Yawkey Foundation Education Support

Tom and Jean Yawkey valued the importance of education and understood its ability to change lives. Over many decades, the Yawkeys personally provided tuition support and academic opportunities to countless employees and children of their employees at the wildlife preserve that was their winter home in Georgetown, South Carolina. In addition, in a time of deep need for Tara Hall Home for Boys — a residential school that served boys with academic and behavioral health needs — the Yawkeys provided pivotal financial support that enabled the Georgetown County-based organization to offer education and enrichment for at-risk youth.

The Trustees of the Yawkey Foundation are committed to providing educational opportunities for degree-aspiring individuals who are working to achieve their academic and career goals. The Foundation partners with nonprofits with missions dedicated to higher education access, persistence and success for young adults living in Greater Boston and Georgetown County, SC, with special focus on individuals from circumstances and communities that may lack resources and pathways to opportunities. In addition to supporting the capacity of nonprofits offering focused programs and services toward these goals, the Foundation has also invested in permanently endowed tuition scholarships at Boston College, Emmanuel College, Stonehill College, and Tom Yawkey’s alma mater, Yale University. In addition, the Yawkey Foundation has made meaningful investments totaling more than $13 million in nonprofit internship and service-learning programs for students at Boston University, Bentley University, Merrimack College and Yale University.

The Yawkey Scholars Program has provided nearly $16 million in college tuition support to more than 380 Scholars across Massachusetts and Georgetown County, SC since its inception in 2005. Currently, the intake of new applications for rising first-year college students is on pause to allow for a strategic review of the program and thoughtful consideration of future plans for the most meaningful, impactful manner of investing the Foundation’s resources to perpetuate the Yawkeys’ deep commitment to education. The Yawkey Foundation will continue to provide robust resources – mentoring, guidance and tuition scholarship funding – to make college affordable for the talented and motivated currently-designated Yawkey Scholars.

Featured Projects

Yawkey Scholars Program

The Yawkey Scholars Program has provided nearly $16 million in college tuition support to more than 380 Scholars since its inception in 2005. The Yawkey Scholars Program will pause the intake of new applications for rising first-year college students (entering college in 2024-25) to allow for a strategic review of the program and thoughtful consideration of future plans for the most meaningful, impactful manner of investing the Foundation’s resources to perpetuate the Yawkeys’ deep commitment to education. The Yawkey Foundation will continue to provide the robust resources – mentoring, guidance and tuition scholarship funding – to make college affordable for the talented and motivated currently-designated Massachusetts and Georgetown, SC Yawkey Scholars.

Mission Grammar

In 2020, Yawkey Foundation provided a $250,000 Strategic Investment Grant to Mission Grammar School in Roxbury to support a capital renovation project to help the school expand the number of PreK-Grade 6 children it serves. The Foundation joined with other area funders to support this renovation project that included the addition of four classrooms, Pre-K space, and construction of an outdoor learning and playground area.

BMATenPoint

Tom and Jean Yawkey believed in the power of education and quietly, yet meaningfully, supported educational opportunities for young people across both Massachusetts and Georgetown County, South Carolina. In honor of the Yawkeys’ great legacy in education, in 2004 the Yawkey Foundation established a partnership with the Black Ministerial Alliance (now known as BMATenPoint) for a series of both Program & Small Capital grants and Strategic Investment Grants to support the Victory Generation Program, a multi-site out-of-school time program for young people from across Roxbury, Dorchester, and the City of Boston. With grants now totaling more than $2 million, the Yawkey Foundation has been proud to partner with this network of faith-based extended day learning programs that annually provide quality, affordable services to more than 300 low-income children ages 5-12 in the communities where they live.

Catholic Memorial

Catholic Memorial, a college-preparatory school for boys in grades 7 to 12, today announced that they are the recipients of a major capital grant from Boston’s Yawkey Foundations. The $2.5 million grant will provide a significant boost for the school’s capital campaign to build The Center for Integrated and Applied Learning, enhancing its strong liberal arts and progressive educational curriculum. The hands-on experiential learning approach was introduced to Catholic Memorial three years ago, and with the Yawkey grant, the expansion will provide a space which is specifically designed for these programs and will enhance types of innovation and problem solving which can be introduced to the students.

Boston University - Yawkey Nonprofit Internship Program

When Tom Yawkey purchased the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Park in 1933, Boston University (BU) was expanding into the world-class university it is today. Both organizations worked and grew together during the next several decades: Fenway Park was home to BU football games during the 30s, 40s, and 50s and, in in the 1990s, Red Sox games were broadcast on BU’s television station. Beginning in the 1970s, BU and the Red Sox worked together on a multi-million-dollar plan to rehabilitate Kenmore Square by providing more parking, housing, retail space, and extensive traffic and pedestrian improvements. This longstanding relationship between Tom and Jean Yawkey and BU was part of the foundation for an innovative program decades later: the Yawkey Nonprofit Internship Program. Designed to meet nonprofit organizations’ need for skilled workers, and by harnessing the incredible energy and enthusiasm that undergraduate students bring to communities, in 2014 the Yawkey Foundation provided a $10 million grant to establish BU’s permanently-endowed Yawkey Nonprofit Internship Program.