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· Public charity
MAINE JUSTICE FOUNDATION
The mission of the MAINE JUSTICE FOUNDATION is to sustain, promote, and partner with legal aid providers and social justice organizations to inspire and support fairness and justice in maine.
$3.0M
Granted FY2024
9
Grants
1
Communities
$878k
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified
What you funded, over time
Every grant clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY2018–2024.
Crime & Legal$12MEducation$585kPhilanthropy$10kYouth Development$10kHuman Services$10kArts & Culture$10kPublic Benefit$10kOther$30k
02beneath the categories
Past the labels — and the year it shifted
Beneath the NTEE codes, this is what the grant descriptions actually say.
…and in their own words, year by year
2019
memberscivil problemsrepresentation advocacyadvocacy trainingstudentsunderclose
2020
civilexperiencedpractitionersbarlow-income lawlaw studentsstudents under
2021
low-incomecivil problemsrepresentation advocacyadvocacy trainingmembers
2022
low-incomecivil problemsmembersrepresentation advocacyadvocacy training
2023
lgbtqprofessionalsee partcreatingsafehealthadvance
2024
leadershipsee partracialinsidechangemio createsoriginal theater
2025
lgbtqsexualracialhealthleadershipfullsee part
Words distinctive to each year’s grant purposes (TF-IDF) · event-driven terms in cyan.
03FY2024 · 9 grants
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- $10k–50k3 grants · $30k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $147k
- $250k+5 grants · $2.8M
$350,985
Median grant
1
States reached
$9.8M
Total assets
Largest grants
- VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROJECT$878,241
- PINE TREE LEGAL ASSISTANCE$679,423
- MAINE EQUAL JUSTICE PROJECT$448,586
- LEGAL SERVICES FOR THE ELDERLY$415,509
- IMMIGRANT LEGAL ADVOCACY PROJECT$350,985
- CUMBERLAND LEGAL AID CLINIC$147,436
- ME COMM ON PUBLIC DEFENSE SERVICES$10,000
- MAINE INSIDE OUT$10,000
- LADDER TO THE MOON NETWORK$10,000
02The need
04
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 (FY18–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 11% — the area typically sits at 7%. 73% of your dollars reach neighborhoods with above-average need. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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 line in 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, United Way ALICE — 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.
92%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$11M · 5 repeat orgs$958k to everyone else
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +74% since the first grant, against +3% for the ones you funded once.
5 repeat relationships — 5 still active in FY2024, 0 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Re-uppedFunded once
Organizations
5
5
Total granted
$11M
$50k
Median revenue growth · since first grant
+74%
+3%
Still filing today
100%
80%
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 69% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $908k went to new ones.
RenewedFirst-time
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
Crime & LegalEducationArts & CulturePublic BenefitPhilanthropyYouth DevelopmentOther
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
- VLVOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROJECT7× · 2018–2024 · $5.2M · revenue +101%
- LSLEGAL SERVICES FOR THE ELDERLY7× · 2018–2024 · $2.1M · revenue +71%
- MEMAINE EQUAL JUSTICE PROJECT7× · 2018–2024 · $1.9M · revenue +44%
Funded once
- OMOUT MAINEgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $10k · revenue +215%
- AYALFOND YOUTH & COMM CENTERone grant, 2023 · $10k · revenue -58%
- NFNASW FOUNDATIONMAINE CHAPTERone grant, 2023 · $10k · revenue +3%
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
EqualityMaine
Equalitymaine works to protect and advance full equality for all lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer mainers by creating an inclusive and intersectional movement through political action, community building, education,…
Civil Rights
2
Maine & Company
Economic development in Maine.
—
3
Maine Donor Alliance Fund
Maine Donor Alliance Fund and Maine Donor Alliance both work to build lasting progressive power through year-round investment in strategic infrastructure organizations in Maine. We use strategic philanthropy to advance the goals of our…
Education
4
Maine Pretrial Services
Provide low-income defendants assistance in obtaining pretrial release and supervision.
—
5
Autism Society of Maine
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
6
Maine Media College
Maine Media College educates and inspires visual artists and storytellers to achieve their creative potential.
—
7
Maine Jewish Film Festival
Present Jewish-themed and multicultural programming, films, conference and speakers to the public during festival week, at other various times, and virtually.
Arts & Culture
8
Maine Justice Foundation
The mission of the maine justice foundation is to sustain, promote, and partner with legal aid providers and social justice organizations to inspire and support fairness and justice in maine.
Crime & Legal
9
Disability Rights Maine
Disability rights maine advances justice and equality by enforcing rights and expanding opportunities for people with disabilities in maine.
