Betterment Fund

Current Grant Priorities

In order to guide applicants, the Betterment Fund trustees have identified current priorities in the fields of Education, Health, Community Support, Conservation, Creative Economy, and Philanthropy. We review and publish our grant priorities periodically. We are not able to fund all proposals we receive within our identified priorities, and funding decisions take into account the funds available as well as the merit of each proposal and other factors. Although we are willing to receive and consider an application which does not address any of the stated priorities, the likelihood of a favorable outcome for a non-conforming application is diminished. While a grant application that "hits the nail on the head" in terms of our stated priorities is at least assured of serious consideration, the funds available for grantmaking normally are less than the amount which would be needed to meet all requests made to the Fund.

The trustees are respectful of the energy and time it takes to complete an application to the Betterment Fund. In hopes that this may help organizations avoid making applications which are unlikely to be funded, in each priority area we have identified some of the organizations that have recently received Betterment funding as well as the types of proposals that are less likely to be funded at this time.

Our Grant Procedures statement outlines some of the qualities we hope to find in applications. The Fund has traditionally given preference to the projects and causes in the Western and rural interior sections of Maine.

The following five exhibits list our current priorities in each Betterment Fund grantmaking sector:

Exhibit A     Education

Exhibit B     Health

Exhibit C     Community Support

Exhibit D     Conservation

Exhibit E     Creative Economy and Philanthropy

All Current Priorities PDF