I. Overview
Jane’s Trust awarded grants of $9,025,061.62 in 2006, which represents the Trust’s fixed annual payout. The Trust made 63 new grants to organizations in Massachusetts, northern New England and Florida providing a wide range of capital, endowment, operating and project support; 34 were for single year support, 21 for two years, and 8 for three years. The Trust does not allocate a fixed dollar amount for each of its program or geographic areas, and works to ensure an even distribution of its resources over time. The Trust’s average grant in 2006 was $169,050 (not including Trustee or staff discretionary grants).
The Trustees are particularly interested in organizations and programs that affect underserved populations in the areas of art, education, the environment and health and welfare. In considering underserved populations, the Trustees look at communities and populations which lack physical access to services, are socio-economically disadvantaged or for other reasons are unable to access adequate services to serve their needs. The Trustees also look carefully at the timing of a particular grant, assessing the organization’s readiness to provide a new service, stabilize operations or diversify funding. They have funded a number of collaborative projects where several organizations have joined together to improve service delivery or address a persistent problem. The Trust has awarded a number of successful challenge grants and will consider innovative ways to encourage additional philanthropy and to build long-term funding plans for organizational sustainability.
Below you will a summary of grants made in each program area. Please follow the link to 2006 Grants for a complete grants list with links to the organization’s web sites. We hope this information, together with the Frequently Asked Questions and the Guidelines, will assist you in learning more about Jane’s Trust. Please feel free to contact any of our program staff with specific questions. We look forward to working with our grantees and the nonprofit community on areas of common interest.
A. Arts & Culture
Jane’s Trust made nine new arts and culture grants in 2006, totaling $1.35 million in multi-year support. Three of those grants were one year awards, with six projects receiving two or three years of support. The average arts and culture grant was $150,000. The Trust’s grants in 2006 covered a wide range of artistic disciplines and programmatic areas. The Trust awarded four capital grants to projects in Boston and Holyoke, Massachusetts and Eastport and Lewiston, Maine, totaling $450,000. The remaining grants provided a mix of project, operating and endowment support for a range of community cultural history projects, youth arts activities, arts education in the visual and performing arts, community-based multi-disciplinary arts and historic preservation. For all projects, the Trustees considered the applicant’s plans for long-term support, the opportunity to provide access to high quality arts activities for populations which would otherwise not have access to them, and the quality of the organization’s leadership and planning.
B. Education
Jane’s Trust made 11 new education grants in 2006, totaling $2.07 million in multi-year support. The grants included five project specific allocations, four expansion and capacity building grants, one capital grant and one operating grant. The Trust’s grants in 2006 covered a wide range of timely educational issues. The Trust supported a number of programs working on the issue of college access and affordability, including support for in-state tuition for undocumented students in Florida, financial aid services in Boston, and a statewide program for underrepresented students in New Hampshire. The Trust also supported a number of out-of-school time programs in Massachusetts. Jane’s Trust supported two programs using student achievement data for academic improvement. Finally, the Trust made one grant for leadership training for small school leaders at pilot schools and an asset based curriculum project in rural schools through Maine and Vermont.
C. Environment
The Trust’s environment program supports a wide variety of conservation projects focused on the protection of critical natural resources and historic landscapes. Projects funded in 2006 covered a range of topics, including land use and conservation, open space, ecosystem protection, environmental justice and sustainable agriculture. The Trust awarded nine environmental grants in 2006, totaling $1,525,000, with an average grant size of nearly $170,000. One grant was for a single year of support, six for two years and two for three years of support. Four of the grants provided operating support to conservation and environmental justice organizations as they expand programs and services, grow their donor base and build organizational capacity for long-term sustainability. In these cases, the Trustees carefully assessed the organization’s commitment to improving operations, their strategic plans and the opportunity to provide an important service to a threatened constituency or landscape. The Trustees made three programmatic grants, focused on urban youth and job training for environmental careers, coastal ecosystem protection in Florida and collaborative approaches to land conservation in western Massachusetts. The Trustees also made two endowment grants, one to support urban open space and community garden work in Boston and one challenge grant to support a trail and maintenance endowment for the Long Trail in Vermont.
D. Health & Welfare
In 2006, Jane’s Trust awarded 14 new grants in the health and welfare program, totaling just over $2 million. The Trustees approved eight operating and project grants, five capital grants, and one endowment grant. In Florida, the Trust is supporting capital and endowment campaigns in child and family development, family planning, reproductive health and health access. In Massachusetts, the Trust funded a range of projects focusing on issues including children’s mental health, health disparities among people of different races and ethnicities, health care for the homeless, and health workforce training for entry-level workers in Greater Boston. In Northern New England, the Trust awarded grants in diverse fields, including child protection and advocacy, long-term care, home care services for elders and chronically ill people, workforce training, rural health and social service delivery, access to reproductive health services, community development on Maine’s islands, and cancer research and prevention.