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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Our grantees bring communities together and make change happen.</h2>

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We encourage you to take your time here: read about our grantee partners and the powerful work they are doing to advance justice and equity across our state. Explore. Learn. Get involved. <a href="https://maineinitiatives2.my.site.com/">You can donate to any and all of these organizations directly through MaineShare.</a>

<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Our grantees bring communities together and make change happen.</h2>



We encourage you to take your time here: read about our grantee partners and the powerful work they are doing to advance justice and equity across our state. Explore. Learn. Get involved. <a href="https://maineinitiatives2.my.site.com/">You can donate to any and all of these organizations directly through MaineShare.</a>

<h1>Grantees</h1>

Grantees

Community organizing is an essential part of the work of advancing equity and justice, inviting a broad range of perspectives and lived experiences to bear upon activism and movement building. These organizations raise awareness, invite deeper civic engagement and participation, and build power among local community members to take action on the issues that directly impact their lives. 

Community Organizing

These organizations work to improve economic opportunities for all people by advocating for fairer tax policies, access to education, health care, and livable wage jobs, and investment in government programs and services on which people in Maine rely.

Economic Justice

These organizations recognize the life-giving power of education, art and culture. The work of these organizations cuts across sectors but is unified by a commitment to building community and creating opportunities for connection, learning and health. 

Education, Arts & Culture

These organizations defend animal welfare and all people’s right to environmental protections, benefits, and the ability to participate freely in decisions that affect their environment. 

Environmental Justice & Animal Welfare

These organizations work to ensure equal rights and non-discrimination, equal access to resources, and equal representation and opportunities for all, regardless of sex, gender, sexual orientation, and/or gender identity.

Gender Justice

These organizations fight for fair opportunity for all people to attain their optimal health and access to essential healthcare services. 

Health Equity & Safety

Maine benefits from a robust and diverse ecosystem of immigrant-led and immigrant-serving nonprofit organizations working across geographies, sectors, program areas, languages, national origins, immigrant status, etc. These organizations are providing direct services, doing community organizing and policy advocacy, building bridges between communities, and providing ladders of opportunity for the newest arrivals to our state.

Immigrant-Serving

Addressing racial injustice is an essential commitment for any work dedicated to achieving a more just and fair society. These organizations are prioritizing this work: addressing the ongoing impacts of racism and settler colonialism, supporting communities of color with advocacy for essential services, abolitionism, and efforts that center joy, liberation, and cultural preservation. 

Racial Justice

Social justice is essential to protecting human rights, access to essential services, and participation in democratic society for all people. These organizations work to defend equal economic, political, and social rights and opportunities for everyone, regardless of race, gender, class, sexual identity, or ability.   

Social Justice

Wabanaki sovereignty — honoring Wabanaki nations’ inherent rights to sustain traditional cultural values and practices, establish their own form of government, enact legislation, — is an essential racial justice commitment here in Maine. These are Wabanaki-led organizations whose work is rooted in a vision and practice of Wabanaki sovereignty. We acknowledge that we benefit from the unceded territory that is Wabanakik. By honoring Wabanaki Sovereignty and Self-determination, we recognize that the five Wabanaki Tribes —  the Abenaki Nation at Odanak and Wôlinak, the Houlton Band of Maliseets, the Mi’kmaq Nation, the Passamaquoddy Nation at Sipayik and Motahkomikuk Reservations, and the Penobscot Nation — have the inherent right to self-governance, cultural preservation, power to regulate and manage activities on tribal lands, and determine their own destiny. These tribes, in addition to Wabanaki-led organizations, are working with a vision rooted in this autonomy and independence while concentrating on their relationship with the Earth.

Wabanaki Sovereignty and Self-Determination

2023

Grants for Change at Maine Initiatives is a grantmaking and community organizing program. It funds and strengthens Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color-led and -serving nonprofit organizations that are leading the work of advancing racial justice in Maine, and engages and connects communities around shared values of racial justice and equity. Grants for Change Grantees are all chosen through our community-led, participatory grantmaking process. 

Grants for Change

2022

2021

The Immigrant-Led Organizations Fund supports immigrant flourishing in Maine. We fund and strengthen the ecosystem of nonprofit, community-based organizations led by and serving Maine’s immigrants, refugees, asylees, migrant farm workers, and those who are undocumented. Grantees are chosen through our community-led, participatory grantmaking process. 

