Cummings $35 Million Grant Program 2027: Historical Guide for Greater Boston Nonprofits

Cummings $35 Million Grant Program 2027: Historical Guide for Greater Boston Nonprofits

Status of the 2027 cycle

The Cummings Foundation’s 2027 grant cycle is no longer accepting letters of inquiry. The Foundation’s official program page lists September 16, 2026 at 5:00 PM as the LOI closing time, says extensions will not be granted, and now directs organizations to check back in mid-July 2027 to begin a letter of inquiry. That is a future opportunity window, not an announced deadline: the Foundation has not yet published the next cycle’s opening or closing dates. This page is therefore a historical reference for the 2027 awards and a guide to the published rules for that cycle. Do not treat the past date in the metadata as a live application opportunity.

The selection process for organizations that submitted an LOI may continue after that closing date. Under the published 2026–2027 timeline, invitations and decline notices are scheduled for the week of November 2, full applications from invitees are due January 13, 2027 at 5:00 PM, presentation days for some candidates for ten-year grants are scheduled for the week of May 10, and grant approval and decline letters are scheduled for May 31. Those milestones concern organizations already in the process; they do not reopen the LOI to new applicants. Anyone who submitted should use their Foundation email notices and the official program page for any changed instructions.

What the program offered

For awards in 2027, Cummings Foundation says it will grant $35 million among 150 local-area nonprofits. Awards are multi-year commitments, paid over either three or ten years. The 2027 cycle page describes 125 three-year grants and 25 ten-year grants. Annual installments may range from $10,000 to $100,000, should be round numbers, and remain constant each year. The Foundation can award a different installment from the amount an applicant requested, taking the overall program budget, recommendations, proposal scope, and organization budget into account.

Nearly all awards are intended as unrestricted general operating support. The Foundation describes eligible uses as staffing, administration, technology, rent and facilities, supplies, programs and services, and other core needs, provided funds are used for charitable purposes consistent with IRS rules. Applicants are asked to explain how support would strengthen their overall mission, impact, and capacity. They may use specific programs as examples, but should not frame the request as funding for one particular project. Some categories remain purpose-restricted: faith-based organizations must use funds for non-religious activities open to all, municipalities and public schools for the specific applying department or school, fiscal sponsors for the sponsored project, and large multi-department organizations for the applying unit.

The 2027 program page says applicants may request between $10,000 and $100,000 per year. Requests of $25,000 or less use a short-form application and do not require a grant budget; requests above $25,000 use the comprehensive application and require a grant budget. They are evaluated in separate amount groups. The page also says the Foundation generally prefers its installment to be no more than 20 percent of an applicant’s average annual revenue over the prior three years. That is presented as a general guide rather than a strict cutoff.

Who the 2027 cycle was designed to serve

The program is place-based. Eligible organizations must be headquartered in the priority geography and provide the majority of their services there. The listed geography is Essex, Middlesex, and Suffolk counties, plus Brookline, Dedham, Milton, Needham, Quincy, and Wellesley in Norfolk County. Applicants generally must not maintain offices or provide services outside Massachusetts. The official page makes an exception for Merrimack Valley nonprofits that also serve Southern New Hampshire. Organizations serving people who live elsewhere can still fit when the nonprofit itself is based in and provides its services within the priority area; the Foundation gives transportation or housing for people receiving medical care in Boston and educational programs bringing students to greater Boston as examples. It says special consideration is given to nonprofits based in the 12 cities and towns where the Cummings organization operates commercial real estate.

Applicants must be public charities under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service Code. The Foundation generally does not consider requests for endowments, medical research, private foundations, religious endeavors, relatively new entities, political, legislative, or lobbying organizations, individuals, or debt reduction. It also lists very large organizations already supported by robust endowments, organizations seeking to infringe on civil liberties or personal freedoms, and organizations that treat people unfairly based on protected characteristics among requests it generally will not consider.

The published exclusions also include tuition-charging primary and secondary schools, including those providing financial aid, and regional, national, or international organizations or local branches that lack an EIN and board of directors separate from the larger entity. Municipalities are generally excluded, with exceptions for public schools and the 12 communities where the Cummings organization operates commercial properties. The Foundation notes that it may make exceptions to priorities or eligibility guidelines in recognition of a particular relationship with it, but applicants should not assume an exception applies to them.

Past recipients are not automatically eligible simply because they received an earlier award. For the 2027 cycle, they had to meet current requirements, have fully disbursed prior Cummings Foundation or affiliate grants, and have fulfilled grant-agreement duties such as annual impact reports and maintaining an active reciprocal link to the Foundation. A recipient of a ten-year grant also needed to have waited at least one year after its final installment. Organizations in the final year of a three-year grant could reapply before their final impact report, but the Foundation said it would remove them from consideration if that report was not completed by February 28.

Funding priorities and exclusions

The 2027 page identifies local human services, fairness and justice, education, healthcare, and the environment as priority causes. Its examples include housing and food security, anti-poverty work, support for people with physical or intellectual limitations, employment training, assistance for foreign-born residents, legal assistance, services for seniors, strong families and communities, and youth activities. Fairness and justice examples include anti-hate work, opportunity-gap remediation, and representation. Education can include K–12 and college work, mentoring or tutoring, out-of-school time, and complementary programs. Healthcare includes hospitals, clinics, and mental health. Environmental examples include environmental education, equitable access to outdoor spaces, recycling and waste reduction, and sustainable agriculture and food systems.

The Foundation says it does not currently consider requests for environmental research, land preservation, or large capital projects. It also names athletics, arts (including dance, music, and theater), culture, preservation of land or historic buildings, and animal welfare among causes it is not currently considering through this grant program. These are program-specific published priorities and exclusions, not a statement about the value of those activities or other Cummings funding. The page notes the Foundation supports animal welfare through its commitment to Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University.

How applications worked in the 2027 round

The first stage was a letter of inquiry submitted through the online portal. The Foundation allowed no more than one LOI per grant cycle and asked applicants to review the full guidelines before opening the portal. It strongly encouraged early submission and said it would not grant deadline extensions. As the September 16, 2026 cutoff has passed, organizations that did not submit an LOI cannot start a new application for the 2027 awards.

The second stage is by invitation. According to the published timeline, the Foundation planned to email invitations and decline notices during the week of November 2. Invitees then complete either the short-form or comprehensive application according to requested annual installment, with the grant budget required for requests above $25,000. The full applications are due January 13, 2027 at 5:00 PM. Notices are sent by email, and the Foundation advises applicants to check spam folders for messages from [email protected] or an @cummings.com address. These instructions are useful to people already invited; they are not a substitute for an invitation.

Applicants were asked to write with a three-year grant in mind. A ten-year award was not a separate application track for new applicants. The Foundation says 25 of the selected organizations may receive ten-year awards, but an applicant must previously have received a Cummings grant, request more than $25,000 per year using the standard application, and answer the ten-year question in the full application to be considered. After selecting the 150 grantees, the Foundation reviews past impact reports and volunteer site visit reports. Some promising candidates are invited to a discussion during presentation days; the committee selects the 25 recipients whose three-year awards will be upgraded to ten years.

For small nonprofits with annual budgets of $500,000 or less, the separate Cummings Coaches program may offer no-cost proposal development support. The main program page says small nonprofits requesting three-year installments of $25,000 or less may be eligible for help. The Coaches page sets additional conditions, including that the organization meet the main program’s eligibility requirements and use its own staff or volunteers rather than a third-party professional for grant writing. Because cycle-specific enrollment dates and availability can change, interested organizations should consult the current Coaches page when the next LOI period opens.

Review process and practical preparation

Cummings Foundation evaluates LOIs and a limited number of full applications with a group of about 100 community volunteers. More than two-thirds of awards are decided completely by volunteers serving on four successive committees. Other awards are Early Decision grants made internally by the Foundation; applicants cannot request Early Decision status. The volunteer review model makes direct, readable explanations important. The FAQ recommends concise, concrete, jargon-free proposals that clearly identify what makes the organization effective and the need it meets.

For a future cycle, an organization can use the archived rules as an initial screening checklist, then confirm all details on the live Foundation page when applications reopen. Confirm the legal entity and separate EIN or board arrangements where relevant. Map the headquarters and actual service activity against the named counties and towns, and check the restrictions on out-of-state operations. Assess whether the cause appears among current priorities and whether a listed exclusion applies. If a prior Cummings grant is involved, verify that payments and reporting duties are complete before planning another LOI.

The requested annual installment should fit the organization’s financial scale. The Foundation advises diversified funding and gives 20 percent of average annual revenue over the preceding three years as a general guide for an installment. A request above $25,000 carries extra application work, including a budget, so applicants should select an amount only after checking the current forms and the match with their needs. Nearly all support is general operating support, which makes a clear account of core work, community outcomes, and organizational capacity more useful than a narrow project budget. Those are preparation suggestions based on the published structure, not a promise of award or a scoring formula.

Prior to the next cycle, teams can gather current organizational records, confirm public-charity status, review board and EIN information, prepare recent revenue and service figures, and agree on a concise description of the work and who benefits. This is sensible groundwork, not a list of materials confirmed as required in a future cycle. The Foundation states that it may change eligibility requirements, priority areas, or policies, so the next cycle’s official guidance must take precedence over this archive. Do not reuse a 2027 application preview or assume the same portal fields and requirements will remain in place.

Timeline published for the 2026–2027 process

The dates after September 16 belong to the same award process and are retained here for people who already submitted. The official page’s next-cycle instruction is only to check back in mid-July 2027 to begin a new LOI. It has not published a new cycle deadline, award year, or refreshed application schedule yet. This page will need to be checked against those official details before it can serve as a guide to that later round.

Official source

The authoritative source is the Cummings Foundation $35 Million Grant Program page. It contains the current application status, program timeline, priority causes, eligibility, grant amounts, application types, and 2027-cycle enhancements. The Foundation FAQ page provides additional explanations of the application and review process. At the time this historical entry was checked, the program page directed new applicants to return in mid-July 2027 for the next LOI. Review those official pages again before acting because the Foundation reserves the right to change its requirements and policies.