· Private foundation
The K2 Family Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Read this first · the figures below need context
95% of The K2 Family Foundation’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Maine Community Foundation Inc, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 4 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2022, the last year The K2 Family Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 29 organizations, $501k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2020–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2022
- Under $10k42 grants · $86k
- $10k–50k10 grants · $215k
- $50k–250k4 grants · $200k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| E FOR ALL | $50,000 |
| MAINE FARMLAND TRUST | $50,000 |
| ACLU OF MAINE | $50,000 |
| ACLU OF MAINE | $50,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $40,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $35,000 |
| ACLU OF MAINE | $25,000 |
| ST GEORGE SCHOOL FUND | $25,000 |
| MIDCOAST HABITAT FOR HUMANITY | $20,000 |
| MIDCOAST HABITAT FOR HUMANITY | $20,000 |
| GROUNDSWELL FUND | $20,000 |
| WABANAKI PUBLIC HEALTH | $10,000 |
| MISSOURI ABORTION FUND | $10,000 |
| MAINE FARMLAND TRUST | $10,000 |
| ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION | $5,150 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY20–24, $101k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 96% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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.
Which US states your grants reach
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.
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +11% since the first grant, against 0% for the ones you funded once.
37 repeat relationships — 30 still active in FY2022, 7 since wound down; 21 grantees were first funded in FY2022 (too recent to call). Read against FY2022, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- MFMaine Farmland Trust5× · 2020–2025 · $230k · revenue +69%
- SCSTGEORGE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORP2× · 2020–2023 · $80k · revenue +92%
- MHMIDCOAST HABITAT FOR HUMANITY3× · 2022–2024 · $80k · revenue +215%
Funded once
- RBRADIUS BOOKS INCone grant, 2021 · $50k · revenue -42%
- WAWATERFALL ARTSone grant, 2020 · $17k · revenue -12%
- ALAGRARIAN LAND TRUSTgraduatedone grant, 2020 · $10k · revenue +53%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
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,…
MFFM's mission is to cultivate a vibrant, sustainable, farmers' market community as a vital part of Maine's local food network. The federation works with farmers, consumers and communities to make wholesome, locally-grown food available to…
The mission of Islesboro Islands Trust is to enhance the quality of residents' lives through the preservation of open space, educate all residents as to the value of the island's natural ecosystems, and act as an environmental advocate on…
Fork Food Lab is a nonprofit food business incubator and shared commercial kitchen focused on growing the local food economy. We support the growth of sustainable Maine-based businesses by providing entrepreneurs with work space,…
NOFA-NH actively promotes organic, regenerative, ecologically sound farming, gardening, eating, and land care practices for healthy communities. NOFA-NH helps people build local, just, and sustainable food systems.
The mission of Midcoast Conservancy is to protect vital lands and waters on a scale that matters and to inspire wonder and action on behalf of all species and the Earth.
Maine Media Workshops & College educates and inspires visual artists and storytellers to achieve their creative potential. We provide lifelong learning opportunities for those pursuing the fine arts and media-related professions. We are…
Cei integrates financing, small business and industry expertise, and policy solutions to grow a vibrant future for people and communities in maine and rural regions.
Grist is an independent, non profit media organization dedicated to reporting on climate change.
We conserve land permanently to benefit the natural and human communities of western the Penobscot Bay region.
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…
Focusmaine propels the growth of maine's most promising industries and transforms maine into a hub for top talent.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Soul Fire Farm Institute Inc and the most unlike its peers is Leaps of Imagination Inc. 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.
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 32 years old; the field is 21. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 16% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 2% lost their exemption, against 9% of the field you don’t fund.
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.
45 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. 45 of the 74 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
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 Maine Community Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds Maine Farmland Trust ↗
- Who funds STGEORGE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORP ↗
- Who funds MIDCOAST HABITAT FOR HUMANITY ↗
- Who funds Groundswell Fund ↗
- Who funds RADIUS BOOKS INC ↗
- Who funds Electronic Frontier Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY INC ↗
- Who funds WATERFALL ARTS ↗
- Who funds Planned Parenthood of Northern New England Inc ↗
- Who funds WABANAKI HEALTH & WELLNESS NPC ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN FARMLAND TRUST ↗
- Who funds AGRARIAN LAND TRUST ↗
- Who funds National Network of Abortion Funds ↗
- Who funds Homeworthy ↗
- Who funds SOUL FIRE FARM INSTITUTE INC ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL YOUNG FARMERS COALITION INC ↗
- Who funds ST GEORGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds AREA INTERFAITH OUTREACH ↗
- Who funds OUT Maine ↗
- Who funds SEED SAVERS EXCHANGE INC ↗
- Who funds HURRICANE ISLAND OUTWARD BOUND SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds Island Institute ↗
- Who funds TREKKERS INC ↗
- Who funds LEAPS OF IMAGINATION 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.
Open a dossier: Maine Community Foundation Inc · Onion Foundation · Elmina B Sewall Foundation · John T Gorman Foundation · Rocking Moon Foundation Inc · Impactassetsinc · Machias Savings Bank Community Development Foundation · Quimby Family Foundation · Maine Health Access Foundation Inc · Fisher Charitable Foundation · Bangor Savings Bank Foundation · Rsf Social Finance Inc
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 The K2 Family 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.
- Planned Parenthood of Northern New England Inc — 2% of income from government
- Resist Inc — 2% of income from government
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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The K2 Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The K2 Family Foundation 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.