Boston Foundation quarterly grants support strategies to promote a ‘thriving, vibrant’ city and region

Boston –Among the quarterly grants approved today by the Boston Foundation Board of Directors is one for general operating support to help enable the creation of one of the city’s first Horace Mann Charter School under the terms of the historic education reform legislation signed into law in January. The grant is to a new organization called Unlocking Potential, created by Scott Given, who earned acclaim as the leader of Excel Charter School in East Boston. Unlocking Potential plans to launch a new charter school in the fall of 2011.

“This is an exciting example of change coming in response to the new legislation,” said Paul S. Grogan, President and CEO of the Boston Foundation. “New partners are joining with the Boston School Department, clearly drawn by the commitment to innovation in education that has been demonstrated in the past year.”

The proposal for UP Academy Horace Mann Charter School was presented yesterday at the meeting of the Boston School Committee. It will replace the Gavin Middle School, accepting 450-500 students in grades 6, 7 and 8, and all students at the Gavin this year will be included.

During Given’s leadership at Excel Academy Charter School, 100 percent of Excel students achieved advanced or proficient status in the English Language Arts MCAS test, and the ranking of the seventh grade ELA scores rose from 211th place to first place in Massachusetts.

A number of leading cultural organizations in the region also received general operating support grants, including the Commonwealth Zoological Corporation, better known as Zoo New England. The grant, for $225,000 over three years, will help the organization that manages both Boston’s Franklin Park Zoo and the Stone Zoo in Stoneham to implement a new strategic plan. Boston Ballet has also received a grant for general operating support to support that organization’s efforts to increase its community outreach and to diversify its trustees, overseers and audiences.

The Foundation’s strategy to encourage healthy behavior among Boston residents and increase access to healthy food and opportunities for physical exercise is expressed in several grants in the current docket. A $50,000 grant to the Colonel Daniel Marr Boys’ Club of Dorchester will help support the Triple Play program, a comprehensive youth health and wellness program with the goal of promotion healthy lifestyles among club members, focusing on nutrition education, physical activity and life skills development.

An additional $50,000 grant, to the Boston Schoolyard Funders Collaborative, will support the transformation of degraded public schoolyards into multi-functional urban open spaces for school and community use.

To help strengthen  the nonprofit sector in the region, a three-year grant of $300,000 to Boston University has been made to the Institute for Nonprofit Management and Leadership, which prepares the next generation of nonprofit managers and leaders through coursework, experiential learning, mentoring and peer support.

Jobs and economic development continue to be an important focus of grantmaking for the Foundation. Grants related to the strategy of promoting career advancement and economic security for low-income residents include support for the Initiative for a New Economy (INE), which works to create opportunity for minority businesses by connecting them to large institutional organizations. A grant of $100,000 for general operating support seeks to strengthen INE, and includes funding from the Nonprofit Technical Assistance Fund to help INE create a new earned income model.

Also in support of inner city entrepreneurial activity is a three-year grant totaling $180,000 to Interise, which seeks to stimulate revitalization in lower-income urban communities. It will provide a diverse group of small business owners with entrepreneurial education, new networks and access to markets.

These grants are made in support of four of nine strategies articulated as a core part of the Foundation’s work. The full list of strategies includes:

• Accelerate structural reform and promote innovation in public schools in Boston.
• Increase the two- and four-year college graduation rate for low-income, minority and first-generation college students from public schools in Boston.   
• Promote the career advancement and economic security of low-income individuals. 
• Encourage healthy behaviors among Boston residents and increase access to healthy food and opportunities for physical activity.
• Increase neighborhood stability and the production and preservation of affordable housing for vulnerable populations. 
• Reduce the incidence of violence in Boston neighborhoods, especially among youth.
• Strengthen and celebrate the region’s diverse audiences, artists and nonprofit cultural organizations. 
• Increase Greater Boston’s competitiveness, prosperity and efficiency and create vibrant urban neighborhoods with opportunities for all residents.
• Enhance the long-term vitality of the Massachusetts nonprofit sector.

These nine strategies combine to support two overarching goals for the Foundation’s work: Greater Boston residents are successful and thriving; and Greater Boston neighborhoods and communities are vibrant, safe and affordable.

The General Operating Support grants included in today’s list include the following. The specific strategy reflected is provided in italics:

