Examples of Past Grants

Below is a list of selected grants made over the last few years at the France-Merrick Foundation.  The list is meant to provide context for the type of grantmaking that we do and is not an exhaustive list of grants, nor a complete list of our most recent fiscal year.  As you can see, our grants range in size and purpose and are given to a variety of types of institutions.

CIVIC & CULTURE

  • Hippodrome Foundation: $2,000,000 over four years for renovation of the Bank Pavilion to be a performance space and rental facility
  • Creative Alliance: $150,000 over two years for construction and fit-out of the Creativity Center to expand arts education and improve livability in Patterson Park
  • Everyman Theatre: $110,000 to support digital infrastructure
  • The Compound: $150,000 to support Passive Row House Stabilization that will gut and rehabilitate four row houses on Kirk Avenue to provide 16 affordable housing and workspace units for artists and artisans
  • Associated Black Charities: $50,000 for equipment to support virtual work and outreach

COMMUNITY & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

  • Center for Urban Families: $315,000 over two years to support system integration and staff training for employment and family stability initiatives and the “All In” program
  • Civic Works: $250,000 over two years to expand the Baltimore Center for Green Careers and YouthBuild workforce development programs into larger spaces
  • American Community Trust: $200,000 to support the Baltimore Food Hub development project to create food-related businesses in East Baltimore
  • Parity: $100,000 toward a $2.8M project to create affordable home ownership opportunities for families in Harlem Park
  • Power52: $90,000 to support the transition to an online platform predicated on the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Byte Back: $50,000 to support a new center in Charles Village that will provide training to help adults acquire living-wage jobs in the digital workforce
  • Stillmeadow Community Center: $50,000 to support furniture, technology and educational equipment for the new learning center and a vehicle for Peace Park maintenance

ENVIRONMENT

  • Nature Conservancy: $1,000,000 over four years for a leadership grant to open a Baltimore office to focus on collaborative, nature-based solutions to climate resiliency challenges in the region, such as flooding, stormwater pollution, urban heat and access to nature
  • Chesapeake Bay Foundation: $1,000,000 over seven years to expedite the recovery of the Chesapeake Bay’s native oyster population to improve the overall health of the Bay
  • Blue Water Baltimore: $200,000 over two years to match funds for a two-year project East to West:  Climate Resiliency & Green Stormwater in Lower Gwynns Falls Watershed
  • Healthy Neighborhoods: $200,000 over two years in supplemental funds to ensure energy improvements in nonprofits serving low-to-moderate income communities
  • Backyard Basecamp/BLISS: $50,000 to reclaim and repurpose a vacant house in the heart of the Frankford neighborhood adjacent to both the BLISS Meadows urban food garden and Barbara and Parkwood Park
  • Bikemore: $10,000 to purchase an electric cargo bike to cart supplies for local mobile bike shops helping residents fix bikes to use for transportation and recreation

EDUCATION

  • Morgan State University: $500,000 for the France-Merrick Endowed Scholarship to support low-income honors students from Baltimore City and County
  • University of Maryland, Baltimore Community Engagement Center: $500,000 over two years to support renovations of the new Community Engagement Center in West Baltimore
  • Patterson Park Public Charter School: $150,000 to open a second charter school, Clay Hill Public Charter School in Southeast Baltimore
  • Calvert Hall College High School: $150,000 endowment for scholarships for Baltimore City and County students
  • Young Audiences: $85,000 for books for the Summer Arts & Learning Academy and technology to create virtual content to support YA’s literacy education and engagement work
  • Soccer without Borders: $29,000 for technology and equipment to support literacy and college access programs
  • DENT: $25,000 through the Summer Funding Collaborative for the Bet on Baltimore youth entrepreneurship program
  • Springboard Collaborative: $20,000 through the Summer Funding Collaborative for a summer literacy program for Baltimore City School students

HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES

  • Gilchrist Center Baltimore: $250,000 in capital support for Gilchrist Center Baltimore’s relocation to Stadium Place
  • Franciscan Center: $200,000 to renovate the entire first floor of the center including creating a second commercial kitchen for culinary training and social enterprise and a computer training room
  • Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital: $150,000 over two years to support the expansion of the Rosenberg Outpatient Center
  • MedStar Union Memorial Hospital: $80,000 in capital support for a new Health and Wellness Center at the J. Van Story Branch Apartments
  • B’More Clubhouse: $75,000 to purchase and renovate a former firehouse building to operate programs for adults living with mental illness in the Baltimore area  
  • B’More Community Food: $50,000 to purchase a truck for rescuing and redistributing food and essential supplies to Baltimore residents in need  
  • Baltimore Station: $50,000 to support technology infrastructure upgrades and implementation of an Electronic Medical Records system
  • Light of Truth: $25,000 for start up costs to implement a low-intensity residential treatment program

HISTORIC PRESERVATION

  • Maryland Historical Society: $250,000 for fire suppression system upgrades to protect Maryland’s historical documents and objects
  • Lovely Lane United Methodist Church: $150,000 to support the creation of a neighborhood center in the 1884 historic church building in Central Baltimore
  • Peale Museum: $200,000 challenge grant to support the renovations to the Peale building
  • East Baltimore Historical Library: $50,000 to invest in technology and furniture for EBHL’s first permanent home adjacent to Henderson-Hopkins School

Pictures courtesy of Living Classrooms/ U.S.S. Constellation, the Baltimore School for the Arts and the SEED School of Maryland