Maine · Nonprofit
Fair Tide
Fair Tide (Maine) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,316,781 to it, the largest being New Hampshire Charitable Foundation ($1,268,900). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 80% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.6M
- Funders on record
- 27
- Grants received
- $2.3M
- Net assets
- $8.0M
What Fair Tide does
Mission
Fair Tide's mission is to reduce homelessness by providing Housing and support services to individuals and families in the seacoast. Through Fair Tide's permanent housing program, homeless households benefit from intensive case management services coupled with a safe and stable place to live. Fair Tide also operates a thrift store which provides revenue for the programming and a valuable resource for the local community.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Fair Tide moved 11 individuals from homelessness into permanent housing. Additionally, provided ongoing support for 30 households and distributed money in emergency assistance to help folks stay current with their bills and secure in their homes. Fair Tide is also the co-founder of Mainspring, a social service collective that brings multiple nonprofit organizations together under one roof to offer coordinated services.
$886,181 spent$146,313 earned by the program100% of program spendingThe Fair Tide Thrift Store provides critical funding for our mission to house and support homeless households. The Thrift Store also acts as a resource for our housing program residents and other members of the community in need of quality housewares and clothing at an affordable price.
$332,270 earned by the programIn development - a 12-unit housing project on Old Post Road in Kittery, Maine as well as a recovery house project in Dover, New Hampshire.
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $886,181.
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 2024 to 2025, from $5.5M to $8.6M (+57%).
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 13% · 2022 65% · 2023 8% · 2024 24% · 2025 57%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
87% of Fair Tide’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (39% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 9 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
Emily Flinkstrom
Executive Director
Board chair
Ali Goodwin
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 16 funders, grant income rose $29k → $1.5M.
10 of 27 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 80% 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 Fair Tide’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
Fair Tide leans on a few funders — its largest provides 55% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
88% 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 Fair Tide.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 61% · 2018 49% · 2019 76% · 2020 45% · 2021 39% · 2022 33% · 2023 77% — 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.
How long its funders stay
89% of Fair Tide's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% 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
80% of Fair Tide'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 $461k that is directly attributable, 64% 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. $1.9M 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
Fair Tide runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 2,196 housing & shelter nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,196 housing & shelter nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding Fair Tide receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.0M on record.
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$1.0M
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 Fair Tide
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
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
67%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Fair Tide: 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 Fair Tide?
- Fair Tide (Maine) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,316,781 to it, the largest being New Hampshire Charitable Foundation ($1,268,900). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 80% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Fair Tide have?
- IRS filings report 27 organizations giving $2,316,781 in grants to Fair Tide, 19 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Fair Tide?
- New Hampshire Charitable Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $1,268,900 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Fair Tide 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 Fair Tide →
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 27 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