The Dorchester-based Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance (MAHA) will receive $750,000 over the next 10 years from the Cummings Foundation, the non-profit announced last week. MAHA works to increase access to affordable homeownership through homebuyer education.

“We are absolutely elated that our work of closing the racial homeownership gap has been recognized with the 10-year grant from the Cummings Foundation,” said MAHA executive director Symone Crawford. “We are especially excited about the positive impact this funding will have on our work and how many first-time and first-generation homebuyers we will be able to reach over the next decade.”

The Woburn-based foundation, established in 1986 by Joyce and Bill Cummings, awards a minimum of $50 million annually to various nonprofits throughout Massachusetts. In total, the Cummings have given more than $500 million and most recently distributed $30 million to 150 local nonprofits through its major annual grants program. 

With the help of this grant, MAHA hopes to sustain its STASH First-Gen Home pilot program, which offers matching-funds for down payments.
“It is having a specific impact on the racial wealth and homeownership gap because we’re actually providing the opportunity for first-generation homebuyers to be able to enter the homeownership market,” Crawford told the Reporter.

Along with MAHA, another 149 nonprofits from 49 towns and cities across the state were awarded grants to address immigrant needs and food insecurity.