The Women’s Foundation of Boston has had a clear quantitative impact on women and girls in Massachusetts. Since launching in 2017, the Foundation, whose mission is to economically empower women and girls in Greater Boston, has awarded over $6.1M in grants, funded 86 high-impact programs, and empowered more than 16,000 women and girls. However, the Foundation’s investment in the nonprofits it supports is not strictly financial. The Women’s Foundation of Boston’s multi-year investments and partnerships have strengthened our nonprofit partners and enabled them to strategically grow.
How Is WFBoston’s Grant Program Unique?
The Women’s Foundation of Boston focuses on multi-year grants, with the average grant spanning three years. This multi-year approach gives the nonprofit partners the ability to build momentum and increase the impact of programming over time. They can work on new projects that can’t be completed in one year, allowing them to grow programming strategically and deliberately. By biannually reviewing metrics on granted programs with the partners, WFBoston is establishing more accountability, ensuring that programming is effective and impactful.
Bringing Together Leaders to Share Knowledge and Experiences
The Foundation also supports its grantee partners by connecting the leaders of these organizations with each other and to the vast network of WFBoston business leaders. For example, in 2019, the Women in Nonprofit (WIN) program was created through a joint initiative between the Women’s Foundation of Boston and the Red Sox Foundation. The following year, 2020, BoardHub launched with the goal of helping grantee partners strengthen their relationships with their organization’s board of directors. Since the inception of these initiatives, participants have praised the programs, stating they “positively impacted their
strategic planning, financial health, board development, and ability to obtain additional funding.”
Women in Nonprofit (WIN) Connects Nonprofit Leaders
WIN opens communication between women Executive Directors/CEOs from Boston-area nonprofits to mentor and learn from each other. WIN hosts events bringing together nonprofit leaders to share best practices, strategies, and resources. Since WIN began in 2019, these events have brought together hundreds of nonprofit leaders to discuss topics such as staff recruitment and retention, fundraising strategies, and leveraging your board of directors. The program is helping advance the leadership skills of nonprofit leaders who often don’t have the funding to build upon their already accomplished skill set.
BoardHub Helps Nonprofit Leaders Create an Effective Board
BoardHub, which launched in 2020, provides complimentary consulting on best practices and tools related to the effectiveness of the nonprofit’s operations, strategic planning and Board development. This program helps nonprofit leaders determine optimal board composition, develop strategies to build strong and diverse talent pipelines, and learn how to structure committees and meetings. BoardHub promotes the idea that a successful board is the backbone of a healthy nonprofit.
Why Donate Now to Invest in Women and Girls?
The Women’s Foundation of Boston is moving the needle forward on philanthropic giving for programs supporting women and girls. Research shows that in Massachusetts, only 1.4% of giving goes to nonprofits focused on this segment of the population. By offering a holistic approach to supporting these nonprofits, WFBoston is helping to build on the grantee partner’s successes and reach more participants. We know that investing in women and girls has a multiplier effect on families and the community, so DONATE TODAY to help financially empower more women and girls in Massachusetts.
Laurie H. Glimcher, MD, was named President and CEO of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 2016. She is also Director of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and the Richard and Susan Smith Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Previously, she was the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean and Professor of Medicine of Weill Cornell Medicine and Provost for Medical Affairs of Cornell University. Dr. Glimcher is a distinguished immunologist, widely renowned for her work in one of the most promising areas of cancer research.
Linda Henry is the CEO of the Boston Globe Media Partners. She is a co-founder of HUBweek, a civic collaboration between the Boston Globe, Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital, and MIT that explores the future being built at the intersection of art, science and technology. Linda is also an early-stage impact investor, an Emmy-Award winning television producer with two shows currently airing, and a community activist. She serves as a director of the Red Sox Foundation, is a trustee of the Liverpool Football Club Foundation, chair of the Boston Globe Foundation, and chairman of the John W. Henry Family Foundation. In addition, she is a founder of the Boston Public Market, serves on the advisory board of MassChallenge, and is on the board of the Engine at MIT. She earned a BS from Babson College and her MS from MIT.
Bekah Salwasser joined the Red Sox Foundation as the Executive Director in January of 2018. She earned her B.A. in Psychology from Brown University and has extensive experience in philanthropy and both professional and semi-professional sports. After four years working as Community Relations Director for the Boston Celtics, Bekah went on to lead Scholar Athletes as its Executive Director, a program that supports public high school athletes with both their athletic and academic achievements. Earlier in her career, Bekah served as a professional soccer player for the Boston Breakers and as Executive Director of the Charlestown Lacrosse and Learning Center.
Kimberly Fay Boucher is a business executive who has driven high performance organizations in technology, consumer products and social enterprise/nonprofit industries over the past 25 years. She is currently the Technology Commercialization Business Leader for the CTO at Analog Devices, where she is responsible for driving new technologies from incubation stages to successful businesses. Kim is also a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where she teaches Disciplined Entrepreneurship in the Martin Trust Center. She holds a BS in Management Industrial Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is a NCAA Academic All-American Women’s Basketball player and has been inducted into the WPI Hall of Fame.
Ami Kuan Danoff (Co-Founder and CFO) is a private investor and the trustee of a foundation. She is a Harvard Quantum Founder and a member of the Harvard FAS Dean’s Council. Ami earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in Visual and Environmental Studies and holds a dual master’s degree in Applied Economics and International Finance from the Sloan School of Management at MIT. She was a portfolio manager in global equities at Putnam Investments and co-manager of the Putnam International New Opportunities Fund, and also worked as an international equities analyst at Fidelity Investments.
Christina Heenan Suh holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania in English and Marketing and a master’s from Columbia University. A former management consultant, her work focused on strategy and implementation projects for Fortune 100 clients. She was also an account executive at Hill+Knowlton (WPP) marketing consumer packaged goods. As an Executive Board Member of the Brookline Education Foundation, which funds professional development in the Brookline Public Schools, Christina led their Grant and Oversight Committees. She currently sits on the board of the Brookline Library Foundation and teaches ESL at Rosie’s Place in Boston.
Christina Gordon (Co-Founder and CEO) holds a dual master’s degree in International Finance and Applied Economics from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Boston University and also studied for a joint master’s degree in Women’s Studies and Sociology at Brandeis with a focus on women in the workplace. Christina is a former assistant fund manager and technology industry equity analyst at Wellington Management. She also worked as a stock analyst at Fidelity Investments. She is a trustee of a private foundation, a member of Women Moving Millions and currently sits on the board of Rosie’s Place, a sanctuary for poor and homeless women in Boston.