Feeding Our Hometown Heroes funds meals for hospital workers, supports restaurants
How our Feeding Our Hometown Heroes initiative came to be, starting with inspiration from our board member Marla Felcher and turning into a whole community effort.
April 2020
Feeding Our Hometown Heroes: A message from Geeta Pradhan
Our new initiative, Feeding our Hometown Heroes, launched in partnership with the Boston-founded start-up Off Their Plate, will fund daily deliveries of local, nutritious restaurant meals in May to frontline hospital staff in three Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) Hospitals (Cambridge, Somerville, Everett) and Mount Auburn Hospital.
Updates on our emergency grantmaking from our president
Dear friends, The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the fragility of our community. More people in Cambridge are struggling with food and housing insecurity. Families who previously made ends meet are now in crisis with no contingency funds to fall back on. This pandemic has also revealed the precariousness of our nonprofits. The very organizations that bridge the gaps and serve the most vulnerable are doing their work on shoe-string budgets and their future is uncertain. Less than a month ago, we created the Cambridge COVID-19 Emergency Fund and the Cambridge Artist Relief Fund in partnership with the City and our generous donors to provide swift relief to individuals and families in crisis. Funds are already in the hands of those who need them most and more applications are being reviewed each week. Here's a glance at our emergency grantmaking by the numbers: To date we’ve raised over $725,000 and counting for both funds combined. We're distributing one-time grants of $200 to $1,000. We’ve reviewed more than 300 applications from individuals, small businesses, and organizations so far. We’re sending out a total of just over $300,000 in grants, as quickly as we can. This is what we’re seeing: Taxi drivers who are primary breadwinners for their families have no income. Single mothers struggle to feed and home school their children while working reduced hours. Parents with large families depend on food pantries but
March 2020
The Cambridge Community Foundation fuels local nonprofit sector with $456,181 this spring
This April, the Cambridge Community Foundation will infuse $456,181 into the nonprofit sector in Cambridge through its annual spring grantmaking cycle, which is allocating funds on schedule despite the COVID-19 crisis. The Foundation is allowing Community Fund grant recipients to use their programmatic funding flexibly so that, at a time of great uncertainty, nonprofits can allocate the money where it’s needed the most.
Nonprofit FAQs: Giving funds to individuals during COVID-19
By Brad Bedingfield and Eleanor A. Evans The impact of COVID-19 on our communities is only just starting to come into focus. It's not just the health risks - millions are likely to find themselves unemployed, without health insurance or a means to make money. Those who must continue their work as this crisis balloons, health care workers in particular, have no safe place to leave their children. Nearly everyone is facing increased financial pressures. Local nonprofits, dealing with their own financial stresses, are still eager to bolster their support of the communities they serve during this crisis. For any Cambridge-based nonprofits thinking about how to directly give funds to individuals and families in the community, here are some considerations. Can my nonprofit make direct grants to individuals impacted by COVID-19? Many nonprofits that have not traditionally made grants to individuals are asking if they can do so, and how. They want to help specific people in their communities who are in danger of losing their homes or are already homeless, who do not have enough food for their children, or who have special health care expenses. Nonprofits without experience making grants to individuals may be nervous about doing
Two new funds launched in response to COVID-19
With support from generous donors and the City of Cambridge, the Cambridge Community Foundation launches the Cambridge COVID-19 Emergency Fund and the Cambridge Artist Relief Fund.
COVID-19 resources for the Cambridge community
A list of local resources available to our community in response to COVID-19.
The 2020 We are Cambridge celebration will be rescheduled
Due to public health concerns, we have postponed our We are Cambridge Celebration to a later date in 2020.
February 2020
Cambridge celebrates 20 Cultural Visionaries
We honor and remember Elsa Dorfman and Tunney Lee, two of our Cambridge Cultural Visionaries who passed away last year. **The We are Cambridge Celebration is now a virtual gathering on March 11, 2021. Join us.** The Cambridge Community Foundation focuses on the city’s cultural richness CAMBRIDGE, MA | Published: February 27, 2020 | Updated: January 28, 2021 The Cambridge Community Foundation has named 20 exceptional artists and creators as Cambridge Cultural Visionaries, recognizing, for the first time, a diverse and talented group of individuals who have had a major impact on the cultural richness celebrated in Cambridge and beyond for over half a century. In their honor and in recognition of the community’s commitment to safeguard the arts in our city and spark creativity of future generations, the Foundation will launch a new Cultural Capital Fund and honor the arts at its We are Cambridge celebration (rescheduled for March 11, 2021; register here to join). Cambridge has been shaped by dreamers and visionaries throughout its history. A city of ideas and solutions, Cambridge boasts a long list of imaginative thinkers, writers, artists, innovators, and entrepreneurs who continue to call Cambridge home. The Cambridge Cultural
NAACP honors Geeta Pradhan, Michael Monestime among five community leaders
Our president Geeta Pradhan and board member Michael Monestime were among five community leaders honored by the Cambridge NAACP for their social justice work at the annual MLK Brunch on February 15.
