Cummings Grant Recipients

Acre Family Child Care

A $500,000 NExT Grant in 2022 toward the purchase of a building to accommodate the continued and dramatic expansion of its career-building programming.

Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village

A $500,000 grant in 2018 to help this Rwandan school encourage a genuine love for science among its students and bring them the latest in science and technology education.

Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology

A $12.5 million grant in 2021 to support the affordable urban nonprofit college’s continued operation of hands-on educational programs designed to prepare students for a successful entry to the workforce.

Boston Museum of Science

A $2.5 million grant in 2014 to fund a major renovation to the lobby of this world-class educational institution.

Boston Visiting Nurses Hospice Care

A multi-year $1 million grant in 2014 acknowledging a decades-long ongoing relationship with this fine Woburn organization providing end-of-life care at home.

Catholic Charities of Boston

A multi-year $1 million grant in 2015 to double its English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programming for adults in Salem and Lynn who speak little or no English.

City of Beverly

A gift of land valued at $1.3 million in 1998 for the James L. McKeown School.

A subsequent $2 million land gift to the city allowed it to erect a new public safety headquarters. Completed in 2021, the more than 30,000-square-foot building provides a central location for Beverly Police Department, which had been housed in multiple locations throughout the city. The upgraded facility features advanced technology, including energy-efficient geothermal heating and cooling and a firearm simulator for use-of-force and de-escalation trainings.

City of Boston

Funding totaling $2 million as of 2025, with a proposed $5 million investment over five years, to support community engagement and violence prevention initiatives toward Boston’s ongoing efforts to remain the country’s safest major city.

City of Woburn

A $150,000 in-kind donation in 2003 of a brick comfort station at Horn Pond, a 700-acre recreation area where the public can enjoy nature walks, photography, biking, and fishing.

CommonWealth Kitchen

Funding totaling $2 million in 2022—through a multi-year $1 million grant as well as a $1 million challenge grant matching new contributions received through August 2022—to support the organization’s mission to promote a more just food economy by helping mainly people of color and women entrepreneurs launch food-based businesses.

Communitas

A 2017 grant of $1 million to be paid over 10 years in support of its efforts to serve and advocate for people with developmental limitations.

Cummings/Hillel Genocide Studies

A multi-year $1 million grant in 2014 to fund speakers, student travel, and other programs at Tufts University related to genocide and the Holocaust.

Cummings School of Architecture

A $20 million commitment in 2022 to Roger Williams University to support Cummings Institute for Real Estate, an interdisciplinary, experiential course of study centered within Cummings School of Architecture.

Cummings School of Nursing and Health Sciences

A $20 million commitment in 2021 to Endicott College to expand and enhance its nursing, health sciences, and sport sciences offerings, which are vital to global health. The commitment supported the construction of a new modern building with both traditional classrooms and interactive labs.

Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine

A $50 million commitment in 2005 to support Tufts University's efforts to provide an exceptional education, first-rate clinical services, and innovative research that benefits both animal and human health. Total commitments under this grant have been increased to about $80 million.

Freedom House Inc

A $500,000 NExT Grant in 2022 to support Vision 2025, an initiative to amplify the reach and impact of the PUSH (Preparing Urban Students for Success in Higher Education) program.

Gates Philanthropy Partners

Funding totaling $2 million as of 2025 to buy and deliver polio vaccines through the Polio Eradication Fund. The Fund, established by Bill Gates in 2013, supports vaccine procurement and campaigns in the hardest to reach communities.

International Institute of New England

A $200,000 gift in 2021 to aid its Afghan Evacuee Support Initiative, a post-war humanitarian effort delivering intensive case management services to hundreds of our Afghani allies being resettled in Massachusetts.

James L. McKeown Boys & Girls Club

A $3 million grant in 2014 to celebrate the 50th Anniversary and rebuilding of the Club. The Club was renamed in honor of Cummings Properties’ late president, James L. McKeown, who in 1991 was the first former youth member of the Boys and Girls Club to be elected its president.

Lahey Health

A multi-year $1 million grant in 2018 to increase the integration of behavioral health professionals into Lahey Health primary care practices and Lahey Health Behavioral Services’ Student Assistance Program, which provides school-based support and services.

Lawrence CommunityWorks

A $500,000 NExT Grant in 2022 to the DyeWorks Project, to redevelop a historic mill district building into a full-service neighborhood center that addresses multiple longstanding community needs.

McKeown School of Education

A $10 million contribution in 2022 to Salem State University to fund expanded programming for future educators, including support for workforce development, teacher retention, and justice-focused training initiatives.

Merrimack Valley Food Bank

A $1 million NExT Grant in 2022 toward a new building project to increase and sustain its capacity to meet landmark demand in the Commonwealth for access to fresh, nutritious food.

Partners In Health

A $15 million grant helped fund the planning and creation of University of Global Health Equity, a major new international school of health sciences located in Rwanda. An additional $10 million challenge grant in 2019 resulted in a total of $21 million in new funds for the University.

Paul Farmer Collaborative

A combined $50 million in 2022 to Harvard Medical School and University of Global Health Equity (via Partners In Health) formalized an inter-institutional alliance first established by late global health expert and advocate Dr. Paul Farmer.
A concurrent $2 million gift funded the construction of new housing for visiting faculty on UGHE’s rural campus in Rwanda.

Pine Street Inn

A $500,000 grant to support the Boston's Way Home Fund, advancing the city of Boston's far-reaching plan to end chronic and veteran homelessness through the creation of 200 new units of permanent supportive housing.

Plummer Youth Promise

A $1 million NExT Grant in 2022 toward a project to create an energy-efficient residential facility with the capacity to accommodate youths in single-occupancy rooms with a shared dining space.

Regis College
A $2 million gift made in 2024 to establish the Carol A. Donovan Endowed Dean of Nursing at the university and to provide funding for Regis to open a healthcare clinic in Woburn.

Rwanda Girls Initiative

A $500,000 grant in 2018 to support Gashora Girls Academy of Science and Technology in its mission to help girls advance in STEM-related fields.

Salem State University Holocaust Center

A 2014 grant of $1 million to support the programs offered through the University's Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

Sportsmen's Tennis and Enrichment Center

A $1 million NExT Grant in 2022 toward an ongoing capital campaign to expand its facilities and programming for disadvantaged youths and families.

Supportive Living, Inc.

A $1.2 million grant of land in 1995 for the construction of its first group home for those affected by traumatic brain injuries. A subsequent $1 million grant provides 10 years of supplemental annual support.

Tufts University

A gift of $1.5 million in 1999 to endow the Cummings Family Chair in Entrepreneurship and Business Economics, and to ensure that subjects such as Entrepreneurship and Business Law will be offered at Tufts in perpetuity.

In 2005, Cummings Foundation finalized a long-term collaboration with Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, providing support and financial resources to sustain the graduate school’s global reputation for excellence. The partnership included a $50 million commitment from the Foundation, pledged at the start of the relationship in 2002. To date, Cummings Foundation has contributed more than $80 million in financial assistance to the prestigious school.

An additional major commitment in 2015 to fund the design and construction of Joyce Cummings Center, a cutting-edge 100,000-square-foot multidisciplinary center housing several STEM-related academic programs and abutting a newly constructed MBTA station on College Avenue.

A $3.15 million gift made in 2022 to endow the Cummings Foundation One Health Professorship.

In 2023, a $2.3 million scholarship program was established to cover the full cost of four-year attendance at Tufts University for five graduates of Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village (ASYV) in Rwanda. Known as Anne Heyman Scholars, one ASYV graduate will receive this award each year for five years.

A $2 million gift made in 2024 to endow the John McCann Professorship in Music in the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University.

UMass Medical School

A $200,000 grant in 2021 to help launch the Vaccine Corps program, which uses college student volunteers to expedite the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

A gift of $240,000 supported 10 Cummings Foundation Fellowships at the Museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies. The Cummings Fellowship program enabled promising scholars from the United States and abroad to collaborate, share ideas, and conduct significant and ground-breaking research to help advance the field of Holocaust studies.

United Way of Massachusetts Bay
A $1 million grant in 2025 to support the United Response Fund, helping community-based organizations and local food pantries respond to disruptions in SNAP benefits and to provide other basic-needs assistance.

Urban Farming Institute

A $500,000 NExT Grant in 2022 toward the purchase of an historic Boston farm to allow for expanded programming and greater capacity to meet a significant local need for urban agriculture.

Village Health Works

A $2 million grant in 2019 toward construction of the Kigutu Hospital and Women's Health Pavilion, which will improv the quality of life of hundreds of thousands of patients.

Winchester Hospital Foundation

A $500,000 grant in 2014 to be paid over three years, mostly in connection with the Hospital's new Center for Cancer Care.
An additional major commitment of $2.5 million in 2024, paid over five years, will support renovating the Labor and Delivery Unit named after Dr. Peter Rotolo, who served as an obstetrician and gynecologist at the hospital for 40 years. The gift also honors Dr. Jose Angeles, a talented and beloved ENT physician.

Winchester Jenks Senior Center

A 2015 matching grant of up to $400,000 to rebuild Winchester's Jenks Center, the only privately built and operated nonprofit senior center in Massachusetts. The newly renovated Jenks Center will better meet the needs of seniors and have an expanded role as a community center for all.

Network for Social Justice

A grant of $1 million in 2014 to expand its programming, which promotes understanding and tolerance in Winchester and directly abutting communities.

Winchester Music School

A $500,000 gift in 1997 was the “lead” donation to jumpstart a $3.5 million fundraising campaign to purchase and restore the three-acre property at 407 Highland Avenue, formerly the estate home of actor/comedian Frank Fontaine.

YMCA of the North Shore

A $1 million grant in 2004 to fund the creation of the YMCA's Douglas Stephens Teen Center in Beverly, named in memory of a late trustee of Cummings Foundation and longtime executive vice president of Cummings Properties.