Search Through Grants for Environmental Projects in Maine in the U.S.

About Us

The Brutten Family Foundation funds groups and organizations that help expand access to the outdoors, high-quality education, and vital mental health services. We believe that our wellbeing exists at the intersection of these core pillars.

The Brutten Family Foundation, founded by Patricia and Marc Brutten in 1996, is a private U.S. foundation with a nearly 25-year record of philanthropy focused on benefiting San Diego County and global charities. 

Through our family business, Brutten Global, we have spent more than 40 years in the commercial real estate industry, working in the United States and Europe. Brutten Global emerged and flourished in San Diego, and we began the foundation to give back to local organizations and schools. Our work has expanded to nurture both local and global efforts. Now, our children are also involved in giving back to our communities, and as a family, we share a sense of responsibility to positively change people’s outcomes and give individuals the tools they need to create their own impact.

Inspiring a healthier planet and happier lives through environmental, educational, and mental health initiatives.

The Brutten Family Foundation supports organizations and projects that are making a positive difference for our planet, helping individuals find refuge in nature, and creating opportunities for learning and enlightenment. We're establishing equitable opportunities, nourishing minds, and futures, and helping inspire the next generation of our environment’s stewards. 

Our Core Focuses

We partner with driven groups and organizations committed to advancing our collective wellbeing through our core pillars:

Environment

Protecting our environment is the most critical issue we face as a human race, and investing in a sustainable planet is paramount to our future. We focus on efforts to revive ecosystems and expand access to the outdoors for all, especially underserved communities and those who face systemic barriers to spending time in nature.

Education

Through access to education and resources, underserved students have the chance to overcome obstacles and realize their goals. We support programs and institutions that equip and offer young people the resources, support, and financial aid necessary to succeed in and outside of classrooms.

Menatl Health

Millions of people worldwide suffer from mental health conditions, but many go untreated, partially due to stigmas, a lack of access to treatment, or a lack of awareness of solutions. We support projects relating to mental health resources and care to help individuals access what they need and build stronger, safer societies.

Catalyst Fund

The Catalyst Fund supports organizations that are using grassroots organizing to advance reproductive justice policy and systems change. By centering efforts led by women of color, Catalyst supports work led by low-income white women, transgender, and gender-expansive people, who together make up the constituencies that experience the greatest reproductive health disparities and the largest barriers to reproductive freedom in the U.S.

Catalyst awards grants directly to grassroots organizations, including matching grants designed to bolster organizations’ efforts to raise new money from other sources. Particular attention is paid to organizations building cross-movement alliances between reproductive justice efforts and other social justice organizations, including labor, environmental and economic justice. Catalyst also awards matching grants to public foundations and women’s funds who make grants to organizations led by women of color and transgender people of color. atalyst grantees are the main participants in Groundswell’s two flagship capacity-building programs aimed at boosting the grassroots power of the field: the Integrated Voter Engagement Program and the Grassroots Organizing Institute. Catalyst has a strong track record of galvanizing new money for RJ from foundations and individual donors. Since Groundswell’s first RJ grants were made in 2008, grantmaking partners and grassroots organizations receiving matching grants have catalyzed $41 million into primarily women of color-led RJ work.

The Catalyst Fund has one primary grantmaking round in the fall of each year.

When identifying groups to support through the Catalyst Fund, Groundswell looks for organizations with:

• A highly engaged and growing membership/constituent base comprised of people directly impacted by the conditions that they seek to transform;
• Organizational leadership that reflects the diversity of this base;
• Clear mechanisms for leadership development;
• The ability to mobilize a base to win concrete policy changes;
• A strategic direction with clear goals and objectives that are driven by the membership/constituency;
• Ability to forge inter- and cross-movement alliances and to work well in coalition;
• Innovation in framing and thought leadership;
• A clear timeline for achieving goals and objectives and organizational capacity to achieve these;
• An integrated racial, gender, and class justice analysis;
• Connections to intermediary support organizations that build the capacity and collective power of the RJ movement;
• A strong track record of policy wins or strong strategy towards future wins; and
• System for measuring the impact of the work, including clearly defined benchmarks for success.

Catalyst provides the following types of support:

The fund provides general operating grants, capacity building grants and project grants, with grant sizes ranging from $20,000-$100,000.

About Us

Mattina R. Proctor (1926-2005) was a compassionate philanthropist from Camden, Maine and Boston, Massachusetts. Ms. Proctor championed and funded many worthwhile projects to benefit those in need, protect the environment, and bring fine music, arts, and media to the people. In her memory, The Mattina R. Proctor Foundation continues to support charitable organizations and initiatives in Maine, Massachusetts and beyond that focus on education, healthcare, music, and environmental stewardship.

Need Based Giving

MRPF strives to make a difference with the grants we make. We prefer to focus our giving on particular projects rather than on general program support. Successful applicants are generally those who demonstrate a specific need related to our focus areas in Maine, Massachusetts and beyond.

Focus Areas 

Education

We support organizations that provide educational opportunities in music, performance, and in traditional trades and crafts. The foundation has supported projects at the university and secondary school levels, and programs that engage younger students. We are especially interested in projects that support music and trades education in traditionally underserved populations in Maine and Massachusetts.

The Arts 

We supports organizations and initiatives that bring fine music, arts, and media to the people primarily in Maine and Massachusetts with a special focus on opera. We generally focus our funding on performance and education organizations. In this focus area we tend to concentrate on funding opportunities where major foundation support is critical to the ongoing success of the applicant.

Healthcare

We support healthcare initiatives predominantly in Maine and the Boston area, for public health and medical research. Funding is provided for initiatives in diabetes research and care, dental care, and projects that seek to provide preventative healthcare to underserved populations in Maine.

Environmental Stewardship

We support organizations and campaigns that seek to acquire and protect land in the Midcoast region of Maine, both through direct acquisitions and via conservation easements. We tends to give to conservation organizations that demonstrate a desire to support rural economies through multiple-use management objectives, providing for continued agricultural and recreational uses, along with sustainable timber management programs. In all of our grants, the economic impact on jobs and the regional economy are important factors in the decision-making process.

About Us

Mattina R. Proctor (1926-2005) was a compassionate philanthropist from Camden, Maine and Boston, Massachusetts. Ms. Proctor championed and funded many worthwhile projects to benefit those in need, protect the environment, and bring fine music, arts, and media to the people. In her memory, The Mattina R. Proctor Foundation continues to support charitable organizations and initiatives in Maine and Massachusetts that focus on education, healthcare, music, and environmental stewardship.

Our Focus

MRPF supports organizations and initiatives primarily in Maine and Massachusetts that focus on education, healthcare, music, and environmental stewardship. Grants from MRPF typically range in size from $2,500 to $50,000. Grants are usually made for a specific project in a single year.

Multi-year grants may occasionally be made.

Need Based Giving

MRPF strives to make a difference with the grants we make.  Successful applicants are generally those who demonstrate a specific need related to our focus areas in Maine and Massachusetts.

Focus Areas: 

Education

We support organizations that provide educational opportunities in music, performance, and in traditional trades and crafts. The foundation has supported projects at the university and secondary school levels, and programs that engage younger students. We are especially interested in projects that support music and trades education in traditionally underserved populations in Maine and Massachusetts.

