The Barr Foundation Board of Trustees met virtually this September and approved grants totaling nearly $7 million, in addition to $23.9 million in new grants approved since the June 2021 board meeting. Learn more about some of our partners and their work below.
In Arts & Creativity, Barr awarded four grants totaling over $1 million. A $680,000 grant will support MASSCreative to relaunch the Create the Vote initiative, to increase the grassroots organizing capacity and inform policymaking in the arts and cultural sector in Massachusetts. A grant of $270,000 was awarded in partnership with the Climate Program to Third Sector New England (fiscal sponsor for the Design Studio for Social Intervention) for its strategic growth planning process, which will allow it to expand its role as a thought leader and leading-edge practitioner in the artist-led movement for spatial justice.
In Climate, Barr awarded 50 grants totaling $13.5 million. Grants totaling $2.6 million will provide general operating support for members of the Green Justice Coalition (GJC). GJC recipients include: Chinatown People Progressive Association, Coalition for Social Justice-Education Fund, Community Labor United, GreenRoots, Massachusetts Senior Action Council, and Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts Education Fund. A $715,000 grant to Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering will support a partnership with Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE) to develop and implement a community-driven air justice model in Roxbury to mitigate air pollution and work to end asthma in Roxbury. A $500,000 grant to One Square World will support the development and launch of a new Liberation Leadership program focused on climate and racial equity leadership development in New England. This program will recruit a cohort of BIPOC leaders working in climate justice and related movements to build community power and leadership.
In Education, Barr awarded 26 grants totaling $11.3 million. A $1.2 million grant to The Education Trust (Ed Trust) will provide core support for the Ed Trust team in Massachusetts to convene and support the Massachusetts Education Equity Partnership, a collective of more than 40 social justice, civil rights, and education organizations working together to address educational disparities and advocate for change. A $550,000 grant to Friends of Veritas Preparatory Charter School will support the final design year and launch of Veritas High School. After a two-year planning period, Veritas will open its doors for its inaugural freshmen class in August 2022. A $1.3 million grant to Transcend, Inc. (fiscal sponsor for Center on Reinventing Public Education) will support continued research on the impact of COVID-19 on New England public high schools.
In Sector Effectiveness, Barr awarded 23 grants totaling $3 million. Four of those grants provide multi-year, general operating support to Boston Municipal Research Bureau, Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, and The Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth, all of which are key partners in the informed decision-making strategy and represent a total investment of over $1.7 million. These grants aim to support our partners in integrating a racial equity lens into their work, so that policies may better center the considerations and impacts on populations who have been traditionally marginalized. This set of work also represents the Sector Effectiveness team’s interest in supporting the creation and sharing of objective, credible data from a range of perspectives in order to inform public discourse and key decisionmakers.
