Maine · Nonprofit
MAINE RIVERS
MAINE RIVERS (Maine) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,192,020 to it, the largest being Maine Community Foundation Inc ($688,425). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $853k
- Funders on record
- 23
- Grants received
- $2.2M
- Net assets
- $642k
What Maine Rivers does
Mission
Maine Rivers is a statewide advocacy organization. Our mission is to protect, restore and enhance the ecological health of Maine's river systems. We support and direct efforts to conserve and improve the health of Maine's rivers and waters. We work both independently and in conjunction with like-minded individuals, groups, organizations and other entities to protect and restore Maine's rivers.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Maine Rivers advocates for the health of Maine's rivers with policy-makers at all levels. We focus on water quality and fish passage, and take great interest in the impacts of climate change. We work with community members, land trusts, tribes, state and federal agencies. We review permits and coordinate meetings. We draft and submit letters, as well as technical review materials, to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Maine Department of Environmental Protection, and Bureau of Environmental Protection.We share scientific information as well as relevant news regarding local, state and national river milestones via social media, newsletters and email. We spoke about the value of river health to the Sebasticook Regional Land Trust, Washington Lakes Watershed Association, and the Webber Pond Association. We advise and coordinate with the Royal River Alliance, Mousam and Kennebunk Rivers Alliance, the Webber Pond Association, Megunticook Riverkeepers, Friends of the Presumpscot, Cobbossee Upstream and others. We offer technical support for the removal of the Stroudwater Dam in Portland. We are an active member of the Kennebec Coalition. We co-chair the Maine Stream Connectivity…
$48,493 spent$30,026 earned by the program7% of program spendingMaine Rivers is active directing and supporting on-the-ground restoration efforts to improve the health of waters in the Kennebec River watershed.This includes tributaries to the Sebasticook River flowing from Threemile Pond, Seaward Mills Stream and Webber Pond, as well as China Lake. Our efforts include attention to the Medomak River watershed where two impassible dams and improperly sized road culverts block fish passage for native sea-run fish species. We negotiated agreements for the rights to remove a high priority dam in Sabattus Stream and another high priority dam on Lemon Stream in the Sandy River watershed. Additionally we finalized an award for federal funding from NOAA that will bring +$12M for river restoration efforts in Maine's Merrymeeting Bay watersheds over three years.
$652,787 spent$741,218 earned by the program93% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $701,280.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 $267k to $537k (+101%).
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 45% · 2022 39% · 2023 3% · 2024 43% · 2025 60%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of MAINE RIVERS’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 5 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
A Landis Hudson
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 4 funders, grant income rose $65k → $165k.
4 of 23 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 47% 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 RIVERS’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 RIVERS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 31% of grant income and the top three 75%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
68% 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 RIVERS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 65% · 2018 59% · 2019 45% · 2020 38% · 2021 37% · 2022 41% · 2023 61% — 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
29% of MAINE RIVERS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
MAINE RIVERS draws 96% of its grant income from funders outside Maine, across 10 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.0M 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
MAINE RIVERS runs a healthier operating margin 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 MAINE RIVERS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $13.9M on record.
- Department of Commerce$13.5M
- Department of the Interior$412k
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 RIVERS
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
94% 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 RIVERS: 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 RIVERS?
- MAINE RIVERS (Maine) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,192,020 to it, the largest being Maine Community Foundation Inc ($688,425). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MAINE RIVERS have?
- IRS filings report 23 organizations giving $2,192,020 in grants to MAINE RIVERS, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MAINE RIVERS?
- Maine Community Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $688,425 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MAINE RIVERS 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 Rivers →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 23 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