The Arts

We supports organizations and initiatives that bring fine music, arts, and media to the people primarily in Maine and Massachusetts with a special focus on opera. We generally focus our funding on performance and education organizations. In this focus area we tend to concentrate on funding opportunities where major foundation support is critical to the ongoing success of the applicant.

Healthcare

We support healthcare initiatives predominantly in Maine and the Boston area, for public health and medical research. Funding is provided for initiatives in diabetes research and care, dental care, and projects that seek to provide preventative healthcare to underserved populations in Maine.

Environmental Stewardship

We support organizations and campaigns that seek to acquire and protect land in the Midcoast region of Maine, both through direct acquisitions and via conservation easements. We tends to give to conservation organizations that demonstrate a desire to support rural economies through multiple-use management objectives, providing for continued agricultural and recreational uses, along with sustainable timber management programs. In all of our grants, the economic impact on jobs and the regional economy are important factors in the decision-making process.

About Us

Mattina R. Proctor (1926-2005) was a compassionate philanthropist from Camden, Maine and Boston, Massachusetts. Ms. Proctor championed and funded many worthwhile projects to benefit those in need, protect the environment, and bring fine music, arts, and media to the people. In her memory, The Mattina R. Proctor Foundation continues to support charitable organizations and initiatives in Maine and Massachusetts that focus on education, healthcare, music, and environmental stewardship.

Our Focus

MRPF supports organizations and initiatives primarily in Maine and Massachusetts that focus on education, healthcare, music, and environmental stewardship. Grants from MRPF typically range in size from $2,500 to $50,000. Grants are usually made for a specific project in a single year.

Multi-year grants may occasionally be made.

Need Based Giving

MRPF strives to make a difference with the grants we make.  Successful applicants are generally those who demonstrate a specific need related to our focus areas in Maine and Massachusetts.

Focus Area: Healthcare

We support healthcare initiatives predominantly in Maine and the Boston area, for public health and medical research. Funding is provided for initiatives in diabetes research and care, dental care, and projects that seek to provide preventative healthcare to underserved populations in Maine.

The Foundation embraces the protection of biodiversity as its overarching priority.

Frank Weeden, the Foundation’s founder and original benefactor, established the Weeden Foundation to address the impact of growing human populations and overuse of natural resources on the biological fabric of the planet. Since his death in 1984, the Foundation has helped preserve more than 6 million acres of biologically important habitat worldwide and provided financing for the first debt-for-nature swap in Bolivia in 1992, a strategy that is now widely used by international conservation organizations. Program efforts have supported projects in environmentally sensitive regions of the western United States, Alaska, Russia, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Columbia, Ecuador, Belize, Namibia, Mexico, and various Caribbean nations.

Focus Areas

On a more general scale the Foundation supports the following focus areas.

Bird Conservation

Our goal in the Bird Conservation program area is to conserve wild birds and their habitats throughout the Americas. In particular we seek to fund grantees that work to prevent bird species extinctions and to prevent declining populations of bird species from becoming endangered. We specifically focus on protecting and restoring public and private bird habitat and we assist in acquiring land for threatened bird species. Finally we support protection of bird migration corridors in North and South America.

Systemic Support program at the U.S. national policy level for wildlife corridors, the Endangered Species Act, and additional wilderness designation.

Our goal in Systemic Support is to improve the effectiveness of environmental efforts through specialized services. Specific objectives include:

• support the Endangered Species Act through litigation, lobbying, grassroots campaigns and public education generally,
• promote organizations providing support for groups engaged in wilderness protection, land conservation, endangered species protection, wildlife corridor issues, and management of public lands, an
• improve federal and state support for environmentally sustainable practices, wilderness designations, and wildlife corridors. 

Global Biodiversity

Our goal in Global Biodiversity is to support campaigns and/or groups in biodiversity hotspots. Specific objectives are to

• protect global temperate rainforests,
• support creation of wildlife corridors,
• land acquisition and protection for endangered species and,
• support projects that involve indigenous peoples in the process and stewardship of conservation projects.

Environmental Education

The Foundation’s Environment Education program area focuses on supporting grantees that will provide future leaders with the tools to effect environmental policies. These policies complement the other grantees of the Foundation including biodiversity and habitat protection. Sustainable environmental policies must include both immediate actions as well as education to anticipate and to prevent future environmental impact.

Marine Wildlife Conservation

The Marine Wildlife Conservation Program Area focuses on helping to protect endangered marine species in the Americas through research, advocacy, policy change, and habitat conservation.

To address the adverse impact of economic and human population growth on biodiversity, the Foundation’s grantmaking includes both Consumption and Population programs.

The Foundation’s Sustainable Consumption program currently focuses on promoting greater use of environmental paper. Grantmaking in this area aims to broaden the market for environmental papers and packaging through markets campaigns, shareholder activism, consumer-targeted education, and dialogue with the corporate sector. This year we have expanded our packaging program to include efforts to reduce plastics in the waste stream, through strategies such as eliminating single use plastic disposables by promoting reusable packaging for grocery stores, take-out, and delivery.

The Foundation’s International Population program area is focused on reducing population growth rates in countries recognized for their rich biodiverse landscapes and that have a total fertility rate exceeding replacement levels. To achieve this goal, the Foundation funds groups that facilitate initiatives related to family planning, women’s education and women’s empowerment in countries with such rich and recognized biodiversity. The Foundation also supports advocacy efforts addressing global population growth in the context of environmental sustainability.

Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund

The Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund (MOHF) helps fund critical wildlife and conservation projects throughout Maine. The Maine Legislature established MOHF in 1996 with LD 717 "An Act to Establish the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund" in response to a grassroots effort led by Maine Audubon and the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine while joined by many other environmental interested parties.

MOHF’s sole purpose is "maintaining, improving and expanding state and local natural resource conservation programs and associated compatible public uses." in accordance with the MOHF Strategic Plan (PDF).

Revenue is generated exclusively by a dedicated instant lottery ticket distributed by the Maine State Lottery. Tickets are available at most convenience stores, gas stations, and other outlets where Maine State Lottery tickets are sold.

The MOHF Strategic Plan (PDF) requires that funds raised by the lottery be expended in four general categories:

• Category 1: Conservation of fisheries and wildlife, and habitat (35%);
• Category 2: Acquisition and management of public lands, parks, wildlife conservation areas, and public access and outdoor recreation sites and facilities (35%);
• Category 3: Conservation of endangered and threatened species (15%); and
• Category 4: Natural resources law enforcement and protection of public health (15%). 

Grants are awarded semi-annually to natural resource agencies in response to grant proposals. To date, MOHF has awarded over 28 million to over 1200 projects.

About The Award

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund aims to stimulate the growth of new connections between thinkers working in largely disconnected fields who might together change the course of climate change’s impact on human health. In the three years between Fall 2023 and Summer 2026, we will dedicate $1M to supporting small, early stage grants of $2,500–$50,000 toward achieving this goal.

