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Maine Womens Fund

The maine women's fund makes bold investments that transform the lives of maine women and girls by incubating and investing in nonprofit organizations, partnering with grantees, and connecting people and organizations making social change.

$221k
Granted FY2021
16
Grants FY2021
1
States reached
$61k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What you fund
0199% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2021.

Community Improvement$153kHuman Services$117kYouth Development$107kCrime & Legal$100kCivil Rights$88kHealth$80kArts & Culture$49kEducation$39kOther$0
02FY2021 · 16 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 16 grants below total $210,908 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $220,908 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $10,000 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 · FY2021

  • Under $10k1 grant · $8k
  • $10k–50k14 grants · $142k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $61k
$10,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$3.5M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
WABANAKI HLTH & WELLNESS$61,408
MANO EN MANO$12,000
IMMIGRANT LEGAL ADVOCACY PROJ$10,000
Individual grant recipient$10,000
FOUR DIRECTIONS DEVELOPMENT$10,000
IN HER PRESENCE$10,000
SOMAI BANTU COMMUNITY ASSOC$10,000
NEW VENTURES MAINE$10,000
THE YWCA OF CENTRAL MAINE$10,000
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE INST$10,000
ELDER ABUSE INSTITUTE OF ME$10,000
MABEL WADSWORTH WOMENS HEALT$10,000
ME COALITION TO END DOMESTIC$10,000
MAINE TRANSGENDER NETWORK$10,000
MAINE WOMENS LOBBY EDUCATION$10,000
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 (FY18–21, $61k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 87% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%WAYFINDER SCHOOLS: $7k → 11%THE YWCA OF CENTRAL MAINE: $10k → 13%WABANAKI WOMENS COALITION: $17k → 13%THE YWCA OF CENTRAL MAINE: $10k → 13%THE YWCA OF CENTRAL MAINE: $10k → 13%WAYFINDER SCHOOLS: $8k → 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.

72%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$583k · 19 repeat orgs$223k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +103% since the first grant, against +37% for the ones you funded once.

19 repeat relationships — 13 still active in FY2021, 6 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2021 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

19
19

Total granted

$583k
$193k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+103%
+37%

Still filing today

84%
84%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2021, 86% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $30k went to new ones.

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

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

’17’18’19’20’21
Human ServicesCommunity ImprovementHealthArts & CultureYouth DevelopmentCrime & LegalOther

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

  • WH
    WABANAKI HEALTH & WELLNESS NPC
    2× · 2020–2021 · $113k · revenue +239%
  • MW
    MABEL WADSWORTH WOMEN'S HEALTH CTR
    4× · 2017–2021 · $40k · revenue +103%
  • MC
    MAINE COALITION TO END DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
    2× · 2020–2021 · $39k · revenue +19%

Funded once

  • WW
    WABANAKI WOMENS COALITION INC
    one grant, 2020 · $17k · revenue -18%
  • MC
    MAINE COMMUNITY INTEGRATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $10k · revenue +427%
  • HG
    HARDY GIRLS HEALTHY WOMEN INC
    one grant, 2018 · $10k · revenue +21%

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-Wabanaki Reach

We support the self-determination of Wabanaki People through Education, Truth-Telling, Restorative Justice, and Restorative Practices in Wabanaki and Maine communities. We design out structures and processes to be responsive to Wabanaki…

Arts & Culture
2
Maine Access Points

To recognize the resiliency of people who use drugs and to work in collaboration to create access points for overdose prevention and harm reduction services in Maine.

Health
3
Moving Forward for Maine Reentry Sisters Corporation

This is a women-led nonprofit organization that supports formerly incarcerated and system-impacted women in Maine through education, reentry services, and economic mobility programming. Also, to provide direct assistance, peer support,…

Crime & Legal
4
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
5
Maine Health Access Foundation Inc
Health
6
Maine Equal Justice Partners

Maine Equal Justice is a nonprofit legal aid and economic justice organization working to increase economic security, opportunity and equity for people in Maine.

