Below are examples of recent grants made by the Smith Family Foundation, which are organized by the following grant programs or mission categories:
Capacity Building Grants
Small Capital Grants
English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)
Urban Education
Housing First
Community Health
Medical Research
Improving Diabetes Care Grants
Mid-Sized and Other Capital Grants
Annual Gifts
2012 grantees:
College Bound Dorchester: Provides educational services to the underserved in Dorchester to ensure that all students view success in college not just as a possibility in their lives but as a baseline expectation. A grant of $392,636 over three years to strengthen the organization's capacity in case management and student intake/placement around college access.
More Than Wheels: Helps struggling individuals and families break the cycle of poor financial decision making by using the car buying process to catalyze lasting change, financial stability, and control. A grant of $375,000 over three years to create a technology-based client portal for distance consulting and service delivery.
Project Hope: Provides low-income women with children access to education, jobs, housing, and emergency services. A grant of $330,000 over three years to strengthen the organization's evaluation capacity.
Current and past grantees (2002-2011):
ACCION USA: Provides microenterprise loans and business education to low- and moderate-income small business owners. A contingent grant of $1,000,000 over five years beginning in 2005 to expand lending activities in the Greater Boston area.
Artists for Humanity: Provides urban youth with paid employment in the arts. A contingent grant of $1,000,000 over five years beginning in 2011 to strengthen outcomes measurement, increase earned income and expand employment opportunities for youth.
The B.E.L.L. Foundation (Building Educated Leaders for Life): Provides after-school tutoring and cultural enrichment for academically at-risk, elementary school-age children from low-income families. A grant of $1,000,000 over five years (2003-2007) and a grant of $1,100,000 over three years (2008-2010).
Boston Children's Chorus: Brings together youth from urban Boston and the surrounding communities for choral instruction and performance aimed at bridging cultural divides and achieving musical excellence. Grants totaling $335,000 from 2004-2009.
Boston Debate League: Promotes competitive debate in the Boston Public Schools as a means of improving students' academic performance and life skills. A contingent grant of $392,000 over three years beginning in 2011 to strengthen the agency's development and evaluation capacities.
Boston Teacher Residency: Provides teacher recruitment, preparation and induction for the Boston Public Schools to meet the goals of increasing teacher quality, improving job retention and alleviating critical teacher shortages in math, science and special education. A contingent grant of $1,000,000 over five years beginning in 2008.
Bottom Line: Provides college admissions and financial aid counseling to disadvantaged high school seniors to help them get into college, plus ongoing support and counseling during their college years to help them graduate. A contingent grant of $695,500 over five years beginning in 2008.
Citizen Schools: Provides after-school academic support and apprenticeships for low-income middle school students. A continent grant of $500,000 over five years beginning in 2005 to enable Citizen Schools to expand its 8th Grade Academy Program and Alumni Services in Boston.
Community Servings: Provides free, home-delivered meals throughout MA to people homebound with HIV/AIDS and other acute, life-threatening illnesses who are unable to shop or cook for themselves. A contingent grant of $1,000,000 over five years beginning in 2007.
Cradles to Crayons: Provides homeless and needy children with essentials such as clothes, books, toys and school supplies, and provides families and youth with service learning and volunteer opportunities. A contingent grant of $590,000 over five years from 2008 to 2012. See also capital support below.
Crittenton-Women's Union: Promotes upward mobility for low-income women through research and direct service including housing, adult education and job training. A contingent grant of $600,000 over three years beginning in 2011 to help the agency develop the tools and practices needed grow and disseminate its Mobility Mentoring approach to helping low-income women become economically self-sufficient.
Facing History and Ourselves: Provides professional development, innovative curricula, pedagogical research and other resources to promote the effective teaching of tolerance and civic engagement to young people. Grants and/or commitments of $2.5 million from 1999 through 2009 and a grant of $2.5 million over five years (2011-2016).
FIRST: Partners high school and middle school students with education and industry mentors to engage in robotics programs aimed at developing technological skills and career interest in science, technology and engineering among participating youth. A contingent grant of $400,000 over four years beginning in 2005 to launch and expand programming in underserved Boston schools.
