The Greater Lowell Community Foundation recognizes the power of strategic communications to advance mission. So, we encourage you to announce your grant and, as appropriate, share important updates, milestones, and impacts via your organization’s website, blog, social media, and outreach to traditional media. Such communications should focus on your organization, priorities, and/or on those who benefit from your work. GLCF should not be the focus. Yet, we are proud to be associated with those we fund; and, when GLCF is recognized for its support, we believe it also serves the Foundation’s goals and mission – drawing positive attention to our partners and their work, while also helping to build understanding of GLCF and its priorities.

To assist you in communicating about your grant, we provide the following guidelines.

Acknowledging the Foundation

For the duration of your grant, we ask that you acknowledge GLCF as you do any other supporters. For example, please note the Foundation’s support on any web pages, announcements, or printed materials about the work supported by your grant.

Below is a variety of approved language grantees can use to acknowledge the Foundation’s support:

  • In any grant announcements or materials funded by the grant, please use the following credit:
    The [organization/project/event] is supported by a grant from the Greater Lowell Community Foundation.This [project/event] is made possible thanks in part to support from the Greater Lowell Community Foundation.
  • If you choose to describe the Foundation in more detail, please use the following paragraph:
    Established in 1997, the Greater Lowell Community Foundation (GLCF) is a philanthropic organization comprised of more than 400 funds dedicated to improving the quality of life in 21 neighboring cities and towns. With financial assets of almost $60 million, GLCF annually awards grants and scholarships to hundreds of worthy nonprofits and students. It is powered by the winning combination of donor-directed giving, personal attention from Foundation staff, and an in-depth understanding of local needs. The generosity of our donors has enabled the Community Foundation to award more than $35 million to the Greater Lowell community. For more information, visit www.glcfoundation.org.
  • If you are regranting GLCF funds to other organizations, GLCF’s support should be noted in your communications with the subgrantee. Please use the following credit for those communications:
    This grant is awarded by [your organization] with funding from the Greater Lowell Community Foundation.
  • If subgrantees choose to recognize the source of funds for their grant, please ask them to use the following credit:
    The [organization/project/event] is supported by a grant awarded by [your organization] with funding from the Greater Lowell Community Foundation.

You are welcome to use any of the above, as applicable, to your grant, and do not need to seek approval from GLCF before publishing. If, however, you wish to include custom acknowledgement language or a quote from GLCF leadership, we request that you give us an opportunity to review a draft of the information to be released. In all cases, please forward us a final copy of all external communications materials such as news releases, newsletters, email announcements, website copy, fact sheets or any other materials that recognize your grant from the Greater Lowell Community Foundation to GLCF’s VP of Marketing and Programs: jennifer@glcfoundation.org.

Featuring Grantees in Greater Lowell Community Foundation Communications

GLCF lists all of its grants on our website’s grants page: www.glcfoundation.org/grants and we frequently feature grantees in our electronic newsletter, and via our social media channels. We are always interested in helping to amplify the good work of our partners and we love to see our grants in action – please let us know when you have events for your GLCF supported project. Send updates/invitations to GLCF’s VP of Marketing and Programs: jennifer@glcfoundation.org.

Connecting with the Greater Lowell Community Foundation on Social Media

We encourage you to follow GLCF on Twitter (@GLCFoundation) on Facebook (@GLCFoundation) and on LinkedIn (@greater-lowell-community-foundation). We also ask that you let us know the best social media profiles for your organization and key staff for us to connect with and follow, so that we may stay abreast of important social media notifications, and help promote your relevant activities. You can do so by connecting with us (we will follow back) or by emailing: jennifer@glcfoundation.org.

Sharing Photos with GLCF (and Printable Sign)

We welcome opportunities to feature our partner’s work on GLCF’s website, in printed materials, and in other online media that we use to describe the Foundation’s grantmaking. To help promote the project for which you received a grant, we encourage you to share high-resolution (at least 1,500 pixels across or 1MB in file size) JPGs with us. We look for dynamic, people-centric images that showcase the work and its impacts. Prior to sending us your photos, please ensure you have written consent to publish and share them from individuals appearing in the photos, and from the photographer. Please also include IDs/photo captions.

