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Maine · Nonprofit

Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad and Industrial Heritage Trust

Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad and Industrial Heritage Trust (Maine) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $46,058 to it, the largest being WISCASSET WATERVILLE & FARMINGTON RAILWAY MUSEUM ($17,767). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$1.8M
Funders on record
6
Grants received
$46k
Net assets
$1.7M
3/6 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 2%
01What it does

What Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad and Industrial Heritage Trust does

Mission

The Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Company & Museum preserves and operates hstoric two-foot gauge railroad equipment for the education and enjoyment of the public.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Program

  1. Our extensive collection of historic Maine two-foot narrow gauge railroad locomotives, cars, photograhphs, records, and artifacts allows us to display and interpret them as museum exhibits for the education of the public. More importantly, we operate locomotives and cars that carry our visitors on a living history trip back in time to what rural Maine was like in the period 1879 to 1943.

    $1,521,643 spent$680,493 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,521,643.

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. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($581k) Expenses 100 ($557k) Net assets 100 ($1.1M)2018 Revenue 139 ($809k) Expenses 121 ($674k) Net assets 112 ($1.3M)2020 Revenue 161 ($938k) Expenses 144 ($801k) Net assets 108 ($1.2M)2021 Revenue 80 ($465k) Expenses 110 ($615k) Net assets 95 ($1.1M)2022 Revenue 212 ($1.2M) Expenses 125 ($697k) Net assets 143 ($1.6M)2024 Revenue 317 ($1.8M) Expenses 334 ($1.9M) Net assets 152 ($1.7M)
201720182020202120222024
Revenue (317)Expenses (334)Net assets (152)Peer revenue range

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 $1.7M to $2.2M (+31%).

$1.3M
$1.7M
$1.7M
$1.7M
$2.2M
$1.9M
201720182020202120222024
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
2020
2021
2022
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 33% · 2022 30% · 2024 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

3% of Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad and Industrial Heritage Trust’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (67% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 498 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.

$23k
’17
$135k
’18
$136k
’20
−$150k
’21
$536k
’22
−$23k
’24
6.0
months of
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

Griffin Bourassa

Executive Director

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

201720182020202120222024
Listed109101098
Joined·+3·+1+5·
No longer listed·4·16·
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2019 → 2023: the base held at 2 funders, grant income fell $11k → $3k.

3 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 44% 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 Narrow Gauge Railroad and Industrial Heritage Trust’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

Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad and Industrial Heritage Trust leans on a few funders — its largest provides 39% of grant income and the top three 82%; half comes from just 2 funders.

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

83% 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 Narrow Gauge Railroad and Industrial Heritage Trust.

39%
largest funder
82%
top three
~4
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 55% · 2020 59% · 2021 51% · 2022 100% · 2023 99% — 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.

Where its funders are

81% of Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad and Industrial Heritage Trust's grant income comes from Maine funders.

ME
OH

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

’19
’20
’21
’23
Maine out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $20k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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

Against its field

Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad and Industrial Heritage Trust is better cushioned than half of the 482 science & tech nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−1% · below the median
Months of reserve6.0mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)18% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 482 science & tech nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

Organizations like Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad and Industrial Heritage Trust

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.

Where the money goes

82% of spending goes to programs.

Program 82%Management 13%Fundraising 5%

Governance

7
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

64%

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 Narrow Gauge Railroad and Industrial Heritage Trust: 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 Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad and Industrial Heritage Trust?
Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad and Industrial Heritage Trust (Maine) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $46,058 to it, the largest being WISCASSET WATERVILLE & FARMINGTON RAILWAY MUSEUM ($17,767). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad and Industrial Heritage Trust have?
IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $46,058 in grants to Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad and Industrial Heritage Trust, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad and Industrial Heritage Trust?
WISCASSET WATERVILLE & FARMINGTON RAILWAY MUSEUM is the largest funder on record, with $17,767 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad and Industrial Heritage Trust 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 Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad and Industrial Heritage →

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 6 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