* Organization of donors, activists, grantmakers, and grantees
* Funds mostly Maine-based leftwing groups
Established in 1993, Maine Funders for Change (MFC) is a collaborative of five “progressive” funding organizations — Maine Initiatives, Maine Women’s Fund, MaineShare, Genesis Fund, and Haymarket People’s Fund — that provide grants and loans to leftist groups based in Maine. MFC itself does not make grants, but rather works with the aforementioned members “to move money to social change through philanthropic education and outreach.”
MFC’s Executive Director is Deborah Felder, who also oversees the Harvest Fund of Maine Initiatives, which grants money to groups that develop or finance agricultural programs or community gardens; improve agricultural opportunities and conditions for minorities, women, youth, and illegal aliens who are migrant workers; develop alternative food crops; educate and “empower” consumers; and advocate “equitable food production and distribution systems” (i.e., socialism).
Among the many organizations to benefit from MFC’s funding efforts are: the Bayside Neighborhood Association; Equality Maine (formerly the Maine Lesbian Gay Political Alliance); Food and Medicine; the Four Directions Development Corporation; Friends of Midcoast Maine; the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project; the Maine Citizen Leadership Fund; Maine Equal Justice Partners; the Maine People’s Alliance; the Maine Rural Workers Coalition; the Maine Women’s Policy Institute; Outright; Peace Through Inter-American Community Action; the Preble Street Mental Health Consumer Advocacy Project, REM-Catch the Dream; SPIRAL Arts; the Toxics Action Center; Unity Barn Raisers; Volunteers for Hancock Jail Residents; and Wabanaki Women’s Gathering/Daughters of First Light.