City nonprofits receive grants

MARLBOROUGH - Four Marlborough nonprofits were recently awarded $2,100 from the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation’s Community Spirit 9/11 Mini-Grant program.
 
The Society of St. Vincent DePaul Mission Church Conference and Marlborough Community Cupboard each received $550. Crossroads School and Special Olympics Massachusetts - which is headquartered in the city - were awarded $500.
 
Harvard Pilgrim and the foundation created the Community Spirit 9/11 Mini-Grant program to commemorate the Harvard Pilgrim members killed during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The program allows each Harvard Pilgrim employee to award grants - completely funded by the foundation - to the local charity of his or her choice.
 
Since the grant program began in 2002, Harvard Pilgrim employees have awarded more than $5.2 million to thousands of organizations across Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maine.
 
“We are so fortunate to have generous and dedicated employees who enrich our company and the communities in which we all live and work,” said Karen Voci, president of the Harvard Pilgrim Foundation. “The Mini-Grant program is a wonderful way to support our employees as philanthropists and to help make an impact in our own cities and towns.”
 
In 2016, more than 96 percent of Harvard Pilgrim employees participated in at least one form of service of giving through volunteering, the Mini-Grant program or the company’s annual employee fundraising campaign.