Immigrant-Led Organizations Fund

MaineShare legacy organizations are a coalition of community-based nonprofits who have worked to advance justice and equity in our state across multiple sectors since 1989.

MaineShare Legacy

The Outdoor Equity Fund is a partnership between Maine Initiatives and the Nature Based Education Consortium to improve safe, equitable access to outdoor spaces and increased opportunities for nature-based learning for Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color in Maine. Outdoor Equity Fund Grantees are all chosen through our community-led, participatory grantmaking process. 

Outdoor Equity Fund

Maine Initiatives has led multiple rounds of rapid response funding during crises where state and national funding for impacted organizations has been insufficient: responding to the 2017 Muslim Ban; to the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19; and to on-going, multi-year Asylum Seeker Crisis Support efforts.

Rapid Response

The Giving Project

The organizations below are past grantees across multiple Maine Initiatives’ funding programs. 

Past Grantees

Other

A Black exploration of the deliberate creation of the whitest state in the nation.

99 Years Podcast

<div class="grants align-me">2023Grants for Change</div>

Our mission: To increase the number of historically underrepresented law school graduates in top positions of leadership and scholarship. We create &amp; sustain a deep pipeline of diverse legal talent and leadership, starting in Maine where the first Black attorney was licensed in 1844.

Alpha Legal Foundation

<div class="maineshare align-me">MaineShare</div>

The Bicycle Coalition of Maine works to make Maine a better and safer place to cycle, walk, and roll. The Coalition believes all Mainers should have access to bikes and bike education, and we envision a future where Maine’s roads, public ways, and trails are safe and accessible, resulting in cleaner travel options, improved health, and stronger economic benefits for Maine communities.

Bicycle Coalition of Maine

<div class="grants">Grants for Change, Rapid Response</div>

A new organization formed this June, BOM has quickly become a central platform advocating for Black-owned businesses. They operate a website with up to date listings of Black-owned businesses, facilitate a mutual aid program that directly supports businesses and families, and have been active in highlighting the needs of BIPOC-led small businesses to the State.

Two black adults stand and smile with black t-shirts saying, don't talk, act.

Black Owned Maine

<div class="grants align-me">2023Grants for Change, Outdoor Equity Fund</div>

Bomazeen Land Trust enables the Abenaki/ Wabanaki people to renew and resume their land caretaking and stewardship roles for lands and waters with historical, spiritual, and ecological significance to the Abenaki/Wabanaki people.

Bomazeen Land Trust

<div class="grants">2018-2022 
ILO Fund, Rapid Response, Grants for Change</div>

The Capital Area New Mainers Project is a cross-cultural organization that welcomes immigrants and works to create a thriving, integrated, multicultural community in central Maine. Based in Augusta, CANMP embraces immigrants as “New Mainers” who bring much-needed diversity, energy, and vitality to our area. At a time when fearful rhetoric dominates the news, CANMP aims to cultivate personal relationships, meet immigrants’ needs, and educate the broader community about diverse cultures and immigration issues.

Capital Area New Mainers Project

<div class="grants align-me">2022Grants for Change</div>

Community Organizing Alliance (COA) is a social justice, civic engagement organization that centers the voices and experiences of BIPOC &amp; low-income Mainers to ensure they are empowered and engaged in their communities.

Community Organizing Alliance

Consumers for Affordable Health Care provides Mainers with resources and support aligned with its mission to improve health care accessibility, education, and equity for all. CAHC helps connect Mainers with quality, affordable health coverage options and information through its website (<a href="http://mainecahc.org/">mainecahc.org</a>) and free consumer assistance HelpLine (1-800-965-7476).

Consumers for Affordable Healthcare

Defend Our Health works to create a world where all people are healthy and thriving, with equal access to safe food and drinking water, and products that are toxic-free and climate-friendly.



Toxic chemicals in our food, water, and products are threatening our families, our climate, and our communities. But we have a vision and proven strategy for change. For the past two decades, we’ve empowered a grassroots movement and won major victories to protect environmental public health.



Today, with your help, we’ll continue to fight, find solutions, and Defend Our Health.

Defend Our Health

Democracy Maine works to make government more equitable, inclusive, and accessible by improving elections, protecting and engaging voters, increasing civic engagement, and reducing the influence of private money in politics. Democracy Maine is a collaboration between three nonpartisan organizations — League of Women Voters of Maine, Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, and Maine Students Vote — that partner on advocacy and education efforts. As Democracy Maine, we work together and with other partners to make government more equitable, inclusive, and accessible by improving elections, protecting and engaging voters, and reducing the influence of private money in politics. We helped to pave the way for the first-in-the-nation Ranked Choice Voting laws and public funding system.

