Maine Community Foundation Faces Scrutiny After Directing Nearly $2 million in Donations for Lewiston Shooting to Varied Local Nonprofits

Over a year after the tragic mass shooting that rocked Lewiston in October 2023, scrutiny has emerged over how one Maine nonprofit organization distributed funds raised in response to the tragedy. While more than two-thirds of the funds went directly to victims, nearly a third was parceled out to an array of local nonprofits, many of which were arguably unrelated to the mass shooting.

The Maine Community Foundation (MaineCF), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 1983, launched two concurrent fundraisers just two days after the Oct. 25 mass shooting, on Oct. 27, 2023.

One of the two funds was for victims of the shooting and their families, while the other fund, called the “Lewiston-Auburn Area Broad Recovery & Organizations Fund,” was distributed to other local nonprofit organizations.

According to MaineCF, donors could “direct their support” to either of the two funds, but the decision on where the funds would be allocated would lie ultimately with MaineCF.

As the sensational manhunt for Robert R. Card, Jr., captured national attention over the next two days, MaineCF raised a total of more than $6 million across the two funds from 5,241 donations worldwide between October 2023 to April 2024.

As promised, $4.7 million was directed to victims, families, and survivors.

But now, residents of Lewiston and Auburn, including some impacted by the mass shooting, are accusing the charitable fund of misusing the proceeds it garnered from the tragedy.

According to information reviewed by the Maine Wire, the foundation also allocated $1.9 million to area nonprofits, some of which used the funds for initiatives unrelated to direct victim support, including several projects aimed at Lewiston’s immigrant and refugee population.

In a fact sheet regarding their Lewiston shooting fundraisers, MaineCF says that the fund to disburse donations to area nonprofits was created “on the advice of national mass-shooting victims’ advocates.”

That national nonprofit organization was the Alexandria, Virginia-based Mass Violence Survivors Fund, whose executive director Jeff Dion and his associates advised the steering committee on disbursement of the funds.

“Following an open application process, the Broad Recovery & Organizations Fund Steering Committee reviewed all applications and awarded 100% of the fund’s contributions to 29 area nonprofit organizations that met the application requirements,” MaineCF wrote in the fact sheet.

The steering committee was a volunteer group comprised of representatives from various Maine nonprofit organizations and other community members.

Critics, who have voiced their complaints on a Facebook page dedicated to the scandal, have also accused the charity of self-dealing, primarily because several groups represented in the leadership committee themselves received financial contributions from the fund.

At least four members on the 10-person steering committee were also representatives from organizations that would be chosen to receive funds from MaineCF: Joleen Bedard of United Way of Androscoggin County, Nathan Davis of Gateway Community Services Maine, Julia Sleeper of Tree Street Youth, and Muhidin Libah of the Somali Bantu Community Association.

MaineCF published a “protocol” for how the organizations were deemed eligible for donor funds, saying that the decisions made by the steering committee are made “with intentions of transparency, integrity, compassion, and fairness.”

The foundation announced the nearly $2 million in “Broad Recovery & Organizations Fund” grants to the 29 nonprofits on April 22, 2024.

Each of the organizations chosen by the steering committee received a $65,522 grant.

“These organizations are crucial to long-term community needs following the tragic mass shootings last fall,” said Laura Lee, vice president of community impact at MaineCF in a press release. “We’re so grateful to all who donated to this fund and to the volunteer steering-committee members who helped determine the best way to distribute these contributions.”

Of the 29 nonprofits that received $65,522, several directed the funds toward initiatives that focused heavily on migrant and refugee communities, rather than the victims of the Lewiston shooting or their families. Some of the most notable examples include:

• AK Collaborative
  • “[F]unding helped the AK Collaborative, a collective of nonprofits dedicated to supporting immigrant, refugee, asylum seeker, and BIPOC communities in Lewiston and Auburn, provide necessary services to communities with unique challenges, particularly those from war-torn countries grappling with the trauma of gun violence.”
• Empowered Immigrant Women Unite
  • “Many immigrants who have faced persecution, violence, and displacement in their home countries are especially vulnerable to the psychological toll of mass violence events. With funding, Empowered Immigrant Women Unite redirected its focus toward trauma support and community-healing-tailored initiatives for the immigrant community, prioritizing these as primary objectives.”
• New Mainers Public Health Initiative
  • “NMPHI also expanded its service volume, ensuring timely access for community members to counseling and emotional support, particularly for immigrants who are susceptible to retraumatization after fleeing violent conflict in their home countries.”
• Somali Bantu Community Association
  • “Somali Bantu Community Association pivoted in several ways during the shooting and in its aftermath to supply community members with accurate information, address fears and retraumatization and reestablish a sense of safety for immigrants and refugees who came to the US with prior exposure to violence and warfare. Many of these people are fearful that such an event could recur and/or be racially motivated.”
• United Youth Empowerment Services
  • “Through the fund’s support, United Youth Empowerment Services continues to address ongoing gun violence and other issues of concern within the immigrant and refugee community.”

One of the nonprofits that received funds from MaineCF, Maine Inside Out, said that they used the $65,000 to host “open mics,” to plan a “citywide Juneteenth festival,” and to develop and tour an “original play…about gun violence, grief, family, trust, and time.”

A Jan. 28 post in the Lewiston Matters public Facebook group sparked discussion of the process by which MaineCF distributed the funds to the slew of nonprofit organizations, with some group members saying that people who donated with the intention of helping victims feel misled by the foundation’s use of the funds.

“These conflicts of interest and shameless shows of self-interest add insult to the injury caused by the unethical selection and allocation of donation funds to unconnected nonprofits to begin with,” one group member wrote.

“The MCF with the consultant told the victims and families that 100% of the money raised in the Fund would go to them. That was a lie. They did not even tell them that they were raising money within that fund for non-profits. That is disgusting to treat them that way. They are only now realizing that they were used,” another member commented.

The One in Five Foundation, a nonprofit formerly called the Uvalde Foundation for Kids, announced in October 2024 that they were launching a review of how MaineCF donor funds distributed, stating, “we have received word that several families & individuals present that day in Lewiston, at the shooting, have received little to no care, beyond basic food gift cards & referrals to four different law firms and 26 various nonprofits; where donated funds to this cause were allegedly disseminated.”

On Jan. 27, the One in Five Foundation stated that they had received a reply from the Maine Attorney General’s Office regarding their request for a review of the MaineCF’s use of the donor funds.

“I write on behalf of the Attorney General in response to your request for a review of the Maine Community Foundation’s (“MCF”) distribution of funds raised in the aftermath of the Lewiston shooting tragedy,” Assistant Maine Attorney General Christina Moylan wrote in the statement. “As a preliminary matter, the Attorney General’s Office acknowledges the lasting physical, emotional, and financial harm caused by this tragic event and remains committed to supporting crime victims and survivors.”

“We have thoroughly reviewed the issues surrounding solicitation and allocation of the Lewiston-Auburn Area Response Fund raised by the MCF. We have not identified any legal concerns with MCF’s processes or distributions,” Moylan wrote.

Regarding the disbursement of the donor funds to the 29 nonprofits, Moylan stated “there were no legal restrictions on the use of the funds, they were free to use them at their discretion.”

“The Office is aware of the significant financial burden that many victims, survivors, and their families continue to face even after receiving monetary gifts from MCF’s Victims & Families Fund,” Moylan added. “The Maine Victims’ Compensation Program, administered by the Maine Attorney General’s Office, deployed to Lewiston the day after the shooting to help victims and survivors apply for the Program and has received 116 applications to date for reimbursement of uninsured, crime-related expenses.”