Crime & Legal
10
Independence Advocates of Maine Inc
Residential, nursing care and community supports to adults with intellectual disabilities. Our mission is to enrich the lives of people with disabilities by
Human Services
11
Khmer Maine
Khmer Maine is a nonpartisan, community organization working to improve the quality of life, social and economic well-being of Cambodians in Maine through cultural exchange, community building and civic engagement. Khmer Maine also…
Human Services
12
Lakeshore Legal Aid
Standing with our neighbors, Lakeshore Legal Aid fights poverty and injustice through advocacy and by providing meaningful and dignified access to the legal system.
Crime & Legal
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Legal Services for Maine Elders and the most unlike its peers is Ladder to the Moon Network. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network
13 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2024.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.
1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
8
Early backer (in before they grew)
12/13
Grantees still filing
11/13
Grew since you first funded
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Crime & Legal$11,548,305Education$585,196Other$30,000Philanthropy$10,000Youth Development$10,000Human Services$10,000Arts & Culture$10,000Public Benefit$10,000
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 VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROJECT ↗
- Who funds LEGAL SERVICES FOR THE ELDERLY ↗
- Who funds MAINE EQUAL JUSTICE PROJECT ↗
- Who funds IMMIGRANT LEGAL ADVOCACY PROJECT ↗
- Who funds VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROJECT ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF MAINE SCHOOL OF LAW FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds OUT MAINE ↗
- Who funds ALFOND YOUTH & COMM CENTER ↗
- Who funds NASW FOUNDATIONMAINE CHAPTER ↗
- Who funds EQUALITY MAINE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds MAINE INSIDE OUT ↗
- Who funds MAINE TRANSNET ↗
- Who funds LADDER TO THE MOON NETWORK ↗
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 IncME29.1× affinity12 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 · John T Gorman Foundation · Maine Health Access Foundation Inc · Elmina B Sewall Foundation · Onion Foundation · Maine Womens Fund · The Bob Crewe Foundation · Maine Initiativesinc · Gill Foundation · Louis and Anne Abrons Foundation Inc · Impactassetsinc
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 organisation MAINE JUSTICE FOUNDATION 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
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%
typical government reliance, FY20–24
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. 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
Through Plinth
Your grantmaking, live and operational
This dossier was generated cold from public filings. In Plinth it’s a working system — every applicant assessed and every grant monitored. Here’s a taste, run on one of your grantees: VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROJECT.
Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk
Financial management
medium risk
~4 months of operating runway; revenue grew over 8 filed years.
Track record & reputation
low risk
8 years of Form 990 filings, still active; revenue up 2.7× since.
Legal standing
low risk
US 501(c)(3); EIN 814176852 on file with current IRS Form 990 filings.
Governance
Live in Plinth
Board composition & governance documents — verified live in Plinth from the applicant.
Compliance & sanctions
Live in Plinth
OFAC / UN sanctions screening — run live in Plinth at assessment.
Program capacity
Live in Plinth
Staffing, M&E and activity alignment — assessed live in Plinth from submitted proposals.
Live · Plinth’s real DD engine
Run the actual assessment on VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROJECT, cold from public data.
Generated live from public IRS filings + open web sources by Plinth’s agentic engine. Shown as an illustration of the product, not a formal assessment.
Post-award monitoring · continuous checks
- WatchFinancial stability— Roughly 4 months of cash on hand.
- On trackSustained operations— Filing through 2024; revenue grew over the period.
- WatchReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 72% of their budget — load-bearing; a dependency Plinth would track.
- Awaiting reportEvidence of delivery— Plinth collects the grantee's own monitoring reports post-award.
What you see here is static and public. In Plinth it’s operational — the full six-pillar framework on every applicant (with their own documents + live registry and sanctions checks), monitoring dashboards on every award, custom board reports, and eligibility routing for intake.
Agentic due diligenceMonitoring dashboardsCustom board reportsEligibility routing
Preview generated from this grantee’s public IRS filings and independent reporting. Pillars marked “live in Plinth” require the applicant’s submitted documents. Shown as illustration, not a formal assessment.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPro
How do I get to Maine Justice Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Maine Justice Foundation through people who sit on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the introduction across shared trustees and officers.
Every link is a documented governance overlap in public IRS 990 filings — not a personal network — and each hop carries its own confidence tier. Low-confidence or distant paths are held back rather than guessed.
More from the funding graph
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars pass through an intermediary
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
Strange bedfellows
the named clusters of US funding
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