The Boston Foundation announces $5.9 million in grants to Greater Boston organizations

Boston – The Boston Foundation is pleased to announce its quarterly discretionary grants after a meeting of the Foundation’s Board of Directors last week. The Board approved $2,637,000 in single and multi-year discretionary grants to 29 organizations, and also acknowledged another $3,242,134 paid out between cycles through other discretionary programs of the Foundation.

"This quarter’s grants provide a continuation in our support of workforce development through SkillWorks and new investments in entrepreneurship through our support of EforAll’s Roxbury expansion,” said Paul S. Grogan, President and CEO of the Boston Foundation. “In addition, we are excited to target a series of grants toward strengthening programs and services designed to help lower-income Boston residents build their assets and find affordable, sustainable housing.”

The $350,000, one-year grant to SkillWorks, the largest in the docket, demonstrates the Boston Foundation’s continuing support to a program it co-founded over a decade ago. The initiative seeks to close skill gaps and provide employment opportunities by supporting training and engaging employers in industries such as health care, information technology and hospitality.

In addition, the Foundation is making a $100,000, one-year general operating support grant to Entrepreneurship for All (EforAll), as it seeks to bring the documented success of its system of supports to entrepreneurs to Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood.

In neighborhoods and housing, the Foundation is providing $200,000 over the next two years to Housing Navigator Massachusetts, Inc., to support the development of a new tool to make it easier for low- and middle-income households to find housing and housing supports that best suit their needs. The new Housing Navigator software seeks to bring together information about programs and services for homeowners and renters, improving the odds for residents to find appropriate, affordable, sustainable housing for themselves and their families.

The Foundation continued its support of colleges and universities taking part in the Success Boston college completion initiative with four grants totaling $200,000 to Boston-based colleges to support Success Boston liaisons, individuals based on each campus who can provide needed assistance to Success Boston students and their coaches and maximize the overall impact of the programs on campus.

Other grants of note include a grant of $250,000 over two years to the Somerville Public Schools to support its Equity in Action initiative. This grant seeks to enhance the district’s open-source student data tool, Student Insights, to better capture student-centered analytics and performance insights through an equity lens as students move through the district.

And the Foundation extended two long-standing commitments to organizations for whom we were “There at the Beginning,” with a $100,000, one-year grants to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health for its Mass in Motion health policy initiative, and a $200,000 grant over two years to the Institute for Nonprofit Practice, which provides training to expand the skills and resources of promising nonprofit leaders. INP is also receiving a $150,000 grant over three years in collaboration with TSNE MissionWorks, to create a training program for consultants who can work with nonprofit organizations and leaders who are seeking to advance and implement diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

A full list of quarterly discretionary grants is below, separated by strategy area.

DISCRETIONARY GRANTS:

Arts and Culture

Arts and Business Council of Greater Boston, Inc.: A $35,000 one-year general operating support grant to the Arts and Business Council, one of Boston and Greater Boston's largest Arts Service Organizations (ASOs) providing a full suite of services to the arts community, including legal aid, fiscal sponsorship and professional development programs.

The Dance Complex, Inc.: A $25,000 one-year general operating support grant to the Dance Complex to continue its work as a hub for performing artists and the local community, providing easy, affordable access to classes, rehearsal and venue space, and vibrant community programming.

MASSCreative, Inc.: A $50,000 one-year general operating support grant to MASSCreative, an organization that works to engage and build the political strength of Massachusetts’ arts and cultural sector, for its efforts to organize a broad-based action network that will advocate for increased investment in arts and cultural activities by federal, state and local leaders.

The Record Company: A $50,000 one-year general operating support grant to the Record Company, Boston’s only arts service organization serving musicians with space and professional development, to continue its organizational development and growth into a new space and to support its increased programming which helps Boston musicians take their art to market.

The Yard, Inc.: A $10,000 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, in support of the "2019 Bessie Schonberg Creative Mentorship Residency Boston Artists Pilot."

Education: Early Childhood

Urban College: A $52,000 one-year program support grant to the Urban College of Boston, an agency whose mission is to provide opportunity to every student seeking a college degree or professional advancement, for its program Strengthening Supports for English Language Learner (ELL) Educators to strengthen and support the English language acquisition of non-native English-speaking professionals enrolled in their early childhood courses.

Education: College Completion

Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology: A $50,000 one-year project support grant to Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology for their Success Boston Liaison, which provides support for Success Boston coaches and students at Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, aiming to increase college persistence and completion for graduates of the Boston Public Schools.

