DevelopmentGateway Community Services Maine — $7,500 · Human ServicesMAYO STREET ARTS — $6,713 · Human ServicesMAINE MENTAL HEALTH CONNECTIONS INC — $5,800 · Human ServicesMaine Access Points — $7,500 · HealthHEALTHY ACADIA — $7,490 · HealthWABANAKI HEALTH & WELLNESS NPC — $5,000 · HealthMAINE ADULT EDUCATION ASSOCIATION — $19,577 · Housing & Shelter
Other$473,741Arts & Culture$277,179Education$169,981Youth Development$28,314Human Services$20,013Health$19,990Housing & Shelter$19,577

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$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetIndigo Arts Alliance — $21,000 over 3y, 2.0% of budgetMAINE ADULT EDUCATION ASSOCIATION — $19,577 over 3y, 7.4% of budgetAbbe Museum — $17,727 over 4y, 0.9% of budgetMAINE WRITERS AND PUBLISHERS ALLIAN — $15,000 over 1y, 4.0% of budgetThe Telling Room — $15,000 over 3y, 0.8% of budgetISLAND READERS & WRITERS AN INITIATIVE FOR MAINE CHILDREN — $14,912 over 3y, 2.0% of budgetPENOBSCOT THEATRE COMPANY — $14,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetPRESIDENT AND TRUSTEES OF BATES COLLEGE — $13,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetMAINE-WABANAKI REACH — $13,314 over 3y, 1.9% of budgetThe President and Trustees of Colby College — $13,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBRICK STORE MUSEUM INC — $12,800 over 2y, 2.0% of budgetLADDER TO THE MOON NETWORK — $12,755 over 2y, 3.8% of budgetSTONINGTON PUBLIC LIBRARY — $12,727 over 2y, 8.2% of budgetWilton Free Public Library — $12,727 over 2y, 3.5% of budgetWABANAKI CULTURAL PRESERVATION COALITION — $12,727 over 2y, 2.1% of budgetTURNER PUBLIC LIBRARY PORTLAND TRUST COMPANY MANAGER — $12,727 over 2y, 13% of budgetCenter Theatre Inc — $12,727 over 2y, 1.8% of budgetMAINE MUSEUM OF INNOVATION LEARNING AND LABOR — $12,727 over 3y, 2.2% of budgetMOUNT DESERT ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY — $11,900 over 2y, 4.6% of budgetTHE CENTER FOR INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTARY INC — $11,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetCumberland County Food Security Council — $10,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetHARDY GIRLS HEALTHY WOMEN INC — $7,500 over 1y, 4.2% of budgetWHITEFIELD LIBRARY — $7,500 over 1y, 21% of budgetTERRA MOTO INC Art At Work — $7,500 over 1y, 23% of budgetMAINE INSIDE OUT — $7,500 over 2y, 0.9% of budgetPORTER MEMORIAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION — $7,500 over 1y, 7.9% of budgetPENOBSCOT BAY LANGUAGE SCHOOL — $7,500 over 1y, 6.0% of budgetCobscook Community Learning Center — $7,500 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetPORTLAND MEDIA CENTER — $7,500 over 1y, 2.8% of budgetCORNISH LIBRARY ASSOCIATION — $7,500 over 1y, 10% of budgetCOMMUNITY LIBRARY — $7,500 over 1y, 5.2% of budgetTATE HOUSE MUSEUM — $7,500 over 1y, 3.2% of budgetOGUNQUIT MEMORIAL LIBRARY — $7,500 over 1y, 4.7% of budgetVictoria Mansion — $7,500 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetI'm Your Neighbor Books — $7,500 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetPIHCINTU — $7,500 over 1y, 5.9% of budgetPEJEPSCOT HISTORICAL SOCIETY — $7,500 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetMaine Access Points — $7,500 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetCommittee to Restore the Abyssinian Meeting House — $7,500 over 1y, 2.9% of budgetLONG LAKE PUBLIC LIBRARY — $7,500 over 1y, 20% of budgetBRIDGTON PUBLIC LIBRARY — $7,500 over 1y, 14% of budgetWorld Affairs Council of Maine — $7,500 over 1y, 10% of budgetGateway Community Services Maine — $7,500 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetSPRINGVALE PUBLIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION — $7,500 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetUnion of Maine Visual Artists Inc — $7,500 over 1y, 13% of budgetMonhegan Historical & Cultural Museum Association — $7,500 over 1y, 1.8% of budgetCLASSICAL UPRISING — $7,500 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetPORTLAND OVATIONS — $7,500 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…Davis Family Foundati…Onion FoundationStephen & Tabitha Kin…Morton-Kelly Charitab…Elmina B Sewall Found…Sam L Cohen FoundationMaine InitiativesincBangor Savings Bank F…Libra FoundationFisher Charitable Fou…Quimby Family Foundat…
Maine Community Foundation IncME109.2× affinity77 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 · Onion Foundation · Stephen & Tabitha King Foundation Inc · Morton-Kelly Charitable Trust · Elmina B Sewall Foundation · Sam L Cohen Foundation · Maine Initiativesinc · Bangor Savings Bank Foundation · Libra Foundation · Fisher Charitable Foundation · Quimby Family 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 Humanities Council 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%2%6%14%25%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 6%
  • The Center for Independent Documentary Inc — 6% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
26report 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.

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 119 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 2023, released 2023. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2024) is on record and reports $177k of grant expense, but none of it to a named recipient. On a Form 990 that can mean grants abroad, filed by region only (Schedule F), grants under $5,000, which are not itemized, or a schedule referenced as an attachment the e-file does not carry. The figures above are therefore from FY2023, the most recent year this funder named its grantees.

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 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