Visiting Nurse & Community Care awarded $500,000 Cummings grant Arlington nonprofit receives 10 years of funding from Cummings Foundation Arlington, May 23, 2022
– Visiting Nurse & Community Care is one of 140 local nonprofits to receive grants of $100,000 to $500,000 each through Cummings Foundation’s $25 Million Grant Program. The Arlington-based organization was chosen from a total of 580 applicants during a competitive review process. It will receive $500,000 over 10 years. Visiting Nurse & Community Care, one of the few remaining independent non-profit home health care agencies in Massachusetts, provides quality community and home nursing, personal care, and hospice services.
This wonderful gift from the Cummings Foundation assists Visiting Nurse & Community Care in solidifying our mission to provide the highest quality, compassionate home care to the patients entrusted to us. The Cummings Grant will allow Visiting Nurse & Community care to provide technology to families and our home health and nursing staff so that there can be ongoing video communication to enhance care.
PacSana technology will be provided to families increasing peace of mind as they will be able to monitor the activity levels of loved ones via an app. Educational programming will be enhanced for our visiting staff and community programming broadened in scope. The Cummings $25 Million Grant Program supports Massachusetts 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 areas where it owns commercial property. Its buildings are all managed, at no cost to the Foundation, by its affiliate, Cummings Properties. This Woburn-based commercial real estate firm leases and manages 11 million square feet of debt-free space, the majority of which exclusively benefits the Foundation.
“We are so fortunate in greater Boston to have such effective nonprofits, plus a wealth of talented, dedicated professionals and volunteers to run them,” said Cummings Foundation executive director Joyce Vyriotes.
“We are indebted to them for the work they do each day to provide for basic needs, break down barriers to education and health resources, and work toward a more equitable society.”
With the help of about 90 volunteers, the Foundation first identified 140 organizations to receive grants of at least $100,000 each. Among the winners were first-time recipients as well as nonprofits that had previously received Cummings Foundation grants. Forty of this latter group of repeat recipients were then selected to have their grants elevated to 10-year awards ranging from $200,000 to $500,000 each.
“Our volunteers bring diverse backgrounds and perspectives, which is so critical to our grant selection process,” said Vyriotes. “Through this democratized approach to philanthropy, they decide more than half the grants every year.” This year’s grant recipients represent a wide variety of causes, including food insecurity, immigrant and refugee services, social justice, education, and mental health services. The nonprofits are spread across 45 different cities and towns.
The complete list of 140 grant winners, plus more than 900 previous recipients, is available at Cummings Foundation.
Cummings Foundation has now awarded more than $375 million to greater Boston nonprofits. About Visiting Nurse & Community Care Visiting Nurse & Community Care (VNCC) is committed to provide the highest quality, compassionate home care to patients entrusted to us. We are steadfast in our pledge to be responsive and an innovative advocate for the communities we serve, focusing on health care, immunization, education and disease prevention to individuals and families. About Cummings Foundation Woburn-based Cummings Foundation, Inc. was established in 1986 by Joyce and Bill Cummings and has grown to be one of the largest private foundations in New England. The Foundation directly operates its own charitable subsidiaries, including New Horizons retirement communities, in Marlborough and Woburn, and Cummings Health Sciences, LLC.