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The Cambridge Community Foundation (CCF) has appointed three local civic leaders to its Board of Directors and added two new members to its Professional Advisors Council (PAC), effective this fall. New board members include Rev. Adam Lawrence Dyer, lead minister at First Parish in Cambridge Unitarian Universalist, author and musician; Ed Feijo, a top Coldwell Banker sales associate; and Michael Monestime, executive director of the Central Square Business Association and Cultural District. They will each serve a five-year term. New PAC members include Bill Laskin, co-founder of PG Calc, a leading provider of gift planning software and services, and Nadia Yassa, director of Estate and Gift Planning and Technical Advisor at Emerson College. They will both serve a three-year term. The Board of Directors serve as the ultimate authority on the Foundation’s activities, setting its community impact and civic leadership agenda, signing off on two annual rounds of grants to local nonprofit organizations, promoting philanthropy, and building the Cambridge Endowment to support the City’s pressing urban needs today and in the future. The Cambridge Community Foundation and its donors awarded $1.5 Million in grants to 150 nonprofits and programs last year. The Professional Advisor’s Council helps the Foundation build the

On May 20, CCF’s nonprofit partner, the Family Independence Initiative (FII) launched the Trust and Invest Collaborative, a three-year pilot study of FII and the MA Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA), to evaluate the outcomes families living with low-incomes can achieve when they are given access to financial capital and are provided the choice to turn to their own social networks. Four hundred families from Boston and Cambridge receiving economic assistance from the DTA will be given the option to enroll in FII. Findings from the pilot study’s evaluation, conducted by the Harvard Business School, will inform policy recommendations for government, community leaders and philanthropists interested in increasing the social and economic mobility of families living with low incomes. Attendees at the launch of FII's Trust and Invest Collaborative “We yearn for the cure-all to end racism and to end poverty. But it’s actually the small steps we take together, in community, challenging our assumptions and checking our perceptions, that make the biggest difference. That’s why I’m so excited about the Trust and Invest Collaborative,” said Jessica Taubner, FII Site Director for Family Independence Initiative Greater Boston. FII helps low-income families generate their own strategies and solutions

View a photo slideshow of the the 2019 Annual Dinner Watch the remarks from the 2019 Annual Dinner The Cambridge Community Foundation’s ‘We are Cambridge’ Annual Dinner on May 6, 2019 drew 350 civic leaders to the Charles Hotel to celebrate our city—its kindness and caring, inclusive diversity, and sense of possibilities.  The community gathering drew the who’s who of Cambridge from all sectors—universities, nonprofits, businesses, philanthropists, as well as local artists celebrated for their spoken word represented by Regie Gibson, who opened the evening with a reading about what is to be American. The changes that Cambridge is facing, with its booming economy and escalating real estate costs, and pride in our city’s values were underscored by all speakers. “One measure of the justness of society is how it treats the least fortunate, the most vulnerable among us. When I look out tonight, I see many, many people who are committed to trying to do more for those who are less fortunate,” said President Lawrence S. Bacow. “That’s why you are here, that’s why I am here with you. We know we have the responsibility to leave the world a better place.” Superintendent Elow, who grew up in

The Cambridge Community Foundation has appointed Jessica Martin, former director of the Boston Foundation’s think-tank The Boston Indicators Project to a new role: Cambridge Community Foundation Fellow. This year-long appointment will support research on the intersection of innovation and equity in Cambridge. “We are delighted to add Jessica to our team,” said Geeta Pradhan, president of the Cambridge Community Foundation.  “Jessica’s knowledge of and passion for advancing social impact through open data and civic technology will be incredible assets as we dive into the impact of our innovation city—Cambridge—and the relationship between innovation, growth and issues of equity.” As the Cambridge Community Foundation Fellow, Jessica will support CCF’s role as a civic leader in the community, by providing the research support and analysis for the Foundation’s upcoming report, titled Equity and Innovation Cities, to be released this fall. The report is supported in part by Microsoft New England Research & Development Center’s Civic Technology initiative. Jessica has been working closely with Geeta Pradhan to develop a framework for understanding the nuanced relationship between income inequity and economic vitality in thriving innovation cities like Cambridge.  In her role as fellow, Jessica will continue the effort and help lead the partnership