Massachusetts Alliance for Early College awarded $225,000 Cummings Foundation Grant

June 12, 2023 – The Massachusetts Alliance for Early College (MA4EC) is one of 150 nonprofits that will share in $30 million worth of awards through Cummings Foundation’s major annual grants program. The Massachusetts organization was selected from a total of 630 applicants during a competitive review process. It will receive $225,000 over three years.

These grant funds will support MA4EC’s efforts to support the Massachusetts Early College Initiative through a blend of policy, community engagement, innovation, and capacity building. “We are thrilled to be a recipient of Cummings’ $30 Million Grant Program,” said Erika Giampietro, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Alliance for Early College. “We are honored by this vote of confidence in the importance of equity in education and career outcomes, and buoyed by this investment in our ability to support the expansion of high-quality Early College programs across the Commonwealth for years to come.”

The Cummings $30 Million Grant Program primarily supports Massachusetts nonprofits that are based in and serve Middlesex, Essex, and Suffolk counties.

“The way the local nonprofit sector perseveres, steps up, and pivots to meet the shifting needs of the community is most impressive,” said Cummings Foundation Executive Director Joyce Vyriotes. “We are incredibly grateful for these tireless efforts to support people in the community and to increase equity and access to opportunities.”

The majority of the grant decisions were made by about 90 volunteers. They worked across a variety of committees to review and discuss the proposals and then, together, determine which requests would be funded. Among these community volunteers were business and nonprofit leaders, mayors, college presidents, and experts in areas such as finance and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion). “It would not be possible for the Foundation to hire the diversity and depth of expertise and insights that our volunteers bring to the process,” said Vyriotes. “We so appreciate the substantial time and thought they dedicated toward ensuring that our democratized version of philanthropy results in equitable outcomes that will really move the needle on important issues in local communities.”

This year’s grant recipients represent a wide variety of causes, including housing and food insecurity, workforce development, immigrant services, social justice, education, and mental health services. The nonprofits are spread across 46 different cities and towns.

Cummings Foundation has now awarded $480 million to greater Boston nonprofits. The complete list of this year’s 150 grant winners, plus nearly 1,500 previous recipients, is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.

About the Massachusetts Alliance for Early College
The Massachusetts Alliance for Early College (MA4EC) is a coalition of more than 100 community-based organizations, businesses, philanthropists, school districts, and higher education institutions supportive of a scaled, robust, and high-impact Early College initiative in Massachusetts to improve college degree attainment, particularly for low-income, Black, and Latino students. The Alliance supports the field through a blend of policy, community engagement, innovation, and capacity-building.

About Cummings Foundation
Woburn-based Cummings Foundation, Inc. was established in 1986 by Joyce and Bill Cummings of Winchester, MA and has grown to be one of the largest private foundations in New England. The Foundation directly operates its own charitable subsidiaries, including New Horizons retirement communities, in Marlborough and Woburn, and Cummings Health Sciences, LLC. Additional information is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.