GrantmakersMaine

Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners

Unity, ME · EIN 01-6048322. Reported 29 grants totalling $1,054,229 to 22 organizations across tax years 2022-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

22organizations funded
$9,548median reported grant
$1,054,229granted, 2022-2024
45%of grantees funded again the next year
48%of dollars to its largest recipient

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:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners, the IRS classifies it under food & nutrition rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE K030) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 22 distinct organizations, with 48% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is concentrated. Most of the money has a settled destination, and the remainder is what is realistically in play.
  3. How much its list changes. 45% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 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 $9,548. Half of what it reported fell between $7,258 and $23,843; the smallest was $5,541 and the largest $492,491. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
16 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
6 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
5 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
1 grant
$250,000 Or More
1 grant

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.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Charity NavigatorUnion City, NJ$501,126222023
Ironwood FarmAlbion, ME$173,031222023
New Beat FarmKnox, ME$89,027332024
Northeast Organic Farming Association of VermontRichmond, VT$42,659112023
University of Maine System IncBangor, ME$37,941222024
University of Maine FoundationOrono, ME$33,300112024
Land for Good IncKeene, NH$27,642222023
PicaBelfast, ME$23,843112023
Donald Allen & Son ExcavatingWinslow, ME$18,305222024
Caldwell Allen ConsultingAtlanta, GA$15,000112022
Weeks & Son Well DrillingOakland, ME$13,920112023
Bumbleroot Organic FarmWindham, ME$9,548112023
Winslow FarmFalmouth, ME$8,579112023
New Roots Cooperative Farm (me)Lewiston, ME$8,475112024
Harvest Tide OrganicsBowdoinham, ME$8,005112023
Songbird FarmUnity, ME$7,258112022
Mawiomi GardenVassalboro, ME$6,664112023
Mic Mac FarmsPresque Isle, ME$6,565112024
Ok Community FarmLewiston, ME$6,221112024
Hart FarmHolden, ME$5,954112024
Whatley Farm LLCTopsham, ME$5,625112024
Northern TilthBelfast, ME$5,541112024

6 of 22 (27%) received money in more than one year over the 3 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

It also reported 19 groups of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 5 of 22 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.

Education
2 orgs
Human Services
1 org
Arts & Culture
1 org
Environment
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20226$739,597$33,218
202313$196,186$9,645
202410$118,446$6,685

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

48% of its giving went to organizations in New Jersey. 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.

New Jersey
$501K
Maine
$468K
Vermont
$43K
New Hampshire
$28K
Georgia
$15K

Down to the city

Union City, NJ
$501K
Albion, ME
$173K
Knox, ME
$89K
Richmond, VT
$43K
Bangor, ME
$38K
Orono, ME
$33K

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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.

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund4 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc3 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program3 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc3 shared recipientsMaine Community Foundation Inc3 shared recipientsNational Philanthropic Trust3 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. 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.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $9,548 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in New Jersey.
  4. 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.

Related guides

Foundations funding education in New JerseyEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding human services in New JerseyEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

Address of record on the latest return: Po Box 170, Unity, ME, 04988.

EIN 01-6048322 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.