GrantmakersMassachusetts

The East Boston Foundation

East Boston, MA · EIN 31-1601979. Reported 78 grants totalling $2,024,490 to 34 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

34organizations funded
$12,500median reported grant
$2,024,490granted, 2021-2024
65%of grantees funded again the next year
29%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For The East Boston Foundation, the IRS classifies it as a public foundation -- a grantmaker that raises its money from many sources rather than from one donor (NTEE T30Z).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 34 distinct organizations, with 29% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 65% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 57% median for grantmaking charities -- noticeably lower than the 67% private foundations manage. Organizations like this one rotate more of their list each year, which is where an opening for a newcomer tends to be.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $12,500. Half of what it reported fell between $11,200 and $25,000; the smallest was $5,000 and the largest $389,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
5 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
49 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
17 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
5 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
1 grant
$250,000 Or More
1 grant

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Martin Pino Center Community CouncilBoston, MA$593,000432024
Eastie Farm IncBoston, MA$184,000442024
Eb Apac (abcd Summerworks)East Boston, MA$175,000442024
Salesian Boys & Girls Club IncEast Boston, MA$125,000442024
Zumix IncEast Boston, MA$104,000332024
Piers Park Sailing Center IncEast Boston, MA$75,000442024
East Boston Social Centers IncEast Boston, MA$70,500442024
Paris Street Community Council IncEast Boston, MA$64,500222024
Neighborhood of Affordable Housing IncEast Boston, MA$58,600332024
Self Esteem Boston Educational Institute IncJamaica Plain, MA$50,000442024
The Fund for Parks and Recreation in BostonBoston, MA$50,000442024
East Boston Community Council IncBoston, MA$45,000442024
Martin Pino Community Center Council IncEast Boston, MA$39,700222023
Little League Baseball IncEast Boston, MA$37,920442024
East Boston Community Soup Kitchen IncBoston, MA$37,500332024
The East Boston Athletic Board IncEast Boston, MA$35,000222023
Young Mens Christian Association of Greater Boston IncBoston, MA$32,500332024
Friends of Belle Isle Marsh IncEast Boston, MA$25,000112023
Italia Unita of Massachusetts IncEast Boston, MA$22,500222024
Mystic River Watershed Association IncArlington, MA$21,300112024
Eb Girls SoftballEast Boston, MA$20,000222022
Steppingstone Foundation IncBoston, MA$20,000222023
Veronica Robles Cultural CenterSaugus, MA$20,000112022
2ND Act Org IncBoston, MA$12,500112023
Friends of the Children-Boston IncRoxbury, MA$12,500112024
Pop Warner Little Scholars IncBoston, MA$12,500112024
Speak for the Trees IncDorchester, MA$12,500112023
United States Lightship Museum IncEast Boston, MA$12,500112021
America Scores New EnglandEast Boston, MA$10,000112023
Horizons for Homeless Children IncRoxbury, MA$10,000112024
Jcam Charitable Foundation IncNeedham, MA$10,000112021
North Suffolk Community Services IncChelsea, MA$10,000112024
E IncCharlestown, MA$8,770112024
The@harborkeepersEast Boston, MA$7,200112023

20 of 34 (59%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 25 of 34 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Human Services
8 orgs
Arts & Culture
4 orgs
Education
3 orgs
Environment
3 orgs
Food & Nutrition
2 orgs
Recreation & Sports
2 orgs
Housing & Shelter
1 org
Community Improvement
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202116$692,000$12,500
202216$329,120$12,500
202323$408,100$12,500
202423$595,270$12,500

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

Boston, MA
$987K
East Boston, MA
$882K
Jamaica Plain, MA
$50K
Roxbury, MA
$22K
Arlington, MA
$21K
Saugus, MA
$20K
Dorchester, MA
$12K
Needham, MA
$10K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available 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 Fund19 shared recipientsBoston Foundation Inc15 shared recipientsLiberty Mutual Foundation Inc12 shared recipientsCummings Foundation Grants Inc (fka Oneworld Boston Inc)11 shared recipientsEastern Bank Foundation11 shared recipientsFidelity Foundation10 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $12,500 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Massachusetts.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

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 The East Boston Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I 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: 245 Sumner Street 110, East Boston, MA, 02128.

EIN 31-1601979 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

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