Families United in Educational Leadership (FUEL): Helps low-income families save for and prepare their children to attend college by providing financial literacy coaching, information on scholarships and a matched savings program. A contingent grant of $300,000 over three years beginning in 2011 to assist the agency in strengthening its evaluation, communiciations and marketing functions.
Hyde Square Task Force: Provides neighborhood-based educational programs and community-building initiatives for urban youth and their families. A contingent grant of $620,770 over 5 years beginning in 2007.
Interise (Formerly named InnerCity Entrepreneurs): Provides management training, technical assistance and peer support to entrepreneurs of existing small businesses in Boston and Worcester, MA that are ready to expand. A contingent grant of up to $650,000 over 5 years from 2007 to 2011.
Jewish Vocational Service: Provides a wide range of education and vocational training programs aimed at helping people in Eastern MA become economically self-sufficient. A contingent grant of $1,052,000 over 4 years from 2009 to 2012.
Jumpstart: Provides tutoring and mentoring to at-risk preschool children aimed at getting them ready to succeed in school. A contingent grant of $1,000,000 over five years beginning in 2004 to launch a program in Boston's Roxbury community.
More Than Words: Provides employment, entrepreneurship training and intensive case management to youth in the foster care system to help them transition successfully to adulthood. A contingent grant of $637,000 over five years beginning in 2009.
MY TURN: Provides education, job training, job placement and post-employment support services to in- and out-of-school youth in small urban communities in Eastern MA and Southern NH. A contingent grant of $1,000,000 over five years beginning in 2006.
One Family Scholars: Provides financial assistance of up to $12,000 annually to formerly homeless women and their families to enable the women to attend post secondary education and achieve permanent economic self-sufficiency. Grants totaling $500,000 over five years (2003-2008).
Raising a Reader-Massachusetts: Provides childcare professionals and parents with books and training in interactive book sharing, with the goal of increasing reading readiness among low-income children and children of immigrant families. Contingent grants of $723,970 from 2008 to 2012.
Roca: Provides educational, employment and life-skills programming for at-risk youth, young adults and young parents in Chelsea with the goal of helping them achieve self-sufficiency and live out of harm's way. A contingent grant of $1,000,000 over five years beginning in 2008.
The Steppingstone Foundation: Provides academic preparation and support for academically at-risk children
grades four through high school, with the goal of placing them in exam or independent
schools and seeing them through to successful high school graduation and college
matriculation. A grant of $1,000,000 over five years (2003-2007) and a contingent grant of $738,534 over three years beginning in 2011.
Summer Search Boston: Provides year-round mentoring, summer experiential education, college advising and support services to low-income Boston high school students and program graduates. A contingent grant of $701,721 over five years beginning in 2006.
United Teen Equality Center: Operates a youth center and provides violence prevention, youth development, education and community organizing programs for older teens in Lowell, MA. A contingent grant of $944,780 over 5 years beginning in 2009.
Year Up: Provides non-college
bound high school graduates with skills training and internship placements in
the information technology field. The ultimate goal is to help graduates land
well-paying jobs or go on to college upon completion of the program. A
grant of $1,000,000 over five years (2003-2007) and a grant of $840,000 over 2 years (2008-2010).
2012 Grants:
Bridge Boston Charter School: A grant of $20,084 for the purchase of classroom laptop computers and iPads to create a mobile technology lab to support differentiated instruction at this charter school serving students in Pre-K and Kindergarten.
BUILD-Greater Boston: A grant of $35,599 for the purchase of IT equipment and and furniture for the business Incubator facility at this organization that use entrepreneurship to excite and propel disengaged, low-income students through high school to college success.
Commonwealth Shakespeare Company: A grant of $10,000 for the purchase of lawn chairs for Shakespeare on the Common productions that are presented free of charge to Boston's diverse community.
Girls Incorporated of Greater Lowell: A grant of $31,465 for costs associated with furnishing a new teen-only space for the Operation Teen project, which will create a safe and comfortable space for girls ages 13 to 15 to participate in developmentally appropriate and positive programming.
Inquilinos Boricuas en Accion: A grant of $36,236 for a roof replacement project at this community organization that serves over 900 individuals in the South End.
LIFT-Boston: A grant of $32,300 for the purchase of computers and printers to support the agency's work connecting low-income individuals in Boston with resources and services needed for self-sufficiency.
