THEN AND NOW BANKING & FINANCE • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • September 21, 2018
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FAME
grows with Maine residents with quality jobs COURTESY OF FIRST NATIONAL BANK
For thirty-five years, the Finance Authority of Maine (FAME) has been the state’s leading financial resource that creates business and educational opportunities through their willingness to invest at greater risk based on public benefit. FAME’s mission is to provide financial solutions that help Maine people achieve their business and higher educational goals. FAME works to grow the number of Maine residents with quality instate jobs by deploying financial resources needed to obtain relevant postsecondary education and increase economic development. Since inception, FAME has helped to deploy over $2 billion in loans and equity capital to Maine businesses, helping to create or retain approximately 100,000 jobs. This in turn helped to leverage $54 million in additional investment in the Maine economy. On the higher education front, approximately $370 million has been awarded in grants and financial aid to over 200,000 Maine students.
Created in 1983 by the Legislature and then-Governor Joseph E. Brennan, FAME is a quasi-independent agency with a professional staff and a non-partisan approach. FAME began with just 10 employees, but, as the years have passed and duties increased, FAME now employs 56 associates. For the past four years, FAME has been honored to be named a “Best Place to Work in Maine.” Initially, FAME was charged with improving economic development strategies, policies, and activities, as well as securing loans and funding for Maine businesses. In 1989, FAME’s portfolio was expanded to include higher education finance when it became the designated state guarantor for federal student loan programs, as well as the administrator of the state’s higher education grant, loan, and loan forgiveness programs. In 1999, FAME launched Maine’s 529 college savings plan. Today NextGen 529 is the sixth-largest college savings plan in the nation, with over $10 billion in assets. FAME also administers the
Harold Alfond College Challenge where a $500 Alfond grant to use for higher education is invested for every qualifying Maine baby. FAME’s commercial division helps Maine businesses grow, create and retain jobs by taking managed risk in order to leverage capital. FAME assists with the startup, expansion, and growth of Maine businesses by working closely with Maine’s lending community to improve access to capital. FAME partners and does not compete with Maine’s commercial lending institutions. Additionally, FAME provides services to other entities such as state agencies and nonprofits such as contractor management, loan underwriting and servicing, fund management, as well as board administrative support. With increased attention on the state’s need to attract and develop a highly-skilled workforce, FAME’s expertise in the fields of commercial and higher education finance are ideally suited to the state’s needs now and into the future.