Restore Maine
Self-Government · Free Enterprise · Safe Communities
A community-chartered nonprofit rebuilding the civic foundations of Maine, one county at a time.
Penobscot County Chapter · Southern Maine Chapter
Why Restore Maine
Maine works when its people govern themselves, earn their own way, and can walk their own streets in safety.
Those foundations are wearing thin. Civic knowledge is fading. Family businesses are squeezed by rules written far from Main Street. Public safety is treated as negotiable. And homelessness is met with one-size-fits-all programs that fail the very people they claim to serve.
Restore Maine exists to rebuild those foundations through education, research, and practical community programs, organized and led by the people who live here.
What we are
- A Maine nonprofit organized for charitable and educational purposes.
- Built from community chapters with local advisory boards.
- Nonpartisan by charter. We do not endorse or oppose candidates. We teach, we study, and we build.
What we do
- Civic and economic education for students, new voters, and adults.
- Research and public forums on public safety and homelessness.
- Grants to local charities doing the work on the ground.
What we work on
Four Pillars
Four problems, four programs. Each one is education, research, or charitable help, and nothing else.
Self-Government
Civic education on the Constitution, the institutions of representative democracy, and the rule of law. Programs that explain how your town, county, and state actually work, and how a citizen changes them.
Free Enterprise
Economic education on how voluntary exchange, private property, and entrepreneurship create opportunity. The case for markets over central control, made with evidence and Maine examples.
Public Safety
Research and public education on crime, policing, courts, and the real cost of disorder, in partnership with the people who keep Maine communities safe.
Homelessness, Honestly
Three different problems need three different answers: serious mental illness, addiction and criminal involvement, and plain job loss. We fund research, education, and direct charitable help matched to each group instead of one program for all.
How Chapters Work
Restore Maine is built from community chapters. Each chapter has a local advisory board of neighbors who set priorities for their own county and recommend how the chapter's fund is spent.
Your gift stays home.
Local leadership. Advisory boards recommend programs, events, research, and grants.
One organization, one set of books. Chapters operate under Restore Maine's charter, bylaws, and accounting, so donors get the accountability of a single organization.
Room to grow. New chapters are chartered as communities step forward.
The first two chapters
Penobscot County Chapter
Bangor, Brewer, Orono, Old Town, and the towns of Penobscot County.
Southern Maine Chapter
Cumberland and York Counties.
A chapter's first year
- A civics series in local schools and libraries.
- A public safety roundtable with law enforcement and prosecutors.
- A county homelessness assessment using the three-population framework.
- Small grants to local charities doing the work.
Founding gifts
Ways to Give
Restore Maine is funded by the people it serves. Founding gifts build the first two chapters and the programs they run in year one.
| Neighbor | $100 |
|---|---|
| Builder | $500 |
| Founding Member | $1,000 |
| Chapter Founder | $5,000 |
| Cornerstone | $25,000 |
Gifts designated to a chapter fund are restricted to charitable and educational programs serving that chapter's territory.
Up to 10% of chapter gifts may be allocated to shared administrative costs.