France-Merrick Foundation

We've proudly joined the City of Baltimore to build the Farm Alliance of Baltimore's Black Butterfly Farm - a 9 acre food production farm on underutilized city land in Brooklyn Curtis Bay. This farm is teaching new urban farmers sustainable agriculture practices and growing produce at scale for sale and for Food Bank's pantries across our region.

Congratulations to The Family Recovery Program, Inc. on 10 years of supporting women and men in their recovery and family reunification at the Sage Center. Their constant effort to provide holistic support has resulted in an 80% reunification rate and 85% sobriety rate for parents in the program.

It has been an honor to support their journey and watch their impact grow over the years. Here’s to many more years of helping Baltimore families! https://frp-inc.org/

Baltimore is brimming with wonderful museums, many of which we are proud to have supported over the years.

How many have you visited?

Discovery Quest is a fun reason to explore Baltimore’s incredible museums, and you get a prize if you make it to all 14!

We love to see creative ways to encourage Baltimoreans to explore our rich cultural landscape.

Discovery Quest | Port Discovery Children's Museum Discovery Quest Get ready to explore, play, and discover together! Discovery Quest is a citywide adventure for families, designed to help you experience the very best of Baltimore’s museums, cultural spaces, and places for learning. Each stop is a chance to try something new. Start your journey by...

Congrats to Bethel Empowerment and Wellness Center - Baltimore, MD on opening the doors to your beautiful and welcoming new space! We helped Bethel put solar panels on the roof, which will help them save on energy costs and reinvest in community wellness. https://www.aol.com/news/improved-bethel-empowerment-wellness-center-172500744.html

“In a way, the new Hardy building will be a mural. It will represent what I love about Bryn Mawr: our intentionality, our integrativeness, and our inquisitive minds.” - Isha Chaudhuri Bryn Mawr ’26 Student

Congrats to The Bryn Mawr School for breaking ground on the new Upper School science building.

Bryn Mawr School breaks ground on new Upper School science building Last week, Bryn Mawr broke ground on a new Upper School building. Construction is scheduled to begin after commencement ceremonies on June 5.

For 17 years, B'More Clubhouse has been creating a space to help adults living with mental illness thrive and live meaningful and productive lives. Their unique community space will now be accessible to all members, thanks to a new elevator. We’re proud to have supported this project.

A year from now, the area across from Pimlico Race Course will be transformed into Belvedere Place, which will include 83 affordable rental apartments, 11 of which will support families transitioning out of homelessness, a large community park, and new retail space.

Congratulations to Bridges CDC and Bon Secours Community Works Properties on groundbreaking this ambitious $44 million project! France-Merrick proudly invested in this initiative that will support families and transform the Park Heights neighborhood.
https://www.belvedereplaceapts.com/home

“It shows me that what ROCA and other groups are doing is working. Young people have bought in, and they want to change their lives.” - Kurtis Polarmo, Roca Baltimore

In April 2026, Baltimore had four homicides, the lowest number ever recorded. This wouldn’t have been possible without the collaboration, dedication and hard work of community members, local nonprofits and government leaders.

We are proud to support ROCA and other violence reduction and youth development nonprofits in our great city.

Baltimore sees lowest homicide total in single month since at least 1970 Baltimore City hit a major milestone throughout the month of April, with four homicides marking the lowest monthly total since at least 1970.

“We were pleased to be able to support the renovations, and more importantly, the work Loyola is doing in the community. This grant, and Loyola’s work, leverage intellectual and economic capital of higher education anchor institutions to positively impact their surrounding communities by assisting with strong community engagement, neighborhood revitalization, local hiring, and other economic development partnerships.” - Amy Gross, our president, on our recent grant to Loyola University Maryland.

Learn more:

Loyola awarded $267,000 in grants to support improvements at location of future community hub Loyola University Maryland has been awarded $267,000 in grants to support capital improvements to a small building on the Loyola-owned property at 5104 York Road in Greater Govans that is home to Loyola’s York Road programming. Loyola was awarded a $167,000 grant from the France-Merrick Foundation...

Where a Greyhound station once stood is a new fitness and community center where residents can play squash, and students can get academic tutoring and mentorship. The Baltimore SquashWise Center is a great new resource for youth development and community engagement located in a historic building. Learn more in our Spring Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/france-merrickfdn/april-2026