The Maine Justice Foundation is pleased to announce the second round of grants from the Racial Justice Fund. The Foundation will accept applications for grants of up to $10,000 from June 1-15, 2022. The grant guidelines and application form can be found online beginning on June 1, 2022.

The Racial Justice Fund supports education and advocacy aimed at achieving racial justice and addressing systemic racism. The Fund will support Black, Indigenous, and People of Color by forging social, systemic, and economic solutions to combat racism in Maine. Grants from the Fund will be made to qualified organizations for programs to advance racial justice throughout Maine, at every level of society, including but not limited to the legal system, healthcare, education, the workplace, food insecurity, natural resources, and housing. Applicants must be Maine-based and must demonstrate the involvement and participation of Maine residents who are Black, Indigenous or People of Color.

In the wake of racially motivated murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor among others in early 2020, corporations and philanthropic leaders across Maine joined forces to raise an initial $270,000 to launch the Racial Justice Fund of the Maine Justice Foundation to combat racial injustice and inequity throughout the state. In early 2021, the Foundation issued six grants to the Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center, Healthy Acadia – Downeast Diversity, League of Women Voters of Maine Education Fund, Maine Inside Out, Sunlight Media Collective, and The Third Place. Since launching the Fund in 2020, the Fund now stands at $641,126, representing over $370,000 in growth. With racially motivated violence still topping the headlines almost daily, our work is far from done.

The Foundation continues to seek donations to fund programs that address systemic racism and inequities throughout our communities.

A full description of the Racial Justice Fund, the current grant guidelines and the Advisory Committee, can be found here.

The mission of the Maine Justice Foundation, founded in 1983 as the Maine Bar Foundation, is to support access to justice for all Mainers. Find us online and support the Racial Justice Fund at www.justicemaine.org.

For more information, contact Michelle G. Draeger, Executive Director: 207-620-1351, [email protected] or Linsey MacDougall, Development and Programs Manager: 207-620-1354, [email protected].

Preti Flaherty is proud to be a founding sponsor of Maine Justice Foundation Racial Justice Fund.