Massachusetts Grants for Nonprofits
Learn about grants to nonprofits in Massachusetts by browsing our curated list of top funders below. Members can also research funding opportunities in Massachusetts using the search tool for GrantFinder. Become a member.
Funding Landscape and Giving Trends in Massachusetts
Despite its size, Massachusetts has an outsize impact in education and American history. One of the earliest U.S. states, it figures prominently in the nation’s history and houses more than 100 colleges and universities, including Harvard, the nation’s first institution of higher education. Massachusetts has the highest percentage of residents with a college degree in the U.S. Education, health, research and development, and the service sector (including tourism) are key to this New England state’s present-day economy.
More than 5,000 Massachusetts-based foundations awarded $22.6 billion in grants in 2023, according to data from Candid and the regional philanthropy-serving organization Philanthropy Massachusetts. Top funding priorities for these Massachusetts grantmakers include education, health, and human services, with a substantial amount of grant funding going to Massachusetts’ institutions of higher education. Education was also the number-one priority of individual donors making grants for Massachusetts through DAFs at Vanguard Charitable in 2023. Children and youth and the economically disadvantaged are priority populations served by grants from Massachusetts foundations.
Major private foundations making grants for Massachusetts include the Barr Foundation, which focuses on climate change, education, and the arts across the state and New England. The Klarman Family Foundation, which makes grants for medical research as well as to support democracy in the US and Israel, has a program dedicated to grants for community health and well-being in Massachusetts, with a focus on children’s mental health and music education. The Highland Street Foundation supports children and families in need across Massachusetts.
There are more than a dozen community foundations across the state that come together through the Massachusetts Community Foundations Partnership. Some Massachusetts community foundations, such as the Boston Foundation and the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, manage substantial assets and grantmaking through donor-advised funds. The Boston Foundation is one of the nation’s oldest and largest community foundations, with assets of $1.7 billion today. The Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation focuses on community development and the arts in a tri-state area spanning parts of New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
In an example of public-private partnership in Massachusetts philanthropy, IP’s Mike Scutari reported on an innovative collaboration between the Barr Foundation and Massachusetts community foundations to support arts initiatives across Massachusetts.
Foundations based outside Massachusetts that give significantly to the state include the Gates Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, both of which make grants for Massachusetts health and medical research institutions.
In recent years, Philanthropy Massachusetts has worked to advance race, equity, diversity, and inclusion in their grantmaking. It remains to be seen how the second Trump administration’s attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion will affect trends in Massachusetts philanthropy.
