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September 24, 2025 2025 Giving Guide

Meeting the moment and focusing on Maine’s future

 

What a year it has been for philanthropy across the country and here in Maine. A volatile federal policy environment and significant changes in public investment have created a challenging funding landscape for Maine nonprofits, communities and people in every corner of our state. The topline message for this year’s Mainebiz Giving Guide is this: If you can, give more.

Philanthropy cannot begin to replace the public investment that has been cut, but as Maine’s largest and oldest statewide community foundation with thousands of fundholders contributing each year to a more vibrant Maine, the Maine Community Foundation is committed to doing everything possible to help our nonprofit partners doing important work for the public good both meet this moment – and stay focused on building a better Maine.

Here is how our team, partners and donors are working together to do both. To meet the moment, MaineCF has taken several steps, including:

Giving an additional $500,000 discretionary funds into our Community Building program, which supports nonprofits across the state doing a wide range of work

Granting $180,000 to the Maine Association of Nonprofits and Maine Philanthropy Center to help those vital organizations serve and counsel all Maine nonprofits in the moment

Raising an additional $1.3 million from our fundholders to meet current needs

Tracking increased nonprofit needs and leading donor outreach to encourage their giving through our Giving Together portal

As a result of our partnership with donors to meet the moment, overall grants are up $11 million in 2025 versus the same time last year.

We will continue to work with urgency to support our nonprofit partners that do such vital work in communities across the state, but are also committed to our mission to build a better Maine.

That is why even as we continue our grantmaking ($84 million in 2024), we have added important new strategic initiatives consistent with the issues people in Maine told us were top priorities, including:

Affordable housing: MaineCF has set a goal to preserve at least 600 units of affordable housing across the state at risk of being lost and impacting thousands of people in Maine

Resilience: MaineCF has several new initiatives to protect our food, farms and communities from increasingly severe weather events, including helping 45 towns complete resilience plans

Economic opportunity: MaineCF is working on a broad economic opportunity agenda and committed $6 million to Maine Venture Fund in an innovative partnership to support promising startup businesses across the state

Strong local news, strong communities: MaineCF is leading the Maine chapter of Press Forward, a national effort to build stronger communities by strengthening local journalism.

Whether contributing to address funding shortfalls or giving to make positive impacts on the big challenges affecting Maine’s future, now is the time to give more. MaineCF is here as a trusted, experienced partner to help you both meet the moment and build a better Maine for the future.

Deborah A. Ellwood
President and CEO Maine Community Foundation

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