Angle Center for Entrepreneurship Receives $100,000 Cummings Foundation Grant
For the third time, Endicott College is one of 100 local nonprofits to receive grants of $100,000 each through Cummings Foundation’s “$100K for 100” program. The grant will fund programs in the College’s Angle Center for Entrepreneurship that provide support to startups both at the student level and across the North Shore economic region.
The Angle Center for Entrepreneurship, located in Endicott’s new Gerrish Business/Judge Life Sciences facility, serves the North Shore region, Essex County and all of Eastern Massachusetts with its educational and business opportunities. The Center seeks to promote the collective nature of entrepreneurship by driving partnerships, collaborations, and engagement, not just with Endicott students and alumni, but also with industry leaders and the regional startup community.
The grant, to be distributed equally over two years, will be used to support a four-pronged initiative that will benefit thousands of community members in addition to students, faculty and alumni. The initiative includes: expanding the Entrepreneur/Executive-in-Residence position, establishing a Startup Success Office (SSO), offering a startup success boot camp open to the community, and setting up a regional network for women entrepreneurs.
“We have a lot of exciting, innovative programs on tap and we’re thankful to the Cummings Foundation for giving us this grant to help see them through,” said Deirdre Sartorelli, Director of the Angle Center for Entrepreneurship. “We’re looking forward to increasing our support of startups on the North Shore with networking and educational experiences, and to also further integrate the culture of entrepreneurship into our entire student body. Our students are the future of startups and our support at the ground level is key in helping ensure their success as they navigate small business waters.”
Endicott’s Angle Center for Entrepreneurship was chosen from a total of 597 applicants, during a competitive review process. Cummings Foundation has announced a total of $20 million in grants to Greater Boston charities in the past two months alone.
The $100K for 100 program supports nonprofits that are based in and primarily serve Middlesex, Essex, and Suffolk counties. Through this place-based initiative, Cummings Foundation aims to give back in the area where it owns commercial buildings, all of which are managed, at no cost to the Foundation, by its affiliate Cummings Properties. Founded in 1970 by Bill Cummings of Winchester, the Woburn-based commercial real estate firm leases and manages 11 million square feet of space, the majority of which exclusively benefits the Foundation.
“We are indebted to the nonprofit organizations like Endicott that have a meaningful positive impact on the local communities where our colleagues and clients live and work,” said Joel Swets, Cummings Foundation’s executive director. “We are delighted to invest in their important programs and services.”
This year’s diverse group of grant recipients represents a wide variety of causes, including homelessness prevention and affordable housing, education, violence prevention, and food insecurity. The complete list of 100 grant winners is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.
Representing Endicott, Sartorelli joined 300 other guests at a reception at TradeCenter 128 in Woburn on June 7 to celebrate the $10 million infusion into Greater Boston’s nonprofit sector. With the conclusion of this grant cycle, Cummings Foundation has now awarded more than $220 million to Greater Boston nonprofits alone.
Cummings Foundation announced an additional $10 million in early May through its new Sustaining Grants, which extend “$100K for 100” funding for previous winners for 10 more years. Beginning in 2019, the Foundation will increase its total annual giving through these two programs from $20 million to $25 million.
Photo: (L-R) Deirdre Sartorelli, Director of the Angle Center for Entrepreneurship, Joyce Cummings of the Cummings Foundation, and David Vigneron, Vice President of Institutional Advancement at Endicott College, pose together at the June 7 celebration gala.