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A Message from the Board President
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We at the Fund are more committed than ever to our mission of transforming the lives of Maine women and girls through strategic grantmaking, community engagement and support to nonprofit organizations dedicated to social change.
This year we were able to award over $136,000 in grants!
We are excited by the programs and initiatives of our fifteen
2016 grantees
and look forward to sharing stories of their progress with you over the course of the year. Thank you to our donors and funders who have made achieving this support possible.
We
ALSO applaud the success of our
2015 grantees. From Boys to Men who dramatically expanded the reach of their
Reducing Sexism and Violence Program (RSVP); to the Elder Abuse Institute of Maine whose critical work led to participation in the first ever Department of Justice round table on the intersection of aging, domestic violence and emergency housing, MWF grantees are making a difference in the lives of Maine's women and girls every day.
THANK YOU to our many donors, grantees, volunteers, and community partners who have shared your thoughts and ideas with us during this reflection period. Your encouragement of our process and praise of our courage have let us know that we as an organization are on the right path.
The MWF board is energized and engaged in determining the best model for fulfilling our powerful mission and looking forward to our weekend retreat at the end of October.
I look forward to sharing our progress with you in the coming months.
Thank you for all you do for Maine women and girls!
Sincerely,
Natalie Solotoff
Maine Women's Fund Board President
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Spotlight on Impact: Girl Scouts of Maine
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Last year, with funding from Maine Women's Fund, Girl Scouts of Maine initiated an innovative curriculum, Sharing the
Wealth: Leading Girls to Financial Literacy
. The aim of the proposal was to train volunteer troop leaders in
Androscoggin and Kennebec Counties to deliver the program to Girl Scouts in their areas.
Girls Scouts of Maine chose this target area due to high rates of both unemployment and children living in poverty and declines in median income.
Sharing the Wealth
gives
girls and volunteers the skills and knowledge to have greater confidence in themselves and their ability to make sound financial choices. The training complements the hands-on training provided by the Girl Scout Cookie Program, the largest girl-led business in the world.
The Girl Scout mission is to create girls of courage, confidence and character. They work to reduce bullying, and increase self-esteem, body image, self-awareness and leadership experience.
Statistics cited in their grant application show that girls see a future where they are financially independent. 
- 96% of girls expect that they will be able to provide for their families
- 95% of girls expect they will own a home someday
- 87% expect they will give back to their communities
For more information about the Girls Scouts of Maine, visit www.girlscoutsofmaine.org.
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The New Girls Network (2001-2011) was a program of the Maine Women's Fund that offered young women a chance to build their professional and personal networks, explore social change philanthropy and enhance their leadership skills. The program included a nine-month exploration of philanthropy, leadership, activism and feminism that fostered the personal growth, professional development and an interest in programs that improve the lives of girls and women around the state.
Lael
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| Lael Jepson, NGN '06 |
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Jepson walked into her first session of the New Girls Network
in the fall of 2005 and it was there that the path of her professional life changed. The facilitator, Karen Wyman (NG '03), asked each woman to share her name and an intention. Lael declared that she was going to start her own business, a shocking statement as she had no conscious intention to do so. Later in the session, Jess Esch leaned across the table and said, "I don't know what you're doing or when you'll do it but whatever it is I want to be a part of it!" Lael says that moment of resonance has become the core of her work; which acts as a tuning fork for women coming together as kindred spirits to pursue their dreams with boldness and courage.
It took two more years to move out of the corporate world and birth her business, SheChanges. The thread of resonance is one that Lael has followed steadily through the years. New Girls was her first experience with sisterhood on her terms. It made her hungry for more and helped her realize that she had it in her to create spaces of sisterhood for other women. Lael is the author of Unscripted: A Women's Living Prayer and will host SheSpeaks: an evening of women's storytelling at One Longfellow Square in Portland on December 8th in which "
eight women will shine a light on the ways they choose to show up in their lives and how that intersects with their deepest desires for change - for themselves and for the world."
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Grants News:
LOI Application Information Coming Soon!
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On behalf of the staff and board of the Maine Women's Fund, thank you for reading and for all you do to support Maine women and girls.
Office location:
74 Lunt Road, Suite 100, Falmouth, ME 04105
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The Maine Women's Fund thanks MaineShare for its ongoing support. MaineShare makes it easy to donate to more than 30 statewide organizations working every day to make Maine a better place to live. For more information, please visit the
website.
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