The Boston Foundation announces $750,000 in new grants from COVID-19 Response Fund

Boston – The Boston Foundation today announced five grants, totaling $750,000, in its ongoing efforts to support communities that have been most directly impacted by COVID-19, and support Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC)-led organizations based in and serving those communities.

The grants announced today were made possible by Facebook, which recently announced $20 million in funding for community foundations across the country to improve racial equity and support Black-serving organizations. 

“We are grateful to Facebook and the dozens of other businesses that have made significant gifts to the COVID-19 Response Fund,” said Paul Grogan, President and CEO of the Boston Foundation. “Through their donations and hundreds of others – large and small – from individuals and organizations throughout the Boston Foundation community, we have been able to distribute more than $11 million in COVID-related grants, making it possible for nonprofits to take on the triple pandemic of COVID and the racial and economic injustice it has laid bare.”

The Boston Foundation has made support for BIPOC leaders a core element of its COVID-19 and other discretionary grantmaking, both to counter historic underinvestment in BIPOC-led organizations, and in recognition that BIPOC leaders of organizations working in BIPOC communities are often most authentically connected and knowledgeable about the challenges and opportunities facing those communities. 

Each of the five grantees below are receiving a $150,000 general operating support grant to support their efforts to ensure a just and equitable recovery from the pandemic and its economic and social toll.

Brookview House (Deborah Hughes, President and CEO): A $150,000 general operating support grant for Brookview House, a multi-service organization that works for justice, equity and systemic change for low-income women and children in Boston experiencing homelessness, to work towards a just and equitable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic by sustaining and expanding direct services such as their full day on-site learning pod for youth and on-site COVID-19 vaccine clinic. 

Caribbean Integration Community Development (Donald Alexis, Founder and CEO):A $150,000 general operating support grant for Caribbean Integration Community Development, a housing and community development organization that creates and maintains affordable housing in areas of Boston where large numbers of people of Caribbean descent reside, to work towards a just and equitable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic by expanding direct housing services and emergency relief for families experiencing homelessness and housing instability.  

Fathers’ UpLift (Dr. Charles Daniels, Co-Founder and CEO): A $150,000 general operating support grant for Fathers’ UpLift, Boston’s first outpatient mental health center for child, parental health and male engagement, to work towards a just and equitable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic by sustaining and expanding direct services such as mental health counseling and their father-to-father coaching programs. 

Immigrant Family Services Institute (Dr. Geralde Gabeau, Founder and Executive Director):A $150,000 general operating support grant for Immigrant Family Services Institute, an organization that seeks to expedite the successful integration of recent immigrants into the social and economic fabric of the United States with justice and dignity, to work towards a just and equitable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic by sustaining and expanding direct services such as their on-site learning pod for youth and partnerships with immigrant families to ensure food, technology and immigration services access. 

Mattapan Community Health Center (Guale Valdez, President and CEO; Sharon Callender, RN, MPH, Director, Family and Community Health Services): A $150,000 general operating support grant for Mattapan Community Health Center, an organization that improves the health and quality of life for diverse residents of Mattapan and surrounding communities through exceptional primary care and preventive health and social services, to work towards a just and equitable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic by expanding essential, on-site COVID-19 vaccination and testing services and sustaining related community outreach and health education efforts. 

“These five grantees share a common commitment to providing direct services to people and communities that through decades of often intentional and systemic inequity have disproportionately suffered during this pandemic,” said Orlando Watkins, Vice President for Programs at the Boston Foundation. “These general operating support grants make it possible for them to use the expertise and trust they have developed as proximate, community-based partners to address critical needs in an impactful way.” 

Since the launch of the COVID-19 Response Fund at the Boston Foundation in March, large and small donors have contributed close to $16 million to the Fund, resulting in well over 200 grants to Greater Boston organizations. In addition, donor advised fund holders at the Foundation have contributed nearly $40 million to other COVID-19 related efforts in Greater Boston and throughout the country. To learn more about the COVID-19 Response Fund, visit tbf.org/COVID19fund.