Strengthening Access, Inclusion, and Cultural Enrichment Across Greater Boston
WESTWOOD, MA – The Trustees of the Yawkey Foundation today announced $535,000 in Program & Small Capital grants to nonprofit organizations dedicated to advancing access to arts and culture programs and experiences throughout Eastern Massachusetts. These grants reflect the Foundation’s enduring commitment to ensuring that the arts remain accessible, inclusive, and deeply rooted in community.
Since 1977, the Yawkey Foundation has invested more than $47 million in Arts & Culture initiatives that provide access and opportunity to creative programming, perpetuating the philanthropic legacy of Jean and Tom Yawkey.
“We are privileged to support these exceptional organizations, whose dedication and innovative approaches play a vital role in creating welcoming, inclusive arts experiences for audiences and participants from diverse backgrounds and abilities,” said Alicia Verity, CEO of the Yawkey Foundation. “Their work enriches our communities in profound and lasting ways, and we are honored to contribute to their important missions.”
The Arts & Culture nonprofits receiving 2025 Program & Small Capital grants include:
- Artists For Humanity
- Boston Ballet
- Boston Children’s Chorus
- Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center / Pao Arts Center
- Cape Verdean Association in New Bedford
- Institute of Contemporary Art
- Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
- Jean Appolon Expressions
- National Center of Afro-American Artists
- Wheelock Family Theatre
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Yawkey Foundation Program & Small Capital Grants support impactful nonprofit organizations in delivering on their core missions by funding innovative programming, vital small-scale projects, and essential equipment. Grant amounts typically reach up to $100,000 for immediate, discrete, time-bound initiatives that are critical to an organization’s work.
In addition to these new grants, the Foundation’s 2025 support included previously announced initiatives that advance cultural participation, strengthen creative infrastructure, preserve cultural heritage, and provide opportunities for people of all ages to engage meaningfully in the arts. These commitments include a Transformational Capital grant to Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción for the construction of La CASA, Boston’s home for Latinx Arts, Culture and Community Empowerment opening in 2026, as well as the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s Black Baseball Initiative and the exhibit, “Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball”.
About the Yawkey Foundation
The Yawkey Foundation is dedicated to perpetuating Tom Yawkey’s and Jean Yawkey’s philanthropic legacy, whose eight decades of quiet generosity supported individuals and families in the communities closest to their hearts – Massachusetts and Georgetown County, South Carolina. Having awarded more than $600 million to date in charitable grants to organizations focused on health care, education, human services, youth and amateur athletics, arts and culture, and conservation and wildlife, the Yawkey Foundation is committed to preserving and sustaining the Yawkeys’ charitable values by investing in nonprofits that provide resources, opportunity, and dignity to the vulnerable and underserved.
For more information and the latest announcements, please visit the Foundation’s website, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.