Maine · Nonprofit
BELFAST FLYING SHOES INC
BELFAST FLYING SHOES INC (Maine) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $219,050 to it, the largest being THE ANONIMO FOUNDATION ($137,300). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $154k
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $219k
- Net assets
- $59k
What Belfast Flying Shoes Inc does
Mission
The mission of Belfast Flying Shoes is to build community and cultivate well-being through the joy of traditional music and dance for people of all backgrounds and identities in Midcoast Maine.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Programs
First Friday Dance Series: Every month we produce a Community Dance with an All Comers Band (open to all ages, instruments and skill levels) followed by a Contra Dance with various callers and musicians. We produced 12 two-part dances in 2025. An average of 240 people participated each month (children, adults, volunteer musicians in the All Comers Band, and arts professionals.)
$32,136 spent31% of program spendingFlying Shoes Radio Hour and Podcast: A weekly contra dance music show on WBFY-Belfast Community Radio and a podcast featuring conversations and tunes with contra dance musicians. In 2025 we aired 52 radio programs and released 5 podcast episodes.
$7,127 spent7% of program spendingRe-entry Center Program: We offer participatory music and dance programs to residents at the Maine Coastal Regional Reentry Center, an institution that gives incarcerated men the skills they need to live successfully as citizens and employees after they transition into their communities. In 2025, we provided 62 music lessons on guitar, fiddle, banjo, and harmonica for 10 individual residents at the Reentry Center. We hosted one dance with 7 participants, and later paused the dance portion of this program.
$4,464 spent4% of program spendingSchool Residencies: We use participatory dance and music to build community, cultivate social/emotional learning, and integrate with the curriculum in PreK-12 schools. We also donate resources, including instruments and teaching materials. In 2025, we provided PreK-Gr5 dance & music programming involving 274 students, staff & family members from Belfast, Belmont, Morrill, Searsmont, Swanville; Cushing; and the island communities of Chebeague, Cliff Island, the Cranberry Isles, Frenchboro, Isle au Haut, Matinicus, and Monhegan.
$3,021 spent3% of program spendingPrograms for Older Adults: Our community-building music and movement programs for older adults include "Sing Along and Tap Your Toes" concerts of songs that resonate with this age demographic. We partner with retirement residences, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities. In 2025, we presented a concert for older adults at a residential facility, with 2 musicians and 45 older adult participants.
$372 spent0% of program spendingOther Programs: We produce a wide variety of programs beyond our core offerings, some in partnership with other organizations. In 2025, we reached 2,464 participants. Programs included 28 other dances (4 contra, 5 English country, 2 barn, 4 outdoor, 9 square, and 4 other); 5 workshops (calling, music, song, dancing, and fundraising); 2 concerts; 5 youth jam sessions; and a professional development opportunity at the MAHPERD conference. We also acted as fiscal sponsor for a regional conference for dance organizers, Puttin' On the Dance. Additional expenses include those that are not allocated to one particular program, such as insurance, certain promotional and advertising expenses, and website expenses.
$58,160 spent55% of program spending
The 6 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $105,280.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2021 to 2022, from $35k to $53k (+51%).
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.
59% of BELFAST FLYING SHOES INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.
Leadership and staff
Chief executive
Christine Fowler
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $10k → $30k.
2 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 22% 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 BELFAST FLYING SHOES INC’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
BELFAST FLYING SHOES INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 63% of grant income and the top three 91%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2019 59% · 2020 100% · 2021 65% · 2022 45% · 2023 75% — 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.
Where its funders are
100% of BELFAST FLYING SHOES INC's grant income comes from Maine funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $48k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
BELFAST FLYING SHOES INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like BELFAST FLYING SHOES INC
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.
Public support
54%
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 BELFAST FLYING SHOES INC: 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 BELFAST FLYING SHOES INC?
- BELFAST FLYING SHOES INC (Maine) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $219,050 to it, the largest being THE ANONIMO FOUNDATION ($137,300). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BELFAST FLYING SHOES INC have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $219,050 in grants to BELFAST FLYING SHOES INC, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BELFAST FLYING SHOES INC?
- THE ANONIMO FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $137,300 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BELFAST FLYING SHOES INC 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 Belfast Flying Shoes →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 5 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