Newswise — Babson College, in a special partnership with The BASE, is one of 100 local nonprofits to receive grants of $100,000 each through Cummings Foundation's "$100K for 100" program.

Funding from the Cummings $100K for 100 grant will allow Babson to bring its ACTIVATE entrepreneurial curriculum for youth to The BASE in Roxbury, empowering more than 300 urban student-athletes, as well as at least 40 of their educators and coaches. The partnership was chosen from a total of 574 applicants during a competitive review process. 

Cheryl Yaffe Kiser, Executive Director of Babson’s The Lewis Institute, Melissa Partridge, Babson’s Director of Corporate and Foundation Philanthropy, and Stephanie Monteiro-Merritt, COO of The BASE joined approximately 300 other guests at a reception June 6th at TradeCenter 128 in Woburn to celebrate the $10 million infusion into Greater Boston's nonprofit sector. With the conclusion of this grant cycle, Cummings Foundation has now awarded more than $260 million to Greater Boston nonprofits alone.

Babson/The BASE

The Babson Youth Impact Lab, developed through The Lewis Institute at Babson College, seeks to put Babson’s methodology of Entrepreneurial Thought & Action® into the hands of younger populations to help them not just create their futures, but also address economic and social issues simultaneously.  Babson will partner with The BASE to educate its student-athletes and coaches to be entrepreneurial thinkers and actors through Babson’s ACTIVATE curriculum and teacher training.

The BASE aims to shift the national mindset about what it takes for urban youth to succeed and to build citizens who are committed to their success. The organization was founded in 2013 to re-imagine pathways to success for urban youth with a distinctive methodology that cultivates excellence, belief, and love. The BASE combines best-in-class baseball, softball, and basketball training and competition with empowering education and career training, resources, and opportunities. Since inception, The BASE has served 8,000+ youth on 600+ teams, achieving much success and recognition at the local, regional, and national level.

Cummings $100K for 100

The $100K for 100 program supports nonprofits that are based in and primarily serve Middlesex, Essex, and Suffolk counties. Through this place-based initiative, Cummings Foundation aims to give back in the area where it owns commercial buildings, all of which are managed, at no cost to the Foundation, by its affiliate Cummings Properties. Founded in 1970 by Bill Cummings, the Woburn-based commercial real estate firm leases and manages 10 million square feet of space, the majority of which exclusively benefits the Foundation.

"By having such a local focus, we aim to make a meaningful positive difference in the communities where our colleagues and leasing clients live and work," said Joel Swets, Cummings Foundation's executive director. "We are most grateful for the nonprofit organizations that assist and empower our neighbors, and we are proud to support their efforts."

This year's diverse group of grant recipients represents a wide variety of causes, including homelessness prevention, affordable housing, education, violence prevention, and food insecurity. Most of the grants will be paid over two to five years.

The complete list of 100 grant winners is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.

Cummings Foundation announced an additional $15 million in early May through its Sustaining Grants program. Through these awards, 50 local nonprofits will receive ongoing funding of $20,000 - $50,000 for 10 years.

The history behind Cummings Properties and Cummings Foundation is detailed in Bill Cummings' self­written memoir, "Starting Small and Making It Big: An Entrepreneur's Journey to Billion-Dollar Philanthropist." It is available on Amazon or cummings.com/book.

About Babson College

Babson College is the educator, convener, and thought leader of Entrepreneurship of All Kinds®. The top-ranked college for entrepreneurship education, Babson is a dynamic living and learning laboratory where students, faculty, and staff work together to address the real-world problems of business and society. We prepare the entrepreneurial leaders our world needs most: those with strong functional knowledge and the skills and vision to navigate change, accommodate ambiguity, surmount complexity, and motivate teams in a common purpose to make a difference in the world, and have an impact on organizations of all sizes and types. As we have for nearly a half-century, Babson continues to advance Entrepreneurial Thought & Action® as the most positive force on the planet for generating sustainable economic and social value.

About Cummings Foundation

Woburn-based Cummings Foundation, Inc. was established in 1986 by Joyce and Bill Cummings. The Foundation directly operates its own charitable subsidiaries, including New Horizons retirement communities in Marlborough and Woburn. Its largest single commitment to date has been to Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. Additional information is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.

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