Berkshire Life Charitable Foundation % Berkshire Life Insurance

What it reported funding in 2024

The foundation reported 12 filed grant rows totaling $147,000. The stated grant purposes included berkshire county arc has four day-habilitation programs that serve more than 150 people. three of these programs have sensory rooms that individuals can access (alone or in small groups) to decompress, escape from over-stimulating social environments, enjoy a quiet, safe space, and engage in controlled sensory exploration. after all, everyone needs a "reset" from time to time. however, at this time all of the sensory rooms are inadequate, lacking well-designed tools and equipment to support the individual's effort to regulate their stress levels. the rooms require updates to structure and design to meet the needs of the individuals that they accommodate. for example, some individuals may be able to engage in actions that can result in injury when they are upset or over-stimulated, such as hitting their head against an un-protected wall., berkshire music school believes in the healing benefits of both listening to music and making music. these documented benefits include increased cognitive activity, language retention, lowered blood pressure, reduced stress and pain levels, and increased spatial intelligence. additionally, emotional benefits of participating in musical enrichment activities include lowered anxiety and improved mood. for these reasons, berkshire county arc, a non-profit human services organization, reached out to bms to create a special program to serve this special population. since that time making music: creative collaborations has grown into an ongoing program, and a cornerstone of bms's outreach offerings. providing meaningful musical experience to all populations is a top priority of the berkshire music school, and our making music: creative collaborations., and we respectfully request support from the berkshire life charitable foundation in the amount of $15,000 for our swim with us adaptive swim lessons and aqua thrills classes, aquatics programs serving those who might have difficulties participating in traditional lessons and aquatics experiences., plus 9 other reported purposes.

Grant Deployment

• Grant deployment ratio: 99.7%; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings

Cost Efficiency

• Grant expense ratio: 78.9%; rating input score 79; 42nd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency

• Grant recipient disclosure: Yes; rating input score 100

Compliance

• Foundation activity disclosures: 19 of 19 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Property sale or exchange with a disqualified person: Pass
  • Borrowing from or lending to a disqualified person: Pass
  • Goods, services, or facilities involving a disqualified person: Pass
  • Compensation paid to a disqualified person: Pass
  • Assets transferred to a disqualified person: Pass
  • Payment to a government official: Pass
  • Uncorrected prior self-dealing: Pass
  • Prior-year undistributed income: Pass
  • Excess business holdings: Pass
  • Investments that may jeopardize charitable purposes: Pass
  • Uncorrected prior-year jeopardizing investments: Pass
  • Attempt to influence legislation: Pass
  • Attempt to influence an election: Pass
  • Individual grants for travel, study or similar purposes: Pass
  • Grants outside qualifying charitable organization categories: Pass
  • Spending for a noncharitable purpose: Pass
  • Funds received for a personal-benefit contract: Pass
  • Premiums paid on a personal-benefit contract: Pass
  • Prohibited tax-shelter transaction: Pass
• Filing consistency checks: 10; rating input score 100

Endowment Health

• Endowment-health comparison: 17.04; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings