An investigation by The Robinson Report suggests migrant NGOs with no connection to the Lewiston shooting survivors were allowed to raid funds raised in the names of the shooting victims.
In the wake of the October 25, 2023, Lewiston shooting, Governor Janet Mills (D) promoted the Maine Community Foundation as the trustworthy conduit for giving to the victims of Maine’s deadliest mass murder.
After accepting $6.6 million in donations made for the benefit of the victims’ families and survivors, the MCF distributed just $4.7 million to those individuals.
The remaining $1.9 million went to NGOs, many of them politically connected, and many of them involved in the nebulous world of “migrant services.”
Most of those nonprofits have no connections to the victims’ families or the survivors. Few of them can point to anything done with the money for the benefit of the victims’ families or the survivors.
However, several of the nonprofits had directors who were on the MCF steering committee — the committee that allocated the donations.
In other words, roughly one third of the money raised in the names of Lewiston shooting victims was under the control of NGOs that saw no conflict or ethical concern with steering that money into their own bank accounts.
Some of those non-profits no longer exist, or maybe never existed, or have since been mired in scandals involving taxpayer funds, like Gateway Community Services.
Neither the MCF nor the NGOs who took the money will answer questions about what criteria the MCF’s so-called “steering committee” used for “broad area recovery,” and whether MCF performed any due diligence on the groups prior to giving them donor money meant to help victims of a mass shooting.
The NGOs ignored our inquiries for months. MCF responded with a link to the website where they posted corporate boiler plate in response to community outrage. The foundation did not address our specific questions about why members of the steering committee were permitted to steer money raised in the names of Lewiston shooting victims into their own organizations.
As part of this investigation, we interviewed Amy Sussman, the aunt of Maxx Hathaway, one of the 18 victims killed in the Lewiston mass shooting. Sussman has been advocating for the survivors and their families and attempting, for more than two years, to get an explanation from the MCF as to how the large-scale misuse of donors funds could have happened on their watch. We also talked with three survivors — Ben Dyer, Jennifer Zanca, and Destiny Johnson, as well as Hathaway’s older sister, Kelsay. Together, their stories raise serious and lingering questions about how one of Maine’s largest and most trusted charitable organizations diverted nearly $2 million to organizations with no ties to the recovery of survivors and victims’ families.
Who Took the Money — and How?
According to the MCF’s website, the steering committee included the following non-profit heads: Joleen Bedard, United Way of Androscoggin County, Nathan Davis, Gateway Community Services Maine, Muhidin Libah, Somali Bantu Community Association, and Julia Sleeper, Tree Street Youth. Bedard, Davis, Libah, and Sleeper’s NGOs all received $65,000 from the Lewiston shooting fundraising money — far more than the majority of victims received, including Maine residents who were shot. These NGO heads also appear to have steered donation money into groups with which they have prior affiliations, share office space, or have partnered with for prior activities. There is no evidence of a standard conflict of interest policy. What follows is a profile of the organizations that got their hands on Lewiston shooting money, beginning with the four organizations that were also on the steering committee. (Full list here)
Gateway Community Services
Gateway Community Services, through their 501(c)3 arm, applied for and was awarded more than $65,000 in money raised following the Lewiston shooting. Like many of the organizations MCF handed donor money to, Gateway had barely any fundraising or activity in the preceding years. In 2019, for example, the organization took in just $136k in donations. In 2023, around the same time Gateway hired Rep. Deqa Dhalac (D-South Portland) on both the nonprofit and the for-profit side, Gateway’s Form 990 shows the organization raising more than $1.5 million — with roughly 86 percent of that coming from taxpayer money.
Why would an organization with seven-figure government grants, $5M in MaineCare revenue, and a board member in the State Legislature would need to put its hand out for Lewiston shooting donations? And, given what allegations of fraud leveled against Gateway by a former employee, what confidence can we have that those donations were used appropriately? Raising additional questions about MCF’s decision making is the fact that the organization had already given Gateway’s 501(c)3 arm $42,000 in 2023, according to the group’s audit for that year.
Gateway is run by Somali-American Abdullahi Ali, who has seen a meteoric rise among Maine Democrats as a mascot and gatekeeper for the refugee community. Ali’s taxpayer-funded migrant services business has made national headlines in recent weeks, in part because he received millions of taxpayer dollars before fleeing to Africa to lead a militia against Jubbaland President Ahmed Madobe.
In other words, money raised for the victims of Maine’s worst mass shooting went to a “nonprofit” run by a guy who, less than a year later, was rolling around Somali with a paramilitary outfit sporting AK-47s — munitions he claims to have paid for with money raised in America. Here’s a video of Ali — the recipient of multiple grants for more than $65,000 from the Maine Community Foundation — strolling through southern Somali flanked by soldiers with fully automatic weapons.
Again, the MCF had no comment.