We are mainly but not exclusively interested in activities that build connections between basic/early biomedical scientific approaches and ecological, environmental, geological, geographic, and planetary-scale thinking, as well as with population-focused fields, including epidemiology and public health, demography, economics, and urban planning. Also of interest is work piloting new approaches or interactions toward reducing the impact of health-centered activities, such as developing more sustainable systems for health care, care delivery, and biomedical research systems.

Another area of interest is preparation for the impacts of extreme weather and other crises that can drive large-scale disruptions that will immediately impact human health and the delivery of health care. Public outreach, climate communication, and education efforts focused on the intersection of climate and health are also appropriate for this call. This program supports work conceived through many kinds of creative thinking. Successful applicants include academic scientists, physicians, and public health experts, community organizations, science outreach centers, non-biomedical academic departments, and more.

Please see FAQs for additional guidelines.

The Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund supports projects in Coös County, NH and bordering communities in the United States and Canada that focus on community revitalization.

Championing the North Country

One of the largest permanent rural philanthropies in the U.S. is strengthening communities and spreading economic opportunity.

Grantmaking Goals

The vision of the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund is “to serve as a resource for the people of Coös County and neighboring communities in New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and southern Québec to forge their own pathways to well-being and cultivate a region that thrives.” The Tillotson Fund serves as a stable and consistent source of support for the people of the region to:

• Create and enhance opportunity;
• Preserve and uplift the historical and cultural assets that make the region unique;
• Hold the confidence and capabilities to foster strong communities and healthy rural landscapes.

What We're Funding

Individual and family well-being

Goal: Support individuals and families to meet their essential needs and achieve well-being.

• Meet essential needs for individuals and families.
• Strengthen systems of care.Community resiliency

Healthy workforce ecosystem

Goal: Strengthen the capacity of local employers to maintain and/or grow their operations, build and retain a dynamic workforce, stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship, ensure business continuity and plan for the future.

• Attract and retain the workforce.
• Establish workforce housing solutions.
• Help companies and employees build skills and systems for sustained success.
• Link employers and employees to financial supports.
• Increase access to affordable quality childcare.

Environmental stewardship

Goal: Address the impacts of climate change by investing in mitigation and adaptation strategies, stewardship of natural resources, and efforts that foster human connection to the natural environment.

• Be good stewards of the land, air, forests, waterways and wildlife.
• Encourage/support responsible tourism and recreation.
• Build and enhance sustainable food systems.
• Promote, sustain and scale energy efficiency, clean energy and green building.
• Implement climate smart forestry solutions.

Resilient communities

Goal: Support initiatives that build trust, belonging and connection and lead to stronger, more resilient communities.

• Empower youth.
• Convene, collaborate, celebrate.
• Build skills, knowledge and approaches to advance equity.
• Support community builders and change agents.
• Revitalize population hubs and preserve cultural and historical assets.
• Improve civic health.
• Strengthen municipal capacity and leadership.

Grant amount

Local Grants Program applications may request up to $20,000 for one, two or three years.

Background

McGraw Foundation, headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois, makes annual grants to not-for-profit organizations.  The Foundation’s areas of interest involve the fields of conservation, educational programs at all levels, and human services. Occasionally, grants are made in other areas such as health, medical research and cultural.

Grant requests are suggested to be within a range of $2,000 to $10,000. Grant recipients and amounts will be determined by several criteria. Naturally, availability of funds is a key factor.

The Foundation will occasionally make large grants ($25,000 or more) to support unusually promising efforts in any of its areas of interest. Innovative research, special education, and/or other activities will be considered if the Foundation’s support would assist an effort or a project in making a significant impact.

Areas of Focus

Education: Higher

The Foundation has been a pioneer in support of environmental education at the highest level by establishing three chaired professorships. 

Education: Elementary & Special

McGraw Foundation supports a wide array of organizations that focus on assisting the education and advancement of children as well as adults. McGraw Foundation also makes grants to elementary schools and organizations involved in all areas of special needs education. Funding in this arena has encompassed many organizations that provide services such as after-school tutoring, special education, and adult literacy.

In addition to F.A.I.T.H., McGraw Foundation also makes grants to elementary schools and organizations involved in all areas of special needs education. Funding in this arena has encompassed many organizations that provide services such as after-school tutoring, special education, and adult literacy.

Human Services

Since 1949, McGraw Foundation has been concerned with helping people in need. While the emphasis is on organizations serving children, funding also extends to people of all ages.

Children's issues such as these have been supported throughout the years:

• child welfare
• foster care and adoption
• family counseling
• enriching summer camps
• crisis intervention

Funding for quality-of-life issues for people of all ages has included:

• developmental disabilities
• health clinics
• domestic violence
• housing and homelessness
• job training and continued support
• seniors needs

Health & Medical 

Since its inception, McGraw Foundation has made grants in the health and medical fields.  Health and medical funding has included:

• specific medical research
• rehabilitation
• support programs for patients and their families
• medical attention for people without health insurance
• palliative care and hospice organizations

Civic & Cultural

Complimenting it's main focus on education and the environment, McGraw Foundation has supported some of Chicago's distinctive cultural and arts organizations.

Areas of interest include zoological societies' animal conservation, public communication, musical organizations, and civic organizations' promotion of science and the general welfare of society.

About the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation

Founded in 1991, the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation’s work is based on the premise that human activities lie at the core of most environmental problems, and human creativity and collaboration are at the heart of solving the problems these activities create. The environmental mission of the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation is to support the transition to a more environmentally resilient, stable, and sustainable planet. We believe best practices for promoting sustainability will be most effectively developed through an integrated systems approach and one that furthers the involvement of an informed public in environmental decision making.

Nature-Centrism as a Lens for Organizational Behavior and Decision-Making

Over the course of 30 years the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation has funded critical but low- attention areas, knowledge gaps, and cross-cutting environmental strategies that attract little or no investment from other funders. Looking back, almost all the environmental issues that VKRF has engaged in have led back to humanity’s disregard for nature’s inherent value and for the limits of our planet’s natural resources. VKRF supported conservation issues in its early years, and has addressed water pollution, toxicity, soil depletion, and climate change in its later years. Most recently, the foundation has worked on a toolbox for exploring and working with the complex and dynamic processes involved in many societal and natural systems simultaneously reaching irreversible tipping points. Through the lens of a systems perspective, it becomes even clearer how humans have damaged their own life support systems at all planetary levels. A recalibration of our relationship to nature is needed. A relationship where all life forms co-exist in balanced, rather than hierarchical, systems. Only a shift away from the separation from, and domination of, nature to an understanding of our deep connection to, and embeddedness in, nature can provide us with the solutions and blueprints for tackling the challenges we face today.

In its next rounds of grantmaking, the foundation will continue its recent work at the systems level, further exploring the consequences of, and solutions to, humanity’s anthropocentric departure from value structures based on our kinship with nature. We recognize that we stand on the shoulders of nature-centric thinking of previous generations, cultures, and knowledge systems. We also recognize the significant work of different schools of regenerative and nature-centric practices that is already being applied in many sectors and geographies.

The foundation believes that many of these already-existing frameworks for nature-centric worldviews have the potential to lead to new ethical paradigms, models for cooperation, co- existence, and resilience that will overcome humans’ alienation from nature and foster well- being of all life on our shared planet.

