New index reveals women and girls receive just 1.3% of charitable dollars in Massachusetts.
Boston, MA, April 30, 2025 – The Women’s Foundation of Boston, a nonprofit public charity that creates, funds, and accelerates economic empowerment, leadership, and mentoring programs for women and girls in Massachusetts, today announced the findings of its latest Massachusetts Women & Girls Philanthropy Index (WGIMA). The WGIMA is the only comprehensive index to measure charitable giving to nonprofits that serve women and girls in Massachusetts. Notably, it found that charitable giving to women and girls has continued to decline.
The findings of the Women & Girls Philanthropy Index of Massachusetts for 2023 revealed the on-going, persistent underinvestment in women and girls-serving organizations. Key findings include:
● Only 1.3% of all philanthropic dollars contributed in the state of Massachusetts is directed to nonprofits that predominantly serve women and girls (WSOs/GSOs). This figure is down from 2021 and 2022, remaining below the national average of 1.9%.
● Giving to women’s and girls’ nonprofits across the Commonwealth remained flat at $678 million, while overall giving to nonprofit organizations in Massachusetts rose by 7% to $51 billion.
● 19%, or $128 million, was allocated to Massachusetts-registered WSOs/GSOs with national or international missions. 81%, or $550 million was earmarked for Massachusetts-focused WSOs/GSOs.
The WGIMA’s in-depth analysis of the most recently available IRS data reinforces the urgency behind the Foundation’s commitment to advancing economic and leadership programs specifically designed to empower women and girls throughout Massachusetts. As a data-driven grantmaking organization, the Women’s Foundation of Boston is determined to increase the current level of philanthropic investment in women and girls through raising awareness, fundraising and programming.
“It is a well-documented trend that women and girls are disproportionately impacted during periods of societal disruption, such as we are experiencing now,” said Christina Gordon, Co-Founder and CEO of the Women’s Foundation. “We are observing reductions in program funding and overall support. I urge all donors to critically examine their role in supporting the women and girls of Massachusetts. It is imperative that we collectively elevate the current philanthropic funding figure, which stands at 1.3%, to at least the national average of 1.9%, and ideally, surpass it. We must ensure that our philanthropic efforts reflect the true needs of the women and girls in our state.”
While Massachusetts has been recognized as the “Best State for Women in 2025,” the data presented in this latest index and the current philanthropic landscape reveal persistent inequities and critical needs among women and girls across our communities.
About the Women’s Foundation of Boston
The Women’s Foundation of Boston is a nonprofit public charity that creates, funds, and accelerates economic empowerment, leadership and mentoring programs that equip women and girls in Greater Boston and throughout Massachusetts to be financially independent and successful leaders. In seven years of grantmaking, the Foundation has committed $8.5M via high impact grants and directly impacted over 20,000 women and girls across MA. The Women’s Foundation of Boston is the only funder in Massachusetts exclusively supporting nonprofits focused on women and girls with large, multi-year grants, and is quickly becoming the primary vehicle for investing in women and girls.
www.wfboston.org \ @wfboston
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Olivia Leslie
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.