Somali Bantu Community Association
Muhidin Libah, the co-founder of the Somali Bantu Community Association (SBCA), was also tapped by MCF to sit on the Lewiston shooting fund steering committee and was allowed to steer more than $65,000 to his own organization.
According to the organization’s 2023 Form 990, SBCA is a family affair. The tax document shows Libah paid a family member, Fadumo Libah, $21,551 for “various business transactions,” and doled out another $38,559 to family member Hawa Dakane for work as a “Woman’s Community Advocate.” In addition to money raised for victims of the Lewiston mass shooting, the SBCA has also received numerous contracts for services under the administration of Gov. Janet Mills (D), according to state contract records. Most recently, the organization was awarded more than $31k to support Liberation Farms, a taxpayer-funded halal farm, and to recruit Maine residents to apply for EBT cards.
United Way of Androscoggin County
Of the steering committee participants that MCF allowed to steer Lewiston shooting donations to their own nonprofits, the United Way of Androscoggin (UWAC) is the most well established organization. Steering committee member Joleen Bedard also serves as the principal officer of UWAC, a position for which she was compensated $154,243 in 2024, according to the org’s tax filings. The tax filing shows that most of UWAC’s fundraising that year was redistributed to other nonprofits, including the migrant shelter Tedford Housing in Brunswick and the migrant resettlement agency Catholic Charities.
What does migrant resettlement work have to do with the Lewiston shooting victims? Why did so many migrant NGOs take the money when all of the victims were white Americans? Again, no answers to these questions were forthcoming.
In addition to the $65,000 collected from the Lewiston shooting victims’ donations, UWAC itself received donations intended to support shooting victims.
The UWAC said in a 2023 “community impact” report that it received $312,593 in donor-restricted contributions specifically tied to “Lewiston Mass Shooting Donations.” Why did UWAC need more money if they were already sitting on more than $300k?
The same report filed in 2024 shows that the fund still had $224,483, meaning UWAC had distributed just $88,110 from the fund as of Dec. 31, 2024. The impact report does not indicate how the “Lewiston Mass Shooting Donations” money was spent, and the initiatives described in the report do not appear to be connected to Lewiston shooting victims. In that same time frame, victim family members and survivors incurred debts — in some cases close to $100,000 — for medical procedures, therapy, and other costs stemming directly from the shooting.
None of the survivors or family members of victims recalled any interactions with staff from UWAC. However, the UWAC did take a lead role in organizing the “October 25th Commemoration Event” at The Colisée on the one-year anniversary of the shooting.
Tree Street Youth
Julia Sleeper, the principal officer of Tree Street Youth, was the fourth member of Maine Community Foundation’s steering committee that somehow managed to steer Lewiston shooting donations into her own organization. The 501(c)3 nonprofit runs a Howe Street facility for at-risk youths, but it’s unclear what if any services it provided specifically to support survivors of the mass shooting or the family members of victims.
According to tax filings, Sleeper drew a modest $82k salary in 2023. In addition to receiving more than $1 million in government grants in 2023, Tree Street Youth has also received six-figure contracts from the Mills administration to work with “justice involved youth” — the leftist euphemism for teenagers who’ve been arrested for shootings, burglaries, or other crimes that used to involve a stint in “juvie.”
When MCF announced the NGO grants, Sleeper was quoted as saying, “These organizations are crucial to the fabric of our community and to the recovery process.”
According to the foundation, the Tree Street Youth used the funding to provide services like mental health support, trauma response, and wellness education for those affected, including survivors present at the shooting sites or experiencing psychological trauma. The three shooting victims and one family member of a survivor who spoke with The Robinson Report couldn’t recall any interactions with Tree Street Youth.
Fun fact totally unrelated to the MCF’s activities: In 2022, Tree Street Youth sold one of their Howe Street parcels (143 Howe Street) to Jung Yen Tsai, a.k.a. Jason Tsai of Green Future LLC, a now-defunct company that operated a sprawling network of black-market cannabis cultivation sites across Maine. There’s no indication that the nonprofit had any awareness of what the Green Future Gang was intending to do in Maine, but what a twist!
Here Are Some Other NGOs That Got Lewiston Shooting Money
The following organizations received donation money from the MCF but were not themselves on the steering committee. We’re listing only the NGOs whose financial documents or political connections raised the kind of red flags that might pop-up had the steering committee performed due diligence on the organizations. Most of these organizations are left-wing migrant advocacy groups or groups that advocate for perpetrators of crimes.
The AK Collaborative
Take for example the AK Collaborative, which also received more than $65,000 from MCF. The organization does not appear to exist anymore and there’s scant evidence that the “organization” was ever anything more than a Facebook page and a basic website. The Facebook page for the group was abandoned in 2024, shortly after the Lewiston shooting funds were distributed, and the website listed on that page “FreshStart.ME” no longer exists. The site “AKcollaborative.org” also doesn’t exist anymore. An archived version of the former website shows an image of what appears to be Lewiston community members along with Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) and Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline.
