Women’s Foundation of Boston funds 11 high-impact organizations with long-term support
Boston, MA – May 15, 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 $2,778,609 in funding to eleven nonprofits through its 2025 grant cycle. Since awarding its first grant in 2018, the Foundation has positively impacted more than 20,300 women and girls in Massachusetts’ most under-resourced communities. As the only funder in the state dedicated exclusively to women and girls through large, multi-year grants, the Foundation has cumulatively committed $11.3 million to women and girls across the Commonwealth.
“When only 1.3% of all philanthropic giving in Massachusetts supports women’s and girls-serving organizations, our mission becomes even more vital,” said Christina Gordon, Co-Founder and CEO of the Women’s Foundation of Boston. “This year’s grant cycle underscores our mission to strategically invest in programs focused on education, leadership and mentoring, and career and financial empowerment because we know these pathways create lasting change. By providing women and girls with the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to thrive, we’re not just transforming individual lives, we’re strengthening families and building more vibrant communities across the Commonwealth.”
2025 grant recipients shared their enthusiasm about leveraging the funding to expand their impact:
“We are grateful for your partnership, and feel so supported by you! You are incredible champions for the thousands of girls we serve.”
“Thank you for all the ways you support our organization and put your funding trust in us to know and address the needs of some of our most vulnerable community members.”
The recipients of the 2025 grant cycle awards are:
Dress for Success Boston (DFSB). DFSB empowers women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and development tools. This three-year grant will fund the expansion of their successful Confidence Days, one-day workshops for young women to develop job readiness skills.
EMPath. EMPath transforms people’s lives by helping them move out of poverty. This 3-year grant will fund an accelerated three-year pilot program, based off of their successful five-year Mobility Mentoring program, designed to help low-income families achieve long-term economic stability through family stability, financial management, education, and employment.
Girl Scouts of Central and Western MA (GSCWM). The mission of the Girl Scouts is to build girls of courage, confidence and character, providing positive outcomes in Life Skills/Leadership, STEM, Entrepreneurialism/Financial Literacy, and the Outdoors. This three-year grant will support the expansion of their community-based programming in under-served towns, targeting communities including Holyoke, Pittsfield, Chicopee, Springfield, and Worcester.
Girls Inc. of Boston and Lynn (GIBL). GIBL works to inspire all girls to be strong, smart, and bold, through direct service and advocacy. This four-year grant will support the launch of their Project Accelerate program in Boston, which supports young women through critical transitions from high school to college to career. The programming includes mentoring, assistance in securing post-secondary education, school year and summer opportunities and workshops, college readiness, and paid internships.
Girls on the Run Greater Boston (GOTRGB). GOTRGB inspires girls to be joyful, healthy and confident, using a research-based curriculum which creatively integrates running. This three-year grant will fund the expansion of their successful after-school program in more low-income school districts in Greater Boston and the Gateway Cities.
Girls on the Run RI (GOTRRI). GOTRRI inspires girls to be joyful, healthy and confident, using a research-based curriculum which creatively integrates running. This three-year grant will support their expansion into Bristol County, MA, a region GOTRRI currently serves. The program will primarily serve participants from New Bedford, Taunton, Fall River, and Attleboro, four Gateway Cities which have a significant need for after-school programming for girls. GOTRRI is a new grantee partner of the Foundation.
Girlstart. Girlstart provides free, year-round out-of-school STEM programming to girls in grades 4-8. This three-year grant will support the expansion of Girlstart’s after school and summer camp hands-on STEM programming with new schools in Waltham, Somerville and Woburn.
Mother Caroline Academy (MCA). MCA is the only tuition-free independent school for girls in grades three through eight in the City of Boston serving traditionally under-resourced neighborhoods. This three-year grant will fund a lower school math specialist to build the students’ math foundations, preparing them for more advanced math classes in the upper school. The grant will also fund an annual Community Math Night to engage students and their families with the math curriculum.
Our Sisters’ School (OSS). OSS is a tuition-free, nonsectarian middle school for girls from low-income communities in Greater New Bedford. This 3-year grant will fund the newly created director of curriculum and instruction position. The director will shape OSS’s curriculum to strengthen the educational outcomes of OSS students.
Rosie’s Place. Rosie’s Place provides a safe and nurturing environment that helps poor and homeless women maintain their dignity, seek opportunity and find security in their lives. This 3-year grant will support their new workforce development program, helping more women move toward financial empowerment and employment by building job readiness and financial / budgeting skills, accessing job training, conducting job searches and submitting applications, securing and sustaining employment, and by providing wraparound services to remove barriers to employment. Rosie’s Place is a new grantee partner of the Foundation.
Women’s Money Matters (WMM). WMM empowers women and girls to improve their financial health to create a more secure future for themselves, their families and their communities. This three-year grant will expand WMM’s successful Connect community platform into an Economic Empowerment Hub, reaching more women and incorporating more tools to increase financial skills, improve credit scores, and facilitate targeted financial coaching.
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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 $11.3M 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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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.