Bunker Hill Community College: A $50,000 one-year project support grant to Bunker Hill Community College for their Success Boston Liaison, which provides support for Success Boston coaches and students at Bunker Hill Community College, aiming to increase college persistence and completion for graduates of the Boston Public Schools.

College Bound Dorchester: A $75,000 one-year project support grant to College Bound Dorchester for their Boston Uncornered work, which provides education access for gang-involved youth and aims to increase college enrollment and completion among low-income young people of color from Boston.

Freedom House, Inc.: A $75,000 one-year general operating support grant to Freedom House, an organization that works to remove barriers to education by providing first-generation college-going and lower-income students of color with college-level learning opportunities, intensive summer college preparation programs, and ongoing coaching throughout college.

NextGen Talent: A $65,000 one-year project support grant to NextGen Talent, an organization working to boost the career success of low-income and first-generation college students in Greater Boston, to support a strategic assessment of trends, factors, and strategies associated with Boston students’ transitions from college into the labor market. The grant is payable to Friends of Excel Academy, Inc. as fiscal sponsor.

Roxbury Community College: A $50,000 one-year project support grant to Roxbury Community College for their Success Boston Liaison, which provides support for Success Boston coaches and students at Roxbury Community College, aiming to increase college persistence and completion for graduates of the Boston Public Schools.

University of Massachusetts Foundation, Inc.: A $50,000 one-year project support grant to support the Success Boston Liaison at UMass Boston, which provides support for Success Boston coaches and students at UMass Boston, aiming to increase college persistence and completion for graduates of the Boston Public Schools.

Education: Structural Reform

Somerville Public Schools: A $250,000 two-year project grant to Somerville Public Schools to support its Equity in Action initiative, primarily through enhancing and transforming its open-source student data tool, Student Insights, into a broader equity-focused dashboard that drives action through more strategic use of analytics and supports addressing student challenges through an equity lens.

Health and Wellness

Massachusetts Department of Public Health: A $100,000 one-year project support grant to Massachusetts Department of Public Health for Mass in Motion, an initiative designed to build capacity at the municipal level to create a sustained approach for healthy eating and active living, specifically in Dorchester, Roxbury and Malden.

Jobs and Economic Development

Entrepreneurship for All: A $100,000 one-year general operating support grant to Entrepreneurship for All, an agency that works to create an inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem that helps early state entrepreneurs efficiently launch and grow businesses that are capable of generating wealth, jobs, and transforming the local economy.

Institute for a Competitive Inner City, Inc.: A $25,000 one-year program support grant to Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, an agency that works to drive economic prosperity in under-resourced communities around the country through private sector investment to create jobs, income and wealth for local residents, for its Inner City Capital Connections-Boston program.

SkillWorks/The Boston Foundation: A $350,000 one-year general operating support grant to SkillWorks/The Boston Foundation, an initiative that targets the Boston region’s skill gaps and systemic challenges by expanding employer engagement in healthcare, information technology/technology, and hospitality in order to aggregate better labor market intelligence to inform training programs in the region.

Neighborhoods and Housing

Action for Equity: A $45,000 one-year project support grant to Action for Equity, a coalition of 13 community-led organizations dedicated to creating and implementing policies to address the issues of race and class inequities, for its 'Creating Fairmount Corridor Special Protection Zones' project, which will develop a new zoning overlay district for residents in the Fairmount Corridor to protect residents from displacement. The grant is payable to Four Corners Action Coalition, Inc. as fiscal sponsor for the coalition.

Alliance for Business Leadership: A $30,000 one-year project support grant to the Alliance for Business Leadership, a coalition of progressive business leaders united in the belief that social responsibility and sustainable economic growth go hand in hand, to support the continuation of the Business Leaders' Learning Project: Mobilizing the Business Community on Workforce Housing.

Asian Community Development Corporation: A $50,000 one-year project support grant to Asian Community Development Corporation, an organization that works in underserved and immigrant Asian American communities in the Greater Boston region to create and preserve affordable, sustainable, and healthy neighborhoods, for the 'Innovation and Gentrification Initiative,' a collaboration with the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.

BSA Foundation: A $30,000 two-year project support grant to the BSA Foundation, an organization dedicated to building a better Boston by engaging the public in the importance of design, inspiring vibrant neighborhoods and a more resilient and equitable city, and provoking positive change through collaborative efforts, for its 'Housing Innovation Design Fellow' program, which will also be supported by the City of Boston's Housing Innovation Design Lab.

