Island Institute
Rockland, ME · EIN 22-2786731. Reported 58 grants totalling $2,838,584 to 39 organizations across tax years 2020-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For Island Institute, the IRS classifies it under education rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE B82Z) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 39 distinct organizations, with 79% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is extreme concentration. A grantmaker sending three quarters of its money to one organization is in practice a support fund for that organization, whatever its classification says, and an unsolicited request is very unlikely to go anywhere.
- How much its list changes. 25% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $10,000. Half of what it reported fell between $9,322 and $15,000; the smallest was $5,500 and the largest $1,000,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luke's Lobster Holding LLC | Saco, ME | $2,244,325 | 5 | 4 | 2023 |
| Monhegan Plantation | Monhegan, ME | $46,500 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Town of Swans Island | Swans Island, ME | $35,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Hancock County Planning Commission | Ellsworth, ME | $30,500 | 4 | 3 | 2023 |
| Town of Southport | Southport, ME | $27,500 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| National Lead for America Inc | Wichita, KS | $26,667 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Frenchboro Congregational Church | $26,248 | 1 | 1 | 2023 | |
| Axiom Technologies on Behalf of East Machias and Whiting | Machias, ME | $25,000 | 2 | 1 | 2020 |
| Biddeford Internet Corporation | Biddeford, ME | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Town of Brooksville | Brooksville, ME | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Town of Islesboro | Islesboro, ME | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Town of Damariscotta | Damariscotta, ME | $19,905 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Town of Georgetown | Georgetown, ME | $15,563 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Arrowsic Broadband Authority | Arrowsic, ME | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Greater Portland Council of Governments | Portland, ME | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Town of Bristol | Bristol, ME | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Town of Isle Au Haut | Isle Au Haut, ME | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Wells Nerr | Wells, ME | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Town of Frenchboro | Frenchboro, ME | $14,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| National Audubon Society Inc | New York, NY | $13,600 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Vinalhaven Fish Co-Op | Vinalhaven, ME | $13,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Midcoast Council of Governments | Damariscotta, ME | $12,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Town of Vinalhaven | Vinalhaven, ME | $11,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Community Shellfish Co LLC | Bremen, ME | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Greenhead Lobster | Stonington, ME | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Hylan and Brown Boat Builders | Brooklin, ME | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Long Island Civic Association | Long Island, ME | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Southern Maine Conservation Collaborative | Portland, ME | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Town of North Haven | North Haven, ME | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Town of Phippsburg | Phippsburg, ME | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Town of Roque Bluffs | Roque Bluffs, ME | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Town of Cumberland | Cumberland, ME | $9,617 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Kennebec Estuary Land Trust | Bath, ME | $9,322 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Town of Gouldsboro | Prospect Harbor, ME | $8,957 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Town of Brunswick | Brunswick, ME | $7,930 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Town of Chebeague Island | Chebeague Island, ME | $7,700 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Town of Wiscasset | Wiscasset, ME | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Town of Lincolnville | Lincolnville, ME | $6,250 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| City of Eastport | Eastport, ME | $5,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
10 of 39 (26%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Luke's Lobster Holding LLC
Sustainable Seafood Partnership - Frenchboro Congregational Church
Historical Building Preservation - Monhegan Plantation
Broadband Planning & ShoreUp Sea Level Rise Planning - Wells Nerr
ShoreUp Sea Level Rise Planning - Town of Frenchboro
ShoreUp Sea Level Rise Resiliency - Community Shellfish Co LLC
Responsive Fund - Storm Response
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 6 of 39 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 15 | $923,038 | $15,000 |
| 2021 | 12 | $509,724 | $10,000 |
| 2022 | 18 | $1,208,722 | $10,000 |
| 2023 | 13 | $197,100 | $10,000 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
99% of its giving went to organizations in Maine. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.
How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $10,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Maine.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Island Institute's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2020-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 9 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 4 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.
Address of record on the latest return: 386 Main Street Po Box 648, Rockland, ME, 04841.
EIN 22-2786731 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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