Maine · Nonprofit
AMERICAN LIGHTHOUSE FOUNDATION
AMERICAN LIGHTHOUSE FOUNDATION (Maine) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $804,458 to it, the largest being THE RHODE ISLAND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($463,244). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 99% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $788k
- Funders on record
- 18
- Grants received
- $804k
- Net assets
- $2.7M
What American Lighthouse Foundation does
Mission
The mission of the American Lighthouse Foundation is to save and preserve our nation's historic light stations and their rich heritage. This will be accomplished through the restoration, promotion, and adaptive re-use of america's historic light stations, as well as educational initiatives that foster the sustainable preservation of lighthouses and perpetuate the legacy of the men and women who have tended them.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Restoration and maintenance of lighthouses as historical and educational sites, teaching lighthouse and maritime history, and preservation and saving artifacts in a museum for all the public to enjoy and learn from.
$434,357 spent$39,500 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $434,357.
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.
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 $2.6M to $2.8M (+8%).
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2018 23% · 2020 10% · 2021 9% · 2022 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
83% of AMERICAN LIGHTHOUSE FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $127k → $207k.
6 of 18 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 99% 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 LIGHTHOUSE 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 LIGHTHOUSE FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 58% of grant income and the top three 86%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
99% 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 LIGHTHOUSE FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 79% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 98% · 2021 99% · 2022 70% · 2023 52% — 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
33% of AMERICAN LIGHTHOUSE FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 44% give in more than one year at all.
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
99% of AMERICAN LIGHTHOUSE FOUNDATION's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $6k that is directly attributable, 76% of it comes from funders outside Maine, across 8 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $799k 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.
Against its field
AMERICAN LIGHTHOUSE FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like AMERICAN LIGHTHOUSE 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
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AMERICAN LIGHTHOUSE 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.
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 LIGHTHOUSE FOUNDATION?
- AMERICAN LIGHTHOUSE FOUNDATION (Maine) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $804,458 to it, the largest being THE RHODE ISLAND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($463,244). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 99% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does AMERICAN LIGHTHOUSE FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 18 organizations giving $804,458 in grants to AMERICAN LIGHTHOUSE FOUNDATION, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AMERICAN LIGHTHOUSE FOUNDATION?
- THE RHODE ISLAND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $463,244 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AMERICAN LIGHTHOUSE 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.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 18 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