Maine · Nonprofit
CHILDREN'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE OF MAINE
CHILDREN'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE OF MAINE (Maine) receives grants from 71 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,785,404 to it, the largest being LUNDER FOUNDATION ($763,030). 41 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.2M
- Funders on record
- 71
- Grants received
- $3.8M
- Net assets
- $12M
What Children's Museum and Theatre of Maine does
Mission
At the children's museum & theatre of maine, we set the stage for every child to imagine and learn through play.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Everyone belongs at the children's museum & theatre of maine. We believe each person has value and worth; we celebrate what makes each of us unique and what binds us together as a strong community. We center community in all we do. We strive to be an inclusive partner and resource in order to build strong, lasting relationships. We provide safe, inclusive experiences and spaces to ensure that the community's trust is earned and upheld in all that we do. We embrace the power of play to build resilience, spark creativity, and ignite a child's imagination. Play inspires our work, our physical spaces, our storytelling, and our learning experiences. We believe curiosity inspires children to explore, build empathy, and connect with others. Learning fueled by curiosity leads to a deeper understanding of self and the world around us. Visitor engagement - over 200,000 visitors come to the museum on an annual basis. The visitor engagement department provides for a safe and clean building in which to present educational exhibits and programs.
$979,749 spent$1,871,220 earned by the program36% of program spendingTheatre - theatre provides opportunities for young audiences to experience performances designed for family audiences. Theatre programs also allow young actors to participate in an ensemble and develop their skills.
$602,424 spent22% of program spendingEducational - the museum provides educational programming for children and families through on site programs and outreach to schools and community organizations. The programs are directly tied to the exhibits' learning areas and include science, arts, theatre and live animals.
$799,900 spent30% of program spendingExhibits - exhibits and programs allow children the opportunity to learn through discovery. All exhibits and programs focus on our four primary learning areas: stem, early childhood education, arts and culture education, and theatre. Aquarium exhibits feature live animals from maine ecosystems for accessible environmental science learning opportunities.
$303,770 spent11% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,685,843.
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 2020 to 2021, from $13M to $18M (+35%).
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: 2021 8% · 2022 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
53% of CHILDREN'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE OF MAINE’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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 8 funders to 32 funders, grant income rose $129k → $549k.
15 of 71 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 37% 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 CHILDREN'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE OF MAINE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 71 funders by total. 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
CHILDREN'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE OF MAINE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
47% 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 CHILDREN'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE OF MAINE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 79% · 2018 21% · 2019 30% · 2020 27% · 2021 35% · 2022 27% · 2023 22% — 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
47% of CHILDREN'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE OF MAINE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
77% of CHILDREN'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE OF MAINE's grant income comes from Maine funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
CHILDREN'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE OF MAINE's funding base is broadening — from 8 funders to 32 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding CHILDREN'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE OF MAINE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $874k on record.
- Environmental Protection Agency$500k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$224k
- National Endowment for the Arts$150k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like CHILDREN'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE OF MAINE
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
57% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
88%
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 CHILDREN'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE OF MAINE: 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 CHILDREN'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE OF MAINE?
- CHILDREN'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE OF MAINE (Maine) receives grants from 71 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,785,404 to it, the largest being LUNDER FOUNDATION ($763,030). 41 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CHILDREN'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE OF MAINE have?
- IRS filings report 71 organizations giving $3,785,404 in grants to CHILDREN'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE OF MAINE, 41 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CHILDREN'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE OF MAINE?
- LUNDER FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $763,030 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CHILDREN'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE OF MAINE 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 Children's Museum and Theatre 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 71 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing