Harold Alfond Foundation

OVERVIEW: The Harold Alfond Foundation supports education, health care and youth and community development. This funder primarily supports organizations in the state of Maine.

IP TAKE: Giving mainly in the state of Maine, the Harold Alfond Foundation prefers to support “large-scale,” “financially viable” projects and “existing anchor organizations” in its areas of interest. This funder recently stopped accepting applications because of existing commitments, but encourages grantseekers to check back for new opportunities. Networking with staff or past grantees may open the door here.

PROFILE: The Harold Alfond Foundation was established in 1950 in Portland Maine. Its founder, Harold Alfond, was the founder of the Maine-based Dexter Shoe Company, which was purchased by Warren Buffett in 1993 for $433 million. In its early years, the foundation was run by Alfond and was known for making matching grants to community organizations in Maine. Alfond died in 2007, and since that time several family members have served on the foundation’s board of trustees. Recent grantmaking aims to honor the philanthropic legacy of Alfond by investing in education, health care, and youth and community development. About 89% of this funder’s grantmaking goes to organizations working in the state Maine.

Grants for Higher Education

Education is the Harold Alfond Foundation’s largest area of giving. Alfond believed that every person should aspire and have access to higher education in the 21st century.

The foundation’s current education giving includes “capital, endowment, scholarship, and programmatic grants, primarily to public and private colleges and universities.”
Specific areas of interest include college athletic programs and facilities, the Maine Community College System and law and business education programs at the University of Maine.
The foundation has funded the Harold Alfond Institute for Business Innovation at Thomas College in Waterville, Maine, and supported construction of a new building for the College of Business at Husson University in Bangor, Maine.
Many other capital projects at Maine colleges and universities bear the Alfond name, including athletic and recreational buildings at Colby College, the University of Maine, St. Joseph’s College, and Husson University.
A signature program, the Harold Alfond College Challenge, awards $500 ” to every Maine resident baby for education beyond high school.”
Outside of Maine, the foundation has supported Northeastern University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the American University in Bulgaria.

Grants for K-12 Education

K-12 education is not the primary focus of Alfond’s education grantmaking, but a few grants each year support K-12 schools and initiatives.

The foundation has provided ongoing support to Maine’s first charter school, Good Will-Hinckley’s Maine Academy of Natural Sciences, and has provided funding to Kent Hills School, a private secondary school, for its Alfond Athletics Center and Fields.
The foundation also supports K-12 populations through its youth and community development giving area, which gives to enrichment and athletic programs that prioritize underserved children and adolescents in Maine. Grantees include the Alfond Youth and Community Center in Waterford, Maine; the Waterville Regional Arts and Community Center and early childhood programming by Educate Maine.

Grants for Public Health

Alfond’s grantmaking for health care aims to improve “health care delivery and quality” broadly for people living in Maine.

In recent years, the foundation has made several large-scale grants aimed at increasing the efficiency of Maine’s health care infrastructure and encouraging collaboration among service providers.
The foundation has also supported educational programs for medical professionals with the goal of ensuring a highly qualified healthcare workforce for the future.
The foundation supported the consolidation of Maine General’s oncology programs into a state-of-the-art, multi-specialty oncology care center, the Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care. It also provides ongoing support to Central Maine’s Alfond Center for Health, a regional hospital.
Other health care grantees include the MaineHealth Cancer Care Network, the Maine Cancer Genomics Initiative and the Center for Nursing Innovation at St. Joseph’s College.

Grants for Work and Economic Opportunity

The Alfond Foundation supports work and economic opportunity in Maine via its youth and community development funding area, which names economic revitalization as an area of grantmaking interest. In 2020, the foundation collaborated with the Finance Authority of Maine to establish the Alfond Leaders Program, which helps Maine residents working in STEM fields with student loan repayment assistance. Other grantees include the Olympia Snowe Women’s Leadership Institute, the Foundation for a Strong Maine Economy and FocusMaine, which works with the private sector to create jobs and provide vocational training in “globally competitive and dynamic sectors.”

Grants for Arts and Culture

The Alfond Foundation’s arts and culture grantmaking stems from its youth and community development funding area. The initiative supports projects and organizations that have a strong impact on the communities they serve and that prioritize the participation of children and youth. Grantees include the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, the Waterville Regional Arts and Community Center and the Waterville Opera House Association. Outside of Maine, the foundation has given to the Cahoon Museum of American Art in Massachusetts and Florida’s Gulfshore Playhouse.

Important Grant Details:

The Harold Alfond Foundation’s grants range from $150 to $10 million.

Most of this funders grants serve schools and nonprofits in the state of Maine.
While this funder supports organizations of all sizes, it articulates interest in “strengthening existing anchor organizations” and projects that are “large-scale” and “financially viable.”
The foundation is not accepting applications at this time but encourages grantseekers to check back periodically for new opportunities.
See the foundation’s grantees and annual grant reports pages for additional information about past grantmaking.

Contact this funder via email at info@haroldalfondfoundation.org or by telephone at (207) 828-7999.

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