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Maine · Nonprofit

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF MAINE FOUNDATION

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF MAINE FOUNDATION (Maine) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,264,811 to it, the largest being AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION INC ($1,205,500). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$2.7M
Funders on record
17
Grants received
$3.3M
Net assets
$7.1M
13/17 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 32%
01What it does

What American Civil Liberties Union of Maine Foundation does

Mission

The purpose of aclu of maine foundation is to advance and protect the civil liberties and human and civil rights provided under the constitutions and laws of the state of maine and the united states. The foundation is a non-partisan organization that uses litigation, education, communications, engagement programs, and advocacy to achieve its purpose.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Legal program - the aclu of maine's legal program is central to our civil liberties work. Over the past year, we won an important legal victory at the trial court level in our ongoing class action lawsuit to vindicate the right to counsel (robbins v. State of maine). We worked closely with national aclu and affiliate partners on litigation in a range of cases, including pasula v. Department of homeland security, smith v. Trump, new hampshire indonesian community support v. Trump, and barbara v. Trump. We also advocated at the maine supreme judicial court and won criminal procedure protections under the maine state constitution that go beyond those currently afforded under the us constitution in state of maine v. Derric mclain.

    $1,209,678 spent
    80% of program spending
  2. Public education - the aclu of maine's public education program raises awareness of the importance of the constitution, the concepts that underlie its provisions, and how its protections impact the daily lives of all people in maine. We supported the legal department's work by publicizing important lawsuits, amicus briefs, and open records requests in the press and on social media, including robbins v. State of maine, pasula v. Department of homeland security, smith v. Trump, and barbara v. Trump. We also raised awareness on issues such as the treatment of unhoused residents in several municipalities, state cooperation with immigration and customs enforcement (ice), treatment of transgender students in schools, and more. Additionally, we created new and updated existing know your rights print and web-based materials covering many important topics, including voting, interacting with ice, interacting with police, protesting, students' rights at schools, teachers' free speech rights, and more. This year we worked to improve access to these materials by offering more of them in a range of languages that are spoken in maine. We continued to maintain our dashboard that is regularly…

    $302,420 spent
    20% of program spending

The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,512,098.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($1.5M) Expenses 100 ($791k) Net assets 100 ($2.9M)2018 Revenue 91 ($1.3M) Expenses 148 ($1.2M) Net assets 110 ($3.1M)2019 Revenue 113 ($1.7M) Expenses 157 ($1.2M) Net assets 114 ($3.3M)2020 Revenue 117 ($1.7M) Expenses 186 ($1.5M) Net assets 121 ($3.5M)2021 Revenue 154 ($2.3M) Expenses 191 ($1.5M) Net assets 159 ($4.5M)2022 Revenue 133 ($2.0M) Expenses 216 ($1.7M) Net assets 168 ($4.8M)2023 Revenue 130 ($1.9M) Expenses 214 ($1.7M) Net assets 173 ($4.9M)2024 Revenue 228 ($3.4M) Expenses 247 ($2.0M) Net assets 227 ($6.5M)2025 Revenue 185 ($2.7M) Expenses 281 ($2.2M) Net assets 250 ($7.1M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (185)Expenses (281)Net assets (250)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $5.5M to $7.5M (+38%).

$3.0M
$3.5M
$3.3M
$3.5M
$4.7M
$5.3M
$5.5M
$7.5M
$7.7M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

How it's funded, over time

Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

96% of AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF MAINE FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (97% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 1,024 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$686k
’17
$182k
’18
$433k
’19
$252k
’20
$773k
’21
$256k
’22
$225k
’23
$1.4M
’24
$517k
’25
22
months of
reserve

Leadership and staff

The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed6620131615141114
Joined·+1+14+1+3+0+5+3+5
No longer listed·10801662
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $66k → $317k.

6 of 17 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 36% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

From the IRS filings of AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF MAINE FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How concentrated its funding is

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF MAINE FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 37% of grant income and the top three 66%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

79% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF MAINE FOUNDATION.

37%
largest funder
66%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 32% · 2018 47% · 2019 36% · 2020 33% · 2021 48% · 2022 33% · 2023 24% — diversifying over time.

“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How long its funders stay

82% of AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF MAINE FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 76% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.

Where its funders are

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF MAINE FOUNDATION draws 77% of its grant income from funders outside Maine, across 5 states in all.

ME
NY
MA
CA
DE

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Maine out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 6 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF MAINE FOUNDATION holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 431 civil rights nonprofits its size.

Operating margin19% · above the median
Months of reserve22.0mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)8% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 431 civil rights nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF MAINE FOUNDATION

Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In Maine

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

68% of spending goes to programs.

Program 68%Management 15%Fundraising 17%

Governance

13
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

95%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Part of a family of 1 related entity

  • ACLU of Maine · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF MAINE FOUNDATION: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.

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Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF MAINE FOUNDATION?
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF MAINE FOUNDATION (Maine) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,264,811 to it, the largest being AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION INC ($1,205,500). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF MAINE FOUNDATION have?
IRS filings report 17 organizations giving $3,264,811 in grants to AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF MAINE FOUNDATION, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF MAINE FOUNDATION?
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,205,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF MAINE FOUNDATION find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maine. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.

Play a game about who funds American Civil Liberties Union of Maine →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 17 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing