Boston Foundation announces $1.02 million in quarterly grants to Greater Boston organizations

Nearly $400,000 grants issued to neighborhood redevelopment organizations.

December 6, 2016

Boston – The Boston Foundation announced its quarterly discretionary grants after a meeting of the Foundation Board of Directors on Tuesday. The Board approved $1.02 million in single and multi-year discretionary grants to be paid out beginning in December 2016. Of the 18 grantees for the quarter, 15 will receive one-year grants, and three will be issued multi-year grant funding support. Seven grants were issued in the category of Arts and Culture. Six were issued in the Jobs and Economic Development category. Four were issued in the area of Neighborhoods and Housing, and one in Nonprofit Effectiveness. Grants in Health and Wellness and Education-Structural Reform were not issued this quarter.

As part of its ongoing efforts to build communities and help neighborhoods develop and evolve college preparedness, the foundation awarde

d Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, Inc., a $290,000 three-year grant for support of its Fair Chance for Families Initiative, which helps Dudley families work together to build their own assets, strengthen their ties to their community and build towards upward financial mobility and stability. The DSNI grant will be paid in three installments of $130,000 in year one, $100,000 in year two, and $60,000 in year three.

“We are pleased our Board of Directors saw fit to approve these grants which push forward the Boston Foundation’s mission to improve the lives of area residents where they live, where they work, and in how they develop their communities and neighborhoods,” said Paul S. Grogan, President and CEO of The Boston Foundation.

Increasing neighborhood stability and the production and preservation of affordable housing for vulnerable populations

In other neighborhoods and housing-related work, the board also approved grants for new funding to the Greater Four Corners Action Coalition, the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations, and the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance.
 
Greater Four Corners Action Coalition, Inc. was issued a one-year general operating support grant for $75,000. Greater Four Corners is a nonprofit that organizes residents of Dorchester and advocates on behalf of the Fairmount Indigo Commuter Rail as well as anti-displacement policies.

Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations received a $100,000 one-year general operating support grant. MACDC is a nonprofit that supports the Massachusetts community development sector and works with suburban members to accelerate housing development across the region.

Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance was awarded a $225,000 three-year grant payable to Citizens' Housing and Planning Association, Inc., fiscal sponsor for Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance, a nonprofit working to increase housing and support equitable community development, for their zoning reform and housing production work. The grant will be paid in equal installments of $75,000.

Strengthen and celebrate the region’s diverse audiences, artists, and nonprofit cultural organizations.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Inc. received a $30,000 one-year grant for its exhibition Listen, Hear: The Art of Sound, which will create a soundscape that will be heard at Ruggles train station in Roxbury and along the walk from Ruggles to the Gardner Museum to better connect the museum to the adjacent communities and to Boston.
 
Jose Mateo Ballet Theater received a $25,000 one-year general operating support grant payable to Ballet Theatre of Boston, Inc., a ballet organization with innovative programming and extensive community outreach, as well as schools in Dorchester and Cambridge providing expert dance training to young dancers ages 3-18 and adults of all ages and levels.
 
Madison Park Development Corporation received a $25,000 one-year grant for support of Hibernian Hall's production of Jaqui Parker's play, My Jeanie Don’t Sing No Mo.

Massachusetts Poetry Outreach Project received a $15,000 one-year general operating support grant. The Outreach Project is an arts service organization supporting poets and poetry, working with teachers and young people, and bringing poems to large numbers of people in surprising public spaces.
 
Medicine Wheel Productions, Inc. received a $15,000 one-year grant to support the organization’s public art project, Hand in Hand, a new model of inclusion, which brings police officers and young adults together in workshops where they meditate, reflect through writing, cast each other’s hands, share a meal, have their portraits taken, and then create public art together. general operating support grant to support board development and facilities improvements.
 
World Music, Inc. was awarded a $150,000 two-year grant for support of its extensive dance programming featuring regional, national, and international contemporary and world dance companies. World Music presents traditional and contemporary performing arts from across the world.

Promoting the career advancement and economic security of low-income individuals

In the area of jobs and economic development, the Foundation’s board approved a $75,000 one-year general operating support grant to Commonwealth Kitchen, Boston’s only nonprofit food business incubator. The grant will support the strengthening of Commonwealth Kitchen’s operations and development of the organizational capacity needed to effectively scale growth.
 
Boston Tax Help Coalition (formerly Boston Earned Income Tax Credit Action Coalition) was awarded a one-year $30,000 grant, payable to Boston Local Development Corporation, fiscal sponsor for Boston Tax Help Coalition, an organization that provides low- to moderate-income taxpayers with free tax preparation services, wealth building and financial empowerment, for the support of its Tax and Entrepreneurship Project.

BREAD received a $50,000 one-year grant, payable to Press Pass TV, Inc., fiscal sponsor for BREAD. The grant will help fund its programs to empower young community members to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors and to encourage individual and collective economic self-sufficiency.

Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) received a $50,000 one-year grant for support of its entrepreneurship and economic opportunity programming. LISC is an agency that supports the production and preservation of affordable housing, sparks economic development, and increases access to high-quality education, transportation, jobs, and other crucial resources for healthy and prosperous communities.
 
Smarter in the City was awarded a $50,000 one-year general operating support grant to Openairbostonnet Incorporated to advance its technology-focused businesses. Smarter in the City, a high tech startup business accelerator in Roxbury, supports local entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities to advance their technology-focused businesses.

X-Cel, Inc. was awarded a $30,000 one-year general operating support grant. X-Cel is a nonprofit organization that improves economic opportunity in underserved Boston neighborhoods through accessible, individualized, and free high school equivalency education, post-secondary preparation, and career readiness development.

Nonprofit Effectiveness

College for Social Innovation received a $75,000 one-year general operating support grant. The College for Social Innovation brings together colleges and social sector organizations to create fully-credited experiential learning opportunities that are meaningful, accessible and life-changing, to support its year-two operations.

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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 2015, the Foundation and its donors paid $135 million in grants to nonprofit organizations and received gifts of $123 million. In celebration of its Centennial in 2015, the Boston Foundation launched the Campaign for Boston to strengthen the Permanent Fund for Boston, the only 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), an 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.