Maine · Nonprofit
Rural Aspirations Project
Rural Aspirations Project (Maine) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $924,800 to it, the largest being Elmina B Sewall Foundation ($500,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $507k
- Funders on record
- 12
- Grants received
- $925k
- Net assets
- $306k
What Rural Aspirations Project does
Mission
To expand educational opportunities that develop and honor community while stimulating the innate curiosity of students and teachers.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Responsive professional development: Statewide services offering responsive professional development for rural teachers and administrators. Work with rural schools to provide professional development for teachers, administrators, and support staff based on the unique needs of the particular school or collection of schools within a region. Services range from cirriculum development with one teacher for one program to whole school re-design with community integration. In 2024, we served 21 schools, 28 administrators and 239 teachers and support staff, impacting 2,900 students.
$160,741 spent$205,390 earned by the program39% of program spendingCollaborative programs: Maine forest collaborative - Education coordination for statewide programming and curriculum. To develop project based learning programs tied to rural community development needs. Services include development of the Maine forest collaborative, a program that served 6 schools, 6 teachers, and 79 students.
$105,707 spent$51,351 earned by the program26% of program spendingWCYLC (Washington County Youth Leadership Program)- This hands-on, community-based civic engagement project brings together students and teachers from middle and high schools across Washington County to explore relevant civic issues facing their local communities. Community partners and municipal leaders will work with school teams as they research the challenge topic, gather feedback and input from other community members, and present possible solutions to decision makers. 8 schools, 9 teachers.
$82,315 spent20% of program spendingNetworks: RAP Networks develops and participates in statewide or regional networks to identity collaborative strategies to support rural schools. Services included participation on several statewide networks, including FOR/Maine, Maine West and the Washington County School Partnership Group. We facilitate the Northern Maine Outdoor Education Cohort with 8 teachers from 8 schools, with 50 teachers and 3 community partners.
$58,024 spent$8,561 earned by the program14% of program spendingMaine Civics Network- Fiscal Sponsorship
$7,016 spent$1,825 earned by the program2% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $413,803.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2021 to 2022, from $178k to $302k (+70%).
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 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
47% of Rural Aspirations Project’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Korah Soll
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 6 funders, grant income rose $43k → $198k.
1 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 3% 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 Rural Aspirations Project’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
Rural Aspirations Project leans on a few funders — its largest provides 54% of grant income and the top three 76%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
26% 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 Rural Aspirations Project.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 83% · 2022 81% · 2023 63% — 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
50% of Rural Aspirations Project's funders are still giving 1 year after their first grant; 50% 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
71% of Rural Aspirations Project's grant income comes from Maine funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $25k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
Rural Aspirations Project has grown faster than three-quarters of the 22,812 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 22,812 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like Rural Aspirations Project
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
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 Rural Aspirations Project: 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 Rural Aspirations Project?
- Rural Aspirations Project (Maine) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $924,800 to it, the largest being Elmina B Sewall Foundation ($500,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Rural Aspirations Project have?
- IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $924,800 in grants to Rural Aspirations Project, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Rural Aspirations Project?
- Elmina B Sewall Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $500,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Rural Aspirations Project 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 Rural Aspirations Project →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2020–2024), and the filings of 12 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