Cummings Foundation Seeks Nonprofits For Grant Program Support

SALEM, MA — The Cummings Foundation is looking for a few good nonprofits to benefit from its $25 million grant program.

The program will support 140 nonprofits in 2021 based in and primarily serving Essex, Middlesex and Suffolk counties.

The Woburn-based Cummings Foundation owns Cummings Properties, including 40 Shattuck Road in Andover and Cummings Center and Dunham Ridge in Beverly, with 100 percent of all rental profits supporting local charities.

"Although it's a bit unusual for such a substantial funding program to focus on a relatively small geographic area, the Cummings organization is dedicated to supporting the communities where its funds were derived and where its staff and leasing clients live," said Joyce Vyriotes, deputy director of Cummings Foundation.

The Cummings $25 Million Grant Program will award 100 nonprofits $100,000 each, mostly payable over two to five years. Forty additional organizations, all of which have previously received a Cummings grant, will be awarded 10-year funding in the amount of $200,000 to $500,000 each.

Letters of Inquiry will be accepted until Sept. 10. During the most recent grant cycle, the Foundation received 590 requests for the 140 awards.

The winners will be announced in May 2022 following a comprehensive nine-month process involving more than 70 volunteers and four different review stages.

"Volunteers actually select most of the grant winners each year," Vyriotes said. "We are so grateful that the Foundation's very small staff can draw on the varied perspectives and expertise of these local community leaders who generously give of their time to make these incredibly difficult funding decisions."

The initiative has awarded more than $300 million to Greater Boston nonprofits.

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)