Democracy Maine

Our mission: To advance justice and equality by enforcing rights and expanding opportunities for people with disabilities in Maine.



Disability Rights Maine is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and is Maine’s designated Protection &amp; Advocacy agency for people with disabilities. This means we represent people whose rights have been violated or who have been discriminated against based on their disability. We also provide training on rights and self-advocacy and we advocate for public policy reform.

Disability Rights Maine

Our mission is to protect and advance full equality for all lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer Mainers by creating an inclusive and intersectional movement through political action, community building, education, engagement, and collaboration. EqualityMaine offers New Leaders Project youth programming and Network for Older Adults events and activities among other opportunities for LGBTQ+ people from around the state to connect.

EqualityMaine

<div class="grants align-me">2023Grants for Change</div>

Food For All Services is a registered 501c3 nonprofit African grocery store located in Portland, Maine. We provide food-insecure new immigrants with a low-barrier, dignified, and respectable solution to access culturally-relevant food. New immigrants are often expected to assimilate into American culture but at FFA we celebrate and appreciate our customers&#8217; lived experiences while coming together in a space that is welcoming and people of color focused.



The market is managed by Charles Williams with assistance from Firdaws Hakizimana and oversight from Board President, Khadija Ahmed.

Food for All Services

Friends of Casco Bay improves and protects the environmental health of Casco Bay. Our priority work includes collecting data on how the Bay is changing, working with local and statewide partners to address the causes and consequences of climate change, reducing stormwater pollution throughout the watershed, and engaging the community in our stewardship efforts.

Friends of Casco Bay

There is a growing need for culturally sensitive treatment and recovery programs. Generational Noor aims to find the best way to make accessible, retain, engage and support BIPOC individuals seeking to end their substance dependency.

Generational Noor

The Genesis Community Loan Fund connects communities who are creating affordable housing and other essential resources with the capital and expertise they need to overcome barriers to opportunity and prosperity. A Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), Genesis works throughout Maine and in Northern New England to make flexible loans, deliver expert project guidance, and promote policy solutions and systemic change. Genesis offers impact investing for individuals and institutions to move resources toward community needs. As simply as possible, Genesis makes projects happen that otherwise wouldn&#8217;t.

Genesis Community Loan Fund

Hardy Girls empowers girls and nonbinary youth to challenge a society that overlooks their brilliance. Through youth-led, research-driven programs, we equip young people with the tools, support, and confidence to create change and become the next generation of feminist leaders.

Hardy Girls

The mission of the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine is to promote universal respect for human rights through outreach and education. We help students understand the consequences of prejudice and stereotyping and encourage people to explore their biases, think about the way words can divide and threaten or heal and unite. We invite honest conversation to envision a brighter future from learning, reflecting and acting. We build welcoming communities with sixteen fully developed educational programs offered to Maine school free of charge. Our adult programs are offered to educators, community groups, senior colleges and organizations. The Michael Klahr Center is our home and a cultural destination where we showcase art exhibits about human rights, host events, and welcome in visitors to explore and enjoy the rich history and personal stories that fill the beautiful space.

Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine

<div class="grants">2016-2018, 2021, 2022 
Rapid Response, Grants for Change, ILO Fund</div>

Organized and led by immigrant women living in Maine, we strive to bring together immigrant women from across communities and generations to ensure that Maine’s economic agenda includes the aspirations and needs of immigrant women. We create spaces that support women’s empowerment and personal ambitions without losing our unique identity and connect immigrant women and girls for collective empowerment in their communities to address common challenges and issues.

A young black woman speaks into the microphone in front of an audience.

In Her Presence

<div class="grants">2019-2021 
Rapid Response, Grants for Change</div>

Our Mission is to build global connections by bringing together Black and Brown artists from diverse backgrounds to engage in their creative process, while building lasting relationships rooted in co-mentorship. An integral aspect of the Indigo vision is to provide Maine based artists of African descent access to a broader range of practicing artists of color from around the world.

Indigo Arts Alliance

<div class="ilo">2023 
Outdoor Equity Fund</div>

The Intercultural Community Center supports and improves the lives of immigrants by providing health, social and educational opportunities.

