FundersMassachusetts

Melrose Cooperative Bank Foundation

Melrose, MA · EIN 46-5490603. Reported 90 grants totalling $457,300 to 36 organizations across tax years 2021-2024. This foundation did not tell the IRS it funds only preselected organizations.

Yesaccepts unsolicited requests
$3,750median grant
$457,300granted, 2021-2024
36organizations funded
74%of grantees funded again the next year
$2,852,274assets, latest filing

Does this foundation accept applications?

Yes -- on its own tax return. Form 990-PF asks every private foundation whether it makes grants only to organizations it selects itself. Of the 91,758 foundations in our data that made a grant and answered, 78% said yes -- and applying to those is wasted effort. Melrose Cooperative Bank Foundation did not check that box on its most recent filing, which puts it in the minority that is at least open to being approached.

This is the foundation's own statement to the IRS, not our judgement, and it says nothing about whether they have a form, a deadline, or an appetite for new grantees. Treat it as the reason this foundation is worth your research time, not as an invitation. Many small foundations of this kind have no website and no application process -- a letter of inquiry is the normal first step.

How big are its grants?

The median grant is $3,750. Half of everything it gave fell between $2,000 and $7,500; the smallest was $1,000 and the largest $17,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong foundation.

$1,000 - $5,000
47 grants
$5,000 - $10,000
23 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
20 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Years funded is the number of separate tax years in which the organization received money -- more than one means a real relationship rather than a one-off.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Mission of DeedsReading, MA$56,000442024
Greater Boston Stage CompanyStoneham, MA$45,500442024
The Food DriveMelrose, MA$45,500442024
Melrose Orchestral AssociationMelrose, MA$45,000442024
Follow Your Art Community Studios IncMelrose, MA$37,500442024
Friends of the Middlesex Fells ReservationMelrose, MA$22,500442024
Mystic Valley Elder ServicesMalden, MA$20,000442024
Polymnia Choral SocietyMelrose, MA$20,000442024
Melrose High School PTO- Grad NightMelrose, MA$18,000442024
Melrose Affordable Housing CorporationMelrose, MA$16,000332023
Community Coalition of Melrose IncMelrose, MA$15,600332024
Housing Families IncMalden, MA$13,000332024
Melrose Family YMCAMelrose, MA$11,500332023
The Fitch HomeMelrose, MA$10,000112021
Melrose Alliance Against ViolenceMelrose, MA$7,750332024
Melrose Farmers MarketMelrose, MA$7,500222024
The Immigrant Learning Center IncMalden, MA$7,500332024
The Bridge a School and Community PartnershipMelrose, MA$6,250332024
Filmmakers Collaberative IncMelrose, MA$6,000222023
Bread for LifeMalden, MA$5,000112021
Melrose Education Foundation IncMelrose, MA$5,000222023
Sdm Foundation IncMelrose, MA$5,000112023
The May InstituteRevere, MA$5,000442024
Kaplan Family Hospice House Care DimensionsDanvers, MA$4,000442024
Lynn Business-Education Foundation IncLynn, MA$3,500112022
Friends of Memorial Hall IncMelrose, MA$3,000222024
Manchester Essex Education FundGloucester, MA$3,000332023
Melrose Red Hawk RoboticsMelrose, MA$2,500112023
Melrose KindMelrose, MA$2,000112023
Potencia IncMalden, MA$2,000222024
Melrose BandaidersMelrose, MA$1,200112023
Baby Cafe USA IncWakefield, MA$1,000112023
Broken Leg Productions IncMelrose, MA$1,000112022
Caritas Communities IncBraintree, MA$1,000112022
Central Lincoln County YMCADamariscotta, ME$1,000112024
Melrose Knights of ColumbusMelrose, MA$1,000112021

24 of 36 (67%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold.

Measured the way we measure every foundation -- what share of one year's grantees are funded again the next -- this one retains 74%, across 3 year-to-year transitions. The median foundation retains about 67%, so this one is about typical. A high number means its list is close to settled and a newcomer has to displace someone; a low one means it is still moving money around, which is where an opening is.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose field of its filings. This is the closest thing to a statement of what this foundation cares about, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the recipient's own IRS classification, for the 46 grants where we could identify the organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses.

Human Services
13 grants
Arts & Culture
10 grants
Education
5 grants
Community Improvement
4 grants
Housing & Shelter
4 grants
Food & Nutrition
4 grants
Crime & Legal
3 grants
Health Care
1 grant

Giving by year

Tax yearGrantsTotalMedian grant
202119$107,500$5,000
202222$111,000$3,750
202329$126,300$2,500
202420$112,500$5,000

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- filings arrive about a year late, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a foundation winding down.

Where its money goes

Foundations concentrate geographically far more than their mission statements suggest. 100% of this one's giving went to organizations in Massachusetts. If you are outside its footprint, that matters more than how well your programme fits.

Massachusetts
$456K
Maine
$1K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These funders gave to organizations this one also funded -- some private foundations, some community foundations and other grantmaking charities. Shared grantees are the strongest available signal that two funders have overlapping priorities, and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund13 shared recipientsEastern Bank Foundation13 shared recipientsThe Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc8 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc7 shared recipientsCummings Foundation Grants Inc (fka Oneworld Boston Inc)6 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc6 shared recipients

How to approach this foundation

  1. Check you are its size. The median grant is $3,750. Asking for ten times that is the most common way small organizations waste a submission.
  2. Check you are in its geography. Its giving is concentrated in Massachusetts.
  3. Read the recipient list above for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer, and a cheap one to get.
  4. Look up the current filing before writing. The 990-PF names the foundation's officers and, where one exists, its application procedure. We link it below.

Related guides

Foundations funding human services in MassachusettsEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding arts & culture in MassachusettsEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding education in MassachusettsEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Melrose Cooperative Bank Foundation's own Form 990-PF filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred, or estimated.

Address of record on the latest return: Po Box 761145, Melrose, MA, 02176. This is the address the foundation gave the IRS; many small foundations file through an accountant or a bank trust department, so it may not be where post to a programme officer should go.

EIN 46-5490603 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Foundation returns are published about a year after the tax year ends. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this foundation has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next -- and a much better basis for deciding whether to write to them than a mission statement.

Is something here wrong about your foundation? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.