The Onion Foundation
The Onion Foundation is a Maine-based private philanthropic foundation focused on arts and environment programs that fund Maine organizations. The official site lists mission and program pages, staff, contact details, grants awarded, and current grant opportunity pages (including 2025 grant cycle information).
Source: Website · Mar 2026
Ideal Applicant
A Maine-based or Maine-serving nonprofit (often small-to-medium) working in arts, environmental education/conservation, youth outdoor programs, accessibility, or culturally specific community programming that aligns with the foundation’s arts and environment program strategies.
Good Fit
- • Organization is based in or primarily serves communities in Maine.
- • Work aligns with arts, nature-based education, land trust support, youth outdoor access, or cultural inclusion for Maine communities.
- • Project budgets in the typical grant range (many grants cluster between a few thousand and $50K; median grant about $15K).
- • Willingness to discuss proposals with a program officer before applying and to use the online grant portal.
Geography
Observed grantmaking is overwhelmingly in Maine (about 94% of dollars and roughly 95% of grant count in the latest year), with only small out-of-state grants to a handful of states.
Recipient Variety
The foundation funded a large and diverse set of recipients in the latest years (245 distinct grantees in 2024, with similarly high counts in prior years), spanning arts groups, land trusts, education programs, youth and disability-access initiatives.
New Applicants
Direct evidence of openness is strong: about half of 2024 recipients were new to the portfolio, the foundation publishes program pages and an online grant portal, and it explicitly encourages prospective applicants to discuss ideas with program officers.
Source: Zeffy Agent · Mar 2026
