North Bennet Street School
Ariel shot of renovated school facility
The North Bennet Street School (NBSS) has been a community anchor in Boston’s North End since 1881, teaching vocational skills to immigrants, and serving variously as a health center, credit union and recreational center. Today NBSS is a place where a diverse student body studies an equally wide array of craft training, from locksmithing, carpentry and cabinetry to bookbinding, jewelry repair and piano technology. The prevailing philosophy asserts that working with one’s hands is a living tradition that offers additional benefits of forging pathways to emotionally and financially rewarding professions that are durable in an ever-changing marketplace. In short, the relevance of their work is as meaningful today as it was when NBSS was founded more than 135 years ago.
Its home until 2013 consisted of four buildings cobbled together to form one facility that, while active and thriving, had severe programmatic limitations. Space studies through the years had failed to identify a viable solution—until the ideal space emerged in two vacant, adjacent buildings with 60,000 square feet of industrial space in the North End, steps away from historic Faneuil Hall. The new space would accommodate all school programs for the first time in decades (carpentry and other programs were then located nine miles away), and would do so in an energy-efficient, code-compliant way.
In early 2012, the City of Boston, owner of the property, accepted the school’s offer of $11 million for the buildings. As a condition of acceptance, the city required NBSS to take occupancy within two years. Though low, this offer was unmatched by other development bidders, reflecting the degree to which NBSS is embedded in the North End. To date, NBSS had raised $2 million toward a $15 million goal—one their campaign consultants believed was out of reach. The full project cost of $25–$30 million would clearly be a colossal lift for an organization that had never raised more than $1 million at a time.
Atrium space
While NBSS was crunching numbers, Julia Krapf noticed an article in her local newspaper, the Carlisle Mosquito, about an NBSS project in her neighborhood. Over the years, NBSS’s name had crossed the family’s radar during Foundation conversations, usually in relation to preservation projects, as a long-established, well-respected Boston institution. After reading the article, Julia asked colleagues at J.P. Morgan to learn more. NBSS submitted a proposal and a late winter site visit with Manton Foundation trustees ensued, resulting in a May 2012 grant of $1 million. In the words of President Miguel Gómez-Ibáñez, “a window opened.” Suddenly he was able to explain to funders that NBSS had received $1 million toward this project—a remarkable show of confidence that helped other donors view the project as being achievable and worthy of similarly substantial financial support.
The organization went on to carry out a capital undertaking that grew to $35 million and, astoundingly, emerged from the project in 24 months debt free. It was a remarkable accomplishment, one in which the Manton Foundation played a further leveraging role. Toward the end of the campaign, fundraising became sluggish, which is a common occurrence for large, multiyear projects. The prospect of carrying out construction incrementally after the facility opened for the upcoming school year hovered over Miguel like a specter: “Visualize 300 windows being replaced while school is in session. It would be a nightmare!” The school returned to the Foundation and made a case for a capital gift to help close the building campaign, and a second million-dollar gift was awarded. The role of additional public and private funders in a campaign this large should not be understated; however, Miguel believes the Manton “bookend” gifts were catalytic.
“The Manton Foundation found us at an important time . . . and I have to say, it was their curiosity that led them to us.”
Shortly after the new facility opened in 2013, the school embarked on a tuition scholarship campaign that continues today, setting a $20 million target that will position NBSS to provide $1 million in annual scholarships to students in need of financial assistance. Following on its first two gifts, the Manton Foundation provided $1 million toward this fund in 2015. “When the trustees made the scholarship fund gift—that’s when I knew they really got it,” said Gómez. “No craft school in the country has a better facility, but if our students are borrowing $30,000 for their education and winding up with monthly debt of $300 to $400, we haven’t done our job well enough.”
From where Miguel Gómez-Ibáñez stands, the Manton Foundation’s vision, timing and grantmaking has permanently changed the course of NBSS’s trajectory as a cultural and educational force for the people and the City of Boston.
