Marlborough-Based Boys & Girls Club Gets $300K Grant

MARLBOROUGH, MA — Boys & Girls Clubs of MetroWest is one of the local nonprofits sharing in Cummings Foundation’s $25 million grant program in 2019. The Marlborough-based organization has been awarded a $300,000 Sustaining Grant, to be disbursed over 10 years. Chris Duane, President of the Boys & Girls Clubs of MetroWest, and Laura May, Director of Resource Development at the Boys & Girls Clubs of MetroWest, represented the nonprofit at a May 2 awards night at TradeCenter 128 in Woburn.

Boys & Girls Clubs of MetroWest provides social, educational, physical and cultural programming for boys and girls in the MetroWest area. The intent of these programs is to enhance the development of children and to prepare young adults to be responsible and productive members of the community. “We are incredibly grateful to receive a Sustaining Grant from the Cummings Foundation. This support is crucial in helping our organization continue to provide quality services to youth in the MetroWest region,” said Chris Duane, President of the Boys & Girls Clubs of MetroWest.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of MetroWest will use funding from Cummings Foundation to support the after school program at its Marlborough Clubhouse, which serves over 200 youth each day.
The Sustaining Grants initiative builds on Cummings Foundation’s $100k for 100 program. First offered in 2012, $100k for 100 annual awards $10 million through multi-year grants of $100,000 each to 100 nonprofits that are based in and primarily serve Essex, Middlesex and Suffolk counties. Grant recipients that received their final grant disbursements in 2018 were automatically considered for $15 million in Sustaining Grants.

“We introduced Sustaining Grants to help alleviate the constant burden of fundraising so nonprofit professionals can spend more of their limited time and resourced on actually providing services,” said Christina Berthelsen, grants manager at Cummings Foundation.

Cummings Foundation has awarded nearly $250 million to date in Greater Boston alone. Funds are generated through commercial properties that are owned by, and operated for the sole benefit of, Cummings Foundation. All of its buildings are managed pro bono by Woburn commercial real estate firm Cummings Properties.

Sustaining Grants winners were selected primarily by a 33-member volunteer committee, which included former state legislators, CEOs of local companies, and a retired justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Among many others. Committee members met with each nonprofit twice to learn how the $100k for 100 funds helped to advance its mission, and how it might put a 10-year grant to use.