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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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 2020 Grant Deadlines

(Dates in parenthesis are board meetings.)

October 15 (December 15)

2021 Grant Deadlines

January 4 (February 16) | March 1 (April 20) | 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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Community Development

Growing Baltimore’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

Every year the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Whiting School of Engineering’s Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design (CBID) has 25 graduate engineering students actively working on solutions to medical challenges that involve potentially commercially marketable devices and concepts....

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Community Development

Supporting Low-income Residents by Improving Energy Efficiency and Lowering Utility Costs

Over two-thirds of Baltimore’s housing stock was built before 1959, and these homes use approximately 40 percent more energy than homes built after 2000. Lowering utility costs is critically important to strengthening the financial well-being of low-income families; reducing the usage of...

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Health & Human Services

Promoting Healthy Development by Expanding Access to Physical Activity

As the city that played home to Babe Ruth’s early love affair with the home run, to the prominence of the Dunbar Poets basketball teams several decades later, Baltimore has a storied history of youth involvement in sports and other physical activities. But recent trends indicate a shortage of...

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Health & Human Services

Addressing Youth Homelessness in Baltimore

Unaccompanied homeless youth are an extremely vulnerable group.  Living on their own—without the support of parents or guardians, and without a safe, stable home—many of them stay temporarily with friends or live in abandoned houses, on the street, or in locations not meant for habitation. The...

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Criminal Justice & Addiction

Reforming the Pretrial System

Most of the 12 million jail bookings in the United States each year are for low-level, nonviolent charges. More than 60 percent of people in jail have not yet been to trial, and as many as nine in 10 of those people are in jail because they cannot afford to post bond. The consequences can be...

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Education

Building a Stronger High School Pipeline to Careers

As the nation endeavors to ensure that every high school graduate is “career and college ready,” interest in career and technology education (CTE) programs has surged. Less than half of Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools) graduates currently enroll in two- or four-year colleges, making...

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Workforce Development

Helping Returning Citizens to Find Employment

Every year, approximately 10,000 individuals in Maryland are released from prison, with many of them returning to Baltimore City. Unfortunately, within three years, 40 percent of those released (or 4,000) are rearrested, and the unemployment rate among those recently released exceeds 50 percent...

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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

Oct 2020
Pediatric AsthmaAbell Report
Aug 2020
2019 Annual ReportAnnual Report
Jul 2020
Overcoming Barriers to Homeownership in Baltimore CityAbell 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.