Boston Foundation announces $1.4 million in grants to Greater Boston organizations

Boston – The Boston Foundation announced its quarterly discretionary grants after a meeting of the Foundation Board of Directors this week. The Board approved $1,058,000 in single and multi-year discretionary grants to be paid out beginning in July 2017, and another $315,000 in single-year Open Door grants to Boston-area nonprofits. Of the 26 grantees for the quarter, three are receiving multi-year grant support.

“With this round of grants, the Boston Foundation continues its strategic focus on education, the arts, housing, health and workforce development,” said Paul S. Grogan, President and CEO of the Boston Foundation. “We also bring to a close a successful first full year of the Open Door Grants program, which has distributed more than $2 million in one-year grants to dozens of organizations.”

In all, 78 organizations have received Open Door Grants in the programs inaugural year. Organizations from across the Greater Boston region received the grants.

Leveraging data to improve student success

The largest grant on the June docket is a two-year, $200,000 grant to Somerville Public Schools for the enhancement, expansion and evaluation of Student Insights, an online data tool that provides principals and educators with key student indicators on academic achievement, behavioral indicators, early warning indicators and interventions. The tool would bring together information from disparate databases to allow educators to better recognize and address any issues that are impeding student success.

The Foundation also continues its investments in the Boston Public Schools with a one-year, $150,000 grant to support the preliminary implementation of five college and career readiness pathways at three high schools, as well as developing a multi-year plan for implementing the district’s College and Career readiness work.

And the Foundation is providing a two-year, $100,000 grant to the Center for Artistry & Scholarship Education to support its Innovative School Leaders Incubator, which trains school leaders to integrate educational, artistic, and community-based strategies to transform the lives of youth and families from diverse backgrounds.

Open Door Grants

The Open Door Grants docket for this quarter provides general operating or project funding for a mix of work by established, innovative and growing organizations to improve the lives of residents of greater Boston. Examples of the 12 grants awarded this quarter include:

A $30,000 grant to the Boston Symphony Orchestra to launch a new Boston neighborhood engagement initiative, the BSO in Residence, which will provide a  multi-year program of events addressing community need, strengths, and artistic and cultural goals to targeted Boston neighborhoods.

A $25,000 general operating support grant to CareMessage, an organization that empowers healthcare organizations to use mobile technology to improve communication between patients and health care providers, reducing the cost of care and improving health outcomes.

A $35,000 project support grant to the Center for Social Policy at the University of Massachusetts Foundation, Inc., to build its Cliff Effect Tool, which will help low-income families in Boston better understand the intersection of public support and wages so that they may secure economic independence, housing and stable childcare.

A full list of the quarterly and Open Door Grants is below.

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DISCRETIONARY GRANTS:

Arts and Culture

Yard, Inc.:  A $20,000/one-year project support grant to the Yard, Inc., an organization that supports contemporary dance makers and related artists through paid research residency, public performance and long-term education, for its “2017 Bessie Schoneberg Creative Mentorship Residency Boston Artists Pilot,” which seeks to develop the talents of and professional opportunities for Boston artists. 

Education: College Completion

Inversant: A $50,000/one-year general operating support grant to Inversant (formerly FUEL), an organization that helps families access higher education through savings accounts, financial incentives, scholarship opportunities, and family engagement, to support and advance their Children’s Savings Accounts program in Suffolk County and build deeper partnerships in Boston.

Education: Structural Reform

The BASE: A $125,000/one-year grant to The BASE, an organization that leverages the power and passion for baseball, combined with comprehensive academic resources to help student athletes find pathways to success both on and off the field.

Boston Public Schools: A $150,000/one-year grant to Boston Public Schools to support the preliminary implementation of five college and career readiness pathways in three BPS high schools as well as the development of a multi-year plan for full implementation of the district’s College and Career Readiness work.

Center for Artistry and Scholarship Education: A $100,000/two-year grant to The Center for Artistry & Scholarship Education, a nonprofit that fosters and mobilizes creative, arts-immersed schools for support of its Innovative School Leaders Incubator, which trains school leaders to integrate educational, artistic and community-based strategies to transform the lives of youth and families from diverse backgrounds.

Center for Collaborative Education: A $75,000/one-year grant to the Center for Collaborative Education, which seeks to transform schools so that all students succeed, for its Massachusetts Personalized Learning Network, which will create a critical mass of equity-minded schools that exemplify engaged, personalized, and competency-based learning.

Somerville Public Schools: A $200,000/two-year grant to Somerville Public Schools for the enhancement, expansion, and evaluation of Student Insights, its online data tool that provides principals and educators with key student indicators on academic achievement, behavioral indicators, early warning indicators, and interventions.

Health and Wellness

BOKS/Reebok Foundation: A $50,000/one-year grant to The Reebok Foundation, payable to Fit Kidz Get Up & Go Inc., to support BOKS (Build Our Kids' Success), a before school physical activity program for BPS elementary school students.  

