Priority Investments
The Foundation invests the majority of its resources in proven or promising organizations and initiatives that seek to deepen their impact, or bring their work to scale, and are significantly aligned with a principal strategy listed in the Foundation's Strategic Framework.

While the Foundation focuses most of its competitive grantmaking on organizations that are highly aligned with these strategies, the Foundation is also interested in innovative approaches to emerging or existing community issues and makes targeted and more modest investments in such efforts through Special Opportunity Grants.

COMPETITIVE GRANTS

Three principal types of grants are considered through the Foundation’s competitive grants process:

General Operating Support Grants
The majority of the Boston Foundation’s competitive grants are made to support the core operations of organizations with missions and activities that are highly aligned with the Foundation’s priority strategies. The Foundation and nonprofit recipients of General Operating Support Grants work and learn together as strategic partners to achieve better, measurable outcomes.

Operating support grants are generally up to $150,000 or 10-15% of an organization’s operating budget, whichever is lower, and may be awarded for up to five years. Applicants for these multi-year grants must have a current strategic or business plan that clearly articulates the organization’s goals and presents a clear plan for achieving results.

Project Support Grants
The Foundation makes grants to support specific projects or programs that are highly aligned with the Foundation’s priority strategies. This includes programs that meet community needs as well as capacity building activities that will enhance the agency’s ability to meet its mission, increase its scale or manage and deliver services more effectively. Or, project grants may support programs that are embedded within multi-service organizations or larger institutions, such as hospitals or universities that, in their entirety, may not be completely aligned with the Foundation’s objectives and strategies.

Project Support Grants vary in size and duration as well as the percentage of project costs covered, but in general range from $25,000 to $100,000 to be applied to project budgets that include an appropriate amount of overhead. Project Support grants are most often one-year awards, but in certain cases may be awarded as multi-year grants.

Special Opportunity Grants
The Foundation provides an open door to new ideas for tackling long-standing or emerging problems in our community that may or may not be directly aligned with our priority strategies. The Foundation allocates a limited amount of funding each year to provide seed funding or capacity building support for such efforts. Special Opportunity Grants may support either the general operations of the applicant organization or a specific project and are typically one-year investments in the $15,000 to $50,000 range.

COMPETITIVE GRANTS KEY CRITERIA

The Boston Foundation invests substantial resources to help proven or promising nonprofits that share its core values and are highly aligned with its priority strategies to deepen their impact or bring their work to scale. To maximize the impact and effectiveness of its investments, the Foundation puts significant weight on the following criteria:

• High-Need People and Places: The Foundation engages in policy, research, grantmaking and other efforts to positively affect the Greater Boston region and all of its residents. However, with its limited competitive grantmaking resources, the Foundation has a particular focus on efforts that unlock economic and educational opportunity for underserved residents and neighborhoods, especially within the City of Boston. When a particular strategy specifies Boston, it means that the Foundation focuses its resources within the City of Boston. When an objective refers to Greater Boston, then funding may be directed to populations and activities within any of the cities and towns with the Foundation’s funding area.

• Collaboration: Complex, long-standing problems require creative, multi-disciplinary approaches that are often beyond the capacity of a single organization. The Foundation is most interested in supporting organizations with a track record of collaboration and collaborative groups of agencies working together to address significant community needs. Nonprofits that are part of a collaborative effort supported by the Foundation may also seek funding for their individual operations or projects.

• Financial and Programmatic Capacity: Successful applicants will show evidence that they are stable, have a solid financial and program management team, a strong balance sheet and program plans that give the Foundation confidence that their work will be sustained beyond the Foundation’s investment.

• Leadership: Successful applicants will have strong board and executive leadership that are collaborative and knowledgeable about the community and the field in which they operate.

• Measurable Results: The Foundation places a high priority on organizations that are able to clearly articulate organizational goals, present a clear plan for achieving results, and track outcomes and impact on the people and communities served. 

THE COMPETITIVE GRANTS PROCESS

All competitive grants—General Operating Support Grants, Project Support Grants and Special Opportunity Grants—follow the same application process.

