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Plinth

· Private foundation

Virginia Hodgkins Somers Foundation Inc

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$295k
Granted FY2025still arriving
4
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$250k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
01What you fund
0196% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2020–2025.

Youth Development$846kArts & Culture$823kHuman Services$734kHousing & Shelter$646kEducation$507kFood & Nutrition$264kHealth$258kEnvironment$159kOther$0
02FY2025 · 4 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $10k–50k3 grants · $45k
  • $250k+1 grant · $250k
$20,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$4.0M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
HABITAT FOR HUMANITY YORK COUNTY$250,000
UNITED WAY OF SOUTHERN MAINE$20,000
CENTER FOR GRIEVING CHILDREN$15,000
MAINE PHILANTHROPY CENTER$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 (FY20–24, $436k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 56% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 7%BANGOR REGION YMCA: $54k → 15%LEARNINGWORKS: $20k → 7%LEARNINGWORKS: $15k → 7%CARING UNLIMITED: $20k → 9%CARING UNLIMITED: $20k → 9%LEARNINGWORKS: $9k → 7%CARING UNLIMITED: $10k → 9%CARING UNLIMITED: $10k → 9%LEARNINGWORKS: $15k → 7%SOUTHERN MAINE AGENCY ON AGING: $12k → 7%SOUTHERN MAINE AGENCY ON AGING: $10k → 7%SOUTHERN MAINE AGENCY ON AGING: $10k → 7%MAYO STREET ARTS: $20k → 7%PREBLE STREET: $20k → 7%MAYO STREET ARTS: $20k → 7%BIDDEFORD FOOD PANTRY: $30k → 9%PREBLE STREET: $15k → 7%OLYMPIA SNOWE WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE: $10k → 7%GRAHAMTASTIC CONNECTION: $15k → 9%GRAHAMTASTIC CONNECTION: $15k → 9%GRAHAMTASTIC CONNECTION: $15k → 9%GRAHAMTASTIC CONNECTION: $10k → 9%GRAHAMTASTIC CONNECTION: $10k → 9%THE OPPORTUNITY ALLIANCE: $10k → 7%THE OPPORTUNITY ALLIANCE: $8k → 7%SWEETSER: $23k → 9%SWEETSER: $10k → 9%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.

85%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$4.3M · 81 repeat orgs$733k to everyone else

81 repeat relationships — 4 still active in FY2025, 77 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

81
49

Total granted

$4.3M
$733k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+22%
+26%

Still filing today

80%
63%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureHuman ServicesEducationYouth DevelopmentEnvironmentCommunity 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

  • MP
    My Place Teen Center Inc
    2× · 2023–2024 · $335k · revenue +75%
  • HF
    HABITAT FOR HUMANITY YORK COUNTY MAINE
    3× · 2021–2025 · $325k · revenue +207%
  • YM
    YOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION SANFORD-SPRINGVALE
    5× · 2020–2024 · $198k · revenue +66%

Funded once

  • YC
    YORK COMMUNITY COLLEGE
    one grant, 2020 · $60k
  • BY
    BANGOR YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $54k · revenue +140%
  • TF
    The Foundation for Maine's Community Colleges
    one grant, 2023 · $50k · revenue -30%

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 Media College

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…

—
2
Maine Arts Academy

The Academy is dedicated to academic excellence, commitment to the performing arts, leadership, integrity, and a virtuous code of conduct, all of which prepare students to meet the demands of a contemporary world through thoughtful…

Education
3
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
4
Maine Jewish Film Festival

The Maine Jewish Film Festival celebrates filmmakinginspiring conversation through the lens of global Jewish experience. Innovative programming invites a diverse statewide audience into the dialogue. Many of our programs include guest…

Arts & Culture
5
Maine GearShare

To provide access to outdoor gear and know-how through a collaborative, equity-centered approach.

Recreation & Sports
6
Maine Film Center

To enrich, educate, and entertain the community through film and art.

—
7
Fork Food Lab

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,…

Environment
8
Maine Council on Aging

A broad multi-disciplinary network that works to ensure we can all live healthy, engaged, and secure lives as we age in our homes and communities. With the voices of people with lived experience, we work on policy issues related to…

Unclassified
9
Maine & Company

Maine & Company is a private, non-profit business development sales organization. Its purpose is to improve Maine's success in attracting new business and expanding and retaining existing business by providing a focused, statewide sales…

—
10
Sail Maine

To provide affordable access to the water through community sailing and educational programming.

Arts & Culture
11
The Camden Childrens House Montessori School

Founded in 1979, the Childrens House Montessori School cultivates curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking in young learners, while nurturing a sense of care for each other, the environment, and the world.

