HAMPDEN — The Maine Savings Foundation is proud to announce the first five recipients of its Beyond Banking Grant Program, awarding $5,000 each to Maine nonprofit organizations advancing health, wellness, education, culture and essential social services across the state.
Launched in 2025, the Beyond Banking Grant Program reflects the Foundation’s commitment to supporting bold, community-driven solutions that strengthen financial well-being and quality of life for Maine people. The inaugural recipients were selected from a competitive pool of applicants and represent a wide range of services meeting urgent and ongoing community needs.
The first-round Beyond Banking Grant recipients are:
Adoptive and Foster Families of Maine
Grant funding will help provide immediate emergency food assistance to kinship and foster families across Maine who take in children with little or no notice. This project supports health and wellness and social and civic services.
Bangor Public Library
Funding will support year-long S.T.E.A.M. programming — focused on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math — for school-age children in grades K–12, along with educational toys for the library’s free-play early childhood area. This initiative advances education and culture and arts.
Harold Alfond Youth & Community Center
Grant funds will help purchase food for a program that serves approximately 60,000 meals annually to children experiencing economic hardship, supporting health and wellness.
Maine Needs, Inc.
This grant will enable Maine Needs to distribute cleaning kits to individuals and families facing economic hardship or systemic barriers, helping create safer and healthier living environments. The project supports health and wellness.
Partners for Peace
Funding will sustain the organization’s 24/7 helpline, which serves as a critical first point of contact for survivors of domestic violence in Penobscot and Piscataquis counties. The helpline provides crisis intervention, safety planning, and connections to shelter, legal advocacy and long-term support services, addressing health and wellness and social and civic services.
“These organizations are doing meaningful, life-changing work in communities across Maine,” said Vanessa Madore, president and chief executive officer of Maine Savings Federal Credit Union. “Through the Beyond Banking Grant Program, we are honored to support partners who meet people where they are and help create pathways to stability, dignity, and opportunity. This is what going beyond banking truly means.”
Janine Tremble, vice president of community engagement and impact for Maine Savings, emphasized the impact of the program’s first year. “We designed the Beyond Banking Grant Program to be responsive to real community needs, and this first group of recipients reflects that vision,” she said. “Each of these organizations is making a tangible difference and we are proud to invest in their work and the people they serve.”
The Beyond Banking Grant Program supports Maine-based 501(c)(3) organizations focused on one or more of the Foundation’s priority areas: health and wellness, education, culture and arts and social and civic services. In total, five grants of $5,000 were awarded in this first round.
For more information about the Maine Savings Foundation and the Beyond Banking Grant Program, visit https://mainesavings.com/maine-savings-foundation/.