Maine · Nonprofit
CULTIVATING COMMUNITY
CULTIVATING COMMUNITY (Maine) receives grants from 61 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,649,109 to it, the largest being Maine Community Foundation Inc ($617,548). 34 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.4M
- Funders on record
- 61
- Grants received
- $3.6M
- Net assets
- $81k
What Cultivating Community does
Mission
To grow food justice in Greater Portland by providing education, resources, and opportunities to cultivate and share culturally familiar food.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Youth Leadership Internships & School Gardens that support hands-on outdoor learning for 3,000 elementary students and provide 50 multilingual nature-based skill and leadership development opportunities for youth in Portland Public High Schools.
$236,892 spentof which $21,900 as grants$3,411 earned by the program19% of program spendingUrban Agriculture with 11 Portland Community Gardens where 485+ neighbors grow food on public land, including open harvest gardens and orchards. We build community connections through free workshops, volunteer days, and events throughout the growing season.
$209,538 spentof which $520 as grants$78,357 earned by the program17% of program spendingCommunity Farm and Food Programs - Land, shared infrastructure, training, market development, 40,000 seedlings, and support for 50 immigrant and refugee farming families of color who produce over $500,000 of culturally familiar vegatables, including $115,000 for food pantries through Mainers Feeding Mainers and other funding sources.
$818,143 spentof which $69,796 as grants$232,477 earned by the program65% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,264,573.
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 $119k to $418k (+252%).
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 42% · 2022 38% · 2023 35% · 2024 32%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
78% of CULTIVATING COMMUNITY’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (94% 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.
Chief executive
Silvan Shawe
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 12 funders to 19 funders, grant income rose $244k → $389k.
11 of 61 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 45% 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 CULTIVATING COMMUNITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 61 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
CULTIVATING COMMUNITY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
57% 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 CULTIVATING COMMUNITY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 44% · 2018 28% · 2019 23% · 2020 19% · 2021 30% · 2022 11% · 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
43% of CULTIVATING COMMUNITY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
66% of CULTIVATING COMMUNITY's grant income comes from Maine funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
CULTIVATING COMMUNITY runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 1,130 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,130 food & nutrition nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding CULTIVATING COMMUNITY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $2.0M on record.
- Department of Agriculture$1.7M
- Department of Health and Human Services$300k
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 CULTIVATING COMMUNITY
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
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 CULTIVATING COMMUNITY: 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 CULTIVATING COMMUNITY?
- CULTIVATING COMMUNITY (Maine) receives grants from 61 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,649,109 to it, the largest being Maine Community Foundation Inc ($617,548). 34 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CULTIVATING COMMUNITY have?
- IRS filings report 61 organizations giving $3,649,109 in grants to CULTIVATING COMMUNITY, 34 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CULTIVATING COMMUNITY?
- Maine Community Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $617,548 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CULTIVATING COMMUNITY 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 61 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