About New England Biolabs Foundation
The New England Biolabs Foundation concentrates its philanthropic support exclusively on arts and culture, providing sustained, unrestricted operating and capacity-building funding to a single partner organization. All recorded grants went to Creative Action Institute, indicating a focused commitment to nurturing arts programming—likely youth-focused—in the foundation's region. This suggests the foundation prioritizes deep, long-term investment in one trusted arts nonprofit rather than broad, diversified giving.
Focus Areas
Sustained core operating support for a single arts nonprofitCapacity building for arts programming (organizational development, staffing, infrastructure)Community-based arts education (likely youth-focused, regional programming in New England)
Who They Fund
Indigenous peoples (including Peoples Living in Voluntary Isolation and Initial Contact - PIACI)small‑scale fishers and coastal communitiessmallholder farmers (cacao, coffee) and rural agricultural communitieswomen environmental defenders
About New England Biolabs Foundation
New England Biolabs Foundation’s recent grantmaking shows a clear pattern of concentrated support for community-based conservation, biocultural diversity, and arts-linked environmental work. The largest grants on file go to Creative Action Institute for core operating support and capacity building, with awards of $234,500 in 2025 and $205,000 in 2024, plus $200,000 in 2023 for grantee capacity building. That same long-term approach appears in its repeated support for Cultural Survival, which received $100,000 in each of 2023, 2024, and 2025 for indigenous-led grantmaking. Beyond these recurring partners, the foundation funds organizations working on Indigenous leadership, agroecology, coastal conservation, and community storytelling. Its recent awards also include support for Indigenous-led grantmaking through Land Is Life and for local coastal stewardship in Massachusetts, indicating that the foundation pairs larger institutional support with smaller project grants. The overall picture is of a funder that favors sustained relationships, recurring awards, and mission-aligned partners rather than broad, one-off giving.
What New England Biolabs Foundation Funds
In Indigenous-led grantmaking, the foundation gave $100,000 each year from 2023 through 2025 to Cultural Survival. It also awarded $45,000 in 2024 to Land Is Life for advancing Indigenous-led grantmaking to promote agroecology in sub-Saharan Africa and support Peoples Living in Voluntary Isolation and Initial Contact in the Amazon. In agroecology, Global Greengrants Fund received $50,000 in 2023 and $25,000 in 2025 for the Agroecology Fund. For coastal and marine work, Boston University received $40,000 in 2024 to restore eelgrass in the Great Marsh, Massachusetts, while Oceana received $25,000 in 2023 to secure current and future protections for Belize’s marine environment. The foundation also supports food systems education: Backyard Growers received $25,000 in 2023 to strengthen fresh food access and food systems education for students and low-income residents.
How New England Biolabs Foundation Gives
Typical awards are small: the 25th percentile is $1,750, the median is $3,000, and the 75th percentile is $8,200. The recent grants list also shows repeated awards to the same organizations across multiple years, including Creative Action Institute, Cultural Survival, Global Greengrants Fund, Land Is Life, Ipswich River Watershed Association, and Madre, suggesting ongoing relationships rather than one-time gifts. New England Biolabs Foundation is a regular funder and, according to its program descriptions, accepts unsolicited applications in several of its small-grant programs. It also uses both direct small grants and a two-step LOI-plus-invited-proposal process in its board-approved general grant program.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$944K
Total Assets
$0
Total Revenue
$4.1M
Total Expenses
$1.6M
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $2K and $8K, with a median of $3K.
25th Percentile
$2K
Median
$3K
75th Percentile
$8K
Geographic Reach
Regional21 states funded
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Where New England Biolabs Foundation Funds
Top 10 recipient countries by grant volume for New England Biolabs Foundation.
| Rank | Country | Grants | Total | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United StatesDomestic | 227 | $2.7M | 38.6% |
| 2 | Cameroon |
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