Merrimack Valley nonprofit receives 3 years of funding from Cummings Foundation

Clarendon Staff Celebrates receiving a 2023 Cummings Grant Award!

Lawrence, MA – May 25, 2023 – Clarendon Early Education Services is one of 150 local nonprofits that will share in $30 million through Cummings Foundation’s major annual grants program. The Merrimack Valley-based organization was selected from a total of 630 applicants during a competitive review process. It will receive $225,000.00 over three years.

Clarendon’s mission is to promote and empower Family Child Care Educators in providing excellent child care services to families. To support this mission, Clarendon’s focus is on supplying educators with educational, nutritional, professional and administrative resources while actively working with parents to secure high-quality childcare.

L-R: Cheryl Finney, Joanna Doyle & Margaret McDonald

“The Cummings Grant funding will allow us to enhance access to meaningful professional development for English and Spanish speaking Family Child Care educators statewide,” said Clarendon CEO Margaret McDonald expressing deep gratitude for the opportunity. “This vision contributes directly to our mission of offering high quality services to children, families and educators. We are very excited to enrich our contribution to the field of early education and the business of Family Child Care.”

Funds will be used to develop an innovative online training model customized to meet the needs of both new and experienced Family Child Care educators from diverse backgrounds. This comprehensive model will combine self-paced online training with live virtual meetings and individualized supports in both English and Spanish, with Google translation capacity for other languages.

The Cummings $30 Million Grant Program primarily supports Massachusetts nonprofits that are based in and serve Middlesex, Essex, and Suffolk counties. This Woburn-based commercial real estate firm leases and manages 11 million square feet of debt-free space, the majority of which exclusively benefits the Foundation.

“The way the local nonprofit sector perseveres, steps up, and pivots to meet the shifting needs of the community is most impressive,” said Cummings Foundation Executive Director Joyce Vyriotes. “We are incredibly grateful for these tireless efforts to support people in the community and to increase equity and access to opportunities.”

This year’s grant recipients represent a wide variety of causes, including housing and food insecurity, workforce development, immigrant services, social justice, education, and mental health services. The nonprofits are spread across 46 different cities and towns.

Clarendon currently provides childcare to almost 900 children enrolled in 166 Family Child Care programs and reimbursement for nutritional meal service to 3,050 children enrolled with 412 Family Child Care Educators participating in our Food Program. Our educators provide year-round, full-day educational child development programs for children (birth to age 13) from culturally and linguistically diverse social and economic backgrounds.

Cummings Foundation has now awarded $480 million to greater Boston nonprofits. The 2023 grant winners have been notified of their awards and are currently sharing their news at Clarendon Early Education Services – Family Child Care. Check back after May 31 to view a complete list of this year’s 150 recipients plus nearly 1,500 previous recipients at www.CummingsFoundation.org.