As an entry point for its upcoming grantmaking round, the foundation will explore whether a more mainstream adoption of a nature-centric worldview is possible, either within our current structures or in the future, when the escalating polycrisis prepares the ground for a broader re-examination of our current paradigm.

This call for proposals focuses on nature-centric decision-making, in which nature’s inherent value becomes a central principle and informs institutions’ practices across their activities. VKRF is looking to identify grantees who are ready to make the recognition of interbeing, interdependence, and interconnectedness central to their strategy development, decision making, and day-to-day operations.

With this effort, VKRF hopes to prepare the ground for a significant scaling-up of nature-centric policies and practices that can lead to long-term resilience and integrity of the entire biosphere.

Types of Projects

Projects could include, but are not limited to:

• participatory research on governance frameworks for nature-centric decision making
• participatory social research on nature-centric cultural shifts, design principles, and management practices
• planning and learning processes that will facilitate an organization’s application of a nature- centric lens to its strategy and planning processes, day-to-day operations, and relationships with external partners and stakeholders
• building organizational capacity for buy-in of nature-centric strategies at the highest levels of organizational decision-making and governance
• peer learning in the form of workshops, convenings and conferences that will allow multiple organizations to co-create and share methodologies, approaches, tool-building, and practices that make a nature-centric lens prominent in behaviors and decision-making
• related visionary work exploring scenarios moving us toward a mainstream nature-centric future.

Objectives and Criteria

All proposals will need to be science-based and should meet the following criteria:

• Scope:
  • be visionary, experimental, and action-oriented when it comes to research and the changing of minds; and
  • consider life as relational.
    • The foundation is only interested in projects in which both human and non-human life are taken into consideration.
• Approach:
  • build on cross-cutting and/or transdisciplinary knowledge domains;
  • ambitious in the effort to scale and mainstream a nature-centric worldview; and
  • come to this topic with a nonjudgemental, curious, and collaborative mindset.
• Field-building:
  • advance the field beyond the results of the individual project
• Output and information resulting from funding:
  • must be open-source, accessible and available to be used free of charge by anyone in civil society and within the government sector, though the grantee will retain ownership of the copyright for any material produced.

Funding

The foundation will entertain projects with a one- to two-year timeline. Results and outcomes should be achievable within the grant period and the budget requested.

The foundation’s total grantmaking budget for this funding round is six million USD. We anticipate funding 12-15 projects.

The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy is a global environmental nonprofit working to create a world where people and nature can thrive.

Our Mission

To conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends.

Connectivity, Climate, Communities Fund

To make the highest possible impact on the climate and biodiversity crises, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is committed to advancing solutions and supporting partners throughout the Appalachians to connect and conserve vital wildlife habitat, build resilience to the impacts of climate change, and generate new job and recreation opportunities for communities.

Approximately one-third of the U.S. population lives in or within 100 miles of the Appalachians, including an estimated 36 million people that rely on the region for sources of drinking water. The landscape contains the world's largest remaining expanses of temperate broadleaf mixed forest and provides habitat to a wide diversity of plants of animals, many of which are listed as rare, threatened, or endangered. Conserving this landscape is critical for nature and for the people that live and work there.

However as climate change drives ecosystem instability, plants and animals are shifting their ranges northward, and people are having to find ways to adapt to complex and intertwined challenges. TNC and many others have been working to conserve vital Appalachian habitats for decades. Now we must ramp up our efforts and coordinate with partners across the Appalachians for maximum impact.

To succeed in these efforts, TNC’s Connectivity, Climate, Communities Fund offers two grant programs for conservation and community organizations, municipalities, Federally Recognized Tribal Nations, and local and state agencies in the Appalachians who are working to protect and conserve this region:

• The Resilient and Connected Appalachians Grant Program
• The New York Climate Resilience Grant Program

Resilient and Connected Appalachians Grant Program

The Resilient and Connected Appalachians Grant Program provides grants of up to $100,000 for fee and easement acquisition projects throughout the Appalachians.

Equitable Conservation and Community Benefits

Conservation organizations are increasingly acknowledging the importance of incorporating social equity in their missions, partnerships, and projects and evolving how they work to have better outcomes for people and nature.

TNC defines community benefits as the positive outcomes that directly result from or are included within conservation projects as experienced by local communities and people. This is particularly important for historically marginalized communities, communities with limited access to nature, communities experiencing heightened impacts of climate change due to systemic underinvestment and poor infrastructure, and Indigenous communities. 

RCA program funding will support projects that demonstrate meaningful community engagement, work with those historically excluded from conservation, and lead to a fairer distribution of benefits for people and communities.

Some examples of community benefits include improved and greater access to nature, protection of drinking water sources, recreational and resource-based economic opportunities, flood mitigation, engagement in cross-cultural initiatives, or protection of lands that will meet community-defined conservation needs. We encourage projects with meaningful community benefits that are integrated with the land protection goals.

Project Evaluation

Projects will be evaluated  according to their capacity to deliver land protection outcomes aligned with the program goals, including:

• Location:
  • the project is located within TNC’s Appalachians Program boundary and is in or near a mapped focal area.  Projects outside of focal areas will also be considered.
• Resilience:
  • the percentage of the total project area that is part of the Resilient and Connected Network.
• Connectivity:
  • adjacency to protected lands or other attributes that will lead to landscape connectivity over time (e.g., the project is a necessary acquisition for advancing a local or regional plan that aims to protect a critical conservation corridor).
• Collaboration:
  • evidence of engagement with other organizations, community groups, or local governments (including, but not limited to, shared funding).
• Community:
  • project elements that directly engage and or benefit people, especially vulnerable or marginalized communities.
• Timeline:
  • the project will close within 12 months from the start of the grant agreement term.
• Feasibility:
  • likelihood that the project will close and the costs seem reasonable.

Keystone Grant Program

The Keystone program prioritizes grassroots and community-led efforts to address environmental and racial justice, as a key strategy for equitable social change and community well-being. By funding efforts that use advocacy and community organizing, and strategic messaging and communications, and by funding organizations that provide essential capacity supports for grassroots and community-led efforts, we will contribute to building a robust civic engagement infrastructure to advance a just, sustainable, healthy Maine.

Priorities

Our focus is on supporting organizations and efforts that meet at least three of the following criteria:

• Demonstrate a clear commitment to environmental justice and racial justice
• Are grassroots or community-led. Sewall understands grassroots efforts to be inclusive community-led and -based efforts that include everyday people working to bring about a change through collective action. Grassroots efforts include and are led by people from the community that is primarily affected by the issue they are addressing
• Provide meaningful capacity and technical support to grassroots and community-led efforts in Maine
• Work to create conditions necessary for a just, healthy, sustainable future, with a primary focus on advocacy, community organizing, civic engagement, and/or field- and movement-building efforts
• Work statewide in Maine or regionally with clear impact in Maine

We prioritize applicants that: 

• Are led by Black, Indigenous, People of Color, rural Mainers, and women;
• Are working collaboratively across sectors; and/or
• Have an explicit commitment to environmental justice and/or racial justice

Funding

• Available Funding: $1,500,000
• Our normal grant range is $10,000-50,000 for individual organizations. Collaborative grants that will be shared with multiple partners may be up to $200,000.

Mission

The mission of the Doree Taylor Charitable Foundation is to support charitable organizations that:

• Provide relief to people in need of basic provisions (including food, housing, shelter) 
• Promote the humane care of animals
• Provide health care services for the underserved
• Conduct Public radio or television

People in Need

Applicants in this area should demonstrate that the program or service they offer clearly meets a basic need of an underserved population, which may include low-income people, youth who are court-involved, homeless families, or homebound seniors. These examples are for illustration purposes only.  For organizations with annual (cash) revenues of $5 million or less, we encourage general operating support requests.

Humane Care of Animals

The Taylor Foundation has a partnership with the Maine Community Foundation’s Belvedere Fund in the area of animal welfare. Within the animal welfare priority, we will consider capital requests.

Health Care

Within the area of health care, the Foundation will entertain requests for oral health services, mental health services, or physical health care services. There is a priority for programs that can demonstrate they are effectively serving underserved populations. Small, one-time capital or equipment requests may be included within project budgets.

Public radio or television

There is a strong priority for larger public television or radio organizations. From time to time, the Foundation may make grants to smaller, community-based public access radio or television stations.

Environment

The Foundation’s priority is for programs that have both an environmental impact as well as a demonstrably positive impact in one of the Foundation’s other priority areas. For example, a river-bed restoration project that also preserves a species and/or improves the quality of water to a low-income area.

Colleges and universities

Support for colleges and universities will be considered on a case-by-case basis, but must include a focus on at least one of the Foundation’s other priority areas. Special consideration will also be granted to colleges or universities in the geographic priority areas. Colleges or universities interested in applying are strongly encouraged to contact the Foundation’s listed Bank contact before submitting an application.

The Foundation supports projects in coastal areas of Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island and selected international locations.

For the last two decades, the Foundation has focused a significant portion of its financial resources on Southeastern Massachusetts, where its office is located. Here the Board seeks to understand how communities grow sustainably and equitably, how to increase educational opportunities, how rural and urban economies are intertwined, and how to best protect working landscapes and the people who rely upon these areas for their livelihoods. In funding in a few specific areas, the Board believes it will have the most impact.   

Environment

In Southeastern Massachusetts, Maine, and Rhode Island, the Island Foundation promotes the conservation of marine and coastal resources. For many years, the Foundation has given priority to North Atlantic right whale research, protection of coastal waterbird habitat, and preservation of coastal lands.

More recently, the Board has been interested in new initiatives that:

• link climate change, renewable energy, and regional planning and support those most impacted by climate change;
• support working landscapes (sustainable agriculture and community-based fisheries) and the people who rely on them for their livelihoods;
• help local conservation organizations strengthen their own capacity;
• connect community health, quality of life, and environmental conservation; and
• promote environmental justice and seek to include the voices of those most affected by environmental harms.

Grant Guidelines

For application-based grants, the Betterment fund’s minimum annual grant is $10,000. The maximum annual grant usually does not exceed $35,000. The average annual grant, whether for multiple years or a single year, is $15,000-$20,000. Three years is the maximum period of time the Betterment Fund will consider for a multi-year grant. The largest grants tend to be made to applicants with a successful history of grant management with the Betterment Fund

Current Grant Priorities

Education, health, conservation and community support are our primary grant categories. We also recognize that certain projects transcend these categories and have defined a number of “cross-sector” areas.

Community Support

We favor community-wide programs or regional systemic approaches to issues to improve well-being within the following current priority areas:

• Downtowns
• Basic Human Needs:
• Legal Protections

Proposals less likely to be funded include individual school programs, programming supplementary to the curricula of schools, and construction projects. Any funding of scholarships at Maine colleges and universities is done only at the initiative of the trustees rather than in response to grant requests.

Education

We believe that every Maine resident is entitled to an education which equips the individual to lead a satisfying, productive and economically independent life, and we are interested in funding broad-based educational policy initiatives to that end. Please see “Health” and the Cross-Sector areas of “Early Childhood” and “Economic Development” for initiatives related to education in those areas. More particularly we fund:

• Educational Quality
• Adult Education
• Arts Education
• Higher Education Aspirations

Proposals less likely to be funded include individual school programs, programming supplementary to the curricula of schools, and construction projects.

Conservation

Perpetuating a balanced, dynamic relationship between the natural and built environments in the three-million-acre corridor between the White Mountain National Forest and the Moosehead Lake region is of particular interest. To that end we sponsor the following initiatives within the extensive and varied landscape which covers most of Oxford, Franklin and Somerset counties:

• Preservation of special places, particularly those identified by the local communities, along the spine of the Appalachian Trail and in the Maine West and High Peaks Regions.
• Support of the responsible development of working forests and agriculture.
• Preservation and restoration of threatened natural habitats.
• Opportunities for traditional Maine recreation in the target region.
• Support of water quality preservation of lakes, rivers and ponds.

Occasionally we may fund projects of land trusts and environmental organizations located in the other rim counties, but we focus primarily on the Western Maine counties listed above.

Health

We are currently focusing our Health grants in the following areas:

• Maine Public Health Policy
• Oral Health
• Increasing Educational Opportunities for Health Careers
• Community Health Projects
• Substance Use Disorder

Please note that projects focused primarily on physical activity and healthy eating should be submitted under our cross-sector “Moving Communities to Health.”

Proposals that are not as likely to be funded include medical research, projects relating to a single disease, actual delivery of medical treatment and capital construction or equipment purchases

Cross-Sector Areas

We have identified these areas as being particularly susceptible to consideration under more than one of our traditional priority categories.

Economic Development

We recognize that the expansion of Maine’s economy will advance other areas of Betterment Fund concern. We particularly support the following programs:

• Entrepreneurship
  • Programs that promote scalable entrepreneurship, particularly in rural areas.
  • Areas of particular interest include women- and minority-owned businesses and improved coordination of existing entrepreneurship and economic development efforts, including with educational initiatives.
  • The development of careers and businesses in the trades is also of interest.
• Agricultural Capacity
  • Improvements to the competitiveness and long-term viability of Maine farms and farmers by providing technical support and improving access to distribution and markets.
• Tourism
  • Promotion and development of quality tourism as an engine for economic opportunity in the mountain and forest regions, with particular preference for the Western Mountains region.
• Broadband
  • Support of planning and implementation projects to increase access to broadband in local communities of Oxford, Franklin, Somerset, and northern Cumberland Counties, conditioned upon local municipal and/or nonprofit community entities’ commitment of resources to such projects.

Creative Economy

The Betterment Fund is primarily interested in regional and statewide strategies promoting the economic enhancement of communities through arts and culture.

Early Childhood

The Betterment Fund has prioritized improvement of the education, health, and general well-being of Maine’s youngest children, from before birth through preschool age. Our focus in this area is funding the development of best practices for the physical, mental, and psychosocial health and development of young children. We support policy work that leads to the adoption of state or federal policies to achieve these outcomes and the establishment and maintenance of the broad infrastructure to carry out this work. We also are interested in the development of an economically viable and accessible system of childcare for working families. We are unlikely to make grants to individual school or childcare center programs.

