GrantmakersMassachusetts

The Massachusetts Association for

Boston, MA · EIN 22-2777630. Reported 64 grants totalling $8,835,279 to 23 organizations across tax years 2021-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.

23organizations funded
$56,430median reported grant
$8,835,279granted, 2021-2023
95%of grantees funded again the next year
40%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 Massachusetts Association for, the IRS classifies it under civil rights rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE R20Z) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 23 distinct organizations, with 40% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is concentrated. Most of the money has a settled destination, and the remainder is what is realistically in play.
  3. How much its list changes. 95% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% private foundations manage. This list is close to settled, so a newcomer has to displace someone rather than fill a gap.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $56,430. Half of what it reported fell between $45,583 and $132,127; the smallest was $5,204 and the largest $2,215,402. 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
2 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
2 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
21 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
19 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
15 grants
$250,000 Or More
5 grants

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
AbcdincBoston, MA$3,555,644332023
Quincy Community Action Programs IncQuincy, MA$942,277332023
Community Action Programs Inter-City IncChelsea, MA$554,841332023
Self Help IncBrockton, MA$523,920332023
South Shore Community Action Council IncPlymouth, MA$480,933332023
Valley Opportunity Council IncChicopee, MA$317,114332023
Community Action Pioneer Valley IncGreenfield, MA$238,644332023
Citizens for Citizens IncFall River, MA$232,845332023
Worcester Community Action Council IncWorcester, MA$217,919332023
Berkshire Community Action Council IncPittsfield, MA$213,848332023
Greater Lawrence Community Action Council IncLawrence, MA$191,439332023
Making Opportunity Count IncFitchburg, MA$185,603332023
Community Teamwork IncLowell, MA$180,639332023
People Acting in Community Endeavors IncNew Bedford, MA$175,190332023
North Shore Community Action Programs IncPeabody, MA$169,137332023
Leo IncLynn, MA$134,524332023
Springfield Partners for CommunitySpringfield, MA$133,813332023
Community Action Agency of Somerville IncSomerville, MA$126,991332023
Community Action Committee of Cape Cod & Islands IncHyannis, MA$109,537332023
South Middlesex Opportunity Council IncFramingham, MA$73,708332023
The Diaper Bank of Connecticut IncNorth Haven, CT$39,611112023
Action IncGloucester, MA$23,769222022
Cambridge Economic Opportunity Committee IncCambridge, MA$13,333112021

21 of 23 (91%) received money in more than one year over the 3 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 kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 13 of 23 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
9 orgs
Community Improvement
3 orgs
Education
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202122$1,523,707$49,633
202221$4,339,078$80,628
202321$2,972,494$67,895

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

100% of its giving went to organizations in Massachusetts. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.

Massachusetts
$8.8M
Connecticut
$40K

Down to the city

Boston, MA
$3.6M
Quincy, MA
$942K
Chelsea, MA
$555K
Brockton, MA
$524K
Plymouth, MA
$481K
Chicopee, MA
$317K

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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 Fund12 shared recipientsUnited Way of Massachusetts Bay Inc11 shared recipientsBoston Foundation Inc8 shared recipientsEastern Bank Foundation8 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc5 shared recipientsNational Philanthropic Trust5 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 $56,430 -- 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 education in MassachusettsEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from The Massachusetts Association for's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2020-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

Address of record on the latest return: 105 Chauncy Street 3RD Floor, Boston, MA, 02111.

EIN 22-2777630 · 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.