1. Letter of Inquiry: The application process for General Operating and Project Support Grants begins with the submission of an online Letter of Inquiry (LOI), which is accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis. As part of the process of reviewing an LOI, a Foundation staff member may request a telephone conversation, meeting or site visit. Staff will determine whether or not the Foundation will request a full application within eight weeks after submission of an LOI.
2. Full Grant Application: Full applications are accepted only from organizations that are invited to apply after a review of their LOI. Organizations that are invited to submit a full proposal will be assigned a program officer who will work with the applicant to build its request file. Please note that although the required materials for competitive grants are similar, requests for operating support will not be considered without a current strategic or business plan that articulates the organization’s goals and intended outcomes and outlines a plan for achieving them.
3. Review and Evaluation: As part of a comprehensive due diligence process, the assigned program officer – often joined by additional Foundation staff – will conduct a site visit and may also contact board members, clients, the leadership of collaborating or similar organizations, and other funders to become better acquainted with the organization.
4. Grant Decisions: The Foundation’s Board of Directors, which meets quarterly – in March, June, September and December – makes grant decisions based on staff review, research and recommendations. Once your request file is complete, staff members will strive to present their recommendation to the Board at its next meeting. Most applications that are complete eight weeks in advance of the scheduled meeting will be presented at that time. Foundation staff will notify the applicant of the Board’s decision and up to one year of the grant award will be paid shortly after each meeting.
5. Annual Review: Funded organizations report annually on progress toward the goals and outcomes established in collaboration with their program offer before subsequent payments on multi-year grants are released.

OTHER GRANTS PROGRAMS

Initiative Grants
A significant amount of the Foundation’s grants funds are distributed through initiatives, which seek to address a well-defined issue or need. These funds are often distributed through competitive Requests for Proposals (RFPs). Click here for a complete list of current initiatives; please note that not all initiatives are open to application.

Vision Fund Grants
The Foundation makes Vision Fund Grants to support activities and organizations that advance the Foundation’s mission and keep the Foundation informed of the work of a broad range of organizations, especially those that may not currently be competitive for larger grants. These grants of up to $7,500 are awarded to organizations for special projects, programs and activities or for work that builds the management capacity of the applicant nonprofit. Organizations that are currently receiving Foundation support through the competitive or initiative funding process are generally not eligible for Vision Fund Grants. Click here for details on the application process and online form.

Sponsorships
Each year, the Boston Foundation devotes some of its resources to supporting special events mounted by nonprofit organizations, such as luncheons, dinners or other fundraising opportunities. These sponsorships are another way for the Foundation to support nonprofit organizations of all sizes in Greater Boston and for foundation staff to take part in community events. All Greater Boston area nonprofit organizations are eligible to submit sponsorship requests.

Out of the Blue Grants
The Boston Foundation’s Board of Directors awards several Out of the Blue Grants to exemplary nonprofits each year. These unrestricted one-time grants of $100,000 recognize exemplary organizations that have an impressive history of accomplishment, have demonstrated effective, collaborative community leadership and are directed by strong, stable executive and volunteer leadership. This funding is awarded at the discretion of the Board based on staff recommendation and is not open to application or inquiry. Please click here for a list of Out of the Blue Award recipients.

EXCLUSIONS

The Foundation does not make grants for capital construction costs, endowments, medical or academic research, scholarships, sectarian or religious purposes, or to support candidates for political office. Except for its Brother Thomas Fellowship Awards [link] for artists selected through a bi-annual nomination and panel process, the Boston Foundation does not make grants to individuals.

ELIGIBILITY

To be eligible for support, an organization must be tax-exempt or operate under the fiscal sponsorship of a tax-exempt nonprofit. In addition, the nonprofit must be primarily serving the people of Greater Boston, with the exception of regional, statewide or national public policy efforts that may benefit a substantial portion of the Greater Boston community. Finally, an eligible organization must be operated and organized so that it does not discriminate in the hiring of staff or provision of services on the basis of race, religion, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, age, national origin or disability.

In general, organizations are not eligible to receive more than one type of funding from the Foundation concurrently. Nonprofits that are part of a collaborative effort funded by the Foundation may also seek funding for their individual operations or projects.

Organizations that are denied funding through a competitive or initiative grants process may not re-apply until 12 months after its most recent denial letter from the Foundation. Organizations that have received a multi-year grant will generally be expected to take at least a year off before submitting another application.

Please note that because of the high volume of applications and our own specific mission and goals, the Foundation is unable to fund all the high quality requests submitted for consideration.

For More Information
The Boston Foundation holds regular informational sessions about its priorities and guidelines. Click here for our schedule. If you have any questions after reading these guidelines, please contact the Foundation for additional information and advice. Contact your program officer or email us at grantsinfo@tbf.org with a brief summary of your question. A member of the Foundation staff will respond within two working days.