Bermuda Foundation delivers more than $6 million in support
The Bermuda Foundation delivered more than $6 million in grants to community organisations in the 2025 financial year.
Donors’ gifts, combined with the foundation’s unrestricted funding contributions of $356,555, resulted in grants to non-profits totalling almost $6.4 million over the 12 months and $31.4 million since the organisation’s inception.
Through the multiple donor-advised competitive grants programmes, the accounts company managed more than 400 grant applications.
Services provided by the recipients include those related to education, health and housing.
“Bermuda’s non-profit sector is no longer defined simply by who delivers which services,” said Myra Virgil, the chief executive and managing director of the Bermuda Foundation.
She added: “The real question now is whether the significant resources flowing into the third sector are producing measurable outcomes and lasting change.
“That is a far more complex, and far more important, conversation.”
“Non-profits in Bermuda are delivering essential services every day, often without the level of resourcing required to address problems at a systemic level.
“We need to be realistic about what can be achieved without sustained, flexible funding and co-ordinated effort across the public, private and philanthropic sectors.
“Unrestricted and long-term funding enables organisations to shift the focus from short-term survival to long-term impact, assisting non-profits to move the needle rather than simply respond to crisis after crisis.”
Amanda Outerbridge, the foundation’s chairwoman, said that as the organisation marks 13 years of operation, it is “standing on firmer ground”.
She added: “Our growing endowment and increased grant-making capacity empower us to engage more deliberately in the wider social sector ecosystem, supporting not just individual programmes, but whole-sector effectiveness.
“Bermuda is one of the wealthiest jurisdictions in the world, yet we continue to face deep social challenges, from poverty and housing insecurity to mental health and youth violence.
“If we are serious about improving community wellbeing, we must invest with intention, measure what matters and commit for the long haul.
“The Bermuda Foundation remains dedicated to these goals.”
Key areas to have benefited from the Bermuda Foundation’s unrestricted competitive grant programme were:
• Housing programmes
• Youth development, human and family-based services
• Educational enrichment and access to higher education efforts
• Mental health programming including counselling, drug treatment and socio-emotional learning
• Health support services and programmes
Grants were made to 50 non-profit organisations in 2025, including:
• Peer Forward for its high schools programme
• Adult Education School for its GED and college and career readiness programmes
• Age Concern (Bermuda)
• Bermuda Centre for Creative Learning’s experiential learning
• Home, for housing and services
• CARE’s computer services alternative education programme
• Family Centre’s intensive counselling services
• Habitat for Humanity, for small home projects for families living in unsafe conditions
• Open Airways, for asthma awareness and support
• Tomorrow’s Voices Bermuda Autism Early Intervention Centre
• United World Colleges Bermuda scholarship
• BC Village’s awareness and advocacy for LGBTQ+ students’ right to a safe and equitable educational environment
• Bermuda National Gallery, for operational funding and the Frith exhibit
• Bermuda School of Music
• Footy Promotions
• St George’s Foundation
• Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute’s Eco-Schools Bermuda and Young Reporters for the Environment
• Big Brothers Big Sisters of Bermuda
• Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda’s capacity building for growth and sustainability
The foundation’s audited accounts can be found on its website at bermudafoundation.org under “News and Reports”.
Details on the grantees and distributions can be found under “Our Impact — Programme”.
Families or individuals interested in launching their own permanent charitable giving funds to improve Bermuda can learn more about donor-advised philanthropy on the website.
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