Founded
in 1986, Cummings Properties Foundation (CPFI), a
Massachusetts trust, was originally organized expressly
to "give back" to the communities in which
Cummings Properties does business, and from which
many of its employees come. Through mostly anonymous
contributions, it continues to provide ongoing support
to hundreds of local causes.
Indeed,
in CPFI's very first venture, it invested $8 million
to purchase and totally rebuild Woburn's bankrupt
Choate Memorial Hospital in January 1990, as a large
independent and assisted living community known as
New Horizons at Choate. This strictly not-for-profit
facility is considered by many to be one of the finest
communities of its type in New England, and once served
as a state model for assisted living legislation in
Massachusetts.
By
2002, CPFI had become an operating foundation, and
effective April 1, 2002, it changed its name to Cummings
Foundation, Inc. (CFI)
The
vast majority of all CFI funding has been internal,
including the considerable growth of CFI's investments.
Its only substantial outside funding was an early
$100,000 contribution from Prudential Insurance Company
of America. It is the Foundation's expectation to
continue its mission in perpetuity through investment
growth as well as anticipated future bequests. Once
it reaches its endowment goal of $1 billion, it expects
to establish a grant-making entity, which will then
be in position to consider serious philanthropic investments
within the commonwealth of Massachusetts.
On
March 31, 2002, the formerly for-profit New Horizons
at Madonna Hall continuing care retirement community
in Marlborough, Massachusetts became CFI's second
operating entity. The entire debt-free community was
donated to the Foundation by Bill and Joyce Cummings,
who founded it eight years earlier. This sister facility
currently serves more than 400 seniors in one of New
England's largest and finest comprehensive retirement
communities. Located just off U.S. Route 20 in Marlborough,
Massachusetts, NHM offers a wide array of independent
and assisted living and dementia services.
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Between
1996 and 2009, the Foundation provided several million
dollars in scholarship aid to hundreds of local students,
most of them honoring the Foundation's founding trustee,
and late president of Cummings Properties, James L.
McKeown. Most of these scholarships were awarded following
rigorous competitions conducted by individual high
school authorities. Other aid has been given through
various community scholarship associations, as well
as direct scholarship aid through several Massachusetts
colleges.
Over
many years now, the Foundation has had especially
substantial interest in numerous local organizations,
including Woburn Boys and Girls Club, Winchester Community
Music School, Supportive Living, Inc., North Suburban
YMCA, Winchester Hospital, Beverly Hospital, VNA Hospice
Care of Woburn, and The Giving Camp. In 2004, it contributed
$1 million to the Beverly, YMCA for the construction
of its new Teen Center. This brand new building was
dedicated in October of that year in memory of the
late executive vice president of Cummings Properties,
Douglas Stephens.
Cummings
School of Veterinary Medicine
at Tufts University
After
earlier endowing the Cummings Family Chair in Business
Entrepreneurship at Tufts University, CFI entered
a very unique relationship with the University in
2002 through CFI's newest operating subsidiary, Veterinary
School at Tufts, LLC (VST). Through VST, the Foundation
has committed a minimum of $50 million in financial
assistance to what is now the very prestigious Cummings
School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University.
The first veterinarians to enter the School after
its renaming, graduated in 2009.
Very
shortly following Cummings Foundation's commitment
in 2004, the University received a far larger grant
from the Omidyar Foundation. In a stunning move, two
other Tufts graduates, Pam and Pierre Omidyar, of
eBay fame, contributed more than $100 million to the
University in 2005. Through the Tufts University endowment
fund, the Omidyar gift will support entrepreneurship
in the form of microfinancial entrepreneurial investments
in developing nations.
The
thrust of the Omidyar gift, in support of worldwide
entrepreneurship, was of great interest and was particularly
pleasing to Cummings Foundation in view of its own
efforts to nudge the University in the same direction
with the Cummings Family Chair in Entrepreneurship.
Tufts
President Lawrence Bacow and Cummings School's dean,
Dr. Deborah Kochevar, serve on the Foundation board,
while half of the Overseers of Cummings School of
Veterinary Medicine are officially designated by Cummings
Foundation. Other "outside" members of the
Foundation's Board include Supreme Court Justice Margot
Botsford, Richard Ockerbloom, retired president of
the Boston Globe; former state representatives Carol
Donovan and Paul Casey; Michael Pascavage, executive
VP of Skanska, USA; Dr. Joseph Abate; and Professor
Jason Z. Morris of Fordham University.
Although
it is currently not active, the Foundation's fourth
operating entity, Commonwealth Realty Foundation,
LLC (CRF), is specifically organized to accept gifts
of residential or commercial real estate. In this
regard CRF primarily accepts donations of developed
or undeveloped land either in cooperation with area
hospitals and colleges, or other not-for-profit entities.
It has also received real estate, the proceeds of
which have been intended to benefit solely Cummings
Foundation.
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Directly
or otherwise, William S. and Joyce M. Cummings of
Winchester, provided the Foundation's financial base.
Joyce is a former hospital dietitian who graduated
from the University of Alabama and completed her dietetic
internship at Massachusetts General Hospital. Among
other activities, she has been a director of VNA Hospice
Care, Inc. and Winchester Community Music School,
and president of ENKA Society of Winchester, as well
as co-chair of Winchester Friends of VNA Hospice Care,
Inc. She is also a former trustee of Massachusetts
Eye and Ear Infirmary, and chaired the women's golf
program at Winchester Country Club.
Bill
founded Cummings Properties, LLC (CPL) and several
dozen other Massachusetts commercial real estate firms,
and is involved in numerous community activities.
He is a 1958 graduate and a trustee emeritus of Tufts
University, and was also an overseer of Tufts Medical
School.
He
has also served as an elected member and as chairman
of the Winchester Planning Board, and as a director
of Winchester Country Club, Winchester Hospital and
Tanners National Bank. He is president of not-for-profit
New Horizons at Choate and the much larger New Horizons
at Marlborough retirement communities, and was founding
publisher of three community newspapers. Bill is also
president of Cummings Foundation, Inc., and in 2006
received an honorary Doctorate from Tufts University.
From
its beginnings in 1969 in Woburn, Massachusetts, CPL
has evolved into one of Boston's most prominent, full
service commercial real estate development firms.
CPL and Cummings Realty, LLC currently operate nearly
10 million square feet of Massachusetts office space
in 10 metropolitan Boston communities. It is one of
the most financially solid real estate firms in the
country, employing more than 300 regular full time
staff.
Although
CFI does not currently consider grant applications,
it anticipates that it will create a Massachusetts
grant-making arm within the next few years. Its immediate
$1 billion endowment objective suffered a major setback
in 2008, but the Foundation remains hopeful of reaching
that level no later than 2013. Its net assets as of
April 2009 are about $700 million, which consist primarily
of debt-free commercial real estate donated by the
Cummings family.
