Grants

The Abell Foundation awards grants to nonprofit community partners working to improve the quality of life in Baltimore. We provide seed funding for innovative pilots, support for ongoing community programs and services, and funding for capital projects. In addition to providing grant funding, the Foundation supports our nonprofit partners through connection to our local and national networks, as well as our team’s deep experience in and knowledge of Baltimore as it relates to our program areas.

Learn More About Our Process

Eligibility and Review Criteria

For all nonprofit organizations seeking grant funding, regardless of the request amount. 

Small Grants Process

For grant requests of $10,000 or less.

Reviewed on a rolling basis. There is no deadline to apply.

Regular Grants Process

For grant requests greater than $10,000.

Reviewed at one of the Foundation’s five annual Board meetings.

Submit an Application

Considering Applying?

First-time applicants with grant requests greater than $10,000 should submit a short letter of inquiry prior to submitting a regular grant application. For guidance on what to include in your LOI, please reference our frequently asked questions.

Submit an LOI

Ready to Apply for a Small Grant?

For first-time or returning applicants with grant requests of $10,000 or less. We accept and review small grant applications on a rolling basis. There is no deadline to apply for a small grant.

Start a Small Grant Application

Ready to Apply for a Regular Grant?

For returning applicants and those who have a verified fit with the Foundation’s priorities for requests greater than $10,000. Regular grant applications are reviewed at one of five Board meetings each year.

Start a Regular Grant Application

Returning to a Saved Application or Submitting a Report?

Log into the grant portal below to return to a saved application or submit a report for a previously awarded grant. Report forms can be found under the “Requirements” tab.

Return to Your Application or Submit a Report

See Our Past Grants

Baltimore City Health Department, Fiscally Sponsored by Baltimore Civic Fund

$250,000 / 2020 / Workforce Development

The Baltimore City Health Department, in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development (MOED), Baltimore Corps, Jhipiego, and Healthcare Access Maryland, is launching a $12.4 million initiative to control the transmission of COVID-19 through contact tracing and public health education outreach.  The initiative will hire 300 unemployed Baltimore residents and train them as contact tracers and community health workers, who will work for up to eight months, earning $38,000 a year plus benefits.  Those trained will build Baltimore’s public health infrastructure, helping to coordinate care for residents needing assistance.  With support from MOED, those trained will be placed into unsubsized employment.  

Baltimore’s Promise, Fiscally Sponsored by Fund for Educational Excellence

$200,000 / 2020 / Community Development

In support of the COVID-19 Response Funding Collaborative of Greater Baltimore, individual grants were awarded to the following organizations:

  • 4MYCITY

  • Amazing Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

  • Asylee Women’s Enterprise

  • Baltimore Job Hunter’s Support Group, Fiscally Sponsored by Corner Community Center

  • The Broken Wall Community Church

  • Black Yield Institute, Fiscally Sponsored by Fusion Partnerships, Inc.

  • Catherine’s Family and Youth Services, Inc.

  • Church of the Guardian Angel

  • City of Refuge Baltimore, Inc.

  • CollegeBound Foundation

  • Civic Works, Inc.  

  • Dent Education

  • Digital Equity Initiative for Baltimore, Fiscally Sponsored by Digital Harbor Foundation

  • Elev8 Baltimore, Fiscally Sponsored by Fund for Educational Excellence

  • Farm Alliance of Baltimore

  • Fishes and Loaves Pantry

  • Humanim

  • Immigration Outreach Center

  • Impact Hub, Fiscally Sponsored by Maryland Philanthropy Network

  • Intercultural Counseling Connections, Fiscally Sponsored by Fusion Partnerships, Inc.

  • Italian Cultural Center

  • Little Flowers

  • Patterson Park Public Charter School

  • Power52

  • Southeast Community Development Corporation

  • Turnaround, Inc.

  • UEmpower of Maryland

  • Women’s Housing Coalition

Urban Teachers

$100,000 / 2020 / Education

With Abell Foundation start-up funding, Urban Teachers launched a new model of teacher preparation in 2009, recruiting outstanding college graduates, training them in a year-long clinical preparation, providing classroom support over four years, and linking their certification to demonstration of effective teaching practices and student learning gains. In summer 2020, Urban Teachers will begin training another 100 new incoming Resident Teachers who co-teach with mentor teachers for the first year of a four-year commitment. This grant will enable Urban Teachers to embark upon a strategic planning process to reaccess and design a new business and financial model that will garner more earned reveue and reduce costs without impacting program quality. This model will further reduce reliance on philanthropy to 20% of the total budget, and reduce the financial burdens on teacher candidates.

In summer 2020, Urban Teachers will begin training another 100 new incoming Resident Teachers who co-teach with mentor teachers for the first year of a four-year commitment.

Second Chance for Women, Fiscally Sponsored by Fusion Partnerships, Inc.

$23,900 / 2020 / Criminal Justice and Addiction

Second Chance for Women (SCW) operates in the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women (MCIW) and was founded in 2009 by Mary Joel Davis.  Currently, Second Chance helps women prepare for their parole hearings on a one to one basis. This one on one support and mentoring is obviously ideal, but it does not scale.  Funding from the Abell Foundation will support SCW to create an accessible and user friendly parole handbook to expand their outreach in the prison system through distribution of the handbook  in the prison libraries and in workshops conducted by Second chance and other reentry providers in the facilities.  

Open Works

$35,000 / 2020 / Community Development

Open Works is an engine for grassroots economic development especially in the manufacturing sector and will actively support memberships, studio rentals, and revenue from classes and other programming once conditions are safe enough to resume those revenue generating activities. While Open Works has moved forward with a ramp up of PPE production, and will receive payment via local hospitals for those items, a number of ongoing expenses that were typically funded with membership fees or other revenue are not currently supported with that revenue. This grant provided general operating support for the organization.

Header photo courtesy of Thread.