NEW: $1 Million to Support Racial Justice Organizing and Activism in Maine
We are in a moment of reckoning. The Pandemic. The Election. The Movement for Black Lives.
In this tumult, we have an opportunity to act on our values. To reject a status quo of racial injustice, inequity, and oppression. And to push forward with confidence towards a future of racial justice and liberation.
We have said it before: It is time. It is time for action. It is time to mobilize our resources to fund, strengthen, and support the organizations and leaders on the front lines of the fight for racial justice in Maine.
For this reason, we are excited to announce a new commitment from The Pull Up Fund, a new social impact fund established by Sam Brin, that will make a $1,000,000 grant to support the expansion of Maine Initiatives’ Grants for Change program over the next four years.
“The first grant coming out of The Pull Up Fund is dedicated to racial justice in the state of Maine, and will support rapid expansion of the Grants for Change program established by Maine Initiatives. This will be my third or fourth time personally working with Maine Initiatives on grants, and I can’t imagine a better partner locally for racial justice work.”
– Sam Brin, The Pull Up Fund
This is a powerful investment in racial justice. This grant from The Pull Up Fund will enable us to distribute more money than ever before in support of organizing and advocacy led by Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color. We are thankful for this partnership with Sam and with The Pull–Up Fund and deeply grateful for this act of solidarity with grassroots leaders in Maine.
Together, we create justice.
In Solidarity and Gratitude,
The Maine Initiatives Team
What is Grants for Change?
The Grants for Change program at Maine Initiatives provides financial and other support to grassroots organizations that are on the front lines of racial justice organizing and activism in Maine and specifically prioritizes:
- Work led by Native American/Wabanaki and Black/African-American communities in Maine;
- Work being done on institutional, structural and systemic expressions of racial injustice and racial inequity; and
- Work being done to strengthen community building, community organizing, grassroots advocacy and policy change as central strategies for advancing racial justice and equity.
Read more about the Grants for Change program here and visit this link for a list of our past grantees.
The Grants for Change program is also unique in that it uses a radically participatory, community-based grantmaking model. By engaging the community in the decision-making process, Grants for Change raises awareness of and deepens our individual and collective understanding of the work needed and being done to achieve racial justice in our communities and in our state.