Immigrant-Led Organizations Fund

Program Type: Participatory grantmaking program

Geographic Scope: Maine (unceded Wabanaki Territory)

Focus Areas:

• Immigrant, refugee, and asylum seeker flourishing
• Education
• Gender justice
• Food access and sovereignty
• Community building
• Cultural preservation
• Health services
• Healing and movement practices
• Media production
• Youth empowerment

Funding Priorities:
Interventions on persistent issues experienced by immigrants of color:

• Xenophobia
• Racialized discrimination
• Insufficient support from municipal and state governments

Eligibility Requirements:

• Immigrant-led organizations
• Work in Maine
• Advance immigrant, refugee, and asylum seeker flourishing
• Nonprofit status
• Organizations of color-led

Award Structure:

• Multi-year, unrestricted, general operating support
• 10 organizations per cohort
• $15,000 per year over 3-year period ($45,000 total)
• Access to peer learning, training, capacity-building, and community outreach activities

Background:
For a three-year period beginning in 2024, the ILO Fund committed to providing $1.35 million in multi-year, unrestricted, general operating support to immigrant-led organizations. This is the second cohort of organizations supported through the program.

Current Grantees (2025 Cohort):

• Early Math and Language Initiative (EMLI)
• Empowered Immigrant Women Unite
• Food For All Services
• Gateway Community Services
• Mano en Mano
• Intercultural Community Center
• Ladder to the Moon Network
• Maine Afro Yoga Project
• New Roots Cooperative Farm
• United Youth Empowerment Services

Selection Process:

• Participatory grantmaking
• 2025 ILO Fund Grantmaking Advisory Committee: 25-person decision-making body
• Hundreds of volunteer Readers evaluated applications

Application Process

2025 Cohort: Already selected and announced

Selection Criteria:

• Selected by Grantmaking Advisory Committee with aligned lived experience and expertise in immigrant-led sector
• Participatory process with community input
• Evaluated by volunteer Readers

For Future Cycles:

• Check website for next funding opportunity announcement
• Organizations should be immigrant-led nonprofits working in Maine
• Submit application by deadline specified in annual Funding Opportunity Announcement