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 for a Small Grant?

If you have never received an Abell small grant (requests of $10,000 or less), you must attend an information session to confirm fit with eligibility criteria and funding priorities prior to submitting a small grant application. 

Sign up for an info session

Considering Applying for a Regular Grant?

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?

If you are a returning applicant or have met our eligibility criteria and requirements and are ready to apply for a grant, you may do so on the apply page.

Start a Grant Application

Returning to a Saved Application or Submitting a Report?

Log into the grant portal below to return to your saved application or submit a report for a previously awarded grant.

Return to Your Application or Submit a Report

See Our Past Grants

Maryland Community Health Initiatives, Inc.

$246,815 / 2012 / Workforce Development
For Year Two support of the Partnership for Growth initiative, an education and job-training program created to serve 60 clients of Penn North, an integrative and addiction recovery center that offers acupuncture and mediation programs for the treatment of addiction. Partnership for Growth offers training in street cleaning, lawn and property maintenance, landscape design and installation, ground-level tree trimming, touch-up painting, and hauling. Along with the required fieldwork, participants spend at least two hours a day in the classroom, focusing on resume writing, job-search strategies, effective communication, job interviewing, dressing for the work place, computer literacy, and budgeting.

Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services

$150,000 / 2012 / Workforce Development
For support of the Maryland House of Correction Inmate Deconstruction Project, an inmate workforce development training program. The project provides 50 inmates with training in occupational safety and the removal of hazardous materials. Fourteen buildings are slated for deconstruction.

Maryland Environmental Service

$88,800 / 2012 / Environment
For project management activities to help facilitate the design and construction of a thermophilic anaerobic digester near the Eastern Correctional Institution Cogeneration facility in Somerset County, in an effort to convert excess poultry litter into methane biogas, a form of renewable energy. This facility will provide an alternative use of poultry litter and provide a source of clean, renewable energy “scalable” to the available feedstock.

Maryland Foster Youth Resource Center

$50,000 / 2012 / Health and Human Services
For funding of the Voluntary Service Navigator model, part of a Department of Human Resources pilot project designed to transition 35 young adults from the Baltimore City foster care system to independent living. The center is training volunteers who will be matched with a client and receive one-on-one mentoring.

Maryland Foundation of Dentistry for the Handicapped

$20,000 / 2012 / Health and Human Services
For continued support to provide dental services for up to 675 low-income and disabled persons participating in the Donated Dental Services program.

Header photo courtesy of Thread.