Key Takeaways
- Bank of America gave Boston Children's Hospital a $10 million grant to help build a new pediatric behavioral health campus in Brighton, Massachusetts.
- The grant covers about 1.6 percent of the $640 million total cost of the planned hospital.
- The gift follows a $100 million donation from Rob and Karen Hale, the largest gift in the hospital's history, and the first building is set to break ground on October 8, 2026.
Bank of America gave Boston Children's Hospital a $10 million grant on October 1, 2026, to help build a new pediatric behavioral health campus at Franciscan Children's in Brighton, Massachusetts.
The hospital announced the grant on Thursday, October 1, 2026. The money will support a new space on the campus of Franciscan Children's, which Boston Children's acquired in 2023. Behavioral health care covers mental health and substance use treatment. The new campus will combine inpatient, outpatient, and rehabilitation services in one building, and hospital representatives said it will serve more children and adolescents than the current site. The first building is expected to break ground on October 8, 2026, and to open in 2029.
Kevin B. Churchwell is the chief executive of Boston Children's Hospital.
"Bank of America's leadership gift helps turn vision into reality," said Churchwell.
Holly O'Neill, President, Consumer, Retail and Preferred at Bank of America, said the bank and the hospital share a goal of wider access to care for children and families across Greater Boston.
What the records show
The $10 million grant is one piece of a much larger project. The Boston Globe reported that the new mental health hospital will cost $640 million to build. Bank of America's $10 million therefore covers about 1.6 percent of that total cost.
The largest single gift to the project so far came from Rob and Karen Hale, the Quincy philanthropists who gave $100 million to start it. That donation was the largest gift in the hospital's history, and it is ten times the size of the Bank of America grant. Boston Children's acquired Franciscan Children's in 2023, and the new campus will replace the current site with a larger, redesigned facility that brings inpatient, outpatient, and rehabilitation care under one roof.
Why it matters
Child mental health care in the United States has long faced a shortage of inpatient beds, which are the beds reserved for patients who need an overnight stay. The new campus is meant to raise capacity in the Boston area by combining services that families now reach in separate places. Stacy Drury, the psychiatrist in chief at Boston Children's, framed the grant as a statement about priorities.
"Bank of America is putting a stake in the ground that child mental health is absolutely critical and important," said Drury.
The grant does not pay for the whole hospital, but it adds a corporate donor to a project that until now has leaned on a single large individual gift. For a $640 million build, naming more funders before groundbreaking is how a hospital signals that the plan is moving from design to construction. The next test is whether other corporate and individual donors follow Bank of America and the Hales before the first building opens in 2029.
People Also Ask
How much did Bank of America give Boston Children's Hospital?
Bank of America gave Boston Children's Hospital a $10 million grant on October 1, 2026. The money will help build a new pediatric behavioral health campus at Franciscan Children's in Brighton, Massachusetts.
What will the Bank of America grant to Boston Children's Hospital pay for?
The $10 million from Bank of America will support a new behavioral health campus that combines inpatient, outpatient, and rehabilitation services in one building. Behavioral health care covers mental health and substance use treatment for children and adolescents.
How much will the new Boston Children's Hospital mental health campus cost?
The Boston Globe reported that the new mental health hospital will cost $640 million. The Bank of America grant of $10 million covers about 1.6 percent of that total, and a $100 million gift from Rob and Karen Hale remains the largest gift in the hospital's history.
When will the new Boston Children's behavioral health campus open?
The first building is expected to break ground on October 8, 2026, and to open in 2029. Boston Children's Hospital acquired the Franciscan Children's campus in Brighton in 2023.
Sources: PR Newswire, The Boston Globe.