January 14, 2025 CFWM News, Press Releases
Community Foundation Strengthens Impact Through Flexible Funding Opportunity and New Strategic Partnerships
Awards $3.2 million to 109 nonprofit organizations in latest grant round.
Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts is proud to announce an investment of $3,202,800 in Flexible Funding grants to 109 local organizations in Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties, an increase of over $900,000 in grant support since last year. This investment reflects the Community Foundation’s commitment to strengthening capacity throughout our region’s nonprofit sector.
Increases in its investment were made possible by new partnerships with the MassMutual Foundation and an individual donor committed to addressing the needs of families in Franklin County. Collectively, this support has expanded the reach and impact of the 2024 Flexible Funding opportunity.
Flexible Funding grants provide unrestricted resources of up to $30,000 to nonprofit organizations working in a range of areas, including those falling within the Community Foundation’s strategic priorities of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in workplaces and institutions, accessible and more affordable post-secondary education and training, a strong start for all children, and a vibrant local arts and creativity ecosystem. Capacity-building support enables grantees to strengthen their operations, expand their reach, and create a lasting impact based on key areas of need for each organization.
MassMutual Foundation, seeking to address barriers to financial well-being while diversifying its reach in Springfield, provided a $560,000 grant to the Community Foundation: $500,000 was allotted to Flexible Funding grants, with the additional $60,000 earmarked to support the program’s growth and scale. MassMutual Foundation identified the opportunity to support the Community Foundation’s Flexible Funding Grant Program, impressed with its trust-based approach, inclusion of community leaders in decision-making, and ability to provide additional resources so that nonprofits best positioned to build financial resiliency through the MassMutual Foundation’s four focus areas—building networks, fostering financial health, fulfilling basic, financial needs, and expanding employment opportunities—would have the means needed to support residents of Springfield.
“Partnering with the Community Foundation has created great synergy between our foundations,” said Dennis Duquette, president and CEO of the MassMutual Foundation. “We are confident in their trust-based approach to grantmaking and dedication to supporting organizations that significantly impact Springfield and the surrounding communities.”
Bolstered by this confidence and the opportunity to ensure even more nonprofits thrive, in early December, the MassMutual Foundation informed the Community Foundation of its decision to increase its support for the 2025 Flexible Funding Cycle to $896,000, with $800,000 dedicated to Flexible Funding grants and the remaining $96,000 allocated to program support and scale. This significant commitment underscores the MassMutual Foundation’s continued dedication to building financial resilience in Springfield, promoting active community participation in the process, and enabling the Community Foundation to expand its efforts even further.
“We are incredibly grateful for these commitments and for their trust in their Community Foundation to have our ears to the ground and make an impact where it is needed most,” said Megan Burke, CEO of the Community Foundation. “We are also thrilled to have partnered with a generous individual in Franklin County, who contributed $120,000 this year to the Community Foundation for grantmaking to four additional organizations serving Franklin County, and with the MassMutual Foundation, which has expanded its support for 2025. These commitments enable us to deepen and broaden our investment in our community and support our nonprofit partners in their important and remarkable work to serve area residents.”
Applications for the next Flexible Funding round will open this summer. To learn more about Flexible Funding and the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, visit https://communityfoundation.org/.
