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Updated: October 28, 2025

Coffee By Design awards $10K in Rebel Blend Fund grants

Grant recipients Coffee By Design Photo / Courtesy of Coffee By Design From left, grant recipients are Yuko Handa, executive director, ArtVan; Jaimie Crawford, ArtVan; Samuel Albino, South Sudanese Group of Friends; Dyke Gabe, Dyke March Maine; Jeff Shaw, Maine Academy of Modern Music; and Coffee By Design owner Mary Allen Lindemann.
By Alexis Wells

Coffee By Design, the Portland-based coffee wholesaler and retailer, will give $10,000 in grants to four Maine art projects from its Rebel Blend Fund.

This year's Rebel Blend Fund grant recipients and their projects:

  • Dyke March Maine, “Dyke U a school for queer art activism," received $900. The project is creating a series of classes focused on dyke history, ways and means of promoting a message, and a makers session of justice-themed art.
  • South Sudanese Group of Friends, community education program in the applied arts in honor of the late Lado Lodoka, received $2,250. The project matches members of the new Mainer community with teachers with skills in the applied arts, including sewing, machining and woodworking. The group is partnering with Factory3 makerspace. 
  • ArtVan received $3,850. The organization works to break down financial and transportation barriers to mental health care by delivering art therapy directly to people in under-resourced neighborhoods. It serves around 800 participants ages 3 to 18 and Senior Citizens in 15 neighborhoods in Bath, Brunswick, Rumford, Mexico, Lewiston and Auburn. Programming is free. Additional funds will increase access in Rumford and Mexico
  • Maine Academy of Modern Music, Amplify Portland, received $3,000. The funds will help the nonprofit make music education more accessible to underserved populations in part by extending scholarship opportunities to more low- and middle-income students.

About the Rebel Fund

Through the Rebel Blend Fund, Coffee By Design has contributed more than $100,000 to Maine nonprofit arts organizations. It's supported by customer purchases of a special coffee blend made with beans from the world's three major growing regions — Asia, the Americas and Africa. 

For each pound of Rebel Blend sold or brewed at Coffee By Design locations, $1 is donated to the fund, and the total from yearly sales is awarded to the winners.

“The Rebel Blend Fund reflects our belief that art has the power to challenge, inspire and unite us," said Mary Allen Lindemann, owner of Coffee By Design.

"Supporting Maine artists through these grants keeps that creative energy alive and accessible to everyone. Thank you to our committee members Trevor Rager, Myles Currier, Bob Murphy, and Rose Monaghan, who reviewed the applications and decided where to distribute the funds.” 

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