Momentum Conservation
Portland, ME · EIN 45-5011505. Reported 49 grants totalling $940,000 to 33 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, 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 Momentum Conservation, the IRS classifies it under environment rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE C02) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 33 distinct organizations, with 22% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 61% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 1 year-to-year transition. That is about the 57% median for grantmaking charities -- noticeably lower than the 67% private foundations manage. Organizations like this one rotate more of their list each year, which is where an opening for a newcomer tends to be.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $15,000. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $20,000; the smallest was $7,500 and the largest $180,000. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Three Rivers Land Tr | Alfred, ME | $205,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Francis Small Heritage Trust Inc | Limerick, ME | $115,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Coastal Mountains Land Trust | Camden, ME | $35,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Georges River Land Trust | Rockland, ME | $35,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Kennebec Estuary Land Trust | Bath, ME | $35,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Land in Common Inc | Greene, ME | $35,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Scarborough Land Conservation Trust | Scarborough, ME | $32,500 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Blue Hill Heritage Trust Inc | Blue Hill, ME | $30,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Maine Appalachian Trail Land Tr | Portland, ME | $30,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Downeast Coastal Conservancy | Machias, ME | $25,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Great Works Regional Land Trust | South Berwick, ME | $25,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Kittery Land Trust Inc | Kittery, ME | $25,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Bomazeen Land Trust | Portland, ME | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Coastal Rivers Conservation Trust | Damariscotta, ME | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Falmouth Conservation Trust | Falmouth, ME | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Frenchman Bay Conservancy | Hancock, ME | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Harpswell Heritage Land Trust | Harpswell, ME | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Presumpscot Regional Land Trust Inc | Gorham, ME | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Sebasticook Regional Land Trust | Unity, ME | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Talent Collective Dsm | Des Moines, IA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Western Foothills Land Trust | Norway, ME | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Inland Woods Trails | Bethel, ME | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Maine Coast Heritage Trust | Topsham, ME | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| South Portland Land Trust | S Portland, ME | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Kennebec Land Trust | Winthrop, ME | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Royal River Conservation Trust | Yarmouth, ME | $12,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Androscoggin Land Trust Inc | Auburn, ME | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Down East Lakes Land Tr | Grand Lk Strm, ME | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Forest Society of Maine | Bangor, ME | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Arundel Conservation Trust | Kennebunkport, ME | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Chebeague & Cumberland Land Trust Inc | Cumberland, ME | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Sanford-Springvale Mousam Way Land Tr | Sanford, ME | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Upper Saco Valley Land Trust | Conway, NH | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
15 of 33 (45%) 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.
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.
- Blue Hill Heritage Trust
To strengthen land trusts throughout Maine with resources necessary to grow and succeed
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 28 of 33 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2 | $280,000 | $140,000 |
| 2023 | 23 | $275,000 | $10,000 |
| 2024 | 24 | $385,000 | $17,500 |
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
97% 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 $15,000 -- 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 Momentum Conservation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
Address of record on the latest return: 22 Monument Square Suite 601, Portland, ME, 04101.
EIN 45-5011505 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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