Coffee By Design distributes $10,000 in Rebel Blend Fund grants

We're excited to share news of the recipients for the 2025 Rebel Blend Fund. Each year, we distributed grants through the Rebel Blend Fund to Maine projects that otherwise may fall through traditional funding cracks. We focus on supporting projects that have the potential to engage people across the state in meaningful conversation. 

Thank you to our committee members Trevor Rager, Myles Currier, Bob Murphy, and Rose Monaghan, who reviewed the applications and decided where to distribute the funds.

2025 Rebel Blend Fund Recipients

Dyke March Maine - “Dyke U a school for queer art activism”
Dyke March Maine is creating a series of classes focused on dyke history, ways and means of promoting a message, and a makers session of justice themed art.

South Sudanese Group of Friends - “A Community Educational Program in the Applied Arts in Honor of Late Lado Lodoka”
The program will match members of the new Mainer community with teachers with skills in the applied arts (sewing, machining, woodworking). The Group is partnering with Factory3 makerspace. The program transforms lives by fostering economic independence and creative expression.

ArtVan works to break down financial and transportation barriers to mental health access by delivering art therapy to people in under-resourced neighborhoods directly in their communities. It serves participants ages three to eighteen and Senior Citizens, in fifteen neighborhoods in Bath, Brunswick, Rumford, Mexico, Lewiston, and Auburn. Roughly 800 participants are served by ArtVan, and programming is free to all of them. With the received funds they plan to increase access in Rumford and Mexico, 

Maine Academy of Modern Music -Amplify Portland
The Amplify Initiative offers music education at no cost to participants. It is tailored to reach under-resourced populations and those facing barriers. The Rebel Blend Fund grant will help MAMM continue to make music education accessible to underserved populations in part by extending scholarship opportunities to more low- and middle-income students, allowing MAMM to serve additional youth who are passionate about music but cannot afford unsubsidized lessons.

The Rebel Blend fund is supported through the purchase of the our Rebel Blend coffee, which combines beans from three major growing regions: Asia, Americas and Africa. $1 from each pound sold or brewed by us online or in our coffeehouse is contributed to the fund, and the total amount raised from yearly sales is awarded to the winners.

To be considered for Rebel Blend funding, applicants must submit projects within the state of Maine along with a detailed description of how their projects would benefit from the grant money.