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 The Center for Grieving Children and the most unlike its peers is Classical Uprising. 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 backsteadyPerforming Arts Organizatio…Senior and Disability Housi…Integrated Healthcare Syste…Youth & Family Support Serv…Private Recreational ClubsYouth Sports ProgramsMaine Education & Youth Dev…Regional Land TrustsPublic LibrariesEnvironmental Education and…Youth Education and Enrichm…Community Support ServicesMaine Nonprofit Infrastruct…Regional Economic Developme…
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 32 years old; the field is 18. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number18%0%<5yr14%7%5–10yr21%18%10–20yr19%29%20–35yr13%26%35–55yr16%20%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value18%0%<5yr14%3%5–10yr21%12%10–20yr19%35%20–35yr13%30%35–55yr16%21%55yr+

The field is 18% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 10% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/105
the rest of the field
10%
333/3,282

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

99 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. 99 of the 130 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.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
28
Early backer (in before they grew)
96/99
Grantees still filing
76/99
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY YORK COUNTY MAINE — $325,000 · OtherHABITAT FOR HUMANITY YORK COUNTY MAINEKENNEBUNK HERITAGE HOUSING TRUST — $220,000 · OtherKENNEBUNK HERITAGE HOUSING TRUSTYOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION SANFORD-SPRINGVALE — $198,250 · OtherYOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION SANFORD-SPRINGVALEBig Brothers Big Sisters of Southern ME — $135,000 · OtherYoung Mens Christian Association of Southern Maine — $93,800 · Other+63 more — $1,575,942 · Other+63 moreMy Place Teen Center Inc — $335,000 · Youth DevelopmentMy Place Teen …APEX YOUTH CONNECTION — $70,500 · Youth DevelopmentAPEX YOUTH CON…MAINE BOYS TO MEN — $60,000 · Youth DevelopmentMAINE BOYS TO …THE CENTER FOR GRIEVING CHILDREN — $50,000 · Youth DevelopmentTHE CENTER FOR…The Telling Room — $40,000 · Youth DevelopmentThe Telling Ro…HARDY GIRLS HEALTHY WOMEN INC — $39,800 · Youth DevelopmentHARDY GIRLS HE…GIRL SCOUTS OF MAINE — $37,000 · Youth DevelopmentGIRL SCOUTS OF…+1 more — $10,000 · Youth DevelopmentThe Saco River Theatre — $95,000 · Arts & CultureThe Saco Rive…BRICK STORE MUSEUM INC — $66,205 · Arts & CultureBRICK STORE M…River Tree Center for the Arts — $46,700 · Arts & CultureRiver Tree Ce…CONTINUUM ARTS COLLECTIVE — $40,000 · Arts & CultureCONTINUUM ART…ICE DANCE INTERNATIONAL — $32,500 · Arts & CultureKENNEBUNKPORT HISTORICAL SOCIETY — $30,000 · Arts & CultureILLUSTRATION INSTITUTE — $30,000 · Arts & CultureDOCUMENTARY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INC — $30,000 · Arts & CultureIndigo Arts Alliance — $25,500 · Arts & CultureTEAR CAP WORKSHOPS — $25,000 · Arts & Culture+16 more — $196,242 · Arts & Culture+16 moreGrahamtastic Connection — $65,000 · Human ServicesGrahamtast…CARING UNLIMITED — $60,000 · Human ServicesCARING UNL…LEARNINGWORKS — $59,400 · Human ServicesLEARNINGWO…BANGOR YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION — $54,409 · Human ServicesBANGOR YOU…PROSPERITYME — $45,000 · Human ServicesPROSPERITY…MAYO STREET ARTS — $40,000 · Human ServicesMAYO STREE…PREBLE STREET — $35,000 · Human ServicesPREBLE STR…Sweetser — $33,000 · Human ServicesSweetserSouthern Maine Agency on Aging — $31,750 · Human ServicesSouthern M…BIDDEFORD FOOD PANTRY — $30,000 · Human ServicesBIDDEFORD …The Opportunity Alliance — $17,500 · Human Services+2 more — $10,300 · Human ServicesThe New School — $92,640 · EducationThe New S…Trustees of Saint Joseph's College Saint Joseph's College of Maine — $70,000 · EducationTrustees …White Pine Programs — $69,000 · EducationWhite Pin…St Georges Child Care Center — $51,000 · EducationSt George…The Foundation for Maine's Community Colleges — $50,000 · EducationThe Found…WOODFORDS FAMILY SERVICES — $41,360 · EducationWOODFORDS…Maine Philanthropy Center — $30,000 · EducationMaine Phi…+2 more — $20,000 · EducationGood Shepherd Food Bank — $110,000 · Food & NutritionYouth Full Maine — $42,200 · Food & NutritionCOMMUNITY HARVEST — $7,000 · Food & NutritionMaine Association of Nonprofits — $53,000 · Community ImprovementYork County Shelter Programs Inc — $50,000 · Community ImprovementHEART OF BIDDEFORD — $45,000 · Community Improvement
Other$2,547,992Youth Development$642,300Arts & Culture$617,147Human Services$481,359Education$424,000Food & Nutrition$159,200Community Improvement$148,000

