Maine · Nonprofit
Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries
Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries (Maine) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,661,245 to it, the largest being Maine Community Foundation Inc ($2,551,858). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 62% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.0M
- Funders on record
- 55
- Grants received
- $5.7M
- Net assets
- $1.6M
What Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries does
Mission
Secure a sustainable future for fisheries and fishing communities in Eastern Maine and beyond.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Education programs include the Eastern Maine Skippers Program which is the major educational program of the Organization. The Organization serves as fiscal and organizational home for the collaborative program that provides aspiring commercial fishermen in eastern Maine high schools and in their early careers with the core knowledge and skills needed to be successful in the 21st century, on the water or in other careers. It prepares students to be effective participants in fisheries co-management roles: as fishermen, scientists, or regulators. (Continues on schedule O)Education also includes the Organization's Fisheries Education Center at its waterfront headquarters, with touch tank, interactive wall, and a virtual reality experience that provides fisheries information for all ages. Additional educational outreach to the public includes a summer internship program, a monthly Lunch and Learn webinar series, a weekly newspaper column, and hosting college field trips.
$245,275 spentof which $69,070 as grants$11,940 earned by the program22% of program spendingConvening programs include all of the Organization's outreach to fishermen, its River Herring (Alewife) restoration, activities, support for community shellfish co-management, and collaboration on watershed restoration initiatives with the Downeast Fisheries Partnership.
$157,812 spentof which $20,420 as grants14% of program spendingScience programs include the Organization's ongoing work with the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Maine Dept. of Marine Resources in community outreach, asset mapping and data management to develop the research framework to support a co-managed, ecosystem-based fisheries management pilot in eastern Maine. it includes all of the Organization's collaborative research including Sentinel Survey, lobster research, investigation of larval scallop distribution in support of scallop aquaculture, and coastal ocean observation and monitoring in collaboration with the Passamaquoddy.
$728,112 spentof which $169,928 as grants64% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,131,199.
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 2017 to 2018, from $3.1M to $2.5M (−20%).
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: 2017 1% · 2018 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 35% · 2021 18% · 2022 21% · 2023 13% · 2024 34% · 2025 51%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (67% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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
Alexa Dayton
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2021 and FY2022 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 12 funders to 22 funders, grant income rose $512k → $727k.
8 of 55 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 62% 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 Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 55 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
Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries leans on a few funders — its largest provides 45% of grant income and the top three 61%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
72% 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 Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 54% · 2018 38% · 2019 50% · 2020 51% · 2021 59% · 2022 55% · 2023 57% — 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
43% of Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
63% of Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries'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 $2.1M that is directly attributable, 91% of it comes from funders outside Maine, across 17 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 210 science & tech nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 210 science & tech nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.6M on record.
- Department of Commerce$941k
- Department of Health and Human Services$656k
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$48k
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 Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries
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
64% 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 Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries: 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 Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries?
- Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries (Maine) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,661,245 to it, the largest being Maine Community Foundation Inc ($2,551,858). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 62% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries have?
- IRS filings report 55 organizations giving $5,661,245 in grants to Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries, 35 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries?
- Maine Community Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $2,551,858 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 55 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