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The Rhode Island Foundation awarded a record-breaking $93 million in grants to more than 2,600 nonprofit organizations last year, which saw the organization launch its new Five-Year Action Plan.  
  
“Our work last year reflects what the community identified as their priorities and what they saw as the biggest challenges in areas where we could play a deeper role than what we were playing,” said David N. Cicilline, the Foundation’s president and CEO. “We are grateful to the generous Rhode Islanders who trust us to guide their philanthropy and to the committed community partners that enable us to take on these challenges.”    
  
In addition, the Foundation raised $82 million in gifts in 2025, the third highest performance in the organization’s 109-year history. At year-end, total assets stood at approximately $1.7 billion. Total fund investment return for the year was 16.2 percent.
  
The new Action Plan focuses on five key Community Priorities: Civic and Cultural Life, Climate Action and Sustainability, Education and Student Success, Healthy and Strong Communities, and Housing and Economic Mobility, guided by inclusiveness, accessibility, compassion, mutual respect and humility. In addition, the Foundation introduced three enhanced grant programs: Community Priority Grants, Catalyst Grants and Capacity Building Grants. 
  
About 71 percent of the grants were directed by Foundation donors; about 29 percent of the grants were made at the sole discretion of the Foundation.  About 60 percent of the $93 million in 2025 grants went to organizations that received both donor-directed and Foundation-directed grants.  
  
Among the nonprofits receiving funding were the Genesis Center, which received $120,000 to train people to work in health care and food services; the Pawtucket Central Falls Development Corporation, which received $75,000 to prepare people to become homeowners; and Connecting for Children and Families in Woonsocket, which received $75,000 to expand the scope of its food pantry program in response to rising hunger in northern Rhode Island.  

The past year was also marked by the Foundation’s response to the impact of Washington’s cuts in funding for health care, housing and hunger among other services. Meals on Wheels of Rhode Island, the East Bay Community Action Program in Newport, Progreso Latino in Central Falls and NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley in Woonsocket were among the recipients.  

“Many of our community partners struggled with disruptions in the payment of federal grants or outright elimination of federal funding and contracts, which threatened to diminish their capacity to deliver services Rhode Islanders depend on,” said Cicilline. 

In addition to funding from its core grant programs, the Foundation also awarded grants from a number of topic- or geographic-related programs such as the Equity Action Fund, the Black Philanthropy Bannister Fund and the Newport County Fund. 
  
Last year’s recipients include the Boys and Girls Clubs of Providence, Mixed Magic Theatre & Cultural Events in Pawtucket, Pride in Aging RI, Thundermist Health Center, the Jamestown Community Food Pantry and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Newport.  
  
In addition to grantmaking and fundraising, community leadership is central to the Foundation’s work. In 2025, the Foundation raised $723,000 for its Civic Leadership Fund. This annual fund enables the Foundation to go beyond traditional grant-making to work with community partners and decision-makers to solve critical challenges. 
  
“Our donors understand that responsiveness requires flexibility, innovation and the resources to take on pressing issues as they arise. Their generosity enabled us to ramp up initiatives like the Blue Ribbon Commission that developed recommendations for improving Rhode Island’s school funding formula,” said Cicilline. 
  
The Rhode Island Foundation is the largest and most comprehensive funder of nonprofit organizations in Rhode Island. Through civic leadership, fundraising and grant-making activities, together with neighbors and partners, the Foundation is helping to create progress that lasts.