University of Maine System

Since Harold Alfond’s 1977 gift to build the Harold Alfond Sports Arena at the University of Maine, the Harold Alfond Foundation has been a long-time supporter of the University of Maine System’s flagship campus in Orono, funding scholarships, professorships, athletic facilities, and engineering programs, among other initiatives. The Foundation has also supported System-wide initiatives to bolster executive leadership and strengthen academic programs tied to meeting workforce needs, including through the Maine Graduate and Professional Center (the Maine Center), the first University-level program in the country to integrate law, business, public service, and engineering programs.  

Through the Maine Center, the University of Maine System (UMS) merged the state’s two AACSB accredited MBA programs, one at the University of Maine and the other at the University of Southern Maine, into a single ‘Maine MBA,’ based in Portland but available statewide through technology. In collaboration with the Maine Center, Maine Center Ventures, a separate nonprofit organization, was launched to build and strengthen partnerships between the Maine Center academic programs and the state’s businesses and community organizations.

In 2020, the Foundation announced an unprecedented, transformative investment in the UMS of up to $240,000,000. In true Harold Alfond fashion, this commitment is structured as a challenge grant, requiring a major fundraising match on the part of the System, its philanthropic partners, and the State of Maine.

This major investment in the UMS includes new grant funding to:

• Launch the new Maine College of Engineering and Computing (MCEC), offering expanded engineering and computing courses System-wide and meeting the need for the thousands of new engineering and computing graduates Maine requires for its future economic development. 
• Support the continued growth of the Maine Center. With a new physical presence in Portland’s Old Port, the Maine Center is preparing students for careers increasingly grounded in multiple disciplines, and has created a new hub of graduate education, entrepreneurship, innovation, and convening in Maine.
• Introduce new System-wide student retention and success initiatives, including scholarship support and pilot Research Learning Experiences (RLEs), experiential learning projects offered to first-year students to improve student retention and success. 

This commitment also included major funding, totaling $90,000,000, to support the long-term, strategic master plan for UMaine Athletics — the state’s only Division I athletics program. In 2023, the Foundation awarded another $80,000,000 toward athletics facility improvements at UMaine, bringing total Foundation support for the University’s Master Plan for Athletic Facilities to $170,000,000. The Foundation’s support will help UMaine improve its athletics facilities to a level on par with what all Black Bear student athletes in a Division I program deserve. 

In aggregate, this $320,000 UMS grant—the largest ever by the Foundation—represents a strategic, long-term effort to strengthen the capacity of Maine’s public universities to meet the educational and workforce needs of Maine.