Our Commitment to Just and Fair Access to Opportunities for all People

Equity is a core value for Maine Community Foundation (MaineCF). It is a positive, welcoming commitment to “promote just and fair access to opportunities for all people.” It is a universal, hopeful goal that speaks to the aspirations of every person in Maine and is at the heart of how we work.

MaineCF works statewide and on the ground with local leaders in all 16 counties to expand access to opportunity for people in every corner of the state from the most rural to the most populous.

To be most effective at this work MaineCF and its partners often focus limited philanthropic resources where they can make the biggest difference. As an example, let’s say one goal was to improve the health metrics for all people in Maine. If people in 14 Maine counties were healthy, but people in two counties were less healthy, focusing limited resources on lifting health outcomes in those two counties would be the fastest way to improve health numbers statewide. That is what is called “targeted universalism.”

MaineCF is committed to expanding both universal opportunities in every community in the state and targeted opportunities where data and research say limited philanthropic dollars can have the greatest impact. Today, expanding opportunity for all people in Maine means looking at research and working to erase gaps for rural communities as well as other places where gaps sometimes exist based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation or physical or intellectual ability. This includes Wabanaki people with thousands of years of ancestry here as well as those who have arrived more recently, but face barriers to full participation.

MaineCF's commitment to ensuring just and fair access to opportunities for all is a moral and economic imperative. Maine’s future success as a society and as an economy is dependent on the ability to fully engage the talent and potential of all Maine people.