FARMINGTON – The collaborative effort between the Western Mountains Alliance and the Mountain Counties Heritage has earned the organizations the Maine Community Foundation’s 2007 Elizabeth Noyce Award for Nonprofit Excellence.

Hank Schmelzer, president and chief executive officer of the foundation, recognized the award recipients Tuesday at a small gathering in Church Street Commons, the home for both organizations.

The award is given to a nonprofit for exceptional leadership in promoting economic development. Elizabeth Noyce was a Portland philanthropist who supported numerous projects around the state, Schmelzer said. This award is the only one that bears her name, he added.

Through the award, Noyce intended to promote the work of nonprofit organizations in Maine, he said. Western Mountain Alliance and Mountain Counties Heritage will split the $10,000 grant award, although Hazard said the money is already earmarked for a collaborative effort they are developing.

“These two are doing some cutting edge stuff,” said Warren Cook of Carrabassett Valley. “They realized they can get to the solution by collaboratively working together rather than doing it themselves.”

Collaboration was the key element stressed Tuesday as Cook recounted how both organizations are also funded by a collaborative group of funders. It makes so much more sense to work together, a concept that is developing within the nonprofit environment, he said.

The work being done by the organizations are templates for the rest of the state, Schmelzer said, speaking of their work with nature based tourism. Western Maine is leading the change, he said.

While Mountain Counties Heritage began as a program of Western Mountains Alliance before becoming a separate organization in 1999, Hazard provided spacing for the Western Mountains Alliance at Church Street Commons, Swain said.

Sharing space the two organizations began to look at how they could work together to impact the region, especially in terms of sustainable development, she said.

Working together helps them see new opportunities that are not seen when working alone, Hazard said. While they hope they are on the right track, he said, the Brookings Institute brought out several points within the GrowSmart report that are things they are already doing, he said. The award reinforces the approval of that work, he added.

The organizations were recognized for providing planning and support to large resource studies, partnering to support local agriculture and helping local groups secure more than $1 million to build and promote heritage-based tourism in Oxford, Franklin, Somerset and Piscataquis counties.