Riley Foundation

Mabel Louise Riley Foundation 2025 Grant Guidelines

Program Interests

The Mabel Louise Riley Foundation is a general-purpose foundation with a special interest in supporting the needs of low-income children and youth and their families.  The foundation supports a broad range of programs, particularly in the areas of education and human services, and neighborhood revitalization.  Current more specialized areas of interest include:

  • Arts access programs for underserved communities
  • Support for foster care children and those aging out of the system
  • Vocational Education and job training
  • Affordable housing and shelter for vulnerable families

Types of Support and Grant Size

Grants are made in support of new projects and organizations, program expansion, and for capital projects.  The trustees are interested in leveraging their grants by funding programs that can become self-sufficient or may serve as a model in other geographic areas.

One-year grants normally fall in the range of $50,000 to $100,000.

Geographic Limitations

The Foundation supports nonprofit organizations headquartered in, and most constituents served in the City of Boston and its neighborhoods.

Eligibility and Waiting Periods

  • Requests are considered only from 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations incorporated under the laws of Massachusetts and operating exclusively for charitable purposes.  The registered address of the organization must be in Massachusetts and, if not, a fiscal agent must be obtained.
  • Applicants whose formal grant requests have been denied must wait one full year before reapplying.
  • Grant recipients must wait two full years before submitting a new letter of intent.

Normal Exclusions

  • Multi-year support
  • Unrestricted operating support
  • Support to defray annual deficits or to build endowments
  • Support for governmental agencies other than schools, for political purposes, or for individuals
  • Support for organizations incorporated outside of Massachusetts
  • Smaller programs for which the Foundation would be the sole source for a project support (this restriction does not apply to the Small Grants Program)
  • Sponsorships

Application Procedures

The Riley Foundation uses a two-step application process beginning with letters of intent (LOI), followed by full proposals.  Any eligible applicant is invited to submit an LOI.  Full proposals are accepted by invitation only.

Letters of Intent (LOI)

Upcoming LOI Deadline:

Wednesday, March 5, 2025

  • As a first step, applicants are required to submit a brief summary of not more than two pages of their proposal, without a cover letter.
  • The LOI should briefly describe the purposes and objectives of the proposal, a brief history of the applicant, and the amount requested.  In addition, a copy of the IRS 501(c)(3) Determination Letter and a program budget relative to the request should be included.  The Philanthropy Massachusetts budget template is preferred and can be found on www.philanthropyma.org
  • LOIs should be emailed to:  info@rileyfoundation.com with each of the components as separate attachments within the email.
  • Applicants will be notified if a formal grant proposal is invited and a deadline will be provided.  Generally, all formal proposals must be received 45 days prior to a quarterly grant meeting.  Grant meetings are scheduled mid-month during March, June, September and December.

Full Proposals

  • Once approved for submission, full grant proposals should be made using the Common Proposal Form of Philanthropy Massachusetts (https://philanthropyma.org/resources-tools/common-proposal-form) including Instructions, Cover Sheet, Full Proposal Narrative (MS Word), New Demographics Data Sheet (including data deemed important by your organization), Budget Template.  For the proposal narrative, please give particular attention to how the program/project will be evaluated.  In addition to the listing on this form, the following attachments are required:
    • Executive Summary (one-page snapshot of the proposal)
    • BNY Mellon Due Diligence form(provided by the Riley Foundation).
    • Sources of funding with amounts (secured and pending)
    • Current financial statements (both Balance Sheet and Statement of Activities)
    • Most recent audited Financial Statements
    • IRS Form 990 or Form 990EZ
    • Board of Trustees/Directors (with affiliations)
    • Brief bios of Key Project Personnel
    • Proposal Outcome Chart (provided by the Riley Foundation).

Proposals should be emailed to:  info@rileyfoundation.com.   Please forward the grant proposal and attachments as separate files within one or two emails.

Proposal Deadlines

Grant meetings of the Foundation occur in for March, June, September, and December.  If a formal grant proposal is invited, it will be considered by the trustees at the next quarterly grant meeting.  All formal grant proposals should be submitted at least forty-five (45) days prior to the scheduled quarterly grant meeting.

If a proposal is granted, a final report deadline will be provided, which is usually two months following the end of the requested grant period. Documents that are required include: