Giving Compass' Take:

• Nonprofit Quarterly reports on the scarcity of unrestricted, multi-year grants and funding reserves, citing examples from MIT and Massachusetts Eye and Ear on how they could make a difference.

• Why aren't there more gifts like the ones discussed in this piece? Unrestricted funding could help spur innovation, and long-term commitments are important in scientific research.

• Here's how grants can catalyze investment capital for lasting impact. of international grantmaking.

Two Boston institutions received massive anonymous commitments last June. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology received a pledge of $140 million, and a $20 million donation went to Massachusetts Eye and Ear. The first is unrestricted and the second is for work in Mass. Eye and Ear’s core mission: research on hearing and balance. MIT President L. Rafael Reif said donations of this type are “the vital fuel that helps big ideas take off.”

“Generosity at this level is a game-changer. It means breakthroughs will happen faster, and that translates to better hearing for millions of people sooner than later,” said Wyc Grousbeck, Mass. Eye and Ear’s board chair.

There is no indication that the pledge and donation reported here are related. But, we would like to take this opportunity to make a point:

Unrestricted, multi-year gifts are still far too rare. While most nonprofits could only dream about six-figure gifts, never mind seven- and eight-figure gifts, most could use a break from the constant unnecessary hamster wheel of applying yearly for grants in an expensive momentum-slowing cycle and from receiving monies that may be restricted for one purpose when they really need them for another.

Read the source article about game-changing grants by Ruth McCambridge at nonprofitquarterly.org.