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October 2018

What’s happening in Central Square?

2022-10-06T20:58:59+00:00October 10th, 2018|Press Release|

What’s happening in Central Square? To us, Central Square is home.  It’s the heart of our city—our historic downtown, the city’s cultural district and a space shared by businesses, dozens of nonprofits, many of whom we support, and residents of all income levels.  It’s an urban expression of the values of Cambridge—diversity, creativity, spontaneity, and compassion and care for others. So, when something new happens at home—whether it’s a new picture on the wall, a big party, or a major spring clean—you notice, right?  Well, Central Square is getting all three this fall thanks to efforts coordinated by the Central Square Business Association. Central Square Mural Project: Last week “Queendom,” a new abstract, interpretative mural by Cambridge-based artist Victor “Marka27” Quiñonez brought a regal girl, a zebra and vibrant colors and graphic elements to the brick wall above H-Mart on Mass Ave.  It’s the second in a series of 10 murals by 10 artists to be completed in Central Square this month. The Mural Project celebrates the neighborhood’s long historic past, its life in the present moment, and its hope for the future. It is also a colorful recognition of the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s designation of the area as [...]

Rowing for the Community – Head Of The Charles® Regatta

2020-10-16T17:42:06+00:00October 10th, 2018|Press Release|

Rowing for the Community The Head Of The Charles® Regatta (HOCR) is the world’s largest two-day rowing event, drawing athletes from across the country and nearly 45 countries.  Did you know these rowers are also committing to Cambridge?  The Cambridge Community Foundation has been an official charity of The Head Of The Charles® Regatta since 1998. Through the generosity of rowers who participate in the HOCR Charity Program and direct contributions from the Regatta, the Head Of The Charles Fund at CCF makes grants through our Community Fund supporting issues ranging from hunger and homelessness, to education, and an array of programs that create a pathway for Cambridge residents to achieve their dreams.  And the grantmaking has also supported rowing.  When the fund was started, the HOCR Board helped Cambridge Rindge and Latin School Crew program purchase a boat. Fred Schoch, Executive Director of the Head Of The Charles® Regatta said, “We are committed to supporting our local community, and the Cambridge Community Foundation is an ideally suited partner. The Foundation knows the community well, understands the needs, and has stewarded our funds in the best interest of our neighbors in Cambridge.  Our goal is to build pathways to the future [...]

New Tax Law and Charitable Giving

2021-03-16T18:13:06+00:00October 10th, 2018|Press Release|

New Tax Law and Charitable Giving By Brad Bedingfield, Esq. Hemenway & Barnes LLP Brad Bedingfield Last December’s federal tax law changes (many of which expire at the end of 2025) may affect incentives for individuals and businesses to make charitable contributions.   While many popular strategies for saving taxes by making charitable gifts – for example, making gifts of appreciated property, or direct charitable IRA rollovers – remain effectively unchanged, other gifting strategies may no longer work as intended from a tax perspective. It is likely only a particular subset of donors will be significantly affected by these changed tax incentives.  Donors who were non-itemizers before these changes are likely to remain so and will see no meaningful change in tax incentives for charitable giving.  Conversely, many donors who were itemizers before will likely remain so, and still have plenty of incentives to find tax-efficient ways to reduce the burden of income or estate taxes by making charitable gifts.  Those on the borderline between itemizing and non-itemizing may need to review the timing and sources of gifts in light of the new law – however, the charitable impulse is the overriding consideration in giving, and nothing in [...]

