Maine Initiatives Senior Director Shima Kabirigi has led the Immigrant-Led Organizations (ILO) Fund and the Immigrant and Refugee Funders Collaborative since 2018. In our April 2025 interview, Shima shares reflections on opening applications to the 2nd year of the ILO Fund’s participatory program, the differences she sees now in attacks on immigrants’ rights compared to the first Trump administration, and the tenacity, talent, and collaborative strengths of the immigrant-led ecosystem in Maine that inspire her.
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The ILO Fund at Maine Initiatives just opened applications to the 2nd year of its re-designed, multi-year funding program. Can you share any reflections you have from the 1st year of the community-led, participatory grantmaking process? Was there anything that surprised you about working this way compared to the ILO Fund’s previous rapid response model? 

I am really excited about our 2nd year; rolling this out, especially in this climate, feels really important. Reflecting on last year, before we launched the program, we engaged organizations and leaders that we have been in a relationship with through the rapid response program for years, and we basically shared our vision of the Fund. It felt really important for us to be in alignment with Maine Initiatives’ other participatory grantmaking programs, which meant having a process by which community members were informing and deciding how to best allocate funds. For the very first time, we convened folks to talk about our vision and get feedback with respect to the goals and priorities of the fund. It felt really great to be in community with those folks and share that. The work that I did in the rapid response era was really important in terms of fostering independent, bilateral, and multilateral relationships, but I was sometimes working in isolation. I also struggled with the notion of whether or not I was a gatekeeper. Having those same individuals who I had built relationships with over the years really buy into our vision and inform us of the vision was a really full circle moment. That was one thing I appreciated so much: hearing that what we had created was really in alignment with how these organizations wanted us to be moving as a funder. They respect that we prioritize community input.

It was also exciting to see that our broader community was excited about this pivot and really wanted to engage with the ILO Fund through the Reader process. We had approximately 115 people read and evaluate applications, and folks really took their time and were thoughtful with their reflections and feedback. We were really able to provide constructive feedback to applicants on what the community at large was excited about or had questions about. 

In the past, with the rapid response program, it felt really important to be on the ground to make thoughtful decisions about where the funding was going and how to think about supporting the ecosystem. That was a lot of time for me – time really was an essential resource then. This time around, the community of immigrant leaders and supporters were so incredibly resourceful with their time, feedback, and wisdom. Having them make the funding decisions felt so great for us and was really in alignment with how we want to share power in the community. We had a team to help us.

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This is a critical moment in the United States for the immigrant justice movement, with the current administration launching repeated attacks on immigrant rights, pathways to citizenship, and the fundamental constitutional protections of due process for all. As someone with deep relationships within the community, how do you see the ecosystem of immigrant-led organizations in Maine responding to these new threats? What are you hearing that you would like to share?

I have been in awe of the immigrant-led ecosystem since joining the Maine Initiatives team. This community is resilient, tenacious, and malleable. They really try to meet the moment. I have seen folks put aside differences to come together and rally around their communities.

I think back to 2017 with the Muslim Ban and how organizations pushed back, supporting impacted communities with very minimal resources. I also saw during COVID-19 folks building solidarity across various kinds of services – food, health-related programming, etc. – again with minimal resources. The ILO community called attention to the disproportionate rates of COVID-19 experienced by Black Mainers and rallied the public sector, saying you need to pay attention to this and resource our work. These are just some examples that are important to highlight. 

What I am hearing the most at this moment from many immigrant-led organizations is that they need to reimagine how to work together and what collaboration looks like. The 3 priorities I hear across the board are communication, advocacy, and safety and well-being. We need to communicate factually about what is happening; We need to advocate at both the state and local level; and we need to continue to do this work while keeping ourselves and our communities safe. These are the questions and strategies that are being developed in real time. Mind you, these are organizations that are either being attacked or are hyper-visible at this time, still under-resourced, and some have lost federal funding. But there is a continuous commitment to do this work collectively. I find that so inspiring.

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The ILO Fund at Maine Initiatives launched its first rapid response fund – The Solidarity Fund – in 2017 in response to the Trump administration’s Muslim Ban. What is different now in 2025 in terms of how you see the philanthropic sector at large responding to attacks on immigrants’ rights? Did we learn from last time?

I would say somewhat. I think 2017 was the first time the Immigrant and Refugee Funders Collaborative, which is a collaborative of institutions, individual donors, and public and private foundations, came together to organize pooled fund efforts. It helped to facilitate that process for those who hadn’t done that kind of funding work before. It created an infrastructure that was able to pull resources together quickly and effectively to respond to crises. One thing I am still sitting with – and this applies to all foundations – is the notion that we need to do more. We have heard that in recent years, the national immigrant and refugee sector has had funding diminished. At this particular moment when this community is being targeted, it feels really important to deepen our investment and to reimagine what it means to really support the sector. If we say that immigrants and refugees are important to our social fabric, to our economic fabric, then there needs to be deeper commitment. My call to all of us is to deepen our commitment and investment in immigrant communities.

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What do you wish more people in Maine knew about the immigrant-led ecosystem across the state?

Firstly, I want people to know the immigrant-led ecosystem is here to stay. Secondly, they are an important fabric of our state. Immigrants have revived local economies. Some have informed policies that we are now all able to leverage. I think of the LePage era and the attacks on immigrants accessing general assistance at the time. A lot of advocacy work went into pushing back against those policies that were creating barriers to resources for so many people. Immigrants were on the front lines of that work. 

It is also a highly diverse and robust ecosystem. You have farming communities and organizations working in gender justice, health, housing, advocacy, and food security. Others provide mutual aid. You have people who have brilliant and innovative ideas for addressing many of the issues they see in their community. It is an ecosystem of creative, innovative, and passionate human beings. It is also an ecosystem that holds us accountable as people who have the resources to really live our values. It is an ecosystem everyone can learn from.

For folks who are looking for ways to learn more and support the ILO sector, I would invite people to sign up to be Readers for the ILO Fund. You can also go to the MaineShare platform and learn more about a lot of immigrant-led and -serving organizations and donate to them all at once. Folks can learn a lot more about organizations that are working directly in their communities and doing critical work for Maine. 

Photo: Shima Kabirigi at a 2024 Community Led Needs Assessment, convened by the ILO Program. Photo credit: Luke Kaneb.