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 reach out to an Abell staff member to discuss their idea or submit a short letter of inquiry prior to submitting a regular grant application.

Contact Us or Email Us 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’s Promise, Fiscally Sponsored by Fund for Educational Excellence

$250,000 / 2021 / Education

The Summer Funding Collaborative (SFC) is an aligned fund that directs resources to high-quality summer programs for low-income children in Baltimore City. In 2021, the SFC included 13 public and private funders that, collectively, distributed $3.46 million to 87 programs, funding a projected 9,500 seats. This grant includes funding for between 5-10 non-profit organizations providing summer experiences that will be determined in late winter 2022 alongside funding for high dosage tutoring programs to provide layered support to funded summer providers.

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Baltimore Tree Trust

$50,000 / 2021 / Community Development

Baltimore Tree Trust’s Community Forester Corps program offers virtual, classroom, and hand-on training in tree planting and maintenance, urban forestry, and tree mapping and data management. The program creates viable pathways to employment opportunities for people who have been marginalized by lack of education, discrimination, and unavailability of jobs matching their skill sets. By planting and maintaining trees, trainees contribute to Baltimore City’s goal of increasing tree coverage from 26% to 40% by 2037. Expanding the urban tree canopy improves the health of residents and livability of neighborhoods, promotes environmental stewardship, addresses adverse climate change and extreme heat, and advances equity.

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Baltimore Kids Chess League, Inc.

$65,000 / 2021 / Education

Sponsored by the Abell Foundation and Baltimore City Public Schools since 2004, the Baltimore Kids Chess League (BKCL) offers an academic extracurricular program that serves more than 750 children from kindergarten to 12th grade in thirty schools.  Teams practice weekly under the auspices of trained chess coaches and compete in novice, local, state, and national chess tournaments sponsored by the United States Chess Federation.

Baltimore Corps

$50,000 / 2021 / Community Development

Baltimore Corps supports Baltimore City’s social innovation sector by recruiting and deploying mission-driven young professionals to Baltimore City’s public agencies and social sector organizations. As the local Kiva Baltimore operating partner, Baltimore Corps works with entrepreneurs, small businesses, and micro-businesses, with an intentional focus on supporting Black-owned businesses. Baltimore Corps’ Kiva Baltimore program staff assist businesses at every step of the process to apply, fundraise, and repay loans through the technology lending platform. Kiva-Baltimore supports Black-owned small-businesses and micro-enterprises operating in Baltimore City through COVID pandemic-related challenges and beyond. Grant funds will be used to support staff costs to meet expansion needs and increased demand from small and micro-business ongoing advice and consultation and provide 25 microloans through the Kiva-Baltimore platform.

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Attendance Works, Fiscally Sponsored by Community Initiatives

$45,000 / 2021 / Education

Attendance Works will partner with the Success For All Foundation (SFA) in Baltimore City to provide an integrated attendance mentoring strategy, paired with intensive tutoring to negate learning loss and narrow equity gaps. Training for at least 22 tutors on how to effectively respond to absences and promote attendance is modeled after the Success Mentors initiative in New York that successfully yielded reduced absenteeism of nearly two weeks (nine days of school) for around 60,000 students between the years of 2010 and 2013.

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Header photo courtesy of Thread.