Ferry Beach Ecology School students and staff teach MaineCF Foundation Officer Karen Young (left) about coastal maritime forests as part of their "Science and Ecology: Live and Unplugged!" program, which received support from the York County Fund of MaineCF's Community Building Grant Program. Photo courtesy of Ferry Beach Ecology School
Last year, MaineCF distributed $16 million in grants and scholarships from its charitable funds.
Grantmaking is one of the Maine Community Foundation’s community-building strategies. The foundation also administers scholarships, designs and participates in initiatives, provides technical assistance to grantseekers, and convenes groups to address new and emerging issues.
Competitive Grants
Grant programs that accept proposals can be found on the Available Grants page.
Detailed descriptions, including eligibility, application guidelines and deadlines can be found on the individual grant program pages.
Successful proposals meet three criteria:
- They use existing resources to strengthen community life
- They strengthen communities’ and organizations’ ability to meet future challenges
- They are sustainable or have a lasting impact after MaineCF grant funding is complete.
Connecting Donors to Causes They Care About
The majority of MaineCF's grant awards come from donor-advised funds.
Donor advisors are a vital part of the foundation because of their contributions of knowledge, expertise, connections, time, and financial resources.
In order to better support donors’ philanthropy and provide the maximum financial support possible to meet community needs, staff augments the funds available through our competitive grant programs by connecting donors to organizations, issues, and approaches aligned with their interests.
We refer proposals to donors that we receive in conjunction with our competitive grant programs, with an emphasis on our three major grant deadlines of January 15, May 15, and September 15.