Boston Foundation makes $500,000 in grants

The Boston Foundation said it has made $500,000 in grants to regional organizations that provide immediate help to local residents in distress "as well as longer term support to catalyze change that will benefit vulnerable households."

Among grant recipients were the Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay, the Greater Boston Food Bank, United Way of Massachusetts Bay and the Merrimack Valley, the National Consumer Law Center, Citizens Energy Corp., and selected programs overseen by the city of Boston.

The grants are a response to the combined impact of rising prices, economic crisis, and housing foreclosures on the region's most vulnerable residents, the foundation said.

“We see a number of alarming trends coming together to threaten area residents this winter,” foundation president and chief executive Paul S. Grogan (right) said in a statement. “Higher food prices, volatile heating prices, shrinking public resources as a result of the national economic crisis, and an impending recession pose serious peril for families already in distress in the region as winter begins. We saw a need to respond quickly to expand the capacity of organizations with the skills and networks to help.”

The Boston Foundation, Greater Boston’s community foundation, is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the nation, with assets of over $964 million. In 2007, the Foundation and its donors made more than $92 million in grants to nonprofit organizations and received gifts of more than $90 million.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)