Maine · Nonprofit
GROWSMART MAINE
GROWSMART MAINE (Maine) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $872,604 to it, the largest being Maine Community Foundation Inc ($318,100). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $728k
- Funders on record
- 18
- Grants received
- $873k
- Net assets
- $175k
What Growsmart Maine does
Mission
To build lasting prosperity without sacrificing the quality of life that defines maine.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
1) advocacy to support smart growth principles. Growsmart Maine engages in advocacy at the state level, as well as local and regional advocacy with statewide impact, while supporting federal initiatives through strategic partnerships. In fy 2025, growsmart convened the first year of policy action 2025, for the calendar years of 2025 and 2026. Co-led with build maine, the goal is to address barriers to and create incentives for equitable, sustainable growth and development that strengthen downtowns and villages of all sizes while pulling development pressure away from productive and open nature areas. Through crowdsourcing and an open process, a cross-sector of interests and organizations come together to advocate and provide information for shared policy priorities. Success is measured in successful legislation, but also in hosting necessary and difficult conversations, and building advocacy capacity with our allies while expanding relationships within our networks across the state. Growsmart Maine advocated for 14 bills and provided testimony on 9 bills related to farmland protection and farm viability, relating to smart growth principles.
$350,297 spent$52,790 earned by the program71% of program spending2) planning for agriculture the third year of our multi-year "planning for ag" partnership with the american farmland trust continues to respond to the alarming rate of farmland loss in maine to "low-density residential development- or sprawl. Growsmart Maine helps communities through technical assistance to address the housing crisis, without undoing the good work to address the climate crisis, and without creating the next crisis of access to farmland and food. The downeast food systems partnership provides a platform for developing joint goals and plans, conducting outreach to farming communities, coordinating with relevant actors within and outside the region, and accessing additional resources for implementing projects that promote an inclusive, innovative, and more integrated food system in the downeast region. The partnership has provided a framework to broaden our partnerships, expand our portfolio of community programs, and strengthen our capacity by hiring a part-time professional planner. Three areas of work fall under "planning for ag:" a.the community resilience partnership Growsmart Maine is a service provider for the community resilience partnership. The program was…
$61,259 spent$99,688 earned by the program12% of program spending3) kennebec broadband partnership the kbp, funded through the maine connectivity authority, the state entity responsible for bringing broadband infrastructure to all areas of maine, is dedicated to helping people in kennebec county access broadband and digital literacy. The third year of the kennebec broadband partnership (kbp) began in december 2024. Growsmart provided funds for one-on-one tech help in libraries across the county, the distribution of free devices, and helped people stay safe online. In fiscal year 2025, the kbp provided 26,000 in stipends to 7 organizations to support digital opportunity, tech help, and device procurement, and provided 47 devices at no cost to eligible individuals. We partnered with libraries and nonprofits to provide digital navigator services in kennebec county through march 2025, serving hundreds of people. The kbp held 11 fraud and scam prevention presentations serving 131 attendees.
$84,921 spent$222,385 earned by the program17% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $496,477.
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 2022 to 2023, from $188k to $460k (+145%).
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 22% · 2022 14% · 2024 19% · 2025 21%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
48% of GROWSMART MAINE’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Board chair
Jeff Levine
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $83k → $93k.
4 of 18 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 43% 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 GROWSMART MAINE’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
GROWSMART MAINE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 36% 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
55% 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 GROWSMART MAINE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 55% · 2018 49% · 2019 37% · 2020 71% · 2021 60% · 2022 50% · 2023 35% — 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
42% of GROWSMART MAINE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 44% 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
65% of GROWSMART 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. $379k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
GROWSMART MAINE has grown faster than half of the 2,433 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,433 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding GROWSMART MAINE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $501k on record — $501k federal, $125 state.
- Department of Agriculture$501k
- Registration for Meetings&Conf$125
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 GROWSMART 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
73% 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 GROWSMART 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 GROWSMART MAINE?
- GROWSMART MAINE (Maine) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $872,604 to it, the largest being Maine Community Foundation Inc ($318,100). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does GROWSMART MAINE have?
- IRS filings report 18 organizations giving $872,604 in grants to GROWSMART MAINE, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GROWSMART MAINE?
- Maine Community Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $318,100 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GROWSMART 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 Growsmart 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 18 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