Crime & Legal
7
Maine Climate Action Now

MCAN catalyzes transformative education and action in response to the climate crisis. We seek to honor, unite and amplify the voices of youth, frontline communities, and others historically excluded from the climate conversation and…

Environment
8
Out Maine
Philanthropy
9
Health Equity Alliance

The Down East Aids Network and the Health Equity Alliance empowers marginalized communities to improve their health and wellbeing and affect social and cultural change by facilitating collaboration, education, advocacy, and action

—
10
Maine Association for New Americans

MANA is an immigrant-led organization that promotes social & personal empowerment of immigrants in Maine through raising awareness of individual and collective trauma and how they affect our lives, expanding people's resilience building…

Community Improvement
11
Protect Maine's Fishing Heritage Foundation
Environment
12
Maine Donor Alliance Fund

To build a permanent and powerful progressive movement in Maine. We will promote a healthy, just, equitable democracy through research, engagement, and education of Maine's citizens. We will engage in democracy expansion, voter engagement,…

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault and the most unlike its peers is Speak About It. 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 backsteadyMaine Land ConservationYouth Development Organizat…Low-Income Housing Developm…Senior and Disabled HousingMaine Community DevelopmentRegional Healthcare SystemsSexual Assault Support Serv…
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 25 years old; the field is 21. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number17%4%<5yr12%8%5–10yr18%23%10–20yr19%35%20–35yr17%23%35–55yr17%8%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value17%2%<5yr12%5%5–10yr18%17%10–20yr19%47%20–35yr17%22%35–55yr17%7%55yr+

The field is 17% startups (under 5 years old) — 4% of your grantees by number, and just 2% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 8% lost their exemption, against 10% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
8%
3/38
the rest of the field
10%
435/4,365

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

34 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. 34 of the 41 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)
18
Early backer (in before they grew)
32/34
Grantees still filing
29/34
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

UNIVERSITY OF MAINE SYSTEM INC — $39,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF MAINE SYSTEM INCMAINE TRANSGENDER NETWORK INC — $21,500 · OtherMAINE TRANSGENDER NETWORK INCRESTORATIVE JUSTICE INST — $20,000 · OtherRESTORATIVE JUSTICE INSTLeague of Women Voters of Maine Education Fund Inc — $20,000 · OtherLeague of Women Voters of Maine Educatio…MAINE COALITION AGAINST SEXUAL ASSAULT — $20,000 · OtherMAINE COALITION AGAINST SEXUAL ASSAULTMAINE WOMENS LOBBY EDUCATION — $10,000 · OtherSOMAI BANTU COMMUNITY ASSOC — $10,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient — $10,000 · OtherSURVIVOR SPEAK — $10,000 · OtherMaine Council on Aging — $10,000 · OtherMAINE COMMUNITY INTEGRATION — $10,000 · OtherMAINE CHILDREN'S ALLIANCE — $10,000 · OtherSpurwink Services Inc — $10,000 · OtherSafe Voices — $10,000 · OtherFour Directions Development Corporation — $30,000 · OtherFour Directions Development CorporationHand in Hand Mano en Mano — $22,000 · OtherHand in Hand Mano en ManoELDER ABUSE INSTITUTE OF MAINE — $20,000 · OtherELDER ABUSE INSTITUTE OF MAINE+1 more — $6,250 · OtherWABANAKI HEALTH & WELLNESS NPC — $113,408 · HealthWABANAKI HEALTH & WELLNE…MABEL WADSWORTH WOMEN'S HEALTH CTR — $40,000 · HealthMABEL WADSWORTH WOMEN'S …FAMILY PLANNING ASSOCIATION OF MAINE INC — $10,000 · HealthFAMILY PLANNING ASSOCIAT…OASIS HEALTH NETWORK INC — $10,000 · HealthOASIS HEALTH NETWORK INCMAINE COALITION TO END DOMESTIC VIOLENCE — $38,894 · Human ServicesMAINE COALITION …YWCA Central Maine — $30,000 · Human ServicesYWCA Central Mai…WABANAKI WOMENS COALITION INC — $16,541 · Human ServicesWABANAKI WOMENS …WAYFINDER SCHOOLS — $14,500 · Human ServicesWAYFINDER SCHOOL…EqualityMaine Foundation — $10,000 · Human ServicesEqualityMaine Fo…NEW ENGLAND ARAB AMERICAN ORGANIZATION — $10,000 · Human ServicesNEW ENGLAND ARAB…ARTVAN — $29,025 · Arts & CultureARTVANA Company of Girls — $28,449 · Arts & CultureA Company …SPEAK ABOUT IT — $10,000 · Arts & CultureSPEAK ABOU…MAINE INSIDE OUT — $10,000 · Arts & CultureMAINE INSI…In Her Presence — $20,000 · Community ImprovementIn Her Pr…GEDAKINA INC — $20,000 · Community ImprovementGEDAKINA …MAINE COMMUNITY INTEGRATION — $10,000 · Community ImprovementMAINE COM…MAINE WOMEN'S LOBBY EDUCATION FUND — $10,000 · Community ImprovementMAINE WOM…SUNRISE COUNTY ECONOMIC COUNCIL — $10,000 · Community ImprovementSUNRISE C…IMMIGRANT LEGAL ADVOCACY PROJECT — $30,000 · Crime & LegalRESTORATIVE JUSTICE INSTITUTE OF MAINE — $10,000 · Crime & LegalTREE STREET YOUTH INC — $26,300 · Youth DevelopmentHARDY GIRLS HEALTHY WOMEN INC — $10,000 · Youth Development
Other$288,750Health$173,408Human Services$119,935Arts & Culture$77,474Community Improvement$70,000Crime & Legal$40,000Youth Development$36,300

