OVERVIEW: The Abrams Foundation is the philanthropic vehicle of David and Amy Abrams. The foundation’s grantmaking has supported Boston organizations focused on journalism and narrative, arts and creativity, and access and opportunity.
IP TAKE: This place-based funder is a major support of journalism and the arts in Boston. While funding tends to stay local, it generally invests in larger organizations that scale, as well as in organizations with which it can partner. Abrams is not easily accessible and does not accept unsolicited proposals; however, it is approachable. To get on this funder’s radar, your work and impact is going to need be backed by the financials and data to prove what you can achieve. That said, there are several journalism fellowship opportunities via partnerships with other foundations if you do some digging and you’re an individual grantseeker rather than an organizational one.
PROFILE: Established in 1997, the Abrams Foundation is the foundation of David and Amy Abrams. Financier David Abrams founded Abrams Capital in Boston. He and his wife Amy, who also has a finance background, move their philanthropy through the Abrams Foundation. The charity keeps a low profile and has a minimal web presence. Grantmaking interests include journalism and narrative, arts and creativity, and access and opportunity.
Grants for Journalism
Journalism is one of the foundation’s largest funding areas.
- The Abrams Foundation partnered with the Nieman Foundation, which works “to promote and elevate the standards of journalism,” to create the Abrams Nieman Fellowship for Local Investigative Journalism. It provides up to three fellowships for U.S. journalists working in local news and includes two semesters at Harvard University followed by up to nine months of supported fieldwork and reporting. It is open to news people in any medium—TV reporters, freelancers, radio journalists, podcast editors, daily newspaper reporters, etc. More information can be found on the Nieman site.
- The Abrams Foundation helps ProPublica give yearlong fellowships for investigative reporting along with supporting the independent news organization’s expansion into Illinois. “One of the most important things we can do is increase awareness about the need for and benefits of nonprofit journalism—that is, to add to the usual American philanthropic checklist of schools, hospitals, churches, and cultural institutions the possibility of donating to journalism,” Richard Tofel, president of ProPublica, recently told Inside Philanthropy.
- The Abrams Foundation has “supported the development, launch, and production” of FRONTLINE Dispatch,” which is a podcast that went live in 2017 and brought the PBS/WGBH investigative journalism documentary series “into the audio space.” WGBH is a previous Abrams grantee. The Abrams Foundation also backs a FRONTLINE/Columbia Journalism Fellowship. It offers Columbia Journalism grads the opportunity to work at FRONTLINE for a year. These fellows produce transmedia projects for FRONTLINE combining text, photography, graphics, video, and audio across broadcast and digital platforms.
- The Abrams Foundation also provides operating support to the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard, Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia, and the Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering America’s criminal justice system.
Grants for Arts and Culture
The Abrams couple via their foundation steadily support select arts institutions in Boston.
- A big grantee is the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which has received millions from the couple.
- The Boston Symphony Orchestra is another grantee.
- The family steadily supports schools and youth organizations, such as the Berklee College of Music, Firelight Media, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Whitney Museum of American Art.
Grants for Higher Education
Historically, the foundation’s education grantmaking has mainly supported colleges and universities in the Boston area.
- Grantees include Bard College, Emerson College, Harvard University, and Brown University’s Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice.
Grants for Jewish Causes
The family also supports Jewish organizations, such as Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston.
- The family has also supported Civic Leadership Fund at the Boston Foundation.
Important Grant Details:
Many grants are in the $10,000 to $50,000 range, but a few far exceed that number. The Abrams Foundation gave away more than $7 million in a recent year and held more than $132 million in assets.
- The foundation’s giving is largely focused on the city of Boston.
- The funder’s recent tax records to learn more about its local giving.
- This foundation does not accept unsolicited grant applications from nonprofits, as it only funds pre-selected organizations.
- The foundation does not publicly share its grantmaking guidelines.
- The phone number to reach the foundation is (617) 646-6140.
PEOPLE:
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CONTACT:
222 Berkeley St
Boston, MA 02116-3748
(617) 646-6140