The Cambridge Community Foundation adds financial experts, philanthropic leaders to Board of Directors

2018-10-11T21:02:44+00:00October 5th, 2018|Press Release|

The Cambridge Community Foundation adds financial experts, philanthropic leaders to Board of Directors September 26, 2018 Cambridge, MA The Cambridge Community Foundation (CCF) has appointed four financial experts and philanthropic leaders to its Board of Directors and announced new co-chairs for its Professional Advisors Council, effective this fall. New Board members include Daniel S. Kern, Chief Investment Officer & shareholder with TFC Financial Management, Inc.; Marla Felcher, Co-Founder of The Philanthropy Connection, marketing professor, and investigative journalist; Winifred Lenihan, Vice President for Development at WGBH; and Katie Walker, Senior Vice President and Sales Executive at U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management, who is an Appointed Trustee with CCF.  New Co-Chairs of the Professional Advisors Council are Judith Cranna, Vice President at Eaton Vance Investment Counsel and Beth Milkovits, Relationship Manager in the Private Banking group at Brown Brothers Harriman in Boston. The CCF Board of Directors oversees community impact for the Foundation, signing off on two rounds of grants to local nonprofit organizations each year from the Community Fund. CCF and its donors awarded $1.43 Million in grants last year. The Board and Professional Advisors Council also help the CCF build the Cambridge Endowment through donor engagement [...]

September 2018

Join Us: The Immigrant Experience Through Art, Community Voice

2018-10-12T21:04:12+00:00September 21st, 2018|Civic Leadership, Press Release|

Upcoming Event The Immigrant Experience: Learning Through Art and Community Voice REGISTER HERE MONDAY SEPTEMBER 24 5:30 - 6:30 pm Tercentenary Theatre, Harvard Yard, Cambridge Photo Credit: Robin Lubbock/WBUR "If a society permits one portion of its citizenry to be menaced or destroyed, then, very soon, no one in that society is safe."  — James Baldwin We have seen the inhumane and unjust treatment of immigrant families and children in our country and our communities, but what is the effect on the human being? Learn more about the immigrant experience through poetry and stories of those living in our community today at this innovative Cambridge Community Foundation experience. Standing beside Teresita Fernández's Harvard public art project, Autumn (...Nothing Personal), we will learn about how this work was inspired by James Baldwin's 1964 essay, Nothing Personal, published at the height of the civil rights movement. Local poets, storytellers, and students will personalize and bring to life the themes of disconnection, injustice and divisiveness in America, as well as the hope that love, light and trust can bring. We hope you can join us for this unique experience. Special thanks to MassPoetry, Enroot, and the Harvard University Committee on the Arts for this community platform. This event is [...]

Marla Felcher joins CCF Board of Directors

2018-10-12T20:40:24+00:00September 6th, 2018|Press Release|

Marla Felcher joins CCF Board of Directors This summer Marla Felcher joined our Board of Directors, and shortly after she traveled to McAllen, Texas with Grannies Respond/Abuelas Respond to learn first-hand what’s happening at the border with hundreds of detained immigrants, many of whom are asylum-seeking families and children.  That’s just who Marla is. Marla comes to us with an impressive resume.  She co-founded The Philanthropy Connection, a women’s grantmaking organization, and has worked as a marketing professor, investigative journalist, marketing consultant, and consumer advocate. She’s taught at Northwestern University, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and UMass-Boston’s McCormack School of Policy Studies. In November, she’ll be teaching a course at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education on philanthropy. Throughout her busy career, she’s served on boards of organizations working to make a difference in people’s lives.  She recently confessed that she loved teaching, but what she loved even more was working with non-profit leaders. Now, being on our board is part of her new full-time job, and we’re delighted to have her. We wanted to introduce you. Why did you join the Cambridge Community Foundation board? When I stepped down from The Philanthropy Connection, I realized I had spare [...]

Brownies for Immigrant Legal Defense

2018-09-06T15:59:55+00:00September 6th, 2018|Press Release|

Brownies for Immigrant Legal Defense Meet Amanda Formica, a new CCF donor The people of Cambridge answer the call for donations when it comes to supporting people who are being oppressed or are in need, Mayor Marc McGovern recently said, adding: “That’s part of who we are as a caring community.” We agree. To date, more than 250 people have donated to the Cambridge Legal Defense Fund for Immigrants. Amanda Formica, a graduate student at Tufts is one of our new donors. Amanda attended our CCF Forum, Lives in Limbo, on June 27th and after hearing more from local scholars and lawyers, she wanted to help.  She organized a bake sale in Harvard Square in August and with the help of Caroline Hedberg, fellow graduate student in international affairs at Fletcher, and Katharina Quecke, a local artist, she raised $350 for the fund. How did you get involved with CCF? I met CCF staff at the Central Square Flea this summer. I was interested in the Cambridge Legal Defense Fund for Immigrants because of my background in immigration (I spent four years in El Paso, Texas, volunteering in a migrant shelter, and later in Mexico).  CCF staff invited me [...]