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetWABANAKI HEALTH & WELLNESS NPC — $113,408 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetMABEL WADSWORTH WOMEN'S HEALTH CTR — $40,000 over 4y, 1.4% of budgetMAINE COALITION TO END DOMESTIC VIOLENCE — $38,894 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetFour Directions Development Corporation — $30,000 over 3y, 0.8% of budgetIMMIGRANT LEGAL ADVOCACY PROJECT — $30,000 over 3y, 0.8% of budgetYWCA Central Maine — $30,000 over 3y, 0.8% of budgetARTVAN — $29,025 over 4y, 5.8% of budgetA Company of Girls — $28,449 over 3y, 6.6% of budgetTREE STREET YOUTH INC — $26,300 over 3y, 0.9% of budgetHand in Hand Mano en Mano — $22,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetELDER ABUSE INSTITUTE OF MAINE — $20,000 over 2y, 1.6% of budgetLeague of Women Voters of Maine Education Fund Inc — $20,000 over 2y, 18% of budgetMAINE COALITION AGAINST SEXUAL ASSAULT — $20,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetIn Her Presence — $20,000 over 2y, 1.6% of budgetGEDAKINA INC — $20,000 over 2y, 1.7% of budgetWABANAKI WOMENS COALITION INC — $16,541 over 1y, 4.6% of budgetWAYFINDER SCHOOLS — $14,500 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetMAINE COMMUNITY INTEGRATION — $10,000 over 1y, 8.0% of budgetHARDY GIRLS HEALTHY WOMEN INC — $10,000 over 1y, 6.2% of budgetRESTORATIVE JUSTICE INSTITUTE OF MAINE — $10,000 over 1y, 3.5% of budgetEqualityMaine Foundation — $10,000 over 1y, 1.8% of budgetFAMILY PLANNING ASSOCIATION OF MAINE INC — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetOASIS HEALTH NETWORK INC — $10,000 over 1y, 2.7% of budgetSUNRISE COUNTY ECONOMIC COUNCIL — $10,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetMaine Council on Aging — $10,000 over 1y, 2.8% of budgetSPEAK ABOUT IT — $10,000 over 1y, 2.4% of budgetMAINE CHILDREN'S ALLIANCE — $10,000 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetNEW ENGLAND ARAB AMERICAN ORGANIZATION — $10,000 over 1y, 3.4% of budgetSpurwink Services Inc — $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSafe Voices — $10,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetSHAW HOUSE — $6,250 over 1y, 0.5% 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…Elmina B Sewall Found…John T Gorman Foundat…Maine Health Access F…Maine InitiativesincOnion FoundationSam L Cohen FoundationStephen & Tabitha Kin…Albert B Glickman Fam…Davis Family Foundati…United Way IncFisher Charitable Fou…
Maine Community Foundation IncME66× affinity34 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Maine Community Foundation Inc · Elmina B Sewall Foundation · John T Gorman Foundation · Maine Health Access Foundation Inc · Maine Initiativesinc · Onion Foundation · Sam L Cohen Foundation · Stephen & Tabitha King Foundation Inc · Albert B Glickman Family Foundation · Davis Family Foundation · United Way Inc · Fisher Charitable 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 Womens Fund 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 · 10%1%3%6%10%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    8report 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.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Maine Womens Fund?

    Find your warmest path to Maine Womens Fund 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 directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 41 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 2021, released 2021. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    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 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