Moving Communities to Health

Of interest are community-scale initiatives taking advantage of natural and other qualities inherent in the community’s locale and promoting the participation of its residents in active recreation and other activities (such as healthy eating) conducive to healthy lifestyles and prevention of illness. Essential elements of this priority include:

• A demonstrated connection to individuals’ physical and/or mental health; and
• Initiation by and for the residents of an identified geographic-based community (as opposed to individuals with common interests or attributes drawn from more disparate geographic areas).

Philanthropy

The Betterment Fund embraces opportunities to collaborate with other state-wide philanthropic organizations that seek to improve grant-making and support charitable activities in Maine. In addition to making grants, the Betterment Fund supports and participates in a number of funder groups around specific issues.

The Davis Conservation Foundation’s broad purpose is to support the wise utilization, protection and advancement of our physical environment and the different natural forms of life that inhabit it, including wildlife, sea life and mankind as they are impacted by the environment. To accomplish this, the foundation supports organizations devoted primarily to:

• Projects/programs related to wildlife, wildlife habitat, environmental protection and outdoor recreation.
• Projects/programs that strengthen volunteer activity and outreach/community involvement in the above-noted areas.

DCF's Highest Priorities:

• Gulf of Maine
• Northern Forest
• Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation and Resilience

Grant Philosophy

Growing Human Wholeness

Fostering stronger relationships between people and nature through movement and nourishment. We award grants to Maine-based nonprofits who are working to advance Human Wholeness.

We have two grant periods each year, one for each of our focus areas.

Focus Area: Nourishment

Empowering people to consistently choose regional and plant-based foods that restore human and environmental health.

Strategies include (but are not limited to):

• Promoting participation in community gardens and farms
• Growing knowledge and skills for selecting and preparing healthy, natural, local foods
• Addressing community disparities to access affordable regional foods
• Educating Mainers on the human and environmental health benefits of a regional, plant-based diet
• Expanding gleaning, food waste reduction and composting programs
• Advocating for healthier menu options within institutions
• Building awareness and skills for regenerative, sustainable farming techniques
• Awakening pride and joy from growing food in a family or community setting
• Exploring ecological truths that link humans with nature through daily food choice 

Funding

The Quimby Family Foundation awards grants from $2,500 up to $25,000. We provide a very small number of larger investments on an invitation-only basis. 

Please see FAQs for additional guidelines.

Welcome To the Stephen & Tabitha King Foundation

The Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation is a private non-profit organization that promotes strengthening and supporting communities and draws upon the values and spirituality of the founders. The Foundation has a special interest in organizations and people who have less recourse to usual channels of resources, focusing on community-based initiatives in the State of Maine only.

Our Mission

The Stephen & Tabitha King Foundation was created because its founders wanted to give back to their communities. The foundation will strive to fulfill its mission with respect, integrity, and consideration. Persons working for the foundation may not sit on the board of organizations applying for funding, nor may they receive gifts or services from organizations applying for funding. Grant decisions are made by the foundation in its sole discretion and are not subject to review or appeal. The foundation has absolutely no obligation whatsoever to any particular applicant.

Guidelines

The Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation was created in 1986 to provide support for Maine communities. As a family foundation, we are interested in projects that address the underlying causes of social and environmental problems, as well as those that address the consequences. We have a strong interest in literacy, community services and the arts. As community builders, we are particularly interested in organizations and projects that will affect or serve the most members of a community.

JSF is a young, growing organization. In 1992, we funded two projects totaling $2000; in 1996, we funded ten projects for a total of $13,265; in 1998, we funded nine projects for a total of $18,300; and in 2000 we have funded 5 projects for a total of $24,550.  Projects have ranged from a few hundred dollars to several thousand.

While we generally like to fund a variety of projects, we will consider giving the majority of our funds to a single entity in any grant cycle.

It is the objective of John Sage Foundation to promote and enhance a harmonious relationship between people and the natural environment.

Type of projects JSF has funded:

• Land acquisition and site evaluations
• Water testing programs
• Environmental education - programs, planning and scholarships
• Support for an environmental center and library
• Boardwalks for nature preserves
• Community garden program
• Natural history museum equipment

The Fund for Wild Nature provides grants to small groups who get things done, and we’ve been at it for nearly 40 years. Please see our History page for some highlights. Our Board of Directors is comprised of lifelong environmental activists who know which steps are needed to protect and restore species and habitat, and which strategies and tactics will work. We will direct your donation to where it is most needed. Join us as an investor in wild nature!Guiding Principles

The Fund for Wild Nature’s board is rooted in biocentrism and believes that native species and healthy ecosystems are too essential to be sacrificed. Wild areas are increasingly rare and under relentless pressure from a variety of threats. Yet these wild areas constitute the main reservoirs of biodiversity, and provide key scientific reference points for our understanding of the planet’s wondrous cycles of birth, life, death, and decay. Wild nature, and the native flora and fauna within, also provide priceless ecosystem services, including clean air, water, pollination, and climate regulation, which are vital to life on Earth.

Our goal is to fund groups that recognize the inherent value of wild places and work to preserve and protect natural systems. We support efforts that challenge destructive policies and actions: bold groups that often face tough odds and politically and economically powerful opponents. Hope for the future depends upon active, informed, and passionate people who defend wild nature. Our strength is in the groups we fund and the donors that give us the opportunity to invest in wild nature.

Environment Program

The Onion Foundation Environment Program aims to enable all Maine residents — especially those in rural areas — to enjoy the state’s natural resources and develop the knowledge, skills, and motivation to protect Maine’s environment. Rather than supporting land acquisition and capital projects, we focus our resources on the people of Maine, whose lives and behaviors will continue to shape environment and climate change outcomes.

Strategy II- Expand Nature Learning

Our goal: 

Provide high-quality, science-based nature learning opportunities that help Maine youth understand the role that robust natural systems can play in a healthy and vibrant life.

To achieve this goal, we uphold two core priorities:

• Develop and grow high-quality, standards-aligned nature learning programs for youth in specific underserved parts of the state.
• Support intensive and high-quality programs that provide youth with transformative, multi-day trips outdoors.

Our work under this strategy primarily supports nonprofit organizations that offer robust environment-focused educational programs to young people that center natural systems, science, and experiential elements.

According to the Census for Community-Based Environmental Learning, students in many of Maine’s rural and remote areas receive less environmental education than their peers in urban areas, and educators have fewer local, environmental, and community-based organizations with which to partner. Under this strategy, we aim to increase the number of high-quality nature learning opportunities available to Maine’s young people in rural areas to ensure all children and youth understand the role nature can play in a healthy and vibrant life.

