Ella Lyman Cabot Trust Grant

Ella Lyman Cabot Trust Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Ella Lyman Cabot Trust
Amount: Approximately US $50,000
Last Updated: January 03, 2026

Summary

The Ella Lyman Cabot Trust Grant supports individuals aiming to create positive social impact through charitable, educational, artistic, and scientific projects. Established in 1939, this private trust emphasizes the importance of individual creativity over institutional initiatives. Grants typically range from $15,000 to $25,000, focusing on the applicant's personal growth and project significance. Applications are accepted year-round, with funding awarded twice annually, fostering innovative projects that embody the founders' vision of human idealism.

Overview

The Ella Lyman Cabot Trust seeks to assist people who want to take their lives in a new, other-oriented direction. The twice-annual awards given out by the Board of Trustees of the Trust have enabled scores of individuals to develop their passion for serving others. By identifying and funding promising projects, the Trust aims to have a meaningful impact on both the proponent of the project and on the project’s intended beneficiaries. About the Trust It was the belief of both Richard C. Cabot and Ella Lyman Cabot that persons were a better vehicle than institutions for a substance so precious and volatile as human idealism. Personalities grow and adapt; institutions all too often harden and contract. Their own creative faith, while variously transmitted, was most characteristically expressed in spiritual or material help to countless individuals at critical and crescent moments of their careers. In medicine, Richard Cabot recognized three groups: those who would recover of themselves; those who would not recover, whatever the physician might do; and those – a relatively small middle group – where what the physician could do would make all the difference between life and death. Carrying this same analysis over into his teaching, his social service, his individual contacts, it was again a middle group that challenged him – a group where a timely word, and unadvertised and prompt material assistance, might make all the difference between success and failure. Richard and Ella Cabot were willing; indeed, to gamble almost recklessly on the creative powers of human personality if there was even a slight chance of tipping the balance in favor of real and significant achievement. It is fitting, therefore, that the Ella Lyman Cabot Trust, whatever the more generalized purpose expressed in its charter, should be devoted to this clearly articulated purpose of its founder – the sponsoring of persons with projects. These projects may be in the realm of art, science, social service, education – almost any significant human endeavor – so long as they are embodied in the elastic medium of some individual creative personality. Worthy endeavors embodied in institutions may often tempt the trustees to lend their support, but these will be outside the peculiar and often expressed scope of the Trust, as it existed in the mind of its founder. Only so qualified and defined does the Ella Lyman Cabot Trust stand as a truly characteristic projection of these two individuals, so rich in their own achievement, yet whose warmest and most appealing characteristic was the faith which they had in their friends. Application Guidelines The Trust was established in 1939 by Dr. Richard C. Cabot , a pioneering and innovative Boston physician, to honor the memory of his wife, Ella Lyman Cabot, and the work of the Trust is carried on today by the Trustees of the Ella Lyman Cabot Trust. Dr. and Mrs. Cabot believed strongly in the individual’s ability to make a positive difference in the world. The criteria by which the Trustees make decisions on grants are based on the lives and ideals of the Cabots, who, during their lives, contributed greatly to the fields of medicine, social work, ethics, education and religious studies. The ELCT, a tax-exempt organization, supports persons with charitable, religious, artistic, educational, and scientific projects that promote the good of others. Within this general guideline, the trustees strive to carry out Dr. Cabot’s original intent by giving paramount consideration in their evaluation of an application for a grant to the applicant’s demonstration of how the proposed grant will be essential to the applicant’s own growth and development. Important as the proposed project’s value to others and the probability of success may be, it is the impact of a proposed project on the individual carrying it out that the trustees consider most important in deciding which applicants to support. While there is no formal limit on the size of an individual grant, the trustees expect grants to be in the range of $15,000 per applicant, and do not anticipate granting any individual support in excess of $25,000. The ELCT does not grant renewals or follow-up grants. Applications can be submitted throughout the year, although grants are made only twice: in the Spring (usually May) and the Fall (usually December).

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. The ELCT, a tax-exempt organization, supports persons with charitable, religious, artistic, educational, and scientific projects that promote the good of others. The interests of the Trust are broad, and not limited to any single area of endeavor or geographical location.

Ineligibility

By virtue of its Grantor’s intent, the ELCT does not make grants:To institutions, organizations, group endeavorsFor scholarships, research, or vocational trainingTo artists, writers, or film makers soliciting support for artistic works, writing or publication of a book, or the production of a film, unless the project has a demonstrable charitable component.To support development of a commercial enterpriseThe Trust does not give grants for salaries or salary replacement.The Trust does not support internships, vocational and/or career exploration.