Cummings $35 Million Grant Program

Local Grant Program

Enjoy this inspiring highlight reel from Cummings Foundation’s 2025 Grant Winner Celebration, held at TradeCenter 128 in Woburn.

Cummings Foundation has awarded more than $650 million to date in greater Boston. In 2027, it will grant an additional $35 million. These funds will be shared by 150 local-area nonprofits and will be awarded as multi-year grants, to be paid over either three or 10 years.

Before beginning a proposal, please carefully review the information below. Applicants are also encouraged to read the comprehensive FAQ page.

On This Page

(Click to jump to each section)

• How to Apply / Q&A Sessions
• 2026-2027 Application Process and Timeline
• Grant Selection Process
• Annual Installment Amounts & Application Types
• Geographic Funding Areas
• Priority Funding Causes
• Eligibility
• Enhancements for the 2027 Grant Cycle
• Meeting Requests

2026-2027 Application Process and Timeline

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*Important notices about letters of inquiry and applications are sent via email. To decrease the likelihood of missing such emails, applicants are encouraged to check their spam folders regularly for emails from administrator@grantinterface.com or an @cummings.com address.

Annual Installment Amounts & Application Types

Requested amounts for annual installments may range from a minimum of $10,000 to a maximum of $100,000.* (If you are unsure how much to request, review this FAQ.) 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. Nearly all grants awarded through this program will be treated as unrestricted general operating support. (See the Enhancements for the 2027 Grant Cycle section below for more details.)

The Foundation encourages its grantees to have diversified funding sources and prefers that its funding not represent an outsized percentage of an organization’s budget. A general guide (more than a hard rule) is that the installment should not exceed 20 percent of an organization’s average annual revenue for the past three years.

*Although an organization’s preference is taken into consideration, the Foundation may, and often will, award a grant with a different annual installment.

Geographic Funding Areas

The Cummings $35 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.

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

Organizations that are based and provide their services in the Foundation’s geographic priority area, but serve people whose primary residences fall outside it are eligible to apply (e.g., nonprofits that provide transportation or housing for individuals receiving medical care in Boston, and programs that bring students from other regions to greater Boston for educational opportunities).

Special consideration is given to nonprofits based in the 12 cities and towns where the Cummings organization operates commercial real estate.

Priority Funding Causes

The Cummings $35 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.)

This grant program is not currently considering requests related to the causes below, although we recognize their value and importance.

• Athletics
• The arts (including dance, music, and theater)
• Culture
• The preservation of land or historic buildings
• Animal welfare (The Foundation supports animals in a significant way through the ongoing fulfillment of a more than $100 million commitment to Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University.)

Eligibility

The Cummings $35 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
• Very large organizations already supported by robust endowments
• Organizations that seek to infringe on civil liberties or personal freedoms
• Organizations that treat people unfairly based on protected characteristics
• Primary and secondary schools that charge tuition, including those that provide financial aid
• 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 and board of directors separate from that of the larger entity
• Municipalities (with the exception of public schools), except for the 12 communities in which the Cummings organization operates commercial properties

Prior grant recipients are eligible to submit an LOI for an additional grant if:

• The organization meets the current eligibility requirements
• All previous Cummings Foundation (or other Cummings affiliate) grants to that organization have been fully disbursed
• In the case of recipients of 10-year grants, at least one year has passed since the disbursement of the final grant installment
• All requirements stipulated in the prior grant agreement (including the completion of annual impact reports* and the ongoing presence of an active reciprocal link to Cummings Foundation's website) have been fulfilled by the recipient organization

*Organizations that have received a three-year Cummings grant may re-apply during their final year of funding in advance of submitting the final impact report. Such an organization will be removed from consideration, however, if the report is not completed by the February 28 deadline.

**In any grant cycle, the list of award recipients may include one or more organizations that do not strictly adhere to all of these priorities and eligibility guidelines. Such exceptions may be made in recognition of a particular relationship to or with the Foundation.

Enhancements for the 2027 Grant Cycle

Applicants should note two significant changes to this grant program, both informed by feedback from nonprofits and intended to best support grantee partners.

Funding expanded to $35 million

Cummings Foundation increased its annual local grant program from $30 million to $35 million beginning with the 2026 awards, and this expanded funding level will continue in future grant cycles.
This expansion reflects rising operating costs, growing community needs, reductions in government funding, and the Foundation’s desire to support applicants at their requested funding level whenever possible.

Most grants will be awarded as general operating support

Nearly all grants awarded through this program will be treated as unrestricted general operating support. This approach gives nonprofits flexibility to direct Cummings funds toward their most important needs and priorities.

General operating support may be used for a wide range of mission-related expenses, including: staffing, administration, technology, rent/facilities, supplies, programs/services, other core operating needs. All grant funds must be used exclusively for charitable purposes consistent with IRS rules/regulations.

Applicants should use the proposal to make the strongest possible case for how Cummings funding would strengthen their organization's overall mission, impact, and capacity to serve the community. While applicants are welcome to reference specific programs, services, or initiatives as examples to illustrate their work, proposals should not be framed as funding requests for  a particular project or program.

Exceptions

While most grants will be awarded as general operating support, grants to certain types of organizations will remain designated for a specific eligible purpose, department, program, or project. This includes:

• Faith-based organizations: Restricted to non-religious activities that are open to all-comers (e.g., food pantries, childcare programs).
• Municipalities and public schools: Restricted to the specific department or school that applied, rather than flowing into a general municipal budget.
• Organizations with fiscal sponsors: Restricted to support the sponsored project rather than the sponsoring organization.
• Large, multi-departmental organizations (such as universities and hospitals): Restricted to the specific department that applied, rather than flowing into a general organizational budget.

Applicants in one of these exception categories will be asked in the proposal to describe the activities, department, school, sponsored project, or unit that would receive funding.

Meeting Requests

Members of the volunteer selection committees who evaluate applications and select the majority of grant winners may independently and at their own discretion request more information from specific applicants or conduct site visits. Given the very small size of Cummings Foundation's staff and the very large number of applicants, Foundation staff members do not typically conduct site visits or hold informational or relationship-building meetings with grant applicants.

Staff members are readily available, however, to provide answers not found on this website. If you have a question, please call one of the phone numbers below at your convenience. The Foundation team is typically easy to reach, and they find it more efficient to field calls as they come rather than scheduling them in advance.

Cummings Foundation reserves the right to modify, add to, amend, or eliminate any of its eligibility requirements, priority funding areas, or policies at any time, with or without notice.

Cummings Foundation, Inc. (CFI) has a separate grant-making entity, Cummings Foundation Grants, Inc. Approved by the Internal Revenue Service effective February 1, 2011 and August 24, 2012, it is primarily funded by CFI. These entities share some common trustees, as well as office space at 200 West Cummings Park, Woburn, MA 01801.