Momentum Conservation
Portland, ME · EIN 45-5011505. Reported 93 grants totalling $1,395,000 to 52 organizations across tax years 2021-2025, 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. 52 distinct organizations, with 16% 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. 70% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 56% median for grantmaking charities -- lower than the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $10,000. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $15,000; the smallest was $5,000 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 | $225,000 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Francis Small Heritage Trust Inc | Limerick, ME | $130,000 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Land in Common Inc | Greene, ME | $55,000 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Blue Hill Heritage Trust Inc | Blue Hill, ME | $45,000 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Coastal Mountains Land Trust | Camden, ME | $45,000 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Kennebec Estuary Land Trust | Bath, ME | $45,000 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Maine Appalachian Trail Land Tr | Portland, ME | $45,000 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Scarborough Land Conservation Trust | Scarborough, ME | $42,500 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Bomazeen Land Trust | Portland, ME | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Coastal Rivers Conservation Trust | Damariscotta, ME | $35,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Downeast Coastal Conservancy | Machias, ME | $35,000 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Georges River Land Trust | Rockland, ME | $35,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Great Works Regional Land Trust | South Berwick, ME | $35,000 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Kittery Land Trust Inc | Kittery, ME | $35,000 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Western Foothills Land Trust | Norway, ME | $35,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Falmouth Conservation Trust | Falmouth, ME | $30,000 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Talent Collective Dsm | Des Moines, IA | $30,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Harpswell Heritage Land Trust | Harpswell, ME | $25,000 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Inland Woods Trails | Bethel, ME | $25,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Presumpscot Regional Land Trust Inc | Gorham, ME | $25,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| The Kennebec Land Trust | Winthrop, ME | $25,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Frenchman Bay Conservancy | Hancock, ME | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| South Portland Land Trust | S Portland, ME | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Sebasticook Regional Land Trust | Unity, ME | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Royal River Conservation Trust | Yarmouth, ME | $17,500 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Androscoggin Land Trust Inc | Auburn, ME | $15,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Greater Lovell Land Trust Inc | Lovell, ME | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Loon Echo Land Trust Inc | Bridgton, ME | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Mahoosuc Land Trust Inc | Bethel, ME | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Maine Coast Heritage Trust | Topsham, ME | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Portland Trails | Portland, ME | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Arundel Conservation Trust | Kennebunkport, ME | $12,500 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Sanford-Springvale Mousam Way Land Tr | Sanford, ME | $12,500 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| 7 Lakes Alliance | Belgrade Lakes, ME | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| 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 |
| Freeport Conservation Trust | Freeport, ME | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| High Peaks Alliance | Farmington, ME | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Maine Farmland Trust Inc | Belfast, ME | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Midcoast Conservancy | Waldoboro, ME | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Orono Land Trust Inc | Orono, ME | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Saco Valley Land Trust Inc | Saco, ME | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Sebasticook Regional Land Trust | Unity, ME | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Trust for Public Land | San Francisco, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| York Land Trust Inc | York, ME | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Chebeague & Cumberland Land Trust Inc | Cumberland, ME | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Upper Saco Valley Land Trust | Conway, NH | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Island Heritage Trust Inc | Deer Isle, ME | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Kennebunk Land Trust | Kennebunk, ME | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Kennebunkport Heritage Housing Trust | Kennebunkport, ME | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Sea Meadow Marine Foundation | Yarmouth, ME | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Somerset Woods Trustees | Skowhegan, ME | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
27 of 52 (52%) 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.
- Blue Hill Heritage Trust
To strengthen land trusts throughout Maine with resources necessary to grow and succeed
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 43 of 52 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- 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 |
| 2025 | 44 | $455,000 | $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
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 a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.
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 Momentum Conservation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 6 returns (tax years 2020-2025). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 44 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 44 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: 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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