News

Guidance for 2026

The foundation staff and Board are continuing to evaluate when and how to respond to emergency human services needs in the community resulting from changes in federal policy and existing and potential cuts in federal and state funding. Due to the external environment and our budget for the year, we anticipate that, in 2026, as in 2025, we may approve fewer grant applications from new applicants within the foundation’s priority areas.

Highlights from 2025

Some of the grants made or approved by The Richman Foundation and the Richman Family Foundation in 2025 were to the following organizations —

Early Learning and Family Support Grants                    

•  Improving Education (to support expansion of the All Children Ready program during the 2025-26 school year)
• Family Tree (to provide general operating support for the Baltimore City Child Care Resource Center and the Family Connects Maryland home visiting programming)
• Family Recovery Program (to provide multi-year support for the creation of the Safe Babies Court in Baltimore City, a new court in the State of Maryland that collaborates across systems and works with one of the City’s most vulnerable populations)
• ShareBaby, Inc. (to provide general operating support of Baltimore’s diaper bank)
• Maryland Family Network (to support public policy advocacy efforts)
• Fund for Educational Excellence (to provide free support services to private childcare providers so that they can achieve higher MD EXCELS quality ratings and accreditation with MSDE and secure Pre-K expansion grant dollars)
• The Loyola School (to support student scholarships)
• Fund for Educational Excellence (to support Pre-K expansion grant support services so that private child care providers can access Pre-K expansion dollars and increase the supply of Pre-K seats in Baltimore City)
• Baltimore Civic Fund (to support two critical components of the B’More for Healthy Babies initiative over three years – strategic health communications city-wide and intensive work in two communities)
• Jeremiah Program (to provide general operating support for this economic mobility program serving single mothers and their children) 

Education Grants   

• University of Maryland College Park Foundation (to support the Richman Baltimore Incentive Awards Program Support Endowment at the University of Maryland College Park)
• Bridges (to provide general operating and program expansion support)
• Next One Up (to provide general operating support for the program’s year-round out-of-school time programming for middle and high school students in Baltimore City)
• MERIT Health Leadership Academy (to provide general operating support)
• CollegeBound Foundation (to support expansion of the College Completion Program)
• Baltimore Curriculum Project (to pilot a proactive data-driven approach to combat chronic absenteeism in all six BCP charter schools) 

Mental Health/Health Grants                   

• Mental Health Association of Maryland (to provide general operating support for the organization’s advocacy work, including the work of the Children’s Behavioral Health Coalition)
• Johns Hopkins School of Nursing (to support the Neighborhood Nursing Pilot Program, a three-year pilot program being led by Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and jointly run by the nursing schools at Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland, Morgan State University, and Coppin State University)
• Roca, Inc. (to provide both operating and capital support)
• Johns Hopkins University (to support the implementation and study of a school-based intervention/pilot program that promotes healthy smartphone and digital media use)
• Pro Bono Counseling Project (to support the program’s clinical/counseling support program)
• University of Maryland Baltimore Foundation (to provide gap funding for the HealthySteps Specialist at the Midtown Pediatrics location)
• Asylee Women Enterprise (to support programming and services for immigrant trafficking survivors and forced migrant youth)
• PIVOT (to provide general operating support for this gender-informed reentry program for women, many of whom have children) 

Jewish Causes                                                                

• American Jewish World Service (to provide annual operating support)
• Hand in Hand: Center for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel (to provide annual operating support)

 The foundations also provided emergency support in 2025 for organizations focused on areas like immigration legal services, food insecurity, and defense of our democracy.