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.
Donor Name: Cummings Foundation
State: Massachusetts
County: Essex County (MA), Middlesex County (MA), Norfolk County (MA), Suffolk County (MA)
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 09/17/2025
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
Priority Funding Causes
The Cummings $30 Million Grant Program funds a wide variety of local causes related to:
- Human services
- housing and food security, anti-poverty, support for people with physical or intellectual limitations, employment training, assistance for foreign-born residents, legal assistance, senior citizens, strong families/communities, youth activities/services
- Fairness and justice
- 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.)
Funding Information
Requested amounts for annual installments may range from a minimum of $10,000 to a maximum of $100,000. Annual installments should be round numbers (e.g., $50,000 instead of $52,599) and will remain constant each year of the grant.
Applicants may choose from two different proposal types, depending on their desired installment amount.
- Requests for installments of $25,000 or less
- Complete the short-form application.
- Automatically awarded as general operating support.
- Do not submit a grant budget.
- Will be evaluated alongside other requests for $25,000 or less.
- Requests for installments of more than $25,000
- Complete the comprehensive application.
- May be for any type of support (e.g., general operating support, program/project specific support).
- Must submit a grant budget.
- Will be evaluated alongside other requests for more than $25,000.
Geographical Areas
- Essex County
- Middlesex County
- Suffolk County
- The Norfolk County communities of: Brookline, Dedham, Milton, Needham, Quincy, and Wellesley.
Criteria
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.
For more information, visit Cummings Foundation.