New murals will make Central Square an open gallery for everyone

2018-09-05T14:36:01+00:00September 5th, 2018|Press Release|

New murals will make Central Square an open gallery for everyone By Jeffrey Blackwell Cambridge Community Foundation Correspondent On a blistering-hot afternoon in Central Square an eager group of residents, business owners and curious passersby gathered in Lafayette Square Park for a neighborhood tour of seemingly nothing more than the weathered brick and cement walls of 10 area buildings. But even on this extremely humid August day, the crowd of about 100 people was charged with enthusiasm. What they were anxiously waiting to see was not just walls, but future canvases for the Central Square Mural Project. “Art is an important medium and we live in Boston where we have no shortage of institutions where people can experience fine art,” said Michael Monestime, executive director of the Central Square Business Association (CSBA) and the tour guide. “It’s important that art be accessible, and through this mural project we will be creating an open gallery right here in Central Square.” Michael Monestime leads a tour of 10 mural sights in the neighborhood. This fall, a group of 10 artists from Cambridge and Boston will transform the highly-visible building walls into abstract and interpretative murals in celebration of the [...]

August 2018

Grants Available to Legal Defense Organizations Serving Immigrant Residents and Workers in Cambridge

2018-08-20T17:04:25+00:00August 14th, 2018|Press Release|

Grants Available to Legal Defense Organizations Serving Immigrant Residents and Workers in Cambridge, MA August 14, 2018--Cambridge, MA The Cambridge Community Foundation (CCF) has released a Request for Proposals to help Greater-Boston/Cambridge nonprofit organizations increase legal representation for low-income immigrants from Cambridge and surrounding under-served communities, currently facing or threatened with deportation proceedings.  CCF will be distributing at least $150,000 already pledged by donors as part of a grass-roots campaign launched last spring to carry out the mission of the Cambridge Legal Defense Fund for Immigrants. “The immigration crisis is a humanitarian crisis that is playing out nationally and locally, affecting DACA recipients, asylum seekers, undocumented workers, and immigrant parents and their children who were separated at the border.  No matter what side of the immigration debate you are on or what political party you support, as Americans--a country of immigrants--there is one thing that we should stand behind and that is the right to due process for all people,” said Geeta Pradhan, President of the Cambridge Community Foundation. “We are eternally grateful to the hundreds of residents who contributed to the Cambridge Legal Defense Fund for Immigrants.  This was truly a grass-roots effort with people donating what they could. [...]

July 2018

Cambridge Legal Defense Fund for Immigrants

2018-10-15T16:48:07+00:00July 27th, 2018|Civic Leadership, Press Release, Shared Prosperity|

Cambridge Legal Defense Fund for Immigrants DONATE The Need The Fund The Dollars The People To Give What You Can Do How Cambridge and Massachusetts Can Help Local Nonprofits The Need Many immigrant families, children and workers in our community are caught up in a humanitarian crisis that could tear families apart, deport DREAMers from the only home they have ever known, and expose asylum seekers to the persecution and abuse they faced in their home countries. Help us help our most vulnerable neighbors with a tax-deductible contribution to the Cambridge Legal Defense Fund for Immigrants. One in four immigrants in America are undocumented. Pew Research Center data states 210,000 undocumented residents in Massachusetts, of which over 180,000 are in Cambridge, Boston and surrounding communities.  In Massachusetts, there are approximately 19,000 students eligible for DACA status, over 12,000 are workers with Temporary Protective Status, thousands more are Asylum Seekers. While there is no city-specific data on the numbers of undocumented immigrants in our community, proxy data for Cambridge shows 27% of the population is foreign born; 40% of children have at least one foreign born parent; and approximately 25% of high [...]

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