The Boston Foundation recently announced $19.2 million in grants this quarter, largely to programs focused on the arts and design, closing the achievement gap in minority education, and boosting the vitality of the nonprofit industry.
One art and youth development organization – Raw Art Works in Lynn, Massachusetts – received an unexpected surprise when it was awarded the Out of the Blue grant, an unrestricted and unsolicited grant of $75,000 to an area nonprofit.
Raw Art Works is an art-based youth development program, providing more than 550 students a year with art and film classes, career and college counseling, and mentoring and leadership development programs. Approximately 90 percent of seniors in the program go on to college.
Another art program to receive Boston Foundation funding was the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, which received a $40,000 grant. The money will go to the college’s Designing an Industry/Designing the Future project, which aims to build a cohesive network of designers within the college and extending into other regional and international design networks.
Much of the education grant money was directed based on recent research by the Indicators Project and Understanding Boston, whose latest reports indicated that pilot and charter schools are one of the city’s most valuable resources for closing the achievement gap in education between white and minority students.
Accordingly, the Massachusetts Center for Charter School Excellence received a grant of $75,000.
Other programs aimed at improving educational attainment among minorities received grants, including $100,000 to the organization Massachusetts 2020, to support its Expanded Learning Time Program. Another $50,000 went to the Bay State Banner organization, which teaches Boston’s minority neighborhoods about college opportunities.
Additional grants went to the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network and the Boston University School of Management’s Institute for Nonprofit Management, both with the aim of supporting the future of the nonprofit sector.
The Boston Foundation, one of America’s oldest and largest community foundations, gave up to $79 million in grants last year. 
