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Plinth

· Private foundation

Sheaffer Lewis J Community Pfdn

Its FY2023 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$593k
Granted FY2023
31
Grants FY2023
5
States reached
$80k
Largest
01What you fund
0194% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20212023.

Health$110kFood & Nutrition$90kReligion$80kEducation$63kYouth Development$60kHuman Services$50kAnimals$40kPublic Safety & Disaster$35kOther$0
02FY2023 · 31 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2023

  • Under $10k9 grants · $29k
  • $10k–50k18 grants · $324k
  • $50k–250k4 grants · $240k
$15,000
Median grant
5
States reached
$11M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
MAINE GENERAL MEDICAL CENTER$80,000
CHRIST CHURCH$60,000
AUGUSTA FOOD BANK$50,000
BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF KENNEBEC VALLEY$50,000
AMERICAN RED CROSS$35,000
KENNEBEC VALLEY HUMANE SOCIETY$25,000
THE CAPITAL AREA RECREATION ASSOCIATION$25,000
CHILDRENS CENTER$25,000
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF GARDINER$20,000
SPECTRUM GENERATIONS$20,000
AUGUSTA COLONIAL THEATER$20,000
GARDINER PUBLIC LIBRARY$18,750
TURNER PUBLIC LIBRARY$15,000
PALS NO-KILL CAT SHELTER$15,000
KENNEBEC VALLEY YMCA$15,000
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 (FY23–23, $70k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%AMERICAN RED CROSS: $35k → 14%SPECTRUM GENERATIONS: $20k → 12%FAMILY VIOLENCE PROJECT: $15k → 12%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 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
President and Trustees of Bates College

Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, and is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual, and access to…

Education
2
Bangor Public Library

The bangor public library strives to inspire, enlighten, and enrich its members by connecting them to books, information, and ideas needed for work, recreation, education, and inspiration by providing excellent library service to its…

3
Kennebunk Free Library Association

To inspire and enable our communities to discover, learn and connect.

4
Kennebunk Land Trust

Kennebunk Land Trust's mission is to permanently conserve and steward land to benefit natural and human communities.

Environment
5
Western New England University

Western new england university, a comprehensive private institution with a tradition of excellence in teaching and scholarship and a commitment to service, awards undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees in various departments from…

Education
6
Bridgton Public Library

Public library

Education
7
The University of Vermont Medical Center

To improve the health of the people in the communities we serve by integrating patient care, education, and research in a caring environment.

Health
8
Trustees of Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.

Education
9
MaineGeneral Health and Affiliates

MaineGeneral Health is a comprehensive non-profit system with the mission of enhancing, every day, the health of our patients, our families and our communities.

10
Wiscasset Public Library

Wiscasset public librarys goal is to provide access to innovateive library services, delivered in an efficient and effective manner that will assist everyone to contiune to grow and learn throughout their lives. provide

Education
11
Bridgton Academy

To provide a program for young men in a unique, one-year postgraduate environment to prepare for the rigors of college and beyond.

Education
12
Penobscot Community Health Center

Penobscot Community Health Center (PCHC) is a non-profit organization incorporated in 1997 that is governed by a Board of community volunteers and is the largest Federally Qualified Health Center in Maine. PCHC is driven by its mission…

Health

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Kennebec Valley Ymca and the most unlike its peers is Amda Inc (American Musical and Dramatic Academy). 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

17 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. 17 of the 31 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)
4
Early backer (in before they grew)
17/17
Grantees still filing
10/17
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

MAINEGENRAL MEDICAL CENTER — $80,000 · OtherMAINEGENRAL MEDICAL CENTERCHRIST CHURCH — $60,000 · OtherCHRIST CHURCHTHE CHILDREN'S CENTER UTAH — $25,000 · OtherTHE CHILDREN'S CENTER UTAHTHE CAPITAL AREA RECREATION ASSOCIATION — $25,000 · OtherTHE CAPITAL AREA RECREATION ASSOCIATIONAUGUSTA COLONIAL THEATER — $20,000 · OtherAUGUSTA COLONIAL THEATERFIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF GARDINER — $20,000 · OtherFIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF GARDINERGARDINER PUBLIC LIBRARY — $18,750 · OtherGREATER AUGUSTA BACK TO SCHOOL PROGRAM — $15,000 · OtherPALS NO-KILL CAT SHELTER — $15,000 · OtherFOOD FOR THOUGHT — $15,000 · OtherCHRYSALIS PLACE FOOD CENTER — $15,000 · OtherKennebec Valley YMCA — $15,000 · OtherTURNER PUBLIC LIBRARY PORTLAND TRUST COMPANY MANAGER — $15,000 · Other+6 more — $17,500 · OtherAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches — $35,000 · Human ServicesAmerican Nati…SPECTRUM GENERATIONS — $20,000 · Human ServicesSPECTRUM GENE…FAMILY VIOLENCE PROJECT — $15,000 · Human ServicesFAMILY VIOLEN…AUGUSTA FOOD BANK — $50,000 · Food & NutritionAUGUSTA FOO…WINTHROP FOOD PANTRY — $10,000 · Food & NutritionWINTHROP FO…BOYS&GIRLS CLUBS OF KENNEBEC VALLEY — $50,000 · Youth DevelopmentBOYS&GIRLS …AUGUSTA TEEN CENTER OF THE BOYS & GIRLS CLUB — $10,000 · Youth DevelopmentAUGUSTA TEE…KENNEBEC VALLEY HUMANE SOCIETY — $25,000 · AnimalsViles Arboretum — $10,000 · EnvironmentFRIENDS OF LITHGOW LIBRARY — $4,000 · EducationThe President and Trustees of Colby College — $2,500 · EducationSEXUAL ASSAULT CRISIS & SUPPORT CENTER — $5,000 · Health
Other$356,250Human Services$70,000Food & Nutrition$60,000Youth Development$60,000Animals$25,000Environment$10,000Education$6,500Health$5,000

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 budgetAUGUSTA FOOD BANK — $50,000 over 1y, 2.2% of budgetBOYS&GIRLS CLUBS OF KENNEBEC VALLEY — $50,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches — $35,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CHILDREN'S CENTER UTAH — $25,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetKENNEBEC VALLEY HUMANE SOCIETY — $25,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetSPECTRUM GENERATIONS — $20,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetFAMILY VIOLENCE PROJECT — $15,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetKennebec Valley YMCA — $15,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetTURNER PUBLIC LIBRARY PORTLAND TRUST COMPANY MANAGER — $15,000 over 1y, 18% of budgetAUGUSTA TEEN CENTER OF THE BOYS & GIRLS CLUB — $10,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetViles Arboretum — $10,000 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetWINTHROP FOOD PANTRY — $10,000 over 1y, 5.7% of budgetSEXUAL ASSAULT CRISIS & SUPPORT CENTER — $5,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetThe President and Trustees of Colby College — $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAMDA INC (AMERICAN MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC ACADEMY) — $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY — $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% 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.

Kennebec Savings Bank FoundationME26.3× affinity10 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Kennebec Savings Bank Foundation · Elsie & William Viles Foundation · Maine Community Foundation Inc · The Bracy Memorial Trust Fund · United Way of Kennebec Valley · John T Gorman Foundation · Stephen & Tabitha King Foundation Inc · Bangor Savings Bank Foundation · Helen W Fuller Testamentary Trust · Es & Mj Mayer Foundation · Reny Charitable Foundation · Franklin Savings Bank Community Development 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 Sheaffer Lewis J Community Pfdn 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 · 00%1%5%11%20%your share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 12%
  • Trustees of Boston University12% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
7report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
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 31 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-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2023, released 2023. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

More from the funding graph