MLTN Infoline – January 7, 2025
|
State of Maine Now Taking Applications for Sales Tax Exemption Certificates for All 501(c)(3) Organizations
|
|
|
Beginning January 1, 2025, all 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations in Maine will be exempt from sales tax for mission-related purchases, but before making exempt purchases, organizations must still apply for and receive an exemption certificate issued by Maine Revenue Services. As of January 1, you can use the Maine Tax Portal to complete and submit your application and required supplemental documentation. Alternatively, there is a paper application form available, which may be completed and returned, with required supplemental documentation, to or by mail.
Maine Revenue Services encourages you to get your forms in as soon as possible. They do not have an estimate for how long it will take to process applications. They are anticipating a high volume of requests and patience is appreciated.
Have questions? Maine Association of Nonprofits has a helpful landing page with tons of information on:
Check it out here.
Kudos to MANP’s Mary Alice Scott, our own Jeff Romano, and all those who signed on or called state legislators to get this one over the finish line!
Angela, Jeff, Donna, and Katia
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Timely Policy Updates for New England Land Trusts
|
|
|
Thursday, January 9, 2025 via Zoom 1:00-2:00pm
Cost: FREE
Join the Land Trust Alliance for a timely policy update addressing critical developments affecting land trusts. With a new Congress and administration, in addition to recent IRS updates to Treasury regulations, there’s a lot to unpack. Hear the latest insights from Lori Faeth, Senior Director of Government Relations, and Diana Norris, Conservation Defense Network and Tax Manager, and get your questions answered.
Click here to register.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Getting to Know Power Automate: An Introduction to Efficiency
|
|
|
Thursday, January 9, 2025 via Zoom 2:00-2:30pm
Cost: FREE
Join TechImpact for a coffee break webinar to discover the potential of Microsoft Power Automate. Led by our Chief Innovation Officer, this brief, informative discussion will provide a high-level overview of how this powerful tool can streamline tasks, automate workflows, and boost productivity. Perfect for beginners, this session will explore practical use cases and opportunities for nonprofits to simplify their processes with automation.
Click here to register.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Funding and Financing Hazard Resilience
|
|
|
Monday, January 13, 2025 via Zoom 3:00-4:30pm
Cost: FREE
You are invited to join this timely presentation, part of an ongoing webinar series: Introduction to Natural Hazards and Land Use Planning from the State of Maine. In this session, panelists will talk about ways to fund and finance many resilience activities. They will explore the concepts of capital stacking and organizing project funding via a capital improvement plan, which can form a solid foundation when pursuing funding and financing opportunities.
Panelists will introduce funding, financing, and cost-reduction programs that communities can take advantage of. These include programs and grants from local, state, federal, and nongovernmental sources. Concepts covered will include tax increment financing, municipal banking options, natural land acquisition, flood insurance discounts, and grants for urban forestry and wildfire resilience. The session will wrap up with a guest speaker from a local community to discuss how their community is using capital stacking and establishing a reserve account to fund their resilience project.
Featured Speakers:
Register here to receive the Zoom link.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Upcoming Webinars from the Land Trust Alliance
|
|
|
We’ve listed these webinars in past Infoline, but December can be so busy that we wanted to include them again in case you missed them the first time.
View all LTA’s upcoming webinars here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MANP Connects: Telling Our Stories, Shaping Our Impact
|
|
|
Friday, January 17, 2025 via Zoom 9:00-9:45am Cost: FREE
Maine Association of Nonprofits believes that by bringing people, ideas and resources together, we will collectively be more strategic, creative, and courageous in our missions to advance the public good.
Over the past several years, the MANP Connects program has become a consistent space to hear stories from nonprofit peers and partners about opportunities and challenges facing Maine nonprofits and communities. So they thought, what better way to kick off their 2025 MANP Connects gatherings than with a session centered on storytelling. We’ll hear from three guests who place storytelling at the center of their work.
Learn more and register at MANP’s website.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Preparing Land Trusts for the 2025 Legislative Session
|
|
|
Thursday, January 23, 2025 via Zoom
10:00-11:00am
Cost: FREE
Join MLTN in a discussion led by Maine Coast Heritage Trust Public Policy Director Jeff Romano and The Nature Conservancy’s Director of Government Affairs in Maine, Kaitlyn Nuzzo, as they preview the 2025 state legislative session. They will highlight the policy proposals land trusts should expect in the upcoming legislature, including efforts to fund the Land for Maine’s Future program and policies to implement the recently updated Maine Won’t Wait Climate Action Plan. Learn how your land trust can track policy development in Augusta and engage in advocacy to help ensure positive results this year.
Click here to register.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Building a Strategic Fundraising Program
|
|
|
Four Wednesdays, January 29, February 5, 12, and 19, 2025 via Zoom 4:00-5:15pm
Cost $50 for MLTN and/or LTA members, $75 for non-members
MCHT is partnering with the Land Trust Alliance on a short course exclusively for Maine land trusts to learn how to build a strategic fundraising program. David Allen of Development for Conservation will be leading this training. During four 75-minute sessions, David will cover basic fundraising concepts, basic planning protocols, tools to develop strategic fundraising plans, and more!
Click here for more information and to register on LTA’s website.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jobs in the Conservation Sector
|
|
|
The onslaught of new and seasonal positions begins! View the full list of job openings on our website. Here are the latest additions.
Recreation Technician – Friends of Acadia Conservation Summer Internship – Maine Coast Heritage Trust
Scarborough Marsh Audubon Center Manager – Maine Audubon
Kennebec Land Trust Summer Internship – Kennebec Land Trust
Stewardship Crew Member – Friends of Acadia
Summit Steward – Friends of Acadia
Lead Summit Steward – Friends of Acadia
James W. Dow Summer Internship – Blue Hill Heritage Trust
Restoration Field Technicians – Schoodic Institute
Invasive Plant Biology Intern – Maine Natural Areas Program, Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry
Habitat Resilience Biologist – Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife
Field Ecology Intern – Maine Natural Areas Program, Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry
AmeriCorps Field Team Leader/Roving Leader – Maine Conservation Corps
900-HR Environmental Steward – Maine Conservation Corps
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reminder: Resilient and Connected Appalachians Grant Program
|
|
|
Applications Due: February 7, 2025
Information webinar on Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Through its Resilient and Connected Appalachians Grant Program, The Nature Conservancy provides grants of up to $100,000 for fee and easement acquisition projects throughout the Appalachians. Eligible states include Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. For the 2025 grant cycle, the program offers awards of up to $100,000 for projects within the eligible Appalachians landscape, which includes large portions of Maine. To see the RCN boundaries and the focal area boundaries click through to the Map Viewer. If your project is located in or very near a dark green “focal area” and it has at least some mapped RCN lands – it is eligible.
Please visit the program’s website to review project criteria and eligibility requirements, deadlines, and to share this information with your networks.
Abby King, Land Conservation Project Manager with The Nature Conservancy in Maine is the local contact for this program in Maine. You are welcome to call or email her any time to ask questions, talk about a project, or get help with your application.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Environmental Justice for New England Grants
|
|
|
Applications for this cycle due: 5pm ET, February 14, 2025
Environmental Justice for New England will distribute $48 million of grant funds to be fully expended by the spring of 2027. The initiative will distribute grants among the federally-recognized and state-recognized Tribal Nations of EPA Region 1 and the six New England states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The funds will be distributed through three tiers and the Seed Fund to support capacity-constrained organizations. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis, with quarterly reviews, until all the funding is awarded. Learn more at https://environmentaljusticenewengland.org/grants/.
|