To submit photos, please send to: jennifer@glcfoundation.org. We will be sure to credit your organization (and a photographer, if designated when submitting) each time we use your photos.

Spread the word! Take a photo with the “Funded by GLCF” printable sign and share on social media with the hashtag #GLCFgrant – don’t forget to tag GLCF on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Using the Greater Lowell Community Foundation Logo

Grantees may use the Greater Lowell Community Foundation’s logo in print or online materials. These are available for download in multiple formats below. Or, you can request a specific logo size/type by contacting the VP of Marketing and Programs at jennifer@glcfoundation.org.

Linking to the Foundation’s Website

We encourage you to link back to GLCF’s website (www.glcfoundation.org) as appropriate.

Requesting Statements for the Media

The VP of Marketing and Programs of the Greater Lowell Community Foundation is happy to provide quotes for use in grantee press announcements when helpful. Please contact jennifer@glcfoundation.org for assistance with this and with other media-related questions.

Sharing News Coverage

Please forward links to any media coverage generated by activities funded by this grant. We appreciate the opportunity to learn how grantees’ work is reaching the public, and we are often able to share such updates with our networks.

Guiding Principles

The Greater Lowell Community Foundation is committed to:

  • Improving the quality of life in the communities we serve through philanthropy
  • Advocating private giving for the public good
  • Providing philanthropic services to donors of all means
  • Convening and connecting resources with community needs and opportunities
  • Being a source of knowledge on issues affecting philanthropy and the community
  • Being held to the highest ethical standards through fairness in policies and procedures, full and objective review of funding requests, and the avoidance of conflict of interest
  • Maximizing the impact of its grant and program initiatives
  • Participating in the national community foundation field and philanthropy as a whole
  • These guiding principles reflect the commitment of the Community Foundation to provide effective stewardship of the charitable resources entrusted to it.

Policies

National Standards

U.S. community foundations serve tens of thousands of donors, administer billions of dollars in charitable funds, and address core concerns of hundreds of communities and regions. Developed in the spirit of accountability, transparency and continuous self -improvement, the National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations are evidence that as community foundations we seek excellence for our communities and our donors. Hundreds of community foundations have been confirmed in compliance and are displaying the official National Standards Seal that denotes the achievement – including The Greater Lowell Community Foundation. Intended both as a blueprint for internal organizational development and as a tangible set of benchmarks for external assessment of performance, the 41 National Standards address six key areas of community foundation operations:

Mission, structure and governance, including National Standards defining board accountability, compensation, independence, fiduciary responsibility and representation of the community.

Resource development, including parameters for administration of funds, disclosures to donors and commitment to building long -term resources for varied community issues and causes.

Stewardship and accountability, covering investment and management of funds, transparent record -keeping, the use of funds for their intended purpose(s), annual audits, and public availability of financial information, including National Standards related to due diligence and community responsiveness.

Grantmaking and community leadership, including National Standards related to broad and open grantmaking programs, due diligence, and responsiveness to changing community needs.

Donor relations, encompassing guidelines for informing, educating and involving donors in responding to community needs.

Communications, including openness to public scrutiny and frequent communications about activities and finances.

The Foundation is proud to be a Certified member of the National Standards of US Community Foundations.

Establishing in 1997, the Greater Lowell Community Foundation (GLCF) is a philanthropic organization comprised of over 390 funds, currently totaling over $50MM, which is dedicated to improving the quality of life in 20 neighboring cities and towns: Ashby, Ayer, Bedford, Billerica, Burlington, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Concord, Dracut, Dunstable, Groton, Lowell, Littleton, Pepperell, Shirley, Tewksbury, Townsend, Tyngsboro, Westford, Wilmington.

The Foundation is made up of over 390 separate charitable funds established by donors either for the general benefit of the community, scholarships for post-high school education, agency endowments or for special purposes.

The Foundations investment funds are advised and managed by Enterprise Bank, Eagle Claw Capital Management, LLC, Eastern Bank Wealth Management, Eaton Vance, and RBC Wealth Management.

Most Recent Annual Report

990s

In compliance with the IRS, we make our Form 990 available to the public.

Audited Financial Statements

Additional Information

GLCF StrategicPlan 2021-2024