Maine · Nonprofit
The Iris Network
The Iris Network (Maine) receives grants from 39 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,631,064 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($373,550). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.9M
- Funders on record
- 39
- Grants received
- $1.6M
- Net assets
- $9.5M
What The Iris Network does
Mission
The Iris Network helps people who are visually impaired or blind attain independence and community integration.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Community-based vision rehabilitation services: the community-based rehabilitation services program evaluates consumer needs based upon functional vision loss and develops a program of individualized services provided by nationally certified professional vision rehabilitation therapists. These services allow individual consumers who may be transition-age youth, working-age adults, or senior citizens to carry on the functions necessary to maintain the level of independence they desire. Program services are delivered in the consumer's community throughout the State of Maine on an itinerant basis and include vision rehabilitation therapy and counseling in the area of adjustment to blindness. Services may also be provided virtually when in-person meetings are not feasible.
$1,133,218 spent$1,424,152 earned by the program64% of program spendingResident support services program: The Iris Network provides ongoing resident support services to certain visually impaired or blind residents of Iris Park Apartments who have additional disabilities. Iris Park Apartments features (30) one and two bedroom independent living apartments which are owned by The Iris Network. Visually impaired or blind tenants with multiple disabilities are able to live as independently as they desire, schedule their own activities, and create a personal plan for assisted living services. The Iris Network offers vision rehabilitation therapy to provide tenants support in all areas of independent living. The resident support services program at Iris Park Apartments is different from the rest of the programs offered by The Iris Network in that these services are offered on an ongoing basis, rather than as instruction or teaching designed to allow clients to learn new skills and use those skills independently after services have been received.
$339,803 spent$334,389 earned by the program19% of program spendingRehab training center: The campus-based vision rehabilitation training center provides an individualized, intensive vocational development program. Coursework addresses multiple areas of learning including vocational development, accessible technology, orientation and mobility, braille, independent living skills, and manual arts. Students live in a dormitory apartment within the Iris Park Apartments residence close to the training center and downtown Portland. The group living environment includes a shared kitchen, and living room, as well as shared yard and laundry and four private bedrooms. Students can participate in after-hours recreational activities organized several times a week with opportunities to explore Portland and Southern Maine.
$275,926 spent$209,210 earned by the program16% of program spendingLow Vision Center: The Iris Network's Low Vision Center provides optical aids and equipment such as video magnifiers and light-filtered lenses to help individuals experiencing vision loss maximize the use of their remaining vision.
$12,821 spent$166,853 earned by the program1% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,761,768.
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.
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 $3.3M to $9.2M (+181%).
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 16% · 2022 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
David Barnwell
President/CEO
Board chair
Jane Eberle
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2020 and FY2021 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 17 funders to 13 funders, grant income fell $370k → $90k.
5 of 39 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 36% 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 The Iris Network’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 39 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
The Iris Network has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
43% 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 The Iris Network.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 54% · 2018 34% · 2019 55% · 2020 37% · 2021 23% · 2022 39% · 2023 38% — 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
45% of The Iris Network's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
The Iris Network draws 62% 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. $587k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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.
Government funding The Iris Network receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $100k on record.
- Department of Health and Human Services$100k
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 The Iris Network
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
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
72%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Draf Industries Inc · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The Iris Network: 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 The Iris Network?
- The Iris Network (Maine) receives grants from 39 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,631,064 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($373,550). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Iris Network have?
- IRS filings report 39 organizations giving $1,631,064 in grants to The Iris Network, 26 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Iris Network?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $373,550 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Iris Network 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 Iris Network →
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 39 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