"The Devonshire Foundation is a vital and committed partner whose extraordinary support is transforming the quality and impact of our programming."
The Devonshire Foundation provides multi-year capacity-building funding to organizations that address one or more of its mission areas:
We aim to identify organizations that are making a measurable impact on a systemic social issue, and provide funding that will support a vision for growth. Our grants have allowed our partners to hire new fundraising staff, increase earned revenue, launch pilot programs, and generate new donations through matches.
Most of our grantee partners, particularly our youth and impact partners, are based in the metro Boston area. We do occasionally fund organizations based elsewhere in New England. We do not provide funding to organizations outside of the New England region.
We view grantees of The Devonshire Foundation as our partners in addressing systemic social problems. To that end, we ask prospective grantees to share their vision for long-term growth. We provide funding for staff and activities to support that growth.
Our partnership starts with the proposal process. We collaborate with our prospects to better understand their needs and to provide feedback. We ask prospects to define reporting requirements that are not overly burdensome, but provide a clear measure of progress and impact. Once a prospect becomes a grantee, we provide consultation and guidance as needed.
By working closely with our grantees, we hope to add to our knowledge base, share what we’ve learned from our partners’ successes and challenges, and ensure that our partners feel well-supported through their growth process.
The Devonshire Foundation strongly prefers to fund organizations providing programs directly to the community, as opposed to those primarily engaged in policy advocacy.
The Devonshire Foundation focuses on building organizational capacity for growth. We do not provide funds for “bricks and mortar” capital projects. In addition, we do not fund scholarships, operating foundations, or hardship grants.
Our general operating funding is extremely limited and provided only on a discretionary basis. Our multi-year funding is intended to give our partners the time needed to achieve organizational growth. Our grantees understand that we will not become annual general operating donors when the grant period ends.