Our Priorities

Characteristics of high-quality programs:

• Include high-quality curricula, pedagogy, and learning experiences, preferably linked to the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards, which aim for transformative learning
• Offer place-based, experiential learning elements
• Result in students gaining an understanding of natural systems
• Led by qualified educators
• Thoughtfully partner with schools and other networks to ensure continuous and complementary opportunities for learning, experience, and exploration
• Focus on one or more group(s) and engage in durable and relevant partnerships to drive and support the participation of the targeted group(s)
• Demonstrate a commitment to equity and accessibility

Maine is home to a network of best-in-class overnight environmental learning centers. These programs bring youth from across the state to their sites for longer, deeper experiences in Maine’s natural landscapes. They also provide statewide leadership in the nature-learning field by showcasing model programs, sharing emerging best practices, and advocating for their support. These programs complement the place-based experiential learning programs of Priority 1.

Quadratec Cares 'Energize The Environment' Grant Program Goals

Quadratec recognizes that our position as a leading aftermarket supplier for 4x4 vehicles – such as Jeeps – also gives us a responsibility to help support enthusiasts working towards improving our environment. By doing so, we believe all of us can positively influence a new generation of outdoor lovers, help keep our recreational facilities and trails free of litter, and promote a better understanding of what makes our environmental world tick.

Money does not grow on trees. We all know that. Nor is it found under rocks or hanging from bushes. But for those individuals or organizations passionate about the environment – those looking to help save our trees, rocks and bushes, or even the trails we drive – Quadratec can help.

We are honored to present our Quadratec Cares 'Energize the Environment' Grant Program.

Over the years, Quadratec has proudly awarded environmental-restoration grants to scores of groups and individuals through our Quadratec Cares Restoration for Recreation program. In the process, we’ve seen trails and off-road facilities from Maine to California benefit. But more importantly, we understand that another great way to promote environmental responsibility is to energize those in the community who have a vision, a sense of responsibility, for making our environmental world a better place.

Our Program

Starting this year we are taking our love for all things environmental and asking you - or your organization - to tell us why you feel you'd make a great fit for our grant program. We are offering two $3,500 environmental grants per year – one each in the spring and fall – to an individual or group currently pursuing a program or initiative designed to benefit our environment.

Some examples of this would be:

• Trail building or restoration projects
• Park beautification events
• Litter prevention initiatives
• Earth Study missions
• Sustainable Land Management activities
• Community environmental educational projects
• Youth educational engagement events

The recipient or organization will receive a one-time $3,500 payment to be used exclusively towards stated project. 

Background

New Hampshire's nonprofit organizations help make New Hampshire a great place to live.

Through our competitive grant programs, we fund programs and operations of qualified nonprofits working in the areas of health and well-being, civic engagement, education, economic development, environmental protection and arts and culture. 

We also make grants to nonprofit partners working in specific areas of strategic Foundation priorities – like fighting substance use disorders and increasing youth opportunity.

Community Grants Program - Project Grants

This competitive grants program awards project support (a set of activities conducted during a specified period of time and with clearly stated deliverables that further the organization’s mission).

Strong applications should demonstrate the following:

• Clear community need for the project 
• Timeliness: Why is this a strategic time to invest in this project?
• A clear workplan
• A project budget that clearly corresponds with the work in the project description and work plan
• A strategy for how the work, if ongoing, will be sustained beyond the grant period

Grant amount

• $5,000 – $20,000 for organizations serving one region
• $5,000 – $25,000 for statewide organizations (serving more than two regions)

EQIP

The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is NRCS’ flagship conservation program that helps farmers, ranchers and forest landowners integrate conservation into working lands.

EQIP provides technical and financial assistance to agricultural producers and forest landowners to address natural resource concerns, such as:

• Improved water and air quality;
• Conserved ground and surface water;
• Increased soil health;
• Reduced soil erosion and sedimentation;
• Improved or created wildlife habitat; and
• Mitigation against drought and increasing weather volatility.

How It Works

NRCS works one-on-one with producers to develop a conservation plan that outlines conservation practices and activities to help solve on-farm resource issues. Producers implement practices and activities in their conservation plan that can lead to cleaner water and air, healthier soil and better wildlife habitat, all while improving their agricultural operations. EQIP helps producers make conservation work for them. Financial assistance for practices may be available through EQIP.  Some producers may also qualify for advance payment.

Benefits

Some of these benefits include:

• Reduced contamination from agricultural sources, such as animal feeding operations.
• Efficient use of nutrients, reducing input costs and reduction in nonpoint source pollution.
• Improved soil health, which mitigates against increasing weather volatility, improves drought resiliency and can positively affect climate change.
• Implementation of climate-smart practices that improve carbon sequestration and reduce greenhouse gas emissions while building resilient landscapes.

Maine Initiatives

• Conservation Planning Activities (CPAs), Design and Implementation Activities (DIAs), and Conservation Evaluation and Monitoring Activities (CEMAs)
  • Technical service providers (TSP) or other third-party service providers (Providers) for NRCS can carry out planning, design, implementation, and monitoring tasks for NRCS conservation program purposes (previously known as Conservation Activity Plans (CAPs)). NRCS has reorganized and renamed CAPs into three new categories—Conservation Planning Activities (CPAs), Design and Implementation Activities (DIAs), and Conservation Evaluation and Monitoring Activities (CEMAs). NRCS broke these activities out to clarify which phase of the NRCS conservation planning process the TSP/Provider will be supporting.
• Climate Smart Agriculture
  • Agricultural producers play a critical role in fostering a healthy environment through climate-smart management practices that conserve natural resources, build healthier soils, sequester carbon, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). When row crop producers adopt conservation practices such as no-till or plant diverse cover crops, for instance, they’re building healthier soils while also sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.
• Irrigation Assistance
  • Under the 2008 Farm Bill, priority will be given to water conservation or irrigation efficiency applications that will reduce water sue or where the producer agrees not to use any associated water savings to bring new land under irrigation production.
  • Maine NRCS will set aside at least $1,000,000 each year in financial assistance funding for eligible applicants across the state.  These dollars will be used to fund projects that address irrigation efficiency and assist producers to comply with Maine Department of Environmental Protection Chapter 587 In-Stream Flows and Lake and Pond Water Levels regulations.
• On-Farm Energy Initiative
  • The EQIP On-Farm Energy Initiative enables the producer to identify ways to conserve energy on the farm through an Agricultural Energy Management Plan (AgEMP), also known as an on-farm energy audit; and by providing financial and technical assistance to help the producer implement various measures and practices recommended in an on-farm energy audit.
• Organic Agriculture Initiative
  • Maine has received funds for an organic initiative to encourage more organic agriculture production.
  • Successful applicants will receive funding to implement conservation practices that have been identified as needed to improve natural resource conditions.
• National Water Quality Initiative
  • The National Water Quality Initiative will work in priority watersheds to help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners improve water quality and aquatic habitats in impaired streams. 
  • NRCS will help eligible producers implement conservation and management practices through a systems approach to control and trap nutrient and manure runoff. 
  • Qualified producers will receive assistance for installing conservation practices such as cover crops, filter strips and terraces.
  • In Maine, two watersheds were selected to participate in this initiative:  The Cross Lake Watershed in northern Aroostook County and the Sheepscot River Watershed in Lincoln County.
    • The Cross Lake Watershed includes Daigle Brook, Dickey Brook and Cross Lake subwatersheds.
    • The Sheepscot Watershed includes Sheepscot River and Dyer River subwatersheds.
• Pollinators
  • Whether you are a farmer who relies on native bees for pollination, or a forestry producer interested in conservation, consider applying for funding through an NRCS cost-share program today.
• EQIP State Aquatic Restoration Pool
  • The state aquatic restoration pool provides the opportunity for stream connectivity and or instream habitat projects.
  • This pool is available statewide and focuses on perennial streams lacking appropriate base conditions.
  • The state pool is focused on implementing solutions to two core resource concern practices, with select other supporting practices that may be executed in conjunction with the core practices.

