$225,000 from Cummings. Here’s what it means.

The Cummings Foundation just committed $225,000 over three years to The Record Co. — and the reason it matters isn’t just the number.

Nonprofits get asked to do more every year with less. Funders who actually understand that — who fund operations, not just programs, who commit to three years instead of one — are rare. Cummings gets it. They looked at fifteen years of us figuring out how to keep studios at $10-80/hour, how to run on 56% earned revenue, how to make the math work in a city that makes it hard — and they bet on the operation, not just a project.

That’s the kind of support that lets us plan instead of scramble. It’s the difference between holding the line on what we charge and quietly raising rates until the people who need this space most can’t afford it.

Thank you to Cummings — not just for the investment, but for understanding what it actually takes to keep something like this running.

—Bobby