In 2019, the Mount Desert Island High School became the first school in Maine to produce all of its electricity through rooftop solar panels. A Climate to Thrive, a MaineCF grantee, facilitated the rooftop solar installation by connecting and supporting students, administrators, and contractors. Photo credit: Sundog Solar

Climate change is a defining issue of our time and has an impact on every facet of our lives, from our communities to our economy, from our forests and wildlife to the food we eat, and from our health and wellness to our finances. This is especially true here in Maine.

Our state already feels the impact of climate change, and climate scientists agree those changes will only accelerate. At the Maine Community Foundation, we are exploring ways to address the rapidly changing climate, through our existing programs and the development of new strategies as opportunities arise.

What MaineCF has done

Energy efficiency

From 2014-2017, MaineCF conducted Grants to Green, a pilot program funded by the Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta. The program awarded approximately $1 million in grants to nonprofit organizations in downtowns across Maine to support weatherization and energy efficiency measures for their buildings.

Building on the learning from this effort, we launched a second initiative in 2018 to build an energy efficiency focus into our existing historic preservation grant program, the Belvedere Historic Preservation program. With the generous support of Jane’s Trust, the Horizon Foundation, and MaineCF donors, our Belvedere program will have awarded more than $300,000 through 2020 to nonprofit organizations to retrofit and improve the energy efficiency of the buildings they steward. To find out more about this grant program and see the recent grant awards, click here.

Conservation

Since the early 1990s, MaineCF has supported land trusts and conservation organizations through the Fund for Maine Land Conservation. This small grant program provided project and capacity-building support for organizations engaged in land protection and related efforts around the state. The fund awarded nearly 200 grants totaling $889,768.

In 2018, MaineCF received a bequest which made it possible to reexamine and redesign our grantmaking approach to land conservation. We closed the Fund for Maine Land Conservation and in its place created two new land conservation grant programs: 1) Conservation for All, which offers general support, and 2) Maine Land Protection, which offers support for land acquisitions and easements.

MaineCF commissioned the Southern Maine Conservation Collaborative to conduct outreach and research to help inform the development of these new grant programs. You can read Jessica Burton's report on conservation in Maine here. The report has been edited to remove a section detailing specific projects that were identified to illustrate potential ways that MaineCF might utilize this new conservation fund.

Working with partners

MaineCF is a founding member and steering committee participant in the Environmental Funders Network (EFN) and is part of a sub-group focused on climate change. We take advantage of opportunities this network offers to share information and build upon one another’s programs.

MaineCF supports the Maine Climate Council, which advises the governor and Legislature on mitigation, adaptation and resilience strategies aimed at reducing the impacts of climate change. The Maine Climate Leadership Fund directly supports the Council’s work and climate policy leadership and activities. The fund was established in partnership with Alexander “Sandy” Buck, philanthropic representative to the Council, to enhance limited state funds available for crucial climate change work. Specifically, this fund provides a way for donors or foundations which are not able to contribute directly to the State to provide support for the Maine Climate Council’s work.

Community Building grant support

Another source of support for climate change-related work is our Community Building Grant Program, our largest and broadest grant program. Many community- and regional-level climate programs already have received support for their work through this grant program, which is a source for both project and capacity-building support. Staff contacts for each county can be found here if you have questions about your project or program’s eligibility for these grants.

Contact

If you are interested in having a more in-depth conversation about any of this work, please contact the community foundation at (207) 667-9735.