• Unlocking Potential, Inc., $100,000. A one-year grant to enable the creation of a central office and a plan and to prepare for management of the first Horace Mann Charter School created in Boston under the terms of the recent Education reform legislation. Accelerate structural reform and promote innovation in public schools in Boston.
• Bessie Tartt Wilson Initiative for Children, $100,000. This is a two-year grant, payable in $50,000 installments for an organization dedicated to strengthening early education and care for low income children. It will support the Early Education Workforce Access and Advocacy project, which seeks to improve opportunities for low-income early educators by developing reforms to increase compensation, create career ladders and access to higher education. Promote the career advancement and economic security of low-income individuals.
• Initiative For A New Economy, Inc. $100,000 A grant to support the work of the organization, which seeks to create profitable business relationships between Massachusetts-based minority enterprises and large institutional purchasers. Increase Greater Boston’s competitiveness, prosperity and efficiency and create vibrant urban neighborhoods with opportunities for all residents.
• Interise, $180,000. A three-year grant at $60,000 a year to an organization that seeks to stimulate economic revitalization in lower income urban communities. Increase Greater Boston’s competitiveness, prosperity and efficiency and create vibrant urban neighborhoods with opportunities for all residents.
• Mattapan Community Health Center, Inc. $100,000. A one-year grant for support of outreach and costs associated with the development of its new facility. Increase Greater Boston’s competitiveness, prosperity and efficiency and create vibrant urban neighborhoods with opportunities for all residents.
• Boys and Girls Clubs of Dorchester, $50,000. A grant to the Colonel Daniel Marr Boys’ Club of Dorchester, Inc., for the Triple Play Program, a comprehensive health and wellness program with the goal of promoting healthy lifestyles among club members, focusing on nutrition education, physical activity and life skills development. Encourage healthy behaviors among Boston residents and increase access to healthy food and opportunities for physical activity. 
• Citizens Housing and Planning Association, Inc., $300,000. A three-year grant to work on affordable housing and community development issues in Massachusetts. Increase neighborhood stability and the production and preservation of affordable housing for vulnerable populations.
• Metro West Collaborative Developers, $50,000. A one–year grant to support the start-up organization which will build shared development capacity among a number of community housing organizations and potential partners. Increase neighborhood stability and the production and preservation of affordable housing for vulnerable populations.
•  Artists for Humanity, Inc., $150,000. A three-year grant at $50,000 a year to provide young people an opportunity to engage in the arts and to experience paid employment in the arts. Strengthen and celebrate the region’s diverse audiences, artists and nonprofit cultural organizations.
• Boston Ballet, $100,000. A three-year grant ($50,000 in year one and $25,000 in each of the next two years) to support community outreach and efforts to diversify trustees, overseers and audiences. Strengthen and celebrate the region’s diverse audiences, artists and nonprofit cultural organizations.
• Boston Center for the Arts, Inc., A grant totaling $300,000 ($100,000 a year for three years) to implement its strategic plan. Strengthen and celebrate the region’s diverse audiences, artists and nonprofit cultural organizations.
• Raw Art Works, Inc., $150,000. A grant for three years ($50,000 a year) to enable the agency to implement evaluation methodologies that may be adaptable to other youth arts agencies. Strengthen and celebrate the region’s diverse audiences, artists and nonprofit cultural organizations.
• Zoo New England, $225,000. A three year grant ($75,000 a year) to implement a strategic plan. Strengthen and celebrate the region’s diverse audiences, artists and nonprofit cultural organizations.
• Boston University, $300,000. A three-year grant ($100,000 a year) for the Institute for Nonprofit Management and leadership which seeks to prepare the next generation of nonprofit managers. Enhance the long-term vitality of the Massachusetts nonprofit sector.

Not all grants announced are for general operating support. Other grants include specific project support, Executive grants made between the usual grant-making cycles, and special opportunity grants that seek to make use of opportunities or special needs that arise. The docket includes the following:

• Boston Foundation, $25,000. To help pay for an Interaction Institute for Social Change project on arts advocacy.
• Boston Foundation, $15,625. For the MassCDP Research Fund to conduct research on nonprofit cultural organizations participating in the Massachusetts Cultural Data Project. 
• Boston Green Ribbon Commission, $25,000. To Innovation Network for Communities to help convene local leaders to support the outcomes of the city’s Climate Action Plan.
• Boston Private Industry Council, Inc., $25,000. A one-year grant to support the Youth Summer Jobs Program. 
• Boston Redevelopment Authority, $10,000. To support PoweredUp Boston, an international conference for independent game producers.
•  Boston Schoolyard Funders Collaborative, $50,000. To support transformation of schoolyards into multi-functional urban open spaces for children and community use
• Disability Law Center, Inc. $47,000. A one-year grant to support the Project To End the Unconstitutional Segregation of Prisoners.
• Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Coalition, Inc. $10,000 one-year grant to provide sponsorship support for the National Immigrant Integration Conference to be held in Boston in the fall of 2010.
• Metropolitan Area Planning Council, $50,000. To support the Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Program.
• OrigiNation Cultural Arts Center, $50,000. A grant to support the professional dance troupe program seeking to promote self-esteem, physical fitness and civic responsibility among young people.
• Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, Inc. $50,000. A one-year grant to design a new training, support and advancement structure for Personal Care Attendants in collaboration with the Commonwealth Care Alliance.
• South End Technology Center @ Tent City, $20,000. To help create an affordable housing unit for persons with disabilities.
• Tufts University Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, $300,000. A three-year grant ($125,000 in year one, $100,000 in year two and $75,000 in year three) for the Goldberg Civic Engagement Initiative: Mitigating Obesity in Boston’s Immigrant Communities project.
• Youth Advocacy Center, Inc., $37,500. For the Getting Beyond the System Project, which uses self-advocacy seminars to engage youth and provide them with the skills and resources to move “Beyond the system.”

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The Boston Foundation, Greater Boston’s community foundation, is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the nation, with assets of $737 million.  In Fiscal Year 2009, the Foundation and its donors made over $95 million in grants to nonprofit organizations and received gifts of over $81 million. The Foundation is made up of some 900 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, provider of information, convener, and sponsor of special initiatives designed to address the community’s and region’s most pressing challenges.  For more information about the Boston Foundation, visit www.tbf.org  or call 617-338-1700.