Downeast Innovation Fund awards $95,000 in grants
ELLSWORTH The Maine Community Foundation’s Downeast Innovation Fund has awarded $95,000 in grants to 11 nonprofits located in or serving Hancock and Washington counties.
Launched in 2018, the Downeast Innovation Fund Grant program supports nonprofit organizations that provide programs to improve or increase entrepreneurship and innovation in business and the local economies in Hancock and Washington counties.
The 2020 grantees include:
City of Ellsworth, to enhance targeted programming and technical infrastructure aimed at graduating existing start-up companies, while attracting new, quality companies to the Union River Center for Innovation.
Four Directions Development Corp., Orono, to establish a new Native small business Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) serving Washington County and the Wabanaki tribes of Maine.
The Maine Community Foundation has awarded $95,000 in grants to 11 recipients in Hancock and Washington counties through its Downeast Innovation Fund, the foundation said.
Launched in 2018, the fund supports nonprofits that provide programs to improve or increase entrepreneurship and innovation in business and the local economies in Hancock and Washington counties.
Recipients in the latest funding round include the Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center Inc. in Walpole, which will receive $10,000 to study the feasibility of farming sea scallops in the two Downeast counties.
New Ventures Maine in Bangor will also receive $10,000, to boost partnerships within the Downeast entrepreneurial ecosystem and expand access to micro-enterprise training advising and resources.