Opportunity Overview
The Cummings Foundation $35 Million Grant Program — 2027 Cycle will distribute $35 million among 150 local-area nonprofits through multi-year grants paid over either three or 10 years. The first-stage Letter of Inquiry closes September 16, 2026 at 5:00 PM; invited full applications are due January 13, 2027 at 5:00 PM.
Funding Structure
Applicants should write their LOI with a three-year grant in mind. Prior Cummings grant winners are automatically considered for the 25 ten-year awards after the 150 winners are selected. Annual installments may range from $10,000 to $100,000. Requests of $25,000 per year or less use a short-form application and do not require a grant budget; requests above $25,000 per year use the comprehensive application and require a grant budget.
Who Can Apply
The program primarily supports Massachusetts 501(c)(3) public charities and eligible public schools headquartered in Essex, Middlesex, or Suffolk County, or in Brookline, Dedham, Milton, Needham, Quincy, or Wellesley in Norfolk County. Applicants generally must provide the majority of their services in the same priority geography and cannot be regional or national organizations unless a local affiliate has its own EIN and board.
Cummings generally does not fund medical research, private foundations, endowments, debt reduction, tuition-charging K-12 schools, or very large organizations with robust endowments. Public schools are eligible, while municipalities are usually ineligible except in the 12 communities where the Cummings organization operates commercial properties.
Healthcare and School Relevance
The Foundation explicitly lists hospitals/clinics and mental health among its priority funding causes, along with human services, education, and other community needs. Nearly all 2027 grants will be treated as general operating support, allowing eligible nonprofits to use funds for staffing, administration, technology, rent/facilities, supplies, programs/services, and other core mission-related expenses. Large multi-department organizations such as hospitals and universities will receive restricted support for the specific department that applied.
Atlas Strategic Analysis
Atlas Opportunity Score: 92/100. This is one of the most flexible local philanthropic opportunities in greater Boston because healthcare, mental health, schools, human services, and technology can all fit within the program’s broad operating-support model when the applicant itself is eligible.
N9+ Direct Vendor Fit: potentially strong but applicant-led. Technology is an allowable general operating expense, but the strongest path is through an eligible local healthcare or nonprofit applicant with a clear service-access mission. For hospitals or universities, any request must be tied to the specific department named in the application. Atlas should not treat the $35 million pool as an applicant ceiling or assume that a particular technology purchase will be approved without a strong mission and geographic fit.
Recommended Next Action
No new Massachusetts applicant outreach may begin because the September 16, 2026 at 5:00 PM LOI cutoff is now inside Atlas’s 48-hour outreach window and the Foundation does not separately publish a time zone. Work may continue only for otherwise eligible organizations that were already contacted before the cutoff, subject to current sent-history and applicant-readiness checks. For any such engaged applicant, confirm headquarters and service-area eligibility and build a concise LOI around local impact, the population served, current need, and how flexible Cummings support would strengthen capacity and outcomes.
Verified source: Cummings Foundation — $35 Million Grant Program.