New Entry Sustainable Farming Project: A grant of $31,871 for the purchase of a van and equipment for handling produce to support this organization's work helping refugees and immigrants develop small-scale farm agri-enterprises.
Room to Grow: A grant of $18,500 for the purchase of computer equipment and software to support the clinical and volunteer programs at this organization which enriches the lives of babies born into poverty throughout their critical first three years of development.
Roxbury Youthworks Inc.: A grant of $21,741 for the purchase of a van in support of the agency's programs providing academic, social, and emotional support to system-involved youth.
School on Wheels: A grant of $20,000 for costs associated with building separate classrooms and adding signage to the building exterior at the organization's warehouse in support of the organization's tutoring program, supply processing, and volunteer training.
To see a list of past small capital grantees, click on the year below to download the list.
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
Asian American Civic Association (AACA): A contingent grant of $592,825 over three years beginning in 2011 for the agency’s Next Steps Transitional English Program to bridge the gap between lower-level ESOL classes and either college, job training or a secure job for English learners.
Centro Latino: A contingent grant of $284,000 over three years beginning in 2011 to design, pilot, and implement an integrated vocational ESOL program related to computer technician certification.
English for New Bostonians: A contingent grant of $300,000 over three years beginning in 2012 to build capacity and business outreach for ESOL providers aimed at stimulating employer partnerships for workplace ESOL classes.
Jewish Vocational Services: Provides a wide range of education and vocational training programs aimed at helping people in Eastern MA become economically self-sufficient. A contingent capacity building grant of $1,052,000 over 4 years from 2009 to 2012. An additional $400,000 over two years for the Bridge to College and Careers Program.
Boston Teacher Residency: Provides teacher recruitment, preparation and induction for the Boston Public Schools to meet the goals of increasing teacher quality, improving job retention and alleviating critical teacher shortages in math, science and special education. A contingent capacity building grant of $1,000,000 over five years beginning in 2008.
Brooke Charter Schools: A challenge grant of $800,000 over four years to purchase and fully renovate 150 American Legion Highway in Mattapan as the permanent K-8 facility for Brooke's second school, helping Brooke reach its goal of serving more than 2,200 students in Boston.
MATCH Teacher Residency: A contingent grant of $750,000 over three years beginning in 2011 to support the expansion of this one-year intensive teacher training program, which provides rookie teachers with hands-on skills and classroom practice to be prepared to teach in high performing charter schools.
Roxbury Preparatory Charter School: A contingent grant of $800,000 over two years approved in April 2012 for the renovation of two public middle schools under long-term lease from Boston Public Schools. These buildings will house Roxbury Prep's two new charter middle schools, helping the Roxbury Prep grow to serve 1,800 Boston students.
Teach For America-Greater Boston: A contingent grant of $680,000 over five years beginning in 2011 to strengthen the agency's capacity to prepare new teachers to meet the needs of English language learners.
Teach Plus: A contingent grant of $330,000 over three years beginning in 2011 for the agency’s Turnaround Teacher Teams (T3) initiative, which places teams of highly qualified, experienced teachers into Boston’s lowest performing schools, designated as “turnaround schools.”
Unlocking Potential: A contingent grant of $200,000 over two years beginning in 2011 to prepare the leaders of the agency’s second turnaround in-district charter school, which is scheduled to open in 2013.
Boston Health Care for the Homeless: A grant of $558,623 over two years to fund four community health workers and add mobile home care capacity to better serve especially vulnerable formerly homeless individuals newly housed under Housing First.
Pine Street Inn: A grant of $430,000 over three years to facilitate the organization's shift from emergecy shelter to permanent supportive housing provider and to strengthen case management services.
Bowdoin Street Community Health Center: A challenge grant of $300,000 approved in November 2011 toward the addition of a third floor to build a new Wellness Center, offering programs that promote healthier lifestyles and behaviors to prevent and better manage choric diseases.
Codman Square Health Center: A challenge grant approved in November 2010 for $500,000 toward the construction of a new community health and education center in Dorchester, MA.
Lowell Community Health Center: A challenge grant approved in November 2011 for $500,000 toward the construction of a new community health center to serve 10,000-12,000 additional patients in Lowell, MA.
Mattapan Community Health Center: A commitment of $500,000 approved in June 2010 and an additional commitment of $500,000 approved in November 2011 toward the construction of a new community health center in Mattapan Square.
Whittier Street Health Center: A commitment of $500,000 approved in June 2010 toward the construction of a new community health center in Roxbury, MA.
Smith Family Awards Program for Excellence in Biomedical Research: In collaboration with The Medical Foundation, a division of Health Resources in Action, the Smith Family Foundation will provide a total of $1.5 million in FY12 for awards to 16 researchers. Each researcher will receive a total of $300,000 over 3 years ($100,000 per year).
Recipients in 2011:Emily Balskus, Ph.D, Harvard University; Jennifer Benanti, Ph.D, University of Massachusetts Medical School; Piyush Gupta, Ph.D, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research; Joseph Loparo, Ph.D, Harvard University; Eranthie Weerapana, Ph.D, Boston College.
For a complete list of award winners from 2004-2011, please click here to be redirected to The Medical Foundation division's website.
Smith Family Prize for Outstanding Scientific Contributions: In 2011, the $65,000 Prize for Outstanding Scientific Contribution was made to Bernardo Sabatini, M.D., Ph.D., a 2001 Smith Award Recipient from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sabatini's research focuses on understanding the function and regulation of individual synapses in the mammalian brain and how perturbations of these processes contribute to human diseases such as autism and Alzheimer's. In 2009, Amy Wagers, PhD, a 1994 Smith Award Recipient from Joslin Diabetes Center, received an award of $65,000 for her research which focuses on the critical function of stem cells in repairing damaged tissues. In May 2007, David Lambright, MD, PhD, Professor in the Program in Molecular Medicine at U-Mass Medical School, received an award of $65,000 with which to continue his research into the ways cells communicate with each other. He had received a Smith Family Award in 1996. In May 2005, 1994 Smith Family Award winner Bradford Lowell, MD, PhD, Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, received an award of $65,000 for his groundbreaking research into the genetics of obesity.
Pinnacle Program Project Award: In collaboration with the American Diabetes Association, the Smith Family Foundation provided a grant of $1.5 million over four years beginning in 2003, which was matched by the ADA. In December 2004, the Trustees approved an additional grant of $1.5 million for a second Pinnacle Program Project Award, which will also be matched by the ADA and cover four years of research support beginning in July, 2005. In January 2008, the Trustees approved additional funding of $1,007,222 over three years beginning in 2008, to be matched 1:1 by the ADA.
The first Pinnacle Program Project Award (2003-2006) was for collaborative research using genetics and genomics to systematically identify pathways contributing to diabetes and obesity in human patients.
The second Pinnacle Program Project Award (2005-2008) supported research collaborationto identify the hormones and brain pathways regulating body weight and glucose metabolism.
The most recent Pinnacle Program Project Award went to the following team of researchers beginning in 2008: David Altshuler, MD, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute, Joel Hirschorn, MD, PhD, Children's Hospital and the Broad Institute, Vamsi Mootha, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute and Evan Rosen, MD, PhD, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Broad Institute. Dr. Mootha will lead a project to develop new therapies for Type II diabetes targeting newly identified disease-related genes. Dr. Rosen will lead a project to generate humanized mouse models of Type II diabetes. Compounds emerging from Dr. Mootha's study will be tested in the humanized mouse models as well as traditional mouse models for beneficial effects on glucose regulation.
The following projects are being funded by the Smith Family Foundation:
Dotwell (a collaboration between the Codman Square Health Center and Dorchester House Multi-Service Center, both located in Dorchester, MA): A contingent grant of $1.45 million over 5 years beginning in 2006 to improve health outcomes for the centers' 2,000+ diabetic patients by providing intensive case management, diabetes self-management education and support, medical group visits, nutrition education classes, fitness groups, home visits and other interventions.
Mattapan Community Health Center (located in Boston's Mattapan neighborhood): A contingent grant of $1.2 million over 5 years beginning in 2006 to improve health outcomes for the center's 600+ diabetic patients by providing intensive case management, by offering nutrition and physical activity sessions at community partner sites, and by training, deploying and supervising successfully managing diabetics as lay health workers to provide culturally relevant patient support and diabetes self-management education.
Whittier Street Health Center (located in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood): A contingent grant of $1.2 million over 5 years beginning in 2006 to improve health outcomes for the center's 350+ diabetic patients by expanding group medical visits, diabetes self-management education and support, and community outreach.
The following project is being funded by the Paul and Phyllis Fireman Charitable Foundation:
Bowdoin Street Health Center (located in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood): A contingent grant of $1.2 million over 5 years beginning in 2006 to improve health outcomes for the center's approximately 800 diabetic patients by expanding case management, group medical visits, diabetes self-management education and support, individual behavioral health counseling and community outreach.
The following contracts are being funded jointly by the Smith Family Foundation and the Fireman Charitable Foundation in support of the Diabetes Initiative:
Joslin Diabetes Center: A 2-year contract to provide services to the five community health center grantees. Services include professional development opportunities and consultation for clinical and non-clinical diabetes team staff, plus a variety of diabetes patient education materials (including some to be translated or developed for cultures/languages other than English and Spanish to meet the needs of health center patients).
RTI International: A six-year contract to evaluate the effectiveness of the five health centers' diabetes programs in improving health outcomes for their diabetic patients and to assess whether such interventions may be considered cost effective over time.
Health Care for All: A contingent two-year grant beginning in 2010 to help Smith-Fireman Diabetes Initiative partners translate lessons learned from the Diabetes Initiative into policy recommendations aimed at strengthening diabetes care.
Most recent grantees (2011-12):
Boston Schoolyard Initiative: A grant of $90,500 to renovate the playground at the Young Achievers Science and Math Pilot School in Mattapan.
Falmouth Service Center: A top-off grant of $330,000 approved in November 2011 toward the renovation of the agency’s facility to accommodate the growing number and needs of clients in Falmouth, MA.
Past grantees (2008-2010):
Chelsea Creek Restoration Partnership's "Creekside Commons:" A challenge grant, approved in June 2006, of $700,000 toward the construction of an intergenerational park in Chelsea, MA featuring active recreational opportunities and waterfront access to Mill Creek. The challenge was met in October 2007, and the park was completed in July 2009. The Foundation received the city of Chelsea's 2010 Contributing Stakeholder of the Year Award for this high impact grant.
Cradles to Crayons: A three-year commitment of $600,000 from 2010-2012 toward the agency’s capital campaign to relocate to a new facility in Brighton, MA, which will double the agency’s impact and help meet the basic needs of low-income children and families in eastern MA, and provide meaningful volunteer opportunities for Greater Boston residents.
Franciscan Hospital for Children: A grant approved in December 2010 of $140,000 to purchase, upgrade, and install bedside portable monitoring devices and related items for the agency’s Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program, which will allow the agency to increase its ventilated and monitored bed capacity for some of its most vulnerable pediatric patients.
Seven Hills Pediatric Center at Groton: A grant of $250,000 approved in June 2008 for the construction of a dental clinic at this residential care facility for the state's most profoundly disabled children (ages 0-22 years, under the cognitive age of 12 months) located in Groton, MA. In addition to serving Pediatric Center residents, the clinic provides dental care to any developmentally disabled patient in the region and serves as a training ground for special needs dental care.
The Foundation provides annual support to a few Boston nonprofits with which it has longstanding ties. Due to these and other outstanding commitments, the Foundation does not anticipate extending this type of support to additional organizations at the present time.
Associated Grant Makers Summer Fund: A grant of $26,250 in annual support.
The Boston Foundation: A grant of $10,000 in annual support.
Boston Symphony Orchestra: A grant of $25,000 in annual support.
Citi Performing Arts Center : A grant of $20,000 in annual support.
Combined Jewish Philanthropies: A grant of $1,000,000 in annual support. A portion of these funds supports disabilities housing in Boston, education programs for Ethiopian Jews in Haifa, Israel, and health and social services for vulnerable people in the former Soviet Union.
Dana Farber Cancer Institute: A grant of $25,000 in annual support.
Falmouth Fund: A grant of $5,000 in annual support.
Inner City Scholarship Fund: A grant of $5,000 in annual support.
Museum of Fine Arts: A grant of $30,000 in annual support.
United Way of Massachusetts Bay: A grant of $50,000 in annual support.
