A Look at the Simeon J. Fortin Charitable Foundation’s Massachusetts Grantmaking

Grantees include well-established institutions like the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Photo: quiggyt4/shutterstock

Grantees include well-established institutions like the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Photo: quiggyt4/shutterstock

The Massachusetts office of Bank of America Philanthropic Solutions manages over 20 private foundations and serves as a trustee, co-trustee or agent to all of them. One of those funders is the Simeon J. Fortin Charitable Foundation, a grantmaker that is especially unique because, at the same time, its grant review process is administered by the Medical Foundation, a division of Health Resources in Action (HRiA).

To help grantseekers in Massachusetts get to know this funder a bit better, here are a few important things to know about Fortin’s local giving.

All about cancer research

The Simeon J. Fortin Charitable Foundation is a medical research funder that has been around since 1986. Its purpose is to promote the advancement of cancer research, and it is a single-issue funder. Grants go to local organizations that are dedicated to discovering a cure for cancer. Grants for this purpose tend to range between $15,000 and $100,000.

Grants stay in Massachusetts

Although many funders dedicated to cancer research fund on a national or even global basis, Fortin grants stay local to Massachusetts. Boston is Fortin’s geographic focus, although it has also supported the UMass Memorial Foundation in Shrewsbury. Boston-based grantees include Massachusetts General Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the Children’s Hospital Corporation. The Fortin Charitable Foundation tends to give to well-established medical institutions rather than newer or lesser-known health organizations.

A February application deadline

The Fortin Charitable Foundation has an accessible grantmaking process conducted through the Bank of America’s online system. It has an application deadline that usually falls in February each year. Grantseekers are notified about funding decisions in August. Organizations can find more details about specific deadlines on the HRiA website. Applications for Fortin grants are reviewed in conjunction with applications to the King Trust Postdoctoral Fellowships. Grantseekers can contact a HRiA representative for more information about the application process.

To learn more about this foundation and other grantmakers that fund in Massachusetts, be sure to check out IP’s Boston and New England funding guide.