b'2020 has been a year like no other.Who could have imagined that a hub of innovation,Though we knew the grim statistics, we werewho made sure the work got done, the 150-plus education, and creativity like Cambridge could bestill shocked by how deeply our community waslocal nonprofits that fulfilled their missions while thrown into distress so quickly? But thats what theaffected, with people unable to buy groceries or payresponding to urgent needs, and the state and pandemic did to our community. their rent within days of the lockdown. The hardestlocal legislators who generously passed emergency hit, as always when disaster strikes, were low-incomebudget measuresyou are the heroes of this story. In March, COVID-19 swept in like a hurricane, residents, people of color, and hourly workers and taking lives seemingly at random, keeping peopleartists who live paycheck to paycheck.You make the Cambridge Community from friends and loved ones, destroying theFoundations work possible, and we look forward livelihoods of residents as businesses closed andThe Foundation has always protected theto your continued support of our shared vision jobs disappeared, and severely shaking our sensecommunity by investing squarely in the nonprofitfor Cambridge now and in the future. As we face of well-being. Around the same time, the murderssector. But this year we broke with tradition bythe ongoing need for emergency assistance and of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the handsdistributing more than