Last year, MaineCF distributed $16 million in grants and scholarships from its charitable funds.
The foundation holds donor-advised, scholarship, designated, discretionary, field-of-interest and nonprofit endowment funds. The majority of grant awards are from donor-advised funds.
Grantmaking is one of the Maine Community Foundation’s community-building strategies. Additionally, the foundation administers
scholarships,
designs and participates in initiatives, provides technical assistance to grant seekers and convenes groups to address new and emerging issues.
Young bicycle riders take a breather on the Maine state pier on cold winter day. The Bike Shop, a project of the Alliance for Transportation Alternatives, offers children in the Kennedy Park neighborhood of Portland an opportunity to ride bicycles. MaineCF has supported the program with several grants.
Connecting Donors to Causes They Care About
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 our discretionary funds by connecting donors to organizations, issues and approaches aligned with their interests.
The referral program is conducted primarily in conjunction with our three major grant deadlines of January 15, May 15 and September 15.
In 2006, more than $1.1 million was granted to 118 organizations through our referral program from 43 different participating funds.
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:
- Use existing resources to strengthen community life
- Strengthen communities’ and organizations’ ability to meet future challenges
- Are sustainable or have a lasting impact after MaineCF grant funding is complete