Compass Working Capital: A $100,000 two-year project support grant to Compass Working Capital, an organization that supports families with low incomes to build assets and financial capabilities as a pathway to greater economic opportunity and out of poverty for its 'Expanding the Scope and Impact of the Compass FSS Program in Boston', which will allow any family in federally-subsidized housing the opportunity to build assets as a pathway to economic opportunity.

Housing Navigator Massachusetts, Inc.: A $200,000 two-year project support grant to the Kuehn Charitable Foundation on behalf of Housing Navigator Massachusetts, Inc. to support the development of the Housing Navigator software which will provide information to low- and moderate-income households so they can make the best choice possible for their housing needs. The two-year grant will be paid in equal annual installments to Citizens' Housing and Planning Association as fiscal sponsor.

Local Initiatives Support Corporation: A $120,000 one-year general operating support grant to LISC Boston, an intermediary organization that does capacity building and lending to CDCs, and community change work.

Nonprofit Effectiveness

Institute for Nonprofit Practice: A $200,000 two-year general operating support grant to Institute for Nonprofit Practice, an organization that seeks to transform communities by equipping the most promising nonprofit leaders with the skills, confidence, and resources they need to make their organizations effective, innovative, and sustainable.

Institute for Nonprofit Practice/TSNE MissionWorks: A $150,000 three-year project support grant payable to Institute for Nonprofit Practice (INP) to support INP and TSNE MissionWorks to create a training program to build consultants’ capacity to support nonprofit organizations and leaders to implement policies and practices that advance diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Other/Unaligned Grants

Latino Legacy Fund: A $150,000 three-year grant to the Boston Foundation for the Latino Legacy Fund grant-making program, which was established in 2013 with the goal of contributing to our region’s civic vitality by supporting organizations that help Latinos realize their full potential, with a specific focus on improving the educational experiences of Latinos in Greater Boston from early childhood through post-secondary education.

The Equality Fund: A $100,000 two-year grant to the Boston Foundation for the Equality Fund grant-making program, which was established in 2011 with two primary goals: making high-impact grants to the most innovative nonprofits serving the diverse members of the LGBTQ community; and building a permanent endowment that will benefit the LGBTQ community of Greater Boston in perpetuity.

Selected other grants:

Boston Foundation Grassroots Fund

A small grants program that supports program activities that might include, but are not limited to, community events and celebrations, pilot or demonstration projects, conferences and convenings, and small programs that mirror those funded by discretionary grants, but which lack sufficient scale to be eligible or competitive. Grants released in the past quarter totaled $54,705. Selected grants over $3,000 included:

First Teacher
$10,000: For general operating support

Massachusetts Voter Education
$7,500: For the Let Me Lead Conference and Hustlex2 Career & Entrepreneurship Conference

Multicultural AIDS Coalition, Inc.
$4,500: For the Other and Belonging Conference

Union Capital Boston, Inc.
$5,000: For general operating support for the Collier Connection

Other between-cycles and special fund grants acknowledged by the Board included:

BAMS Fest, Inc.
$10,000: For general operating support

Baraka Community Wellness
$10,000: For the Healthy Moms, Healthy Kids Food Cares program

Boston Educational Development Foundation
$4,250: For the BPS Valedictorian Luncheon

Boston Landmarks Orchestra
$60,000: For the 2019 Summer Concert Series free concerts at the Hatch Shell

Boston Public Library
$50,000: For the Fund for the Boston Public Library

CONEXION, Inc.
$10,000: For Leadership Development Programming

Enterprise Community Partners
$40,000: For support of Undesign the Red Line

Environmental League of Massachusetts
$25,000: For the Civic Action Project

Haley House, Inc.
$25,000: For Haley House Bakery Café Re-Envisioning and Relaunch consultant support

Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers
$50,000: To develop a shared services model for its membership and to provide job placement and training for people with disabilities

Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO), Inc.
$5,000: For Multicultural Youth Tour of What's Now (MYTOWN)

Silver Lining Mentoring
$25,000: For the Thought Leadership Institute

Urban Guild, Inc.
$5,000: For general operating support

Grants previously shared publicly in Boston Foundation-sponsored announcements:

The Board of Directors also acknowledged several grants paid out during the quarter that were previously announced by the Foundation in other grant announcements, including:

The Equality Fund: $173,300

Health Starts at Home Fund: $260,000

Live Arts Boston grants: $629,363

My Summer in the City Fund: $67,500

Pozen Prize for Innovative Schools: $90,000

Social Innovation Fund grants: $414,615

Success Boston-related grants: $629,455

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