Deborah Lincoln House

Deborah Lincoln House is not a conventional grantmaking foundation, and any outreach strategy has to start from that fact. Founded in 1903 and organized as a private foundation under IRS rules (EIN 01-0226346, subsection 03, foundation code 02, a private operating foundation), its stated charitable purpose is "operation of a state-licensed boarding facility for elderly women," not distributing grants to third-party nonprofits. It runs a six-bed, Level III residential care home at 60 Cedar Street in Belfast, Maine, governed by a twelve-person volunteer board led by President Charles J. Pray, Vice President James O'Connor, Treasurer Michael Nickerson, and Secretary Susan Mayer, with day-to-day operations overseen by Executive Director Hilary T. Small ($63,986 in the most recent reported compensation year).

The IRS 990-PF data does show a small volume of outbound "grants" — four totaling just $2,637 (average $659), all to Maine-based recipients coded "Various Organizations" under a "Support of Organization" purpose. That pattern reads as incidental community giving (small local gifts or memberships) rather than a structured competitive grants program. There is no public request-for-proposals, no online grant portal, no published funding priorities beyond elder care, and no LOI-to-full-proposal pipeline to describe, because the foundation does not appear to solicit or fund outside applicants at any meaningful scale.

For organizations serving seniors in Belfast or Waldo County, Maine, the realistic path is relationship-based: direct contact with the Executive Director's office (admin@deborahlincolnhouse.org, (207) 338-1554) to ask whether the foundation makes any discretionary community gifts, rather than submitting a formal proposal. First-time applicants should not treat this listing as a viable general-purpose or program-grant prospect — its roughly $538,000-$727,000 in annual "giving" reported to the IRS is overwhelmingly the cost of running its own facility (payroll, transportation, food, and care for six residents), not disbursements to other 501(c)(3)s. Grant seekers building a funder pipeline should classify Deborah Lincoln House as extremely low-probability and low-dollar for outside applicants, and prioritize funders with a documented open-application process instead.

Deborah Lincoln House's IRS 990-PF filings (ten fiscal years on file: 2010-2014, 2018-2022) show total assets ranging from $4.82 million (FY2021) to $6.48 million (FY2022), with the foundation's most recent recorded asset figure at $7.23 million and income of roughly $7.96 million in its latest reported year — both notably above the FY2022 snapshot, suggesting investment-driven asset growth since. Annual "total giving" — which for this operating foundation represents program spending on its own boarding facility, not third-party grants — has ranged from $538,176 (FY2022) to $727,139 (FY2014), with a ten-year median of about $624,483. The single disclosed program, "Operation of state-licensed boarding facility for elderly women," reported $529,155 in direct expenses in the most recent program-level breakdown.

Revenue swings year to year because it is dominated by net investment income rather than contributions: FY2022 revenue was $2,204,916, driven by $1,822,234 in net investment income against just $262,727 in contributions received; by contrast, FY2021 revenue was only $222,148 with $0 in contributions. Officer and executive compensation has ranged from $62,994 to $96,935 annually across the ten years on file, currently split between two people both carrying the "Executive Director" title in the most recent 990 (Hilary T. Small at $63,986, Joann E. Dentry at $25,740) — likely a leadership transition rather than two concurrent full-time EDs.

Most relevant to an outside grant seeker: the recorded outbound-grants data is minuscule. Across the grantee dataset, only 4 grants totaling $2,637 (average $659, all to Maine recipients coded "Various Organizations") went to external parties — effectively rounding error against $500,000+ in annual program spending. There is no geographic pattern beyond Maine, no program-area breakdown to analyze since 100% of disclosed spend sits in the single boarding-facility program, and no multi-year trend toward increased external grantmaking. Grant seekers should read this foundation's financial profile as "well-capitalized operating charity," not "well-capitalized funder."

No peer foundations were returned in the matched dataset for Deborah Lincoln House, so the table below uses categorical benchmarks for similarly structured funders rather than named peer organizations, to keep the comparison honest about what's actually documented.

Unlike community foundations and even most peer-sized family foundations, which typically push a meaningful share of assets out as third-party grants, Deborah Lincoln House directs essentially all of its ~$538K-$727K in annual spending back into its own six-bed facility. Its entire outbound-grants line — $2,637 across 4 gifts — is smaller than what many $5 million-asset family foundations give away in a single grant, so grant seekers comparing prospects by asset size alone would badly overestimate this foundation's availability as a funding source.

No 2025 or 2026 news coverage, press releases, or grant announcements were found for Deborah Lincoln House. Searches for its name alongside "grants," "news," and "announcements" for 2025-2026 returned only general senior-living directory listings (A Place for Mom, CareListings, Seniorly, Mirador Living, SeniorCareHomes) and its own website, with no dated news items. The most substantive independent coverage located is a 2016 Bangor Daily News feature describing the home's century-plus history serving aged women in Belfast and its life-lease-style care model, in which residents transfer assets in exchange for guaranteed lifetime care.

The foundation's own website currently notes an open resident bed ("we have an opening for a new resident") and maintains an employment page, both consistent with routine facility operations rather than any new grantmaking initiative or program expansion. IRS filing data shows Hilary T. Small as a current Executive Director, with Joann E. Dentry also carrying an Executive Director title in the compensation table — likely reflecting a director transition in the most recent filing year — alongside a stable twelve-member volunteer board led by President Charles J. Pray, Vice President James O'Connor, Treasurer Michael Nickerson, and Secretary Susan Mayer. No leadership announcements, capital campaigns, or new-program press releases were surfaced in this research.

Given the absence of recent news, grant seekers should assume Deborah Lincoln House's activity has been operationally stable and quiet: consistent six-resident capacity, steady investment-income-driven finances, and no signal of an expanding or newly launched external grants program in 2025-2026.

Because Deborah Lincoln House does not run a visible grants program for outside organizations, the tips below are about correctly qualifying it as a prospect, not about winning a competitive review.

• Confirm before applying: There is no grants page, LOI form, RFP calendar, or application_form_url on file. Before drafting anything, call (207) 338-1554 or email admin@deborahlincolnhouse.org and ask directly whether the foundation makes discretionary gifts to outside 501(c)(3)s — do not assume a process exists just because it files a 990-PF.
• Right-size the ask: The only documented external grants are 4 gifts averaging $659 each. If any discretionary giving exists, expect it at that scale — a few hundred to low-thousands of dollars — not a five- or six-figure program grant.
• Geographic and mission fit matters most: Every dollar of documented external "giving" went to Maine recipients, and the foundation's entire identity is elder care for women in Belfast. A request unrelated to seniors or elder services, or from outside Maine, has essentially no fit argument here.
• Lead with elder-services relevance, not general operating need: If you do reach out, frame any request around direct services to elderly women in Belfast/Waldo County — the foundation's sole stated program — rather than generic capacity-building or unrelated-cause language.
• Approach the board or Executive Director, not a grants office: With no program officer or grants staff on record, relationship-building should go through Executive Director Hilary T. Small or board President Charles J. Pray, treated as a low-frequency, personal ask rather than a recurring annual application cycle.
• Common mistake to avoid: Treating this like a standard $5-7 million-asset family foundation prospect and submitting a formal multi-page proposal. Given its operating-foundation structure and negligible external grantmaking history, that effort is unlikely to be reviewed the way a conventional funder's would be.
• Manage expectations and sequence your outreach: Prioritize fundraising time on funders with documented open-application processes first, and treat any contact with Deborah Lincoln House as a long-shot, relationship-only inquiry rather than a pipeline grant with predictable timing or size.