Rapid Response Program Fund

The Rapid Response Fund is a grant opportunity that supports emergency and/or time-sensitive needs of organizations and communities whose work aligns with the Sewall Foundation’s mission: To support a culture of equity and interconnected well-being for people, animals, and the environment in Maine.

• Emergency refers to an unexpected and unplanned event or situation that requires an immediate and time-limited response.
• Time-sensitive refers to opportunities that are short-term in duration (usually within the next few months) and purpose.

Some examples of Rapid Response Fund grants that we’ve recently made are included below. Funding requests can be for work happening anywhere in Maine and do not need to fit into one of our grant programs.

Priorities

In keeping with Sewall’s values and commitment to fostering equity and centering community voice, Rapid Response Fund grants are generally focused on:

• Community-based organizations with operating budgets under $250,000
• Organizations led by and/or serving black, indigenous, people of color, rural Mainers, and women
• Land back and land access efforts. Up to $100,000 of available Rapid Response funds will be dedicated towards down payments, legal fees, appraisals, due diligence, and other time sensitive acquisition costs

Additional priorities include:

• Organizations, networks, or grassroots efforts working to coordinate or mobilize response/action for their field or sector, a geographic region, or a specific community or population
• Collaborative and cross-sector efforts
• Efforts that are explicit in their commitment to racial and environmental justice
• Efforts that integrate the well-being of people, animals and the environment

Funding

• Available Funding: $400,000
  • Up to $100,000 is for land back and land access projects
• Grant Size: Most Rapid Response Fund grants will be no greater than $10,000.
• Grant Term: All Rapid Response Fund grants are limited to a 12 month term.  

Background

The Morton-Kelly Charitable Trust was established in 1988 by Joan Morton Kelly and her mother, Mildred Duncan Morton, to facilitate their philanthropic activities.

Foundation Program Areas

The overarching interest of the Morton-Kelly Charitable Trust is to connect people and place through the arts, culture and the natural environment in Maine. Program Areas reflect how communities, organizations and individuals can cultivate creative expression and a sense of responsibility towards one another and to the lands and waters around us. Proposals may be for operating support or specific projects and may be of local or statewide benefit. Across all programs, community connection is paramount.

Program Areas of interest to the Trust are Arts, Culture and Historic Preservation and Environmental Initiatives.

Arts, Culture and Historic Preservation

The Trust is interested in community arts and cultural programs, cultural facility improvements, historic preservation projects and celebration of the diverse cultural heritage of Maine.

Arts and culture programs and organizations help foster vibrant communities, creative expression, inspiration and build community connections. Community cultural centers and preservation of historic sites and resources can enhance downtown and community revitalization efforts and be a cornerstone of community arts and cultural life. The Trust is also interested in programs that expand cross-cultural understanding of the unique and layered histories of Maine and contemporary expressions of culture and heritage.

The Trust’s Arts and Culture Program Area welcomes operating support or project proposals that meet any of the following goals:

• Access to the arts, creative expression and community cultural programs
  • Priorities include:
    • Access to arts experiences of all kinds, arts education for all ages, and performances and programs that serve Maine communities and residents.
    • Visual and performing arts programs in Maine museums, public libraries, historical societies and other cultural organizations.
    • Both urban and rural programs that reflect local needs and bring community members together, including lectures, exhibits and special events.
    • Projects and programs that serve diverse populations and cultural experiences including Black, Indigenous and people of color in Maine.
• Facility improvements for community cultural centers and historic preservation projects that contribute to community vitality
  • Cultural facility improvement priorities include:
    • Structural, health, safety, public access or energy efficiency improvements.
    • Technology upgrades and other renovation needs.
    • Small venues in rural or underserved areas where few other resources are available, and which contribute to community revitalization.
• Historic preservation projects that contribute to community vitality
  • Priorities include:
    • The restoration and conservation of significant historic structures such as those listed on the National Register, or have documented importance through Tribal Historic Preservation Departments or are a known community landmark.
      • The Trust will support structural improvements and building systems (such as electrical service) rather than maintenance, painting or short-term repairs.
    • Preservation projects may also include restoration of significant material cultural resources.
    • Applicants are strongly encouraged to provide a letter indicating that the Maine Historic Preservation Commission or appropriate Tribal Historic Preservation Office is aware of the project, and that work is being conducted to appropriate preservation standards.
• Celebrate the diverse cultural heritage and multiple histories of Maine
  • Priorities include:
    • Programs that build community connection, celebrate the diverse cultural heritage of Maine communities and elevate the unique experiences of Black, Indigenous and other under-represented groups.
    • Efforts that build bridges within communities to elevate cultural histories of place, expand awareness, cultural connection and share learning.

Environmental Initiatives

The Trust is interested in environmental initiatives that protect ecological values, water quality and ecosystem health through land conservation, stewardship, education and research programs. The Trust is interested in supporting organizations that promote positive relationships with nature including scientific, ecological and cultural perspectives. The Trust is also interested in expanded efforts to conserve culturally significant lands for Wabanaki communities.

The Trust’s Environmental Initiatives Program Area welcomes proposals for operating support or projects that meet any of the following goals or related priorities:

• Provide equitable access to outdoor experiences and nature-based education
  •  Priorities include:
    • Programs that offer outdoor experiences and nature-based education for youth and community members to inspire care and responsibility for the environment.
    • Programs that provide safe, inclusive spaces for youth and others to develop appreciation for nature, science and the social and cultural dimensions of land and place.
    • Programs that benefit BIPOC and underserved communities.
• Enhance environmental stewardship.
  • Priorities include:
    • Support of the growing stewardship responsibilities of conservation groups in light of development pressures, climate change and greater public use of conserved lands and waters.
    • Support of staffing, programs and partnerships for stewardship, education and community engagement.
• Advance new approaches for land conservation
  • Priorities include:
    • Partnerships, tools and relationships for conservation that emphasize equity and inclusion.
    • Land conservation that protects biodiversity or provides access to lands and waters for recreation, education and restoration.
      • Organizations requesting funding for land acquisitions should include a funding plan for the project.
    • Building capacity for the protection, stewardship and management of culturally significant lands for Wabanaki lifeways and culture.
• Promote restoration and improvement of water quality in coastal and inlandwatersheds
  • Priorities include:
    • Applied science and research for the restoration and management of ecosystems, especially the coastal and inland waters of Maine.
    • Relevant research and education for water quality and habitat improvement.
    • Addressing climate change impacts on coastal and aquatic resources.
    • Initiatives that use science, policy and community engagement to improve and restore natural resources and ecosystems.

Funding

Up to $20,000 in grant funding may be requested.