$400,000 Awarded to Grassroots Racial Justice Work
Dear Friends:
Change happens in community. And that is why it is our honor to announce the 20 grassroots organizations selected for the 2020 Grants for Change program.
These grantees are transforming our state by tirelessly organizing and advocating for justice. They are dismantling systems and structures built on racism and racialized oppression. And they are centering Black, Brown, Latinx, and Indigenous leadership.
In total, the Grants for Change program is awarding $400,000 this fall to organizations advancing racial justice and equity across Maine. With the support of our incredible community of donors and supporters, the Grants for Change program has crossed a milestone: $1,250,000 in grants since 2016 for this critical work! Special thanks to the Pull Up Fund who has made an ongoing investment in Maine Initiatives and bolstered our grantmaking to move more money into the hands of anti-racist activists.
The 20 organizations in the 2020 Grants for Change cohort are working at the intersection of the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and systemic racism. They are joined by the grantees selected through our radically participatory grantmaking process in 2018 and 2019 receiving multi-year grants. Please join us in celebrating their work and funding their efforts.
In Solidarity and Gratitude,
The Maine Initiatives Team
- Black Owned Maine
- Black P.O.W.E.R.
- Coalition on Racial Equity
- Eastern Woodlands Rematriation Collective
- Indigo Arts Alliance
- Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition
- Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition
- Maine Youth Justice
- Maine-Wabanaki REACH
- NAACP Maine State Prison Branch
- Permanent Commission on the Status of Racial, Indigenous and Maine Tribal Populations
- Presente! Maine
- Racial Equity and Justice
- Resources for Organizing and Social Change
- Rise and Shine Youth Retreat
- Southern Maine Workers’ Center
- Survivor Speak USA
- Sunlight Media Collective
- The For Us, By Us Fund
- Wabanaki Alliance