Intercultural Children laugh and smile by the Maine coast

Intercultural Community Center

<div class="oef align-me">2023Outdoor Equity Fund</div>

Journey ONEderland works to liberate Afro-Indigenous people in Maine and beyond by strengthening relationships between people and the earth through healing retreats, art, science, and outdoor recreation.

Journey ONEderland

<div class="grants align-me">2023Grants for Change, Outdoor Equity Fund</div>

Juneteenth Downeast exists to give people of the African diaspora a place to connect, and opportunities to replenish that which was taken away. Whether through connection to the land, the water, to resources or to each other. May we find through this commemoration ways to be true to ourselves, our history, and our Heritage. May we find ways to nourish who we are amidst that which is the best of us.

Juneteenth Downeast

JustME for JustUS (JMJU) is a youth-led and rural-led 501(c)3 nonprofit ensuring young people in rural Maine have their voices heard throughout our state about the issues impacting the places they live and their local communities. We intentionally collaborate with rural youth (ages 15-30) across all political backgrounds to advocate for the communities.

JustME for JustUS

Formerly The Cambodian Community Association of Maine (CCAM), Khmer Maine is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization working to improve the quality of life and the social and economic well-being of Cambodian people in Maine through cultural exchange, community building and civic engagement.

Khmer Maine

Our mission is to create inclusive healing practices that are affirming and accessible for marginalized communities.



In collaboration with our partners we co-design a yoga and empowerment program specifically for immigrant women living in Maine. Together, we conduct focus groups and community consultations to gather input and feedback from immigrant women about their preferences and needs and develop a program that integrates culturally relevant yoga practices, mindfulness techniques, and empowerment workshops.

Kivulini Afro Yoga Project

Land in Common removes land from speculative markets, welcoming it into long-term community care as a commons rather than a commodity. We work to restore land connection for and by communities dispossessed by white supremacy, colonialism, and other systems of oppression, and to build a multi-generational land base for collective liberation, sustainable livelihoods, and resilient futures.

Land in Common

<div class="ilo">2018-2022 
ILO Fund, Rapid Response, Grants for Change</div>

Maine Access Immigrant Network (MAIN) bridges access to health and social services for immigrants and refugees in Portland Maine. Our organization works to build a stronger multicultural community in Portland, and to address refugee health literacy, health care enrollment, and coordination of health care benefits and non-clinical care. MAIN provides resource and referral information that is culturally and linguistically appropriate in English, Arabic, Somali, and French to ensure equal access to programs and services for new Mainers from Africa and Middle East.

An immigrant man speaks to a woman in front of the computer

Maine Access Immigrant Network

The Maine Alliance for Arts Education (MAAE) is an inclusive statewide alliance of arts educators, students, parents, community artists and arts supporters that advocates for education in and through all of the arts for all Maine students, pre-k through grade 12.

Maine Alliance for Arts Education

<div class="maineshare align-me">MaineShare</div>

MAC is dedicated to the elimination of animal abuse and exploitation through education, advocacy, and example. We believe in educating the public about animal suffering and exploitation in hopes that this knowledge will fundamentally change society’s approach to animals.  We envision a community where our relationship with others, animals and humans, is guided by compassion, respect, and empathy.

Maine Animal Coalition

MANA is an immigrant-led organization that promotes social &amp; personal empowerment of immigrants through: 



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Raising awareness of individual and collective trauma and how they affect our lives </li>



<li>Expanding people’s resilience building strategies by exploring various resources </li>



<li>Providing trauma-aware, multilingual transportation services to address social determinants of health </li>



<li>Connecting people with their peers across cultures</li>
</ul>

Maine Association for New Americans

Maine Audubon works to conserve Maine wildlife and wildlife habitat by engaging people of all ages in education, conservation, and action.

Maine Audubon

<div class="grants align-me">2022Grants for Change</div>

The mission of MBEC is to support Black Educators in the state of Maine through educational opportunities and socio-emotional connection.

Maine Black Educators Collective

The Maine Center for Economic Policy advances equity and prosperity for all Maine people through issue-based analysis, education, and advocacy.

Maine Center for Economic Policy

For over 40 years, MECASA has worked toward responding to and ending sexual violence in Maine.  Our organization supports Maine’s sexual assault support centers and other partners through training and peer-sharing opportunities, resource development, technical assistance, funding of victim services and prevention efforts across the state, and advocating for victim-centered public policy and systems change. We strive in all our efforts to increase access to services for every survivor, expand their options for justice and healing, and cultivate sustainability in our work.

Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault

MCEDV advocates for the right of all people to live free from domestic abuse and all forms of violence. MCEDV envisions a world where respect is our norm, and where all people thrive in their homes and communities – nurtured, healthy, joyful, and free.

Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence

Maine Community Integration is committed to integrating New Mainers into their communities while respecting and uplifting their diverse cultures, identities, and traditions. We serve the interests of both immigrant and local communities by bridging gaps in mutual understanding in order to create social and systemic change.



We believe in the capability of youth, especially New Mainer girls, to overcome the struggles they face every day. Through our social advocacy programs, we equip New Mainer girls and women with the skills and resources to raise their voices, access equal opportunities, and create healthy communities.

Maine Community Integration

Rooted in the central value of love of neighbor, we speak with a prophetic and progressive voice of faith, connecting people within, through, and beyond the church to create a more just, compassionate, and peaceful world. Our coalition of seven mainline Protestant denominations (representing 400 local congregations with 50,000 parishioners in Maine) works with trusted partner organizations like Maine Equal Justice, the Wabanaki Alliance Coalition, and many others, as well as our friends in the Jewish and Muslim communities, to equip people for collective action, to offer educational programs, and to advocate for public policies that protect the vulnerable, address systemic injustice, and foster inclusiveness, equity, and peace for all our neighbors.

Maine Council of Churches

Maine Equal Justice (MEJ) works toward economic security for all. MEJ advocates for fair public policies, provides direct legal services, and partners with diverse low-income communities and agencies through outreach, organizing, and education. They bring people together across differences to make significant systems-level change to improve lives, our communities, and our state.

Maine Equal Justice

Maine Farmland Trust is a statewide nonprofit working to protect farmland, support farmers, and advance the future for farming. Our goal is to keep agricultural lands working and help farmers and communities thrive.

Maine Farmland Trust

The Maine Hospice Council is an independent advocate, educator, and resource for hospice, end-of-life and palliative care in Maine.  Our mission is to promote universal access to quality-of-life through innovative programming, creativity, education, advocacy and collaboration.

Maine Hospice Council and Center for End-of-Life Care

Maine Humane is a cohesive statewide network of humane organizations working to support animal welfare groups. Our mission is to provide resources and opportunities, dedicated to promoting and advancing the humane care of all animals throughout the state of Maine.

Maine Humane

MITSC was created as part of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mitsc.org/mitsc-narrative-summaries/summary-of-the-maine-indian-land-claims-act-of-1980">Maine Indian Claims Settlement of 1980</a>, an agreement reached between the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Passamaquoddy Tribe, Penobscot Nation, State of Maine, and the United States.



MITSC is an independent inter-governmental entity with thirteen members. Six members are appointed by the State, two by the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, two by the Passamaquoddy Tribe, and two by the Penobscot Indian Nation. The thirteenth member, who is the Chairperson, is selected by the other twelve members.



MITSC’s principal responsibilities&nbsp;are to continually review the effectiveness of the Settlement and the social, economic, and legal relationship between the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mitsc.org/about#">Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mitsc.org/tribal-pages/passamaquoddy-tribe">Passamaquoddy Tribe</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mitsc.org/about#">Penobscot Nation</a>&nbsp;and the State of Maine.

Maine Indian Tribal State Commission

<div class="grants">2016-2018, 2020, 2022 
Rapid Response, Grants for Change</div>

Maine Inside Out is a 501 © (3) nonprofit organization founded in 2008 based in Lewiston, Maine. Maine Inside Out groups create powerful theater to inform and engage the greater community in dialogue about social change.

Young actors stand and pose on a stage in red sweatshirts

Maine Inside Out

The purpose of Maine Labor Group on Health is to educate Maine’s working people about health and safety in the workplace and to function as a statewide advocate for working people within the health care system. We offer training in cooperation with OSHA training priorities as well as other workplace health and safety training. We advocate for worker empowerment through education.



The MLGH has established a reputation in Maine as a provider of training, as an advocate for workers, and as a group committed to controlling health care costs. Funding currently comes from member dues, fee for service programs, federal and state grants and contracts, private foundation grants and MaineShare. Funding sources have included the US Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the Maine Safety Education and Training Fund.

Maine Labor Group on Health

The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) is a broad-based community that supports farmers, empowers people to feed their communities, and advocates for an organic future. Our vision is a future where local organic farming nourishes all people, and sustains thriving ecosystems, healthy communities, and fair economies.

Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association

Maine Peace Fund(c3) [and its sister, Peace Action Maine(c4)] is a grassroots, membership-driven organization dedicated to disarmament, and peaceful &amp; creative responses to conflict. As an affiliate of Peace Action National, we primarily organize, educate and advocate for nuclear abolition and the Pentagon Budget awareness. We work and collaborate with our friends to Create a Climate for Peace &amp; Peace for our shared Climate. MPF was founded in 1982 and is a legacy member of MaineShare.

Maine Peace Fund

Maine People’s Resource Center (MPRC) is a statewide organization that engages, teaches and empowers everyday citizens to participate in political, legislative policy decision making that impacts their lives via grassroots organizing.



MPRC was founded in 1984 by leaders of Maine People’s Alliance (MPA), with whom we partner in advancing local, statewide and national campaigns for progressive social change.



Over the past nearly-four decades, MPRC has recruited and trained thousands of grassroots leaders, registered tens of thousands of new voters, and educated hundreds of thousands of Mainers about legislative and ballot initiatives and the importance of voting to make their voices heard.

Maine People’s Resource Center

<div class="grants">2017-2019, 2020, 2022 
Rapid Response, Grants for Change</div>

MPAC is a statewide group formed in 2007 to improve conditions for inmates, former inmates, their families, victims of crime and others.

Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition

The mission of the Maine Resource Recovery Association is to assist the Maine community with implementing professional solid waste management systems that are environmentally and economically sustainable.



Our goal is to promote sustainable materials management in Maine by providing educational programs, materials brokering services, and planning tools to municipal and business managers and to solid waste professionals.

Maine Resource Recovery Association

Maine Soccer Development&#8217;s primary mission is to provide young athletes from disadvantaged families the opportunity to pursue their professional goals in soccer by helping them develop their skills and discipline in and off the field.



Maine Soccer Development (MSD) is a non-profit program that aims to provide all athletes from disadvantaged families in the Greater Portland area, Cumberland District and other neighboring districts in Maine, the opportunity to gain discipline, performance skills, endurance and strength needed in the game of Soccer. In 2024 as Maine becomes more diverse, we believe it is important to be inclusive and address some of the needs of the Immigrant community along with the local Mainers through sports in the game of soccer. MSD was primarily developed for athletes who&#8217;s love and passion is soccer and dream of a professional or higher level of play, but may not be able to afford the resources needed to achieve this. Soccer is growing throughout the Nation and in Maine especially, and it is our hope to align these athletes with their goal.

Maine Soccer Development

VFP was started in Maine in 1985 to abolish war.  Forty years later we are still going strong as an international organization of veterans opposed to war.

Maine Veterans for Peace

The MWL Education Fund works to build gender justice in Maine by ensuring our community has the knowledge, skills, and confidence to engage in gender-equitable public policy advocacy and civic life. We do this by developing leaders for gender equity, building coalitions and partnerships, and engaging community in support of our shared goals.

Maine Women’s Lobby Education Fund

<div class="grants">2020 
Grants for Change, Rapid Response</div>

We believe that safety comes through strengthening communities, addressing the root causes of harm, and promotion individual and collective well being, not incarceration.

A smiling man holds a sign saying, Maine Youth Justice

Maine Youth Justice

Maine&#8217;s Black Future podcast highlights Black excellence all over Maine, showcasing Maine&#8217;s Black historical figures and Black change makers today. In highlighting Maine&#8217;s continuum of Black influence, we interrupt the violence of erasure, creating a grounded space for Black Mainers to actively create a fulfilling future.



The Maine’s Black Future podcast boldly visits stories of historic Black Mainers and the legacies they carved into the state. Then we connect this longstanding history to Black changemakers weaving Maine’s Black future today!



We define terminology, keep it real, and invite you to connect deeply with Black Mainers creating the future that we want to live in. We showcase Black excellence occurring all over Maine and feature original music production from the GEM CITY Maine collective.

Maine’s Black Future Podcast

<div class="maineshare">2016-2018, 2021, 2022 
Rapid Response, Grants for Change, ILO Fund</div>

To ensure that immigrants and migrant farm workers in Maine are heard, celebrated and thriving in their communities, as determined by community members themselves.

