For today’s Thankful Thursday post, we’d like to highlight the Cummings Foundation.

Fidelity House CRC is fortunate to have the support of the Cummings Foundation which was founded by Joyce and Bill Cummings in 1986. They wanted to give back in the areas where Cummings Properties, the commercial real estate firm founded by Bill, operated and where its staff and clients lived. Today, nearly all of the buildings managed by Cummings Properties are actually owned by and operated for the sole benefit of Cummings Foundation.

Since 2016, the Cummings Foundation has invested $200,000 in Fidelity House CRC programs to improve the lives of people with disabilities and others with significant challenges. In 2016, CRC was awarded $100,000 to fund one-to-one job placement services for veterans who face barriers to employment. During the four-year grant period, this program which is now called Waypoint Careers, served 70 veterans placing 40 veterans in meaningful employment.  In 2017, Fidelity House was awarded $100,000, over two years, to create new housing options for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This grant funded a part-time housing project manager. Thanks to the Cummings Foundation, affordable housing professionals John Woods and Cornelia Cogswell qualified Fidelity House CRC for over $400,000 in state and private funding to design and renovate group homes.

Now one of the largest foundations in New England, Cummings Foundation has awarded more than $260 million in grants to Greater Boston nonprofits alone. Its giving is concentrated in Middlesex, Essex, and Suffolk counties and benefits a broad range of causes, including human services, education, healthcare, and social justice.