Funder Community

The GMA Funder Community promises a great experience in breaking out of traditional giving models. We aim to tap into the potential we see in groups of individual funders with overlapping missions and goals.

Funder Community, 2023

17/25 Fund for Young Adults

People ages 17 to 25

Purpose: Unlocking economic self-sufficiency for 17-to-25-year-olds

UPDATE

This round of the 17/25 Fund for Young Adults has concluded. The final session was truly a celebration of four remarkable organizations working in different ways to support young adults on their paths to achieving self-sufficiency.
Following four presentations and funder discussion, participants voted to recognize The Haven Project and The Wily Network. Each program will receive $80,600 to provide 28 young adults with $150 per month in direct cash, no strings attached, for 18 months – plus $5,000 towards administrative costs. For more detail, contact GMA’s Fund manager, Heidi Heinlein.
The 17/25 Fund

The 17/25 Fund for Young Adults will dig into innovative and effective strategies to support young adults in Greater Boston and Gateway Cities through their transitional years. This age group has received proportionately little philanthropic investment and is experiencing a crisis of untapped potential.

Much of philanthropy is dedicated to the younger years, positioning children and youth for later success as adults, usually through a college or career pathway. Despite significant progress, that pathway is not working for all, particularly not for young adults with inadequate support systems. In 2021 only 52 percent of Boston Public School graduates enrolled in college; just over half of enrollees finished a degree within six years. The percentage of youth neither working nor in school rose sharply during the pandemic, after decades of decline.

The Fund will center on direct interventions that empower people to thrive, starting with guaranteed income. We expect to explore other direct aid, such as guaranteed housing or work, in the Fund’s future years.  Considerable innovation is underway in all three areas, so there is opportunity for creative investment.

In 2023, the 17/25 Fund will explore how guaranteed income programs can empower young adults to succeed. Read the 2023 GMA Funder Community Participant Guide for more detail.

Fund Participation

GMA’s six-month pooled giving and comprehensive learning experience is now accepting grants from donors eager to identify and fund community-driven solutions to a large-scale problem affecting young adults across the country. The participant-directed Fund will award a few significant grants to exemplary organizations that model ways of helping young adults achieve economic self-sufficiency and thrive.

The Fund is a project under the fiscal sponsorship of Philanthropy Massachusetts. Participation is open to private foundations, corporate giving programs, donor-advised fund accounts, and individual donors. It is a funder-directed initiative that does not accept unsolicited applications.

Contact GMA Director Phil Hall by phone 617-391-3097 or email phall@gmafoundations.com to learn more about the GMA Funder Community. Find detail in the 2023 GMA Funder Community Participant Guide.

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Funder Community, 2022

Child Behavioral Health Fund

The GMA Funder Community established the Child Behavioral Health Fund (“the Fund”) to explore the behavioral health impact of the COVID pandemic on children and youth, and to identify philanthropy’s role in reducing known stressors and strengthening a growing network of supports.

The unprecedented crisis has challenged education, health, and social services funders to apply a behavioral health lens in their grantmaking. Stressors like lack of childcare, remote schooling, loss of employment, illness, and loss of life have disproportionately affected low-income children and youth.

Focus on local action

UPDATE: The Fund has concluded with unexpected and unrestricted grants to exemplary organizations in the Greater Boston area that are amplifying the effort to improve child behavioral health at this pivotal time.

A total of $185,000 has been distributed to:

  • Boston Community Pediatrics
  • Boston’s Higher Ground
  • Chica Project
  • Friends of the Children-Boston
  • Louis D. Brown Peace Institute
  • BRYT program at Brookline Center for Community Mental Health
  • Thriving Minds program at Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy
  • West End House
  • The Wily Network

What did we learn about philanthropy’s role?

Build up an interlocking and impenetrable shield of support. Provide funding for approaches that integrate behavioral health interventions into high-quality programs for all children and the adults in their lives. Find three practical ways funders can help in this brief article on our blog.

Fund Participation

GMA’s six-month pooled giving and comprehensive learning experience is open to donors eager to identify and fund community-driven solutions to a large-scale problem affecting families across the country.

The Fund is a project under the fiscal sponsorship of Philanthropy Massachusetts. Participation is open to private foundations, corporate giving programs, donor-advised fund accounts, and individual donors. It is a funder-directed initiative that does not accept unsolicited applications.

Participants in the 2022 Child Behavioral Health Fund are:

Louis and Anne Abrons Foundation, Paul and Edith Babson Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA Foundation, Fuller Foundation, Liberty Mutual Foundation, Lookout Foundation, Mabel Louise Riley Foundation, Nordblom Family Foundation, the Schrafft Charitable Trust, and Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation

We are grateful to the experts who guided the Fund’s learning:

Dana Mauch, Massachusetts Association for Mental Health; Dr. Jason Sachs and TeeAra Dias, Boston Public Schools’ Department of Early Childhood; Dr. Mary Walsh and Claire Foley, City Connects; Peter Ducharme, Bridge Over Troubled Waters; Jennifer Clammer, The Roca Impact Institute.

Contact GMA Director Phil Hall by phone 617-391-3097 or email phall@gmafoundations.com to learn more about the GMA Funder Community.

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Funder Community, 2021

Environmental Justice Fund

The GMA Funder Community has established the Environmental Justice Fund (“the Fund”) to explore local, inclusive responses to the challenges posed by climate change. The six-month pooled giving and comprehensive learning experience is open to donors eager to understand the place for philanthropy in a large-scale problem and fund innovative community-driven solutions.

Focus on local action

UPDATE: The Fund has now concluded with $20,000 unrestricted and unexpected grants to the following greater Boston organizations that are doing exemplary work to create more livable communities for all:

Complementing state plans to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, the Fund’s learning focused on local work to build:

  • sustainable food systems,
  • land conservation and access,
  • infrastructure, and
  • community-level resilience.

Historically, low-income, Black, Indigenous, and immigrant communities have borne a disproportionate share of environmental exploitation and the effects of climate change. We are at a turning point: aligned with grassroots calls for action, a new federal administration, and the state’s renewed commitment to this work, community groups have seized the moment and are driving change for a better future.

Together, participants in the Fund will dig into the evidence with expert speakers, discuss priorities, and select promising approaches that are equitable and inclusive.

Read about Three Grantmaking Approaches for Climate-Resilient Communities identified in a recent conversation with leaders of nonprofit organizations that participated in Boston’s Climate Action Plan.

Fund Participation

Green CIty Growers - Fenway Farms
credit: Green City Growers, Fenway Farms. Learn more at greencitygrowers.com

The Fund is a project under the fiscal sponsorship of Philanthropy Massachusetts. Participation is open to private foundations, corporate giving programs, donor-advised fund accounts, and individual donors. It is a funder-directed initiative that does not accept unsolicited applications.

Participants in the 2021 Environmental Justice Fund are:

Louis and Anne Abrons Foundation, Paul and Edith Babson Foundation, The Devonshire Foundation, Lookout Foundation, The Herman and Frieda L. Miller  Foundation, Mabel Louise Riley Foundation, the Schrafft Charitable Trust, and Philanthropy Massachusetts

Contact GMA Director Phil Hall by phone 617-391-3097 or email phall@gmafoundations.com to learn more about the GMA Funder Community.

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Funder Community, 2020

Opioid Response Fund

The GMA Funder Community established the Opioid Response Fund (“the Fund”) to explore effective, community-based responses to the opioid addiction crisis that is ravaging our country. The Fund offered a six-month pooled giving & immersive learning experience to donors eager to understand the complexity of the problem and fund solutions with results and reach.

The Opioid Response Fund concluded in November 2020 with awards to four Eastern Massachusetts nonprofits to recognize their exemplary leadership in confronting the opioid crisis in our hardest-hit communities. These organizations understand the complexity of addiction and are working to intervene with the right type of support at critical moments in people’s lives.

We are pleased to share the announcement of unexpected and unrestricted grants to:

Fund Background

Crowd on a Boston subway
credit: Alan Light, Boston Subway; 2013 Flickr

The public health crisis affects everyone, and, disproportionately, people in groups typically the focus of funders’ efforts—people who have experienced ACEs and related trauma, foster care, homelessness, unemployment, and incarceration. Parental substance use is now one of the primary reasons for children entering foster care. Unintentional drug overdose is the leading cause of injury death at work, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

Before launching this fund, we spoke first with Boston-area leaders immersed in the problem. They gave us reason for hope. GMA’s Carolyn Rau summarizes their perspectives in a brief article, Rising to Respond to the Opioid Addiction Crisis.

Our learning sessions during the Opioid Response Fund featured a generous group of experts from these important Boston-area organizations: Improbable Players; Mayor of Boston’s Office of Recovery Services; South Shore Peer Recovery; New Hampshire Charitable Foundation; and the Grayken Center for Addiction at Boston Medical Center.

We are grateful to them for sharing their deep understanding and expertise with us.

Fund Participation

The Fund is a project under the fiscal sponsorship of Philanthropy Massachusetts. Participation is open to private foundations, corporate giving programs, donor-advised fund accounts, and individual donors. It is a funder-directed initiative that does not accept unsolicited applications.

Participants in the 2020 Opioid Response Fund are:

The Paul and Edith Babson Foundation, Richard K. and Nancy L. Donahue Foundation, The Fuller Foundation, Inc., The Lynch Foundation, The Nordblom Family Foundation, Theodore Edson Parker Foundation, Mabel Louise Riley Foundation, Abbot and Dorothy H. Stevens Foundation, Peter and Elizabeth Tower Foundation, and Philanthropy Massachusetts

Contact GMA Director Phil Hall by phone 617-391-3097 or email phall@gmafoundations.com to learn more about the GMA Funder Community.

 


Funder Community, 2019

Trauma and Resilience Fund

Our inaugural fund—the Trauma and Resilience Fund—was established to explore innovative responses to the adverse effects of childhood trauma. The Fund offered a six-month pooled giving and immersive learning experience to donors eager to understand and address the impact of childhood trauma, particularly the trauma of living in chronic poverty. All funds were distributed in August 2019.

The design of this Fund was informed by the work of the Lookout Foundation, which has played a catalytic role in supporting the field of complex trauma.

The ACE Pyramid
cdc.gov/violenceprevention/childabuseandneglect

The landmark CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, conducted from 1995 to 1997, demonstrated the lasting effects of childhood trauma into later life. Recent advances in brain research show the possibility of reversing the damaging effects of trauma when people enjoy supportive, stable adult relationships.

Together with the Fund’s program staff, the Funder Community delved into the science of trauma and the promise of resilience, and concluded with a few significant grants to nonprofits doing exemplary work in this field.

Read a short article about trauma-informed programs shaped by new brain research written by the Fund’s program manager, Danielle Belanger.

Fund Participation

Participants in the Trauma and Resilience Fund have recognized the need for leadership and urgency in this evolving field; they are:

The Paul and Edith Babson Foundation, Fish Family Foundation, The Fuller Foundation, Inc., Lookout Foundation, The Lynch Foundation, James S. McDonnell Family Foundation, The Nordblom Family Foundation, Theodore Edson Parker Foundation, Mabel Louise Riley Foundation, Gardiner Howland Shaw Foundation, and Philanthropy Massachusetts

The Fund is a project under the fiscal sponsorship of Philanthropy Massachusetts. Participation in the GMA Funder Community is open to private foundations, corporate giving programs, donor-advised fund accounts, and individual donors.

Grants Announced

In July 2019, GMA Funder Community’s Trauma and Resilience Fund recognized four Boston-area nonprofits for their exemplary work and leadership in addressing the pervasive and poorly-understood problem of childhood trauma. These organizations have developed innovative methods of building resilience in youth to reverse the effects of adverse experiences and are building trauma-sensitive communities that support all children.

The unexpected and unrestricted grants have been delivered to: Fathers’ Uplift ($40,000), College Bound Dorchester ($40,000), Silver Lining Mentoring ($20,000), and Massachusetts Advocates for Children’s Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative ($20,000).

Modeled on research showing the importance of supportive, stable adult relationships, these programs offer an example and hope to any organization that works to support healthy children and communities.

Contact GMA Director Phil Hall by phone 617-391-3097 or email phall@gmafoundations.com to learn more about the GMA Funder Community.

Note: This is a funder-directed initiative that is not accepting unsolicited applications.