Grant recipients for the 2024 Flexible Funding cycle include:
| A Queen’s Narrative |
| Academic Leadership Association |
| All Farmers, Inc. |
| Amelia Park Children’s Museum, Inc. |
| Amherst Cinema Arts Center, Inc. |
| Ancestral Bridges Foundation |
| Antenna Cloud Farm |
| Arise for Social Justice |
| Art for the Soul Art Gallery, Inc. |
| Art Garden, Inc. |
| Artspace Community Arts Center |
| Ashfield Community Preschool, Inc. |
| Attack Bear Press |
| Available Potential Enterprises Limited |
| Black Behavioral Health Network, Inc. |
| Blues to Green, Inc. |
| Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity |
| Boys & Girls Club Family Center, Inc. |
| Boys & Girls Club of Greater Westfield |
| Brick House Community Resource Center, Inc. |
| Bright Futures Early Learning Center |
| Caring Health Center, Inc. |
| Center for New Americans |
| Children’s Advocacy Center of Franklin and North Quabbin, |
| Children’s Museum at Holyoke |
| Chinese Association of Western Massachusetts |
| CitySpace, Inc. |
| Collective Power for Reproductive Justice |
| Common Capital, Inc. |
| Common Wealth Mural Collaborative |
| Community Music School of Springfield, Inc. |
| Conway School of Landscape Design, Inc. |
| Cultural Images Group, Inc. |
| Davenport Child Care, Inc. |
| Double Edge Theatre Productions, Inc. |
| Drama Studio, Inc. |
| Dress for Success of Western Massachusetts, Inc. |
| Easthampton Theater Company |
| EDC 413Works, Inc. |
| Eggtooth Productions, Inc. |
| Empowerment Through the Arts |
| Enlace de Familias de Holyoke/Holyoke Family Network, Inc. |
| Entrepreneurship for All, Inc. |
| Families First Parenting Programs, Inc. |
| Follow My Steps Foundation, Inc. |
| Franklin County Community |
| Friends of the Montague Common Hall |
| Friends of the Wendell Meetinghouse, Inc. |
| Ghost Ensemble |
| Give Music, Inc. |
| Gray House, Inc. |
| Greater Springfield Habitat for Humanity |
| Greater Westfield MA Committee for Homeless |
| Happier Valley Comedy Inc |
| Hilltown Village, Inc. DBA It Takes A Village |
| Holyoke Art |
| Holyoke Community Media, Inc. |
| Holyoke YMCA, Inc. |
| Institute for the Musical Arts |
| International Language Institute of MA, Inc. |
| Junior Achievement of Western Massachusetts |
| LaunchSpace |
| Leverett Craftsmen and Artists, Incorporated |
| Local Access |
| Make-It-Springfield |
| Massachusetts Fair Housing Center |
| Men of Color Health Awareness (MOCHA) |
| Musica Franklin, Inc. |
| Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts Education Fund, Inc. |
| New England Learning Center for Women in Transition, Inc. |
| Northampton Center for the Arts, Inc. |
| Northampton Community Music Center, Inc. |
| Northeast Organic Farming Association Massachusetts Chapter |
| Nuestras Raices Inc. |
| Nueva Esperanza, Inc. |
| Ohketeau Cultural Center |
| Pa’Lante Transformative Justice, Inc. |
| Parent Villages |
| Perugia Press, Inc. |
| Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares, Inc. |
| Pioneer Valley Workers Center, Inc. |
| Piti Theatre Company |
| Play Incubation Collective |
| Rachel’s Table |
| Raising A Reader Massachusetts (RAR-MA, Inc.) |
| River East School-to-Career, Inc. |
| Roca, Inc. |
| Self-Evident Education, Inc. |
| Shea Theater Arts Center, Inc. |
| Silverthorne Theater Company, Inc. |
| Sojourner Truth School For Social Change Leadership, Inc. |
| Springfield Cultural Partnership, Inc. |
| Springfield Museums |
| Springfield No One Leaves |
| Springfield Operations ECS, Inc. |
| Stone Soup Cafe, Inc. |
| Teach Western Mass |
| Tech Foundry |
| The Care Center |
| The Literacy Project, Inc. |
| The Performance Project, Inc. |
| Top Floor Learning Inc |
| Valley Community Land Trust |
| Wellspring Cooperative Corporation |
| West Springfield Boys & Girls Club, Inc. |
| Willie Ross School for the Deaf, Inc |
| Yiddishkayt Western Mass |
| Young at Heart Chorus Incorporated |
| YWCA of Western Massachusetts |