Working To Enhance The Quality Of Life
In Baltimore And In Maryland.

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    The Abell Foundation: A Baltimore Story with Gilbert Sandler

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    The Abell Foundation: A Baltimore Story with Gilbert Sandler

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    The Abell Foundation: A Baltimore Story with Gilbert Sandler

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    The Abell Foundation: A Baltimore Story with Gilbert Sandler

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  • Teacher & Students

    The Abell Foundation: A Baltimore Story with Gilbert Sandler

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Grants

Grants

The Foundation awards grants to organizations (never individuals) working to improve the quality of life in Maryland, with a focus on Baltimore City.

Areas of Interest

Recent Grants

How Do I Apply For A Grant?

Publications

Publications

The Abell Foundation believes that a community faced with complicated and seemingly intractable challenges is well served by research-based information.

Reports

Newsletters

Direct Investments

Direct Investments

The Foundation’s portfolio makes direct investments in highly innovative companies that promote important social objectives, create jobs and are headquartered in Baltimore City.

Direct Investments

Investment Criteria

Our Review Process

Current Investments

Upcoming 2021 Grant Deadlines

Meeting Dates in Parentheses

May 3 (June 15) | July 1 (August 31) | October 15 (December 21)

COVID-19 Response

The Foundation is committed to supporting our grantees, partners, and colleagues in Baltimore City through this uncertain and historic moment. We are working remotely and closely monitoring voice mail and email. If you are a current grantee and have any questions or concerns, please contact your program officer directly.  If you are interested in applying for a grant, please contact the appropriate program officer or, if you aren’t sure who to contact, please email abell@abell.org. We will reply as soon as possible.

The Abell Foundation does not solicit personal information, nor do we award funding to individuals. Only organizations that have applied to the Foundation would be considered for funding.  

Funding the Will to Find Solutions

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Workforce Development

Improving the Lives of Noncustodial Parents and Their Children Through Changes to Child Support Enforcement

For years, the Abell Foundation has supported two organizations that provide job training for low-income African American men and their families. 

The Job Opportunities Task Force (JOTF):  JOTF works to eliminate educational and employment barriers for low-wage workers... Read More

Criminal Justice & Addiction

Supporting Harm-Reduction Initiatives to Reduce the Stigma Associated with Addiction and Decrease the Negative Impact of Substance Use

Baltimore is losing more people to drug overdose than ever before. Between 2011 and 2018, there was a 500% increase in the number of people who died of an overdose. This stunning rise has led city and state officials to increase funding and programming for overdose prevention. However, these...

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Education

Recruiting and Retaining Teachers of Color in Baltimore City

Effective teachers play a significant role in the overall success of students. Among school-based factors, a high-quality teacher has been shown to have two to three times the impact on student achievement as curriculum, leadership, and other services. Over the last three decades, the Abell...

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Community Development

Protecting the Environment While Generating Jobs for Low-Income Baltimoreans

The majority of Maryland’s electricity comes from fossil fuels, including coal and natural gas, which pollute the air, endanger public health, and contribute to the climate change effects of global warming. To jumpstart the development of clean energy sources, other states have set ambitious...

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Community Development

Growing Opportunities to Access Fresh Food and Support Local Farming

A diet heavier in fruits and vegetables and lower in fats and processed foods offers significant health benefits to prevent the onset of diabetes, hypertension, and other costly diseases.  Yet individuals who are food insecure and do not have regular access to fresh produce cannot access these...

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Community Development

Stabilizing Neighborhoods to Support Communities

Baltimore is plagued by a surplus of houses that are vacant and abandoned, the tragic result of deliberate policies of segregation and redlining, deindustrialization, suburbanization, and de-population, to name just a few. Enter ReBUILD Metro, which put a stake in the communities of Oliver,...

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Health & Human Services

Improving Access to Adult Dental Care

Nationally, oral health is improving for the population as a whole.  However, profound racial and socioeconomic disparities in oral health persist.  According to the Centers for Disease Control, people of color experience untreated tooth decay nearly twice as much as non-Hispanic white adults. ...

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Health & Human Services

Addressing Basic Human Needs

The COVID-19 crisis has illustrated just how fragile, and how essential, Baltimore’s safety net is. Even before the pandemic exposed extensive needs for food, shelter, and access to health care, many in our city struggled to meet their own, and their families’, basic needs. During fiscal year...

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Community Development

Civic Works Real Food Farm

In 2010, Civic Works began building a farming operation for food production and access, workforce training, and education of Baltimore City school children on six acres in Clifton Park called Real Food Farm. Farm operations have grown to include seven production high tunnels (or hoop houses),...

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Recent Publications

See More Publications

Mar 2021
Literacy Tutoring in BaltimoreAbell Report
Jan 2021
Disconnected in MarylandAbell Report
Oct 2020
Pediatric AsthmaAbell Report

Opening Doors of Opportunity

The Foundation places a strong emphasis on opening the doors of opportunity to the disenfranchised, believing that no community can thrive if those who live on the margins of it are not included.