The Cummings Foundation is accepting applications for its $30 Million Grant Program.
Donor Name: Cummings Foundation
State: Massachusetts
County: Essex County (MA), Middlesex County (MA), Norfolk County (MA), Suffolk County (MA)
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 09/06/2024
Size of the Grant: More than $1 million
Grant Duration: 5-10 Years
Details:
Cummings aims to support truly local organizations. Accordingly, an applicant must:
- Be headquartered in the geographic areas listed above
- Provide the majority of its services in the geographic areas listed above.
- Not maintain offices or provide services outside Massachusetts (with the exception of Merrimack Valley nonprofits that also serve Southern New Hampshire)
- Not be regional, national, or international (even if based locally)
- Not be a local office/affiliate of a regional or national organization, unless it has its own EIN
Funding Priorities
The Cummings $30 Million Grant Program funds a wide variety of local causes related to:
- Human services
- housing and food security, anti-poverty, disabilities, employment training, immigrant/refugee assistance, legal assistance, senior citizens, strong families/communities, youth activities/services
- Social justice
- equity, anti-hate, opportunity gap remediation, representation
- Education
- K-12/college, mentoring/tutoring, out-of-school time, complementary programs
- Healthcare
- hospitals/clinics, mental health
- The Environment
- environmental education, equitable access to outdoor spaces, recycling/waste reduction, sustainable agriculture and food systems (This program does not currently consider requests for research, land preservation, and large capital projects)
Geographic Areas
The Cummings $30 Million Grant Program is a place-based initiative that primarily supports nonprofits in the Massachusetts counties where Cummings Foundation operates commercial properties and where most staff and clients of Cummings Foundation and Cummings Properties live:
- Essex County
- Middlesex County
- Suffolk County
- The Norfolk County communities of: Brookline, Dedham, Milton, Needham, Quincy, and Wellesley.
Ineligibility
The Cummings $30 Million Grant Program will not generally consider requests for:
- Endowments
- Medical research
- Private foundations
- Religious endeavors
- Relatively new entities
- Political, legislative, or lobbying organizations
- Individuals or debt reduction, no matter how worthy
- Major capital campaigns, unless very near completion
- Primary and secondary schools that charge significant tuition
- Very large organizations already supported by robust endowments
- Organizations that seek to infringe on civil liberties or personal freedoms
- Organizations that are not classified as public charities under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service Code
- National or regional organizations, or local branches thereof, that do not have an EIN separate from that of the larger entity
- Organizations that discriminate based on race, color, gender, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, etc.
- Municipalities (with the exception of public schools), except for the 11 communities in which the Cummings organization operates commercial properties
For more information, visit Cummings Foundation.
