LEWISTON, Maine – A coalition of mass shooting families from across the country, including one of the largest private donor groups to the Lewiston relief effort, is publicly calling on the Maine Community Foundation to reverse course and reclaim grant money distributed to local nonprofits in the aftermath of Maine’s deadliest mass shooting.
In a statement released Friday, the group said it raised more than $240,000 specifically for Lewiston victims and their families and is deeply troubled by how the broader Lewiston-Auburn Area Response Fund was structured and administered.
The Oct. 25, 2023 shooting in Lewiston left 18 people dead and 13 injured after a gunman opened fire at Just-In-Time Recreation and Schemengees Bar & Grille. The attack stunned the state and prompted an outpouring of national support, with millions of dollars raised to assist victims and the wider community.
The Maine Community Foundation (MCF) established what it called the “Lewiston-Auburn Area Response Fund,” which included both a Victims’ and Families’ Fund and a separate nonprofit fund intended to support community organizations.
The families behind Friday’s statement made clear they appreciate that 100 percent of the Victims’ Fund portion went directly to survivors and families in cash payments. But they argue that combining the victims’ fund and the nonprofit grant pool under one umbrella term created confusion and blurred two very different missions.
“Having used the umbrella term ‘Lewiston-Auburn Area Response Fund’ to describe both the victims’ fund and the nonprofit fund created unnecessary confusion,” the statement reads. “However, our concerns extend beyond semantics.”
Their most pointed criticism centers on how nonprofit grants were awarded. According to the statement, a steering committee process allowed nonprofit executives to participate in decisions that resulted in grants to their own organizations, a structure the group describes as “highly unethical in its self-dealing.”
“We find this indefensible,” the statement says.
The group further argues that many of the nonprofits receiving grants of $65,000 or more did not directly assist those “harmed and traumatized from being in the direct line of fire while their family, friends, and neighbors were being slaughtered around them.” They contend there was no clear requirement that recipient organizations directly serve verified victims and no rigorous vetting process prioritizing survivors.
“Obviously, there wasn’t a plan that prioritized victims/survivors with these grants,” the families wrote.
They are now urging MCF to request that nonprofits that did not directly assist Lewiston shooting survivors return their grant funds so the money can be redistributed to verified victims.
“This is a reasonable, ethical, and compassionate corrective action to take for our Lewiston mass shooting family,” said Anita Busch of VictimsFirst, who has worked on 56 mass casualty crimes over the past 13 years and whose family has endured two mass shootings.
The renewed criticism comes amid ongoing controversy in Lewiston over the distribution of shooting-related funds. Survivors and family members, including Amy Sussman, have publicly questioned whether the Maine Community Foundation appropriately allocated donations and whether more money should be directed to those still struggling with medical bills, trauma, and lost income.
Sussman has repeatedly called for greater transparency and accountability in how funds were managed, arguing that victims should remain the central priority.
The issue has also drawn scrutiny from some members of the Lewiston City Council. While discussions have taken place about reviewing the structure and oversight of relief funds, critics say the council has taken little concrete action to demand changes or formally press for an audit or redistribution of nonprofit grants. Council President David Chittim and Mayor Sheline have been apathetic and do not appear to want to want to look into the distribution of the funds. Calling into question, possible conflicts of interest.
As national mass shooting families now join local survivors in pressing for corrective action, pressure on the Maine Community Foundation is intensifying. The central demand is clear: money raised in the wake of tragedy, they argue, should first and foremost go to those who endured it.
