Grantmakers › Massachusetts

Cromwell Harbor Supporting Foundation

Boston, MA · EIN 87-3060445. Reported 52 grants totalling $4,512,001 to 23 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

23organizations funded
$25,000median reported grant
$4,512,001granted, 2021-2024
75%of grantees funded again the next year
37%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 Cromwell Harbor Supporting Foundation, the IRS classifies it as a community foundation (NTEE T31).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 23 distinct organizations, with 37% 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. 75% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $25,000. Half of what it reported fell between $15,000 and $100,000; the smallest was $6,000 and the largest $1,176,000. 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
1 grant
$10,000 - $25,000
14 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
16 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
7 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
10 grants
$250,000 Or More
4 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
College of the AtlanticBar Harbor, ME$1,671,000332024
Vital Cxns IncRoslindale, MA$530,001332024
Mass General Brigham IncorporatedSomerville, MA$400,000332024
Boston Foundation IncBoston, MA$355,000112023
Jesup Memorial LibraryBar Harbor, ME$350,000332024
Authors Guild Fdn IncNew York, NY$300,000442024
North Bennet Street SchoolBoston, MA$200,000442024
Lawrence Catholic Academy of Lawrence Massachusetts IncLawrence, MA$100,000112024
Mount Desert Land and Garden PreserveSeal Harbor, ME$75,000332024
Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities IncHaverhill, MA$75,000332024
WGBH Educational FoundationBrighton, MA$75,000332024
Childrens Tumor FoundationNew York, NY$60,000332024
President and Fellows of Harvard CollegeCambridge, MA$60,000222024
Outer CoastSitka, AK$50,000112024
Pickles Group IncWinnetka, IL$50,000112024
Friends of AcadiaBar Harbor, ME$40,000332024
Kids Alive International IncAlpharetta, GA$30,000332024
Groton SchoolGroton, MA$25,000112021
Healthy AcadiaEllsworth, ME$20,000222023
MiraclefeetChapel Hill, NC$20,000222023
Mount Desert Island HospitalBar Harbor, ME$10,000112024
St Pauls Episcopal ChurchCaribou, ME$10,000112024
Museum of Fine ArtsBoston, MA$6,000112023

15 of 23 (65%) 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 the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 18 of 23 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Education
5 orgs
Health Care
4 orgs
Arts & Culture
3 orgs
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
1 org
Medical Research
1 org
Youth Development
1 org
Environment
1 org
International Affairs
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20218$360,000$37,500
202210$366,667$25,000
202316$2,358,667$25,000
202418$1,426,667$37,500

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

48% of its giving went to organizations in Maine. 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.

Maine
$2.2M
Massachusetts
$1.8M
New York
$360K
Alaska
$50K
Illinois
$50K
Georgia
$30K
North Carolina
$20K

Down to the city

Bar Harbor, ME
$2.1M
Boston, MA
$561K
Roslindale, MA
$530K
Somerville, MA
$400K
New York, NY
$360K
Lawrence, MA
$100K

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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 a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund21 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc18 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program18 shared recipientsNational Philanthropic Trust17 shared recipientsRaymond James Charitable Endowment Fund12 shared recipientsMorgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc12 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 $25,000 -- 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 Maine.
  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 education in MassachusettsEvery funder in this groupFoundations funding arts & culture in MassachusettsEvery funder in this group

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Cromwell Harbor Supporting Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 17 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.

Address of record on the latest return: Co Choate 2 International Place, Boston, MA, 02110.

EIN 87-3060445 · 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.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.