Essex County Community Foundation breaks the $5 million mark in grants awarded

July 9, 2007

Danvers, MA- Essex County Community Foundation has granted over $5 million to non-profit agencies.  In the past 12 months alone we granted close to $1 million in grant dollars.

ECCF manages and distributes funds for eight competitive grant programs and a dozen scholarships.  In addition, more than 50 individual donor advised funds support a variety of programs and causes in Essex County.  Our close involvement with the 1,500 nonprofit organizations serves as a resource to these donors as they choose the organizations that best meet their philanthropic interests.

ECCF made 305 grants in this past year.  The grants are as varied as the communities we serve.  A few examples of the organizations we have helped to reach their goals  and the individuals we have touched through our funding opportunities are.  A boating program that teaches sailing and kayaking to inner city kids from Lawrence each summer.  A program for Latina women in Lynn to help them access the resources that are available for families in their new community.  A board development study to assist a small museum in Cape Ann restructure and strengthen its capacity to serve its audiences.  Equipment to begin a Robotics course for students in a Salem middle school.  Support for a program that helps young victims of family violence in the Greater Newburyport area. And, equipment and therapies for physically disabled children to help with gross motor skills at a center serving the Greater Lawrence community.

For every grant given, there is a heart warming story of the help that grant provides to those tirelessly working non-profit organizations in Essex County who are dedicated to improving our collective common good, these organizations feed our hungry neighbors and care for the sick and elderly.  They protect our wetlands support and inspire our children, counsel the abused, and help to enrich out lives through the arts and humanities.