Jobs and Economic Development

Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation: A $30,000/one-year grant to Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation, an organization focused on building a better, stronger community of Codman Square and South Dorchester by creating housing and commercial spaces that are safe, sustainable and affordable, for support of its entrepreneurship programing focused on technical assistance for local food and beverage businesses.

Massachusetts Communities Action Network:  A $13,000/one-year grant to Massachusetts Communities Action Network (MCAN), a faith-based organization working for economic and racial justice, for general support of its work and for its efforts to strengthen its membership and leadership and help balance economic growth in Massachusetts.

Neighborhoods and Housing

Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance: A $45,000/one-year grant to the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, an organization that educates and mobilizes across Massachusetts to break down barriers to affordable and sustainable homeownership, for support of its Yes for a Better Boston Coalition.

Project RIGHT: A $50,000/one-year grant to Project R.I.G.H.T, a non-profit that organizes residents of the greater Grove Hall community, to support its efforts to carry out youth organizing relating to and in support of improvements to the Fairmount Indigo Line.

Nonprofit Effectiveness

Encore Boston Network: A $50,000/one-year grant to Encore Boston Network payable to fiscal sponsor, Executive Service Corps of New England, for a coalition of organizations and professionals dedicated to strengthening communities by engaging the talents of people over the age of 50 (encore talent), to support the second year of Gen2Gen Boston, part of a national campaign to mobilize 1 million adults over the age of 50 to help young people thrive.
 

OPEN DOOR GRANTS:

Boston Arts Academy: $25,000 for support of the Boston Arts Academy, Boston's only public high school for the visual and performing arts.

Boston Symphony Orchestra: $30,000 for a new Boston neighborhood engagement initiative, the BSO in Residence.

CareMessage: $25,000 to empower healthcare organizations with mobile technologies to improve health outcomes and reduce the cost of care, particularly for low-income and underserved patient populations.

Hands to Heart Center: $15,000 to Hands to Heart Center, an organization that shares the healing practice of yoga with people living with poverty, trauma and addiction.

Institute for Contemporary Art: $25,000 to enable the ICA to implement technology upgrades that allow for improved data management.

John F. Kennedy Library: $40,000 to ensure that the Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is a vibrant, living memorial to our 35th President, with a mission to inspire public service, civic responsibility, civil rights, scientific discovery and creative cultural pursuits and to continually engage and inspire new audiences.

Lionheart Foundation: $25,000 to complete the development and design of EQ2: The Emotion Coaching Handbook through a series of pilot programs held in partnership with providers for the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families.

Salem State University Foundation, Inc.: $25,000 for its Salem's Next Leaders Mentoring Program, which matches Salem State University and Salem High School students in a structured mentoring program.

Steps to Success: $25,000 for support of Steps to Success, an organization that enhances educational outcomes for students from low income families living in Brookline Public Housing and attending Brookline Public Schools to defeat the cycle of poverty, for a technology upgrade to improve student data tracking and analysis.

United Teen Equality Center, Inc.: $25,000 for UTEC, which ignites and nurtures the ambition of disengaged young people to trade violence and poverty for social and economic success, to support efforts to advance policy/legislation related to the Young Adult Reentry Population.

University of Massachusetts Foundation, Inc.: $35,000 to the Center for Social Policy at the University of Massachusetts Foundation, Inc. to build its Cliff Effect Tool, which will enable Boston’s low income families to learn about the intersection of public supports and wages so that they may secure economic independence, housing and stable childcare.

Waypoint Adventure, Inc. : $20,000 to Waypoint Adventure, an organization that challenges youth and adults with intellectual, developmental, physical and sensory disabilities to discover their purpose, talents and strengths through the transforming power of adventure by providing experiential learning and outdoor opportunities, to increase staff capacity and respond to service demand.

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The Boston Foundation, Greater Boston’s community foundation, is one of the largest community foundations in the nation, with net assets of some $1 billion. In 2016, the Foundation and its donors made $100 million in grants to nonprofit organizations and received gifts of more than $107 million. In celebration of its Centennial in 2015, the Boston Foundation launched the ongoing Campaign for Boston to strengthen the Permanent Fund for Boston, the principal endowment fund focused on the most pressing needs of Greater Boston. The Foundation is proud to be a partner in philanthropy, with more than 1,000 separate charitable funds established by donors either for the general benefit of the community or for special purposes. The Boston Foundation also serves as a major civic leader, think tank and advocacy organization, commissioning research into the most critical issues of our time and helping to shape public policy designed to advance opportunity for everyone in Greater Boston. The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI), a distinct operating unit of the Foundation, designs and implements customized philanthropic strategies for families, foundations and corporations around the globe. For more information about the Boston Foundation and TPI, visit tbf.org or call 617-338-1700.