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Maine · Nonprofit

FRIENDS OF SCARBOROUGH MARSH

FRIENDS OF SCARBOROUGH MARSH (Maine) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $83,597 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($27,050). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2023
$21k
Funders on record
9
Grants received
$84k
Net assets
$0
4/9 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 66%
01What it does

What Friends of Scarborough Marsh does

Mission

To conserve, potect, restore and enhance the Scarborough Marsh and educate the public about it.

As stated on its FY2023 Form 990-EZ.

Programs

  1. PUBLIC OUTREACHPartnered with the Scarborough Public Library on our Scarborough Marsh Lecture Series covering a variety of topics relating to the marshSet up Climate Change Observatories on the Eastern Trail with Southern Maine Conservation CollaborativeUpdated another one thousand Scarborough Marsh Recreation & Resource Maps due to enthusiastic demandPublished four seasonal newsletters via emailPartnered with the Maine Audubon on Scarborough grade school programs and marsh cleanupsSponsored a High School marsh photo contest

    $20,671 spentof which $10,000 as grants
    11% of program spending
  2. RESTORATIONConducted our fifth field season of water quality monitoring in eight marsh tributary streams and rivers in partnership with the Maine DEP Volunteer River Monitoring ProgramSupported a USM study on the invasive plant Phragmites effect on salt marsh biomass and diversity and a U Maine study on how tidal flow restrictions from bridges and roads may affect salt marsh carbon storageConducted our own scientific field studies to advance understanding of the invasive Phragmites reed problem in the marsh focused on soil salinity at eleven research sites. Awarded grants to UNE and USM for student research

    $9,170 spent
    5% of program spending
  3. LAND CONSERVATIONWorked with the Scarborough Land Trust to support their efforts on land acquisition along the Scarborough Marsh and its tributaries.Merger effective December 2023.

    $161,594 spentof which $161,594 as grants
    84% of program spending

The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $191,435.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($44k) Expenses 100 ($20k) Net assets 100 ($336k)2018 Revenue 78 ($34k) Expenses 159 ($32k) Net assets 101 ($338k)2019 Revenue 66 ($29k) Expenses 203 ($41k) Net assets 97 ($327k)2020 Revenue 76 ($34k) Expenses 77 ($16k) Net assets 103 ($345k)2021 Revenue 124 ($55k) Expenses 249 ($50k) Net assets 104 ($349k)2022 Revenue 142 ($63k) Expenses 1174 ($238k) Net assets 52 ($174k)2023 Revenue 48 ($21k) Expenses 966 ($196k) Net assets 0 ($0)
2017201820192020202120222023
Revenue (48)Expenses (966)Net assets (0)

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 $349k to $174k (−50%).

$336k
$338k
$327k
$345k
$349k
$174k
$0
2017201820192020202120222023
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.

$24k
’17
$2k
’18
−$12k
’19
$18k
’20
$4k
’21
−$175k
’22
−$174k
’23
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base held at 2 funders, grant income fell $15k → $14k.

5 of 9 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 57% 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 FRIENDS OF SCARBOROUGH MARSH’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

FRIENDS OF SCARBOROUGH MARSH leans on a few funders — its largest provides 32% of grant income and the top three 66%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

78% 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 FRIENDS OF SCARBOROUGH MARSH.

32%
largest funder
66%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 50% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 98% · 2021 57% · 2022 50% · 2023 100% — 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

40% of FRIENDS OF SCARBOROUGH MARSH's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 44% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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

57% of FRIENDS OF SCARBOROUGH MARSH'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 $36k that is directly attributable, 51% of it comes from funders outside Maine, across 2 states.

ME
MA

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
Maine out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $47k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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.

04Its place in the field

Organizations like FRIENDS OF SCARBOROUGH MARSH

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Public support

81%

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 FRIENDS OF SCARBOROUGH MARSH: 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.

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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 FRIENDS OF SCARBOROUGH MARSH?
FRIENDS OF SCARBOROUGH MARSH (Maine) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $83,597 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($27,050). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 57% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does FRIENDS OF SCARBOROUGH MARSH have?
IRS filings report 9 organizations giving $83,597 in grants to FRIENDS OF SCARBOROUGH MARSH, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of FRIENDS OF SCARBOROUGH MARSH?
FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $27,050 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like FRIENDS OF SCARBOROUGH MARSH 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 Friends of Scarborough Marsh →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2023 (financials across 2017–2023), and the filings of 9 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