• The organizations selected for the 2022 Grants for Change 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.
• Award decisions will be communicated in December.

To be eligible for the 2022 Grants for Change Program, the applicant organization 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 2022.
• 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 $1,000,000. (Not required for groups applying with sponsorship from a Wabanaki Tribal Government or other tribal entity or for organizations with fiscal sponsors.)

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

• BIPOC directors of organization or specific programs 50% or more (leadership roles)
• BIPOC board members 50% or more (or governing decision making roles)
• BIPOC activists 50% or more (on the ground community change makers)

• All grant proposals must be submitted by email. For the 2022 cycle, all proposals were due by 11:59 pm on Friday, September 30, 2022. Say tuned for information about the 2023 cycle.
• For questions, please contact Grants for Change Directors Desiree Vargas and Julian Rowand at grants4change@maineinitiatives.org

With the disruption of the global pandemic, we have been limited in our ability to convene and carry out the full community-based program and process. This year, however, we are excited to re-launch our full participatory grantmaking process for the 2022 Grants for Change program. We invite the community to join this process to:

• Learn about racial justice issues, organizing, and activism from those leading this work in Maine;
• Engage and connect with others committed to advancing racial justice; and
• Take meaningful action to support ongoing racial justice work in the state.

Maine Initiatives has made a long-term commitment to support and strengthen the ecosystem of racial justice organizing and activism in Maine. As part of this commitment, we are launching this year’s Grants for Change program as the first year of a new three-year, $1.5 million grantmaking commitment to support Black, Wabanaki, and People of Color-led and -serving organizations advancing racial justice work and strengthening community building efforts statewide.

The 2022 Grants for Change Funding Priorities Framework is an evolution of previous frameworks. In consultation with the Community Advisory Board, the G4C Directors have identified the need to support organizations playing distinct but complementary roles in collective efforts toward racial justice movement building in Maine, including rural and more populated areas. We have designated priority pathways to accomplish community work as Hub Organizations, Community Building Organizations, and Emergent Organizations. Learn more about these designations in our Grantee RFP Packet.