Harold Alfond Foundation

About Harold Alfond Foundation

The Harold Alfond Foundation’s most distinctive recent pattern is a run of very large, repeat commitments to Maine institutions, especially higher education and health care. In 2025, it gave $28 million to the University of Maine Foundation for the University of Maine Athletics Master Facilities Plan and $14.5 million to MaineGeneral Health for the Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care Expansion. Those gifts fit a broader portfolio built around capital projects, endowment-style support, and program expansion in Maine. The foundation also backs scholarship systems at scale, including the Alfond Scholarship Foundation and the My Alfond Grant program, while continuing to invest in workforce pipelines tied to Maine employers and public higher education. Its support for the University of Maine System, Maine community colleges, and related initiatives shows a long-term interest in strengthening education infrastructure, student success, and the state’s labor force. In health care, the foundation has repeatedly funded cancer care and other delivery improvements that connect care access with local communities. Across its recent grants, the pattern is clear: large institutional grants, repeated over multiple years, aimed at durable capacity rather than short-term projects.

What Harold Alfond Foundation Funds

Higher education is one of the foundation’s clearest priorities. It gave $12 million to Northeastern University for The Harold Alfond Scholars Initiative at the Roux Institute and $7 million to the University of Maine System for Revitalize Graduate & Professional Center & Engineering, Computing, & Info Science. A separate grant of $4.5 million to the University of New England supported The Institute for Interprofessional Education & Practice at UNE. Workforce development is closely linked to that education work. The foundation awarded $7.6 million to The Foundation for Maine Community Colleges for The Center for the Advancement of Maine’s Workforce: Building a More Prosperous Maine, and $4.5 million to the Maine Community College System for the same initiative. In health care, it gave $2.5 million each to The Jackson Laboratory in 2024 and 2025 for the Maine Cancer Genomics Initiative 2.0. The arts also appear in the portfolio, including a $3 million grant to Colby College for the Paul J. Schupf Art Center.

How Harold Alfond Foundation Gives