Charlesview Community Fund Disburses More Than $1 Million in Grants to Allston-Brighton Nonprofits

The Charlesview Inc., a nonprofit based in Allston-Brighton, allocated more than $1 million in grants to 29 nonprofit organizations.

Jo-Ann Barbour, Charlesview’s executive director, said the organization was able to disburse the largest amount in the grant program’s 13-year history, in part due to increased applications.

The grants awarded ranged from between $15,000 and $40,000 dollars, with the upper limit on grants increased from $35,000 last year.

The fund supports organizations in a range of sectors — including nutrition and health, music, youth sports, housing advocacy and citizenship services. Barbour noted that the increased applications this year was due to greater outreach on the part of Charlesview, but also a difficult fundraising environment for many nonprofits.

“There’s been cutbacks from the city and from the state, and the needs in particular around food insecurity, those needs are growing,” Barbour said. “Without this funding, they’re not able to expand the work that they’re doing to meet the needs that are coming up with the population.”

The fund was established in 2013 after the sale of the original Charlesview Apartments with the goal of supporting low and moderate income families and neighborhood-wide initiatives.

One of the recipients of this year’s grant, Power Forward Inc., runs an initiative that places trained service dogs in homes to act as support for people navigating sobriety.

Kelli Wilson, CEO of Power Forward, said that Charlesview’s support was essential to the organization’s work over the last three years. The grant funding this year will help the organization care for and train the dogs.

Wilson said that the funding from Charlesview has allowed the organization to have flexibility to meet a range of needs — including offering visitation for people with dog allergies.

“They’re dog people and they’re lovely, and so we’re very very grateful that they recognize our innovation and that we’re trying to do something different to bring joy and unconditional love to people who are trying to recover with dignity,” Wilson said.

Another one of this year’s grant recipients is the Allston Brighton Food Pantry, which runs one of the largest food delivery drives in the neighborhood.

Matthew R. Rasure, the development director, said that Charlesview has been one of the pantry’s “stalwart supporters” over the last few years. The pantry will put its $40,000 grant towards staff payment and expanding the pantry’s volunteer program.

“Our motto is ‘We are neighbors mobilizing neighbors to feed neighbors,’ and the volunteer component is the neighbors who provide the backbone of our labor,” Rasure said.

Heloisa M. Galvão, the executive director of Allston-Brighton’s Brazilian Women’s Group, said the grant will help her team of roughly a dozen women continue to organize on local issues, such as the closure of the Allston post office and the Jackson Mann Community Center.

“It’s a heavy load for these women who are mostly single mothers,” Galvão said.

“Our membership is in the community, and it’s so great to get a grant that we can continue the work of organizing the base of our membership in Allston-Brighton,” Galvão added.

Charlesview hosts a number of in-person events to allow the organizations to collaborate within the neighborhood network. In addition to the annual awards breakfast, organizations can also participate in the meet the donor breakfast to learn more about the Charlesview Community Fund.

“My hope every year, and it does happen, is that organizations get to network with each other,” Barbour said.

“Allston-Brighton has a community of organizations that really want to work together, want to share opportunities, and really care about the population that they’re serving, and that’s not always the case in many communities,” Barbour added.

—Staff writer Thamini Vijeyasingam can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @vijeyasingam.

—Staff writer Kevin Zhong can be reached at [email protected].