WOBURN, July 9, 2013 – The Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange (MARE), led by Sharon residents Lisa Funaro and Janice Halpern, has been selected as one of the 100 local nonprofits to receive grants of $100,000 each through Cummings Foundation’s new $100K for 100 program. The Boston-based organization was chosen from more than 370 applicants during a competitive review process by the Foundation.
More than 250 people, including staff and board members from nearly all 100 recipient organizations, gathered at the Foundation’s first annual Grantee Reception on June 19 at TradeCenter 128 in Woburn. The elated attendees accepted their official award letters, posed for photos with Foundation representatives, networked with their peers, and celebrated the $10 million infusion of funding into greater Boston’s nonprofit sector.
Find out what's happening in Sharonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
“We are thrilled to receive Cummings Foundation’s grant, which provides critical funding for our work to find adoptive homes for children in state foster care,” said Lisa Funaro, MARE’s executive director. “The award brings the added benefit of publicity for the hundreds of local children and teens who are waiting for something most of us take for granted - a loving ‘forever family’ where they know they belong.”
Find out what's happening in Sharonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
All of the selected charities serve local communities, with 50 percent of the grants being awarded in Middlesex County, 30 percent in Suffolk County (including Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, and Roxbury), and 20 percent in Essex County. Joel Swets, the Foundation’s executive director, noted that the narrow geographic priority area reflects a desire to give back in the areas where the grant funds were derived.
Swets explained, “As the primary beneficiary of commercial real estate firm Cummings Properties, the Foundation is very committed to the 10 communities in which the firm manages buildings, as well as the hometowns of its 350 staff members. We are delighted to support the Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange in its admirable efforts to match adoptive parents with children and teens in need of a home.”
The diverse group of grant recipients represents a wide variety of causes, including underserved populations, education, healthcare, homelessness, and social justice. Many of the grants will be paid over two to five years.
About the Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange
The Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange was founded in 1957 to find permanent adoptive homes for children in foster care, including sibling groups and children traditionally harder to match with adoptive families. It does this by recruiting, counseling, supporting, and advocating for families throughout the adoption process while targeting recruitment efforts to find potential parents for specific waiting children. So far, MARE has helped more than 6,000 children leave foster care for adoptive homes. Visit www.MAREinc.org or call 617-54-ADOPT (617-542-3678) to learn more.
About Cummings Foundation
Woburn-based Cummings Foundation, Inc. was established in 1986 by Joyce and Bill Cummings of Winchester, Mass. With assets exceeding $1 billion, it is one of the very largest grant-making foundations in New England. The Foundation directly operates its own charitable subsidiaries, including two New Horizons senior communities in Marlborough and Woburn. Its largest single grant to date was $50 million to Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in North Grafton, Mass. Additional information is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.