Cummings Foundation Inc./One World Boston Inc.
/OVERVIEW: One World Boston Inc. is the grantmaking entity of the Cummings Foundation that awards grants to Boston and northern suburban nonprofits in the areas of community development, education, healthcare, homelessness, and the elderly.
FUNDING AREAS: Community development, education, healthcare, homelessness, the elderly
IP TAKE: This is a great foundation to apply for a grant to if your organization benefits the Boston suburban area. Although Cummings supports plenty of Boston-based nonprofits, the northern suburbs are heavily favored as well.
PROFILE: Established in 1986, the Cummings Foundation is a private operating foundation based in the Boston suburb of Woburn. It is one of the largest charitable foundations in New England. Signers of the Giving Pledge, Joyce and Bill Cummings established the Cummings Properties Foundation as a Massachusetts Trust, changing its name to Cummings Foundation Inc. and becoming an operating foundation in 2002. The couple has donated much of its commercial real estate fortune to the foundation, and the largest grant to date was $50 million to Tufts University veterinary school. Cummings Foundation Inc. established a separate grantmaking entity called One World Boston, Inc. This is a local area grant program that provides funding to community groups, underserved populations, healthcare, and education causes. Major grantmaking interests include social justice, community development, education, healthcare, homelessness, and the elderly.
Cummings’ grantmaking program, called $20 Million Grant Program, has combined the foundation’s previous $100K for 100 with its Sustaining Grants initiatives into the new Cummings $20 Million Grant Program, which will award a total of $20 million to 130 local-area nonprofits in 2020.
Most current Cummings grantmaking revolves around human services, education, healthcare, and social justice. The funder does not consider art, culture, or athletic programs for grants. It also does not support medical research, religious endeavors, major capital campaigns, or primary and secondary schools outside the 11 communities where the Cummings organization operates. However, in early 2023, it announced global health grants totaling $52 million to Harvard Medical School and the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda.
The foundation makes grants in tandem with 70 of its volunteers, identifying 130 organizations to “receive grants of at least $100,000 each (almost all of which will be paid over multiple years). Among the winners will be first-time recipients as well as nonprofits that have previously received grants of $100,000 from Cummings Foundation.” A handful of the latter, which receive multi-year grants, are invited to give an in-person presentation in order to secure a long-term award lasting 10-years, ranging mostly from $200,000 to $500,000 each.
Cummings’ Boston grants tend to be $100,000 each, but range up to $500,000. The Cummings Foundation has made grants totaling a quarter of a billion dollars. View a list of grant recipients here. The city of Boston is a primary area of focus for this foundation. Meanwhile, suburban towns that include Roxbury, Salem, Medford, Lexington, Newton, Winchester, and Woburn also receive this funder’s attention. The foundation makes lon-term grantmaking available “only to nonprofits that have previously received a $100,000 grant from Cummings Foundation.” Special consideration is given to nonprofits based in the 11 cities and towns where the Cummings organization operates commercial real estate.
This foundation accepts unsolicited letters of inquiry from nonprofits. To apply for a grant, groups will need to submit a Letter of Inquiry between July 15 and September 6. The Cummings staff does not typically conduct site visits, but there is always a grantee reception scheduled in Woburn in early June. Nonprofits can apply for another grant after three years of receiving one from Cummings. Direct general questions to the foundation’s executive director, Joel B. Swets, at 781-982-7004 or by email at jbs@cummings.com
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