PORTLAND –  Four Portland area nonprofits have several thousand dollars more for their various projects because of a unique class at the University of Southern Maine (USM).

Focusing on the mental, emotional and physical well being of children and youth, students in the “Thoughtful Giving: Philanthropy in American Culture” course awarded $17,000 to the nonprofits – Opportunity Alliance, Rippleffect, the Root Cellar and the Friends of Evergreen –  during a reception on the Portland campus.

Opportunity Alliance of Portland received $5,000 for the construction of a new playground at the Westbrook Community Center, and Rippleffect received $5,000 for ROLE, an after-school program that will be run out of Lincoln Middle School next fall.

The Root Cellar, of Portland and Lewiston, a Christian mission  working with inner-city youth and their families, received $2,000 for a pilot program promoting entrepreneurship among new Mainers. The USM Business School’s Enactus student organization will help implement the grant.

Friends of Evergreen, which renovates and restores Evergreen Cemetery in Portland, received $5,000 for capital improvements and to support a program for young people to learn about local history.

The funds were provided through a four-year grant of $40,000 from the Learning By Giving Foundation, funded by the Buffet family, which promotes the teaching of effective charitable giving. Additional matching funds of $9,000 over the past two years were provided by donors affiliated with the Maine Community Foundation.

The class is the only one of its kind offered at a public university in Maine and is one of 37 programs in the U.S. Last year, students donated $12,000 to four Portland area organizations. The course will be offered again next fall semester.

During the semester-long class, the students had to create a mission statement and determine the type of grants they would award, the geographical area to serve and what groups would be potential recipients. They then wrote eight grant proposals, with the final recipients decided upon by the class as a whole.

Guest speakers to the class provided professional perspectives on philanthropy and charitable giving. Speakers included Carolyn Wollen, Betterment Fund, Bethel.

For more information about USM’s College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, go to: http://usm.maine.edu/cahs.