Cummings Foundation announces $900,000 in Beverly grants

Nine Beverly organizations have received grants of $100,000 each from Cummings Foundation through its new $100K for 100 program. Along with 91 other greater Boston nonprofits, they were selected from more than 370 applicants during a competitive review process.

The Beverly-based grant recipients are: Beverly Bootstraps, Beverly Children’s Learning Center, Beverly Education Foundation, Beverly Hospital, Children’s Center for Communication/Beverly School for Deaf, Change is Simple, North Shore Community Mediation Center, North Shore InnoVentures, and North Shore Education Consortium.

Cynthia McClorey, executive director of the North Shore Community Mediation Center, said, “We are honored to have been selected to receive the Cummings Foundation $100,000 grant award. The funding will have a critical impact on the mediation services and violence prevention work we are able to provide local residents, communities, organizations and schools.”

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.

“The Cummings Foundation grant is a huge opportunity for Change is Simple and will allow us to deliver vital environmental education to every third, fourth, and fifth grader in both Beverly and Salem over the next two years,” said Executive Director Lauren Belmonte. “We are honored to have our mission recognized and supported by Cummings Foundation and are very excited to begin work on this project.”

All of the selected charities serve local communities, with 50 percent of the grants being awarded in Middlesex County, 30 percent in Suffolk (including Jamaica Plain, Dorchester, and Roxbury), and 20 percent in Essex County. Joel Swets, Cummings Foundation’s executive director and a Winchester resident, 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 these nine very worthy nonprofits in their admirable work in Beverly and surrounding communities.”

Approximately 70 of Cummings Properties’ employees are based at the massive Cummings Center office and technology park in Beverly.

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 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. The Foundation’s 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.