A young child holds a slug in his hands for a closer look

Mano en Mano

Mawita’nejEpijij is a community of Wabanaki people reclaiming their cultural lifeways to nurture and nourish one another and honor the inherent dignity of all. We are disrupting the legacy of inequitable colonial systems by creating safe spaces to gather to reconnect with our language, culture, food, land, and one another. Ultimately, by coming together for healing and sustenance, we thrive on the lands of which we have always been a part.

Mawita’nej Epijij (Welcome to the Gathering Place)

More Women+ Surf is a women-led surf organization in Maine breaking down socio-economical, physical, and emotional barriers to create surf and water access for underserved individuals. Hand in hand with allies in the community, MWS+ fosters an inclusive environment that centers women-identifying individuals in the line-up through community-based events, surf and other board sports lessons, and creative storytelling projects.

More Women+ Surf

The NAACP Maine State Prison Branch is an official branch of the national NAACP. The group is actively involved in policy making at the state level, hosts voter registration drives and other civic engagement events within the Maine State Prison, and generally advocates for prisoner rights.

NAACP Maine State Prison Branch

The Natural Resources Council of Maine is the state’s leading nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization dedicated to protecting, restoring, and conserving Maine’s environment, now and for future generations.

Natural Resources Council of Maine

We envision a future where people live in culturally diverse, productive, and welcoming communities, with a sense of pride, inclusion, empowerment, and fulfillment.



NEAAO bridges cultures, celebrates diversity, and empowers Arab Americans and New Mainers to build healthy, fulfilling, and productive lives in their community while preserving their heritage.

New England Arab American Organization

New Ventures Maine empowers Maine people to define and achieve their career, self-employment, and financial goals. Through free classes and individual coaching, we help people find success in their careers, start and grow small businesses, and gain financial stability.



Our classes and workshops, offered at no cost, are open to all Maine adults. Individual coaching is also available for free online and in person. Our programs encourage and empower those thinking about making a change to take the next step. Whatever your goal and no matter where you’re starting from, New Ventures Maine’s professional staff is here to empower and support you. Learn more at www.newventuresmaine.org or by calling 800-442-2092.

New Ventures Maine

<div class="grants">2019-2021, 2022 
Rapid Response, Grants for Change</div>

Nibezun celebrates culture as medicine, provides an inclusive space for healing, and promotes sustainability for all people and future generations.



Present and future generations nurture the sacred unbroken relationship with Mother Earth and each other, living in balance on the ancestral lands and waterways of the Wabanaki.



Rivers have sustained Wabanaki people since Koluskap shot his arrow into the ash tree and they stepped forth from the opening left behind. Rivers are cleansers, life givers, and connectors of communities. Located on sacred Wabanaki lands along the Penobscot River, Nibezun translates to “medicine” in the Penobscot language. Its root word, “nibi” means water, our first medicine. Here we water the seeds of healing for present and future generations.



In 2016, an 85-acre property was listed for sale in Passadumkeag, Maine. The land – a traditional meeting ground and harvesting place for red ochre by the Wabanaki and their ancestors, the Red Paint People – is the last access point to Olamon Island, the original residential village of the Penobscot Nation and essential to traditional activities such as gathering medicines, fasting, and ceremony. Nibezun was formed when a small group of tribal members and allies came together to purchase this sacred land, protecting it for the healing of all people and the next seven generations.

Nibezun

Niweskok, a collaboration of food and medicine providers, rematriates Wabanaki lifeways through engaging with our kinship responsibilities and reclaiming traditional foods &amp; healing. We prioritize restoring the Penobscot Bay region as a Wabanaki foodhub.  



Encoded within Wabanaki traditional languages are our cosmologies. Niweskok in the Penobscot language translates to “dried seeds for planting”, as well as “essence of life” and “spirit”. Wabanaki cosmologies embed us in broad kinship networks which illuminate our interconnections, extending from the stars to seeds. Collectively, we dreamt Niweskok into existence, and with this has come clarity on pαkatəkkʷéwehla, our echo, our impact into the future that we have a responsibility to nurture. &nbsp;



As Wabanaki food providers, herbalists and birth workers, we enact our responsibilities to our traditional matriarchies and to the generations forward, while grounded in the wisdom of our ancestors. We contribute to restoring matriarchies through centering nurturing in all our decision making. Niweskok embodies the transformative power that comes from moving away from extractive practices of exerting power over the land and our relatives (the animals, plants, water, people) towards the balance that comes from acknowledging the earth as our first teacher once again.&nbsp;

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