Another image archived from the defunct website shows a host of Androscoggin County Democrats gathered with community members outside of Masjidu Salaam, the largest Sunni mosque in Lewiston.
Maine state records show no group under the name “Fresh Start” or “AK Collaborative” has ever been registered to receive charitable funds. IRS records show no 501(c)3 filings for a group under either name. No Form 990 or state registration documents could be found for AK Collaborative. It’s unclear exactly who MCF sent money.
The group appears to be related to AK Health and Social Services, a group that has received more than one million dollars in taxpayer-funded contracts under the Mills administration, according to state contract records. Those contract documents list the business’s address as the headquarters of United Somali Women of Maine, another migrant group that got Lewiston shooting fundraiser money. The taxpayer funding AK Health and Social Services has received from the Mills administration has paid for, among other things, the image rights for local imams to make videos encouraging Muslims to get COVID-19 vaccines. The videos, for which Maine taxpayers shelled out more than $8,000 directly to Imams, could not be found.
Based on open-source business registrations and filings, “AK Health and Social Services” is currently registered to Abidkhadar Shire as a non-profit entity located at 11 Westminster Street, Lewiston, Maine.
Generational Noor
Generational Noor also appears to be defunct. No corporate records exist for the registration of such an entity, and no such entity is registered to solicit charitable funds in Maine. At the time MCF gave the org $65,000 in donor money, it had existed — as a social media page and a donate website — for less than two years. Almost immediately after receiving the donor money, Generational Noor’s Instagram account posted that it was opening an office on Canal St. — an address that just happens to be the Lewiston office of Gateway Community Services. The group’s website currently lists no upcoming events and no past events more recent than 2024.
Amran Osman, a Somali immigrant who started the organization, claimed in a 2023 Newscenter Maine interview that the purpose of the group was to mitigate opioid abuse within Lewiston’s Arabic speaking population. Although the Generational Noor website is still soliciting donations, there is no record of the group ever registering as a charitable solicitor with the state or as a 501(c)3 charitable organization with the IRS. Maine corporate records do not include any registered organizations under that name. As with the AK Collaborative, it’s not clear who exactly the MCF gave money.
New Mainers Public Health Initiative
The NMPHI is an ethnic-based nonprofit in Lewiston, Maine, serving immigrant and refugee youth and families through health education, preventive measures, community health worker training, and programs addressing cancer awareness, women’s health, developmental disorders, and healthcare careers.
The NMPHI is co-founded by Abdulkerim Said and Hibo Omer, registered to 276 Lisbon Street, Lewiston, Maine. Of note, “Mrs. Hibo Omer” is listed as the registered agent of “New Americans Partnerships for Health” located at 40 Weaver Street, Auburn, Maine. Co-located in registration at 40 Weaver Street, Auburn, Maine is “New Americans Consultants LLC” registered to Abdulkerim Said. This address appears to be a single-family residential home. The New Mainers Public Health Initiative appears to provide two addresses in Lewiston; 124 Lisbon Street and 276 Lisbon Street (depicted below) in Lewiston, Maine. It’s not clear how these groups are related to each other — or to the shooting survivors. But NMPHI has received multiple six-figure contracts from the Mills Administration, including a $529,942 contract in April of 2025.
Empowered Immigrant Women Unite
Created just months before the Lewiston shooting occurred, Empowered Immigrant Women Unite nonetheless was judged a trustworthy steward of donor money. It’s mission is to foster “resilience, independence, and a strong sense of sisterhood” among immigrant women. According to publicly available tax documents, the organization took in just $172,289 in 2024. Almost all of its expenses went toward salaries, including for CEO Choukri Mahamoud. Public records show that Mahamoud operates the nonprofit out of an office space she shares with a MaineCare agency she also controls.
Maine Inside Out
A nonprofit founded in 2008 in Portland, Maine (with a hub in Lewiston), the organization uses theater to help prisoners. According to a biography on the group’s website, co-Executive Director Joseph Jackson “was convicted of manslaughter in 1995 and spent nineteen years in the Maine Department of Corrections. His master’s thesis, “Black In Maine,” was released in 2016, further showcasing his commitment to social justice and advocacy.” One of Maine Inside Out’s most well-known alums is doubtlessly Marcel Lagrange, Jr. Months before the Lewiston shooting, Lagrange was arrested and charged for shooting two Westbrook residents in front of their young children.
Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition
In another “small world” coincidence, Joseph Jackson is the executive director of the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition, too, another group that took Lewiston shooting money. According to publicly available tax documents, Jackson earned $76,022 from Maine Inside Out and $58,741 from Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition in 2024.
What makes Jackson such an ideal recipient of money raised in the names of Lewiston shooting victims and survivors — so ideal that not one but two of his groups earned $65,000+ grants?
In 1995, Jackson (along with co-defendant Jeremiah Moore) was involved in the fatal shooting of a man identified in court records as Rodriguez, a known cocaine dealer in Lewiston, Maine. He was incarcerated for just 19 years of his 30-year sentence.
