Barr Awards $18.5 Million in Second Quarter of 2024

On June 11th, the Barr Foundation Board of Trustees met in person and approved three grants totaling $5.7 million. This adds to grants approved by the Trustees, President, Vice President for Strategy and Programs, and Program Directors for a total of $18.5 million awarded since the Board of Trustees meeting in March.

Learn more about some of our partners and their work below.

In Arts & Creativity, Barr awarded six grants totaling $2.4 million. A $700,000 grant was awarded to the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities (Mass Humanities) to support Expand Massachusetts Stories—a grants program that supports projects that collect, interpret and/or share narratives about the Commonwealth with an emphasis on the voices and experiences that have gone unrecognized, or have been excluded from public conversation. A grant of $250,000 will support the Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) Arts and Culture Collaborative, led by the Asian Community Fund at The Boston Foundation, to unify and uplift the AAPI arts and culture sector in Massachusetts working within three key priorities: asset mapping, narrative change, and advocacy.

In Climate, Barr awarded 15 grants totaling $7.3 million. A $700,000 grant to the Northeast Clean Energy Council will support the expansion of clean energy and access to opportunities in the climate economy through partnerships, informing policy, and regulatory development. This grant was awarded in partnership with Barr’s Racial Wealth Equity Initiative. A $675,000 grant to TransitMatters (fiscal sponsor is Conservation Law Foundation) will help the organization support the leadership of grassroots and community-based organizations in transforming the MBTA and public transit across Massachusetts. A $360,000 grant to A Better City will support clean energy and mobility research, analysis, and advocacy efforts.

The Education Program awarded nine grants totaling $6.9 million. Two grants were awarded to national high school design partner, Springpoint, to continue work on two significant projects. The first is an 18-month, $1.7 million grant to Springpoint’s National Center for Civic Innovation to expand access to Transformational Learning Experiences (TLEs) across more classrooms, and document learnings that can be used as a blueprint for more widespread system-level adoption. TLEs are rigorous, high-quality, project-based curriculum units that provide more meaningful, relevant student learning experiences. The second grant to Springpoint is a 24-month, $3.3 million grant that will support the implementation of the second cohort of the Transformative Leaders of Massachusetts (TLM) fellowship. The fellowship is a two-year, apprentice-based, leadership development program to train a cohort of 15 aspiring high school leaders to design and lead the high schools of tomorrow.

Sector Effectiveness awarded a $1.5 million grant to Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center to provide continued support for the Delivering on Equity Collective, which is working to develop a robust statewide ecosystem of organizations and community leaders that align power building, policy research and analysis, and advocacy infrastructure so that communities across Massachusetts thrive.

Within Barr’s Special Initiatives, a $265,000 grant was awarded by Waterfront Initiative to support operations expansion for Moakley Park and Recreation Department.