The Lyme Foundation was established in 1989 to fund projects and programs that will maintain and enhance the quality of life in Lyme, New Hampshire. The Lyme Foundation strives to further programs in the arts, education, public affairs, community development, historic resources, the environment, recreation, and social services.  Since its inception, the Foundation has given over $1.3 million to projects that directly benefit Lyme's citizens.

Over the past few years, the Lyme Foundation has supported renovation projects for some of Lyme's most important historical buildings, including the Lyme Center Academy Building, the Lyme Baptist Church, and the Lyme Congregational Church. We have also supported projects at the Lyme School and the Lyme Nursery School, and helped with the fund raising efforts for our new town offices. We have funded projects at our Post Pond recreation facilities and improved the playing fields behind the Lyme School, and we helped launch and continue to support the Parish Nurse Program. The Lyme Foundation also provided the cots and blankets that form part of Lyme’s emergency shelter, which has been an important town resource following damaging storms over the past several years. And since its inception twenty years ago, the Lyme Foundation has regularly provided safety and communication equipment for Lyme’s volunteer firefighters and Fast Squad members.

In addition to these direct grants, the Lyme Foundation oversees funds that provide scholarships to Lyme students through the Griffith Memorial Scholarship Fund; we offer financial assistance to Lyme residents in need through the Pearl Dimick and Dorcas Chaffee Funds; we award the Citizen of the Year through the Rachel Miller Fund; we give art awards to students through the Breck Whitman Memorial Fund; and we underwrite educational initiatives at the Lyme School through the Lyme Innovation Fund for Education.