Grants for Change

Grants for Change is a grantmaking and community organizing program. It funds and strengthens Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color-led and -serving nonprofit organizations advancing racial justice, and engages and connects people in Maine around shared values of racial justice and equity.

Current Grantees

Purpose

Grants for Change organizes people and resources to support efforts across the state that intervene on legacies of white supremacy, settler colonialism, and racialized capitalism. The program creates and/or reclaims liberatory possibilities for today and future generations.

Central to the Grants for Change program are the BIPOC-led and serving organizations that are leading the work of racial justice organizing and activism in our state. Each year, we select and fund a new Grants for Change cohort: 12 organizations chosen through our participatory, community-led process and recognized as organizations doing critical work to advance racial justice in Maine communities. Learn more about Grants for Change grantees.

Grants for Changes is also a community organizing strategy and program. We use our participatory grantmaking to engage, connect, inform, and inspire the broader community with the BIPOC leaders, organizations, and work being done on racial justice in Maine. Learn about participatory grantmaking.

Our funding prioritizes BIPOC-led and -serving organizations that:

Seek to dismantle racial injustice in its institutional, structural, and systemic forms;
Further the racial justice movement through community building, policy change, and grassroots organizing & advocacy;
Strengthen communities through traditional and/or Indigenous wisdoms and liberatory cultural practices, including (but not limited to) healing, earth protection, embodied practices, and the arts; and
Are led by, serve, and/or organize in solidarity with Black and Wabanaki communities.

Grant Amount & Funding Levels

For a three-year period, beginning in 2022, the Grants for Change Program has committed to providing over $1.5 million in multi-year, unrestricted, general operating support to BIPOC-led and -serving organizations.

The organizations selected for each annual cohort will receive general operating grants of $45,000 over three years, or $15,000 per year.

Funded organizations will be invited to participate in a series of peer learning, training, capacity-building, and community outreach activities over the course of the grant period.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the Grants for Change Program, applicant organizations must:

Be working exclusively or primarily in Maine.
Be a Black-, Brown-, Indigenous-, Latinx-, Asian-, or People of Color-led organization/group/coalition. All BIPOC-led and serving organizations may apply. We are prioritizing Black and Wabanaki organizations for 2023.
Be implementing programs that advance racial justice in local communities or statewide.
Be a Maine-based organization or group or a coalition/alliance of groups (we do not fund individuals).
Have an organizational operating budget under $1,500,000. (Not required for groups applying with sponsorship from a Wabanaki Tribal entity or for organizations with fiscal sponsors.)

To establish BIPOC-led status, organizations need to meet at least two out of three of the following criteria for the past two years:

BIPOC staff leaders of the organization - 50% or more in leadership roles
BIPOC members on Board of Directors - 50% or more in governing decision-making roles
BIPOC organizers - 50% or more of on-the-ground, community interfacing staff/volunteers

How to Apply

The Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for the 2024 Grants for Change Program, with full application instructions, will be available in summer 2024. For questions, please contact the Grants for Change staff at grants4change@maineintiatives.org.

View Grantees

See all of our G4C grantees

Grants For Change

Grants for Change