The Cambridge Community Foundation (CCF) recently made its Community Fund grants, awarding almost $1.4 million this year to 157 Cambridge-serving nonprofits. While the CCF is Cambridge-focused, this year’s awards were influenced by national political trends.
With the Trump Administration in its second year, many local nonprofits are struggling to fulfill their missions — government funds have dried up and corporations have turned against diversity, equity and identity-oriented initiatives, including those supporting women and girls, said Geeta Pradhan, CCF’s executive director, and Christina Turner, its vice president of programs and grantmaking.
One funding recipient is Science Club for Girls (SCFG), which received $24,500 in total this year and last, for afterschool education and mentoring programs that help “girls and gender-expansive youth from underrepresented communities” develop knowledge in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
“People are surprised that there are penalties being felt by women and girls,” said Bonnie Bertolaet, SCFG’s executive director. She said it was a “tough time for STEM and for our funders,” many of which are technology and biotechnology companies.
Pradhan praised the nonprofit for continuing to fulfill its mission “in the face of outright attacks on things that mention girls specifically.”
Another woman-focused grant recipient, the Cambridge-based Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC), had not applied for funding in about a decade, Pradhan said. But government funding for its work “has dramatically changed.” It received $8,500 this year.
CCF also worked to help organizations responding to the federal government’s more punitive approach to immigration. At least seven grant recipients are focused on that population, though Pradhan said there may be others, because many nonprofits serving immigrant populations now try to disguise the nature of their work and their clients’ identities.
In addition, organizations can span multiple categories. One such organization is De Novo, which provides legal support on issues relating to immigration, but also housing, family law and disability, as well as counseling services.
An intensive review
CCF aims to be a long-term, invested supporter that understands and responds to “the changing needs in the community,” Pradhan said. Its grants involve a “labor-intensive” review process that took 14 separate 3-hour meetings, involving 44 local resident volunteer advisors.
This year, Community Fund awards ranged from $1,500 to $25,000, with an average of just under $9,000; the median was $7,000. Most applicants got funded — 199 organizations applied, with only 42 not receiving funding this cycle.
While the grants are not large, Turner said CCF funding comes with ongoing follow-up and support. The goal is to “develop a deeper understanding” of the nonprofits it partners with and their work, she said. As they get to know nonprofits through this process, CCF, which has about $69 million in assets according to the nonprofit-focused news organization ProPublica, may end up giving grants of up to $150,000 to nonprofits working in the arts and food insecurity, its two primary areas of focus.
Bertolaet of Science Club for Girls said Pradhan gave SCFG not just financial support but also valuable advice and contacts that helped them, for example, restructure in 2018 and grow in scope.
Controversial choices
Many recipients were in the CCF’s core mission areas, such as arts, food insecurity, and homelessness. Some were more controversial, such as The Black Response, a nonprofit “dedicated to defunding and abolishing the Cambridge Police Department.” It received a $5,000 grant for a second straight year.
Turner said that a core element of CCF’s work is “to understand how grassroot organizations serve their communities. We want to support them as they surface needs we might not understand.”
The Black Response called the funds “a vital recognition of our work promoting alternatives to the multiple harms perpetrated by the carceral state,” in an email to Cambridge Day signed “The Black Response Team.”
CCF also gave $5,000 this year and last to CultureHouse’s programming for the Harvard Square KiOSK. In April, City Council members questioned its effectiveness and approach, noting its low visitor turnout and lack of public engagement.
Turner said CCF’s grant reviewers said they wanted “to see what comes next, and how they’re able to evolve and pivot.” The award reflects the Foundation’s partnership model with the entities it funds — a longer-term vision which allows for cultivating and nurturing nonprofit partners, even those that may have had stumbles.
CultureHouse in July will “pilot a KiOSK Residency program” to highlight an artist’s work for a month, said Cleo Brigham, CultureHouse’s KiOSK manager. She added the goal is to provide “more support for artists to create some really special moments at the KiOSK.”
CCF also gave $10,000 this year and last to HEART (Cambridge Holistic Emergency Alternative Response Team), a stand-alone nonprofit that grew out of The Black Response. HEART currently operates a van used to give mobile crisis support, largely in the form of rides or accompaniment to court or other appointments. The van also makes rounds to provide aid to unhoused community members.
But it could be viewed as yet a third kind of alternative to regular emergency response, in addition to alternative response team within the Police Department and the Community Safety Department’s Community Assistance Response and Engagement team (CARE).
HEART’s mission “is rooted in the community and grounded in abolitionist values,” said its chair, Quinton Zondervan, a former city councillor. He said it has lost funding “in part due to the national zeitgeist” and has had to scale down operations.
Zondervan added that the goal is to allow community residents to request via 911 calls that HEART, rather than a city-staffed department, respond to their needs. He said it was always the plan for HEART to contract with the Community Safety Department.
For Pradhan, CCF’s community grant program is about hope. “The positive thing is that people are contributing and joining with us,” she said. When things feel out of control at the national level, she thinks, sometimes, “the only place you can really feel good about is when you’re investing in your community: supporting local artists, lifting up your kids, providing food and basic necessities to people.”
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