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 budgetMy Place Teen Center Inc — $335,000 over 2y, 18% of budgetHABITAT FOR HUMANITY YORK COUNTY MAINE — $325,000 over 3y, 6.6% of budgetYOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION SANFORD-SPRINGVALE — $198,250 over 5y, 1.5% of budgetBig Brothers Big Sisters of Southern ME — $135,000 over 5y, 19% of budgetGood Shepherd Food Bank — $110,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetThe Saco River Theatre — $95,000 over 3y, 19% of budgetYoung Mens Christian Association of Southern Maine — $93,800 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetThe New School — $92,640 over 4y, 9.3% of budgetEcology Education Inc — $75,200 over 5y, 1.0% of budgetAPEX YOUTH CONNECTION — $70,500 over 4y, 5.8% of budgetTrustees of Saint Joseph's College Saint Joseph's College of Maine — $70,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetWhite Pine Programs — $69,000 over 5y, 4.2% of budgetBRICK STORE MUSEUM INC — $66,205 over 5y, 5.9% of budgetSEEDS OF HOPE NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER — $65,000 over 4y, 5.9% of budgetSpurwink Services Inc — $65,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetGrahamtastic Connection — $65,000 over 5y, 10% of budgetENGINE INC — $60,600 over 3y, 28% of budgetCARING UNLIMITED — $60,000 over 4y, 0.7% of budgetMAINE BOYS TO MEN — $60,000 over 4y, 5.7% of budgetLEARNINGWORKS — $59,400 over 4y, 0.7% of budgetBANGOR YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION — $54,409 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetMaine Association of Nonprofits — $53,000 over 4y, 1.8% of budgetSt Georges Child Care Center — $51,000 over 3y, 7.6% of budgetThe Foundation for Maine's Community Colleges — $50,000 over 1y, 3.5% of budgetQUODDY TIDES FOUNDATION — $50,000 over 1y, 6.7% of budgetTHE CENTER FOR GRIEVING CHILDREN — $50,000 over 4y, 1.1% of budgetYork County Shelter Programs Inc — $50,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetCOMMUNITY DENTAL — $46,965 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetRiver Tree Center for the Arts — $46,700 over 3y, 6.5% of budgetPROSPERITYME — $45,000 over 2y, 2.4% of budgetHEART OF BIDDEFORD — $45,000 over 4y, 4.1% of budgetYouth Full Maine — $42,200 over 3y, 6.6% of budgetWOODFORDS FAMILY SERVICES — $41,360 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetCONTINUUM ARTS COLLECTIVE — $40,000 over 2y, 10% of budgetTHE SCHOOL AROUND US — $40,000 over 3y, 5.0% of budgetThe Telling Room — $40,000 over 3y, 1.9% of budgetGoodwill Industries of Northern NE — $40,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetMAYO STREET ARTS — $40,000 over 2y, 6.5% of budgetHARDY GIRLS HEALTHY WOMEN INC — $39,800 over 3y, 9.6% of budgetNASSON CENTER REDEVELOPMENT INC — $38,500 over 3y, 4.4% of budgetGIRL SCOUTS OF MAINE — $37,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetPREBLE STREET — $35,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetKIDS FIRST CENTER — $33,100 over 3y, 4.1% of budgetSweetser — $33,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetICE DANCE INTERNATIONAL — $32,500 over 4y, 3.8% of budgetSouthern Maine Agency on Aging — $31,750 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetKENNEBUNKPORT HISTORICAL SOCIETY — $30,000 over 3y, 5.8% of budgetMaine Philanthropy Center — $30,000 over 3y, 2.5% 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.

Sam L Cohen FoundationMaine Community Found…Davis Family Foundati…Saco & Biddeford Savi…Onion FoundationElmina B Sewall Found…Simmons Foundation - …Stephen & Tabitha Kin…Fisher Charitable Fou…Bangor Savings Bank F…Narragansett Number O…United Way Inc
Sam L Cohen FoundationME124.5× affinity59 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Sam L Cohen Foundation · Maine Community Foundation Inc · Davis Family Foundation · Saco & Biddeford Savings Charitable Foundation · Onion Foundation · Elmina B Sewall Foundation · Simmons Foundation - PerkinsThompson · Stephen & Tabitha King Foundation Inc · Fisher Charitable Foundation · Bangor Savings Bank Foundation · Narragansett Number One Foundation · United Way 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 Virginia Hodgkins Somers Foundation Inc 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%6%25%56%100%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 1%
  • Documentary Educational Resources Inc — 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
24report 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 130 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 2025, released 2025. 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 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