Maine · Nonprofit
SHAW INSTITUTE
SHAW INSTITUTE (Maine) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,091,540 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,545,950). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 94% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $539k
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $2.1M
- Net assets
- $644k
What Shaw Institute does
Mission
To discover and expose environmental threats to people and wildlife through innovative science and to engage in global partnerships to improve human and ecological health. The institute produces scientific research that drives change and inspires solutions to pressing environmental health issues.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Research, outreach & education - the institute continues to expand its research programs locally and globally. Focus areas include: human exposure, plastics & microplastics, climate change in the gulf of maine, and chemical threats to health and environment. Shaw scientists translate and disseminate research findings to state and national policymakers and the public in support of legislative initiatives to protect the environment and public health. Shaw's lecture series, website, social media, and internship program increase public awareness and understanding of the impacts of harmful exposures to plastics, microplastics and toxic chemicals, and the human and ecologic impacts of climate change.
$333,257 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $333,257.
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 $605k to $788k (+30%).
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: 2020 17% · 2021 30% · 2024 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of SHAW INSTITUTE’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. 5 of the last 7 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
Matthew Newton
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 6 funders, grant income rose $139k → $298k.
4 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 94% 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 SHAW INSTITUTE’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
SHAW INSTITUTE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 74% of grant income and the top three 92%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
94% 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 SHAW INSTITUTE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 88% · 2018 53% · 2019 91% · 2020 80% · 2021 87% · 2022 96% · 2023 71% — 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
36% of SHAW INSTITUTE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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
94% of SHAW INSTITUTE'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 $128k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Maine, across 7 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.0M 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.
Against its field
SHAW INSTITUTE has grown faster than half of the 4,266 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,266 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding SHAW INSTITUTE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $124k on record.
- Department of Commerce$124k
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 SHAW INSTITUTE
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
57% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
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 SHAW INSTITUTE: 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 SHAW INSTITUTE?
- SHAW INSTITUTE (Maine) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,091,540 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($1,545,950). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 94% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does SHAW INSTITUTE have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $2,091,540 in grants to SHAW INSTITUTE, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SHAW INSTITUTE?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $1,545,950 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SHAW INSTITUTE 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 Shaw Institute →
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 16 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing