Heading Home Awarded $400,000 From Cummings Foundation

Heading Home is proud to announce that we have been selected as one of 50 local nonprofit organizations sharing in Cummings Foundation’s $25 million grant program in 2019. On May 2, 2019, Heading Home leadership was honored alongside fellow grantees. Heading Home was awarded a $400,000 Sustaining Grant that will be disbursed over 10 years in support of our Pathways to Permanent Housing program.

A transitional housing program partnership between Cambridge Housing Authority (CHA) and Heading Home, Pathways to Permanent Housing (PPH) focuses on moving families out of homelessness and providing what they need to maintain housing sustainably over time by prioritizing future-oriented goal setting, self-sufficiency coaching, and next-level economic mobility services.

“We are deeply grateful to the Cummings Foundation for this incredibly generous funding opportunity. Housing is the primary foundation that provides a family both the safety and security to address the many complex challenges and barriers that they may face.”
Danielle Ferrier, Chief Executive Officer, Heading Home

The impact of the Cummings Foundation Sustaining Grant for the next 10 years will be mission-critical in creating tangible pathways out of homelessness. for families in the Greater Boston area – not just today, but for many years to come.

About Sustaining Grants

The Sustaining Grants initiative builds on Cummings Foundation’s $100K for 100 program. First offered in 2012, $100K for 100 annually awards $10 million through multi-year grants of $100,000 each to 100 nonprofits that are based in and primarily serve Essex, Middlesex, and Suffolk counties. Grant recipients that received their final grant disbursements in 2018 were automatically considered for $15 million in Sustaining Grants.

“We introduced Sustaining Grants to help alleviate the constant burden of fundraising so nonprofit professionals can spend more of their limited time and resources on actually providing services,” said Christina Berthelsen, Grants Manager at Cummings Foundation.

Cummings Foundation has awarded nearly $250 million to date in Greater Boston alone. Funds are generated through commercial properties that are owned by and operated for the sole benefit of, Cummings Foundation. All of its buildings are managed pro bono by Woburn commercial real estate firm Cummings Properties.

Sustaining Grants winners were selected primarily by a 33-member volunteer committee, which included former state legislators, CEOs of local companies, and a retired justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, among many others. Committee members met with each nonprofit twice to learn how the $100K for 100 funds helped to advance its mission, and how it might put a 10-year grant to use.

View the complete list of the 50 Sustaining Grants winners at www.CummingsFoundation.org. An additional 100 winners will be announced in June through the $100K for 100 program.

About Cummings Foundation

Woburn-based Cummings Foundation, Inc. was established in 1986 by Joyce and Bill Cummings and has grown to be one of the three largest private foundations in New England. The Foundation directly operates its own charitable subsidiaries, including New Horizons retirement communities in Marlborough and Woburn. Its largest single commitment to date has been to Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. Additional information is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.