Maine · Nonprofit
Brooks Preservation Society
Brooks Preservation Society (Maine) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,206 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($10,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $577k
- Funders on record
- 3
- Grants received
- $17k
- Net assets
- $886k
What Brooks Preservation Society does
Mission
Preserve, Maintain, Operate the Belfast Moosehead Lake Railroad
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Preserve, Maintain, Operate the Belfast Moosehead Lake Railroad. 2024 concluded with over 13,000 passengers attending our events including over 4,800 using the train for the Common Ground County Fair. A number of track improvement projects were completed including the surfacing of 5 miles of the operating territory and the re decking of the Unity Bridge. We continue to make improvements in the non operating territory between Brooks and Thorndike. The Railroad completed improvements to its leased space at 212 Depot Street and now has a Gift Shop, Ticketing station, and kitchen to support our food based events. The Railroad received a generous donation of land and money from a lifetime member. The land being the site of the former Thorndike Engine house which was damaged beyond repair by the December 2023 wind storm. The society also received a donation of a rare Bangor and Aroostook RR scale car.
$296,254 spent$341,995 earned by the program85% of program spendingRailcycle Program - Operations moved to Belfast and operated by staff. The operation got off to a late start due to the move and saw around 450 riders.
$6,923 spent$12,932 earned by the program2% of program spendingLocomotive Program - Repairs Maintenance 1483 remains our primary locomotive. 1950 is our backup unit. The railroad entered into an arrangement to obtain an SW1 locomotive 705 for storage and maintenance. Special idler trucks were rented to allow for the movement of the locomotive over the rail network to Unity Maine. It is hoped that this locomotive will become the primary unit for our excursion trains.
$22,205 spent6% of program spendingProgram Service Expenses 22,670, Grants and allocations 0, Revenue 0 MOW Program - Used the TKO tie inserter for the first time this year. The machine is less versatile than the Fairmont but provides another machine for production work. The year ended with the acquisition of a used Case Tractor Backhoe and pickup truck from State Surplus.
$22,670 spent7% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $348,052.
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 2020 to 2021, from $1.2M to $1.4M (+18%).
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: 2020 14% · 2021 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
29% of Brooks Preservation Society’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. 1 of the last 5 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.
Chief executive
Joey Feero
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base held at 2 funders, grant income fell $1k → $1k.
2 of 3 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 59% 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 Brooks Preservation Society’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
Brooks Preservation Society leans on a few funders — its largest provides 58% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
59% 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 Brooks Preservation Society.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 94% · 2021 95% · 2022 90% · 2023 97% — growing more concentrated.
“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
59% of Brooks Preservation Society'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 $7k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from Maine funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $10k 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
Brooks Preservation Society 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 Brooks Preservation Society
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
100% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
93%
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 Brooks Preservation Society: 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 Brooks Preservation Society?
- Brooks Preservation Society (Maine) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,206 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($10,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Brooks Preservation Society have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $17,206 in grants to Brooks Preservation Society, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Brooks Preservation Society?
- NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $10,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Brooks Preservation Society 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 Brooks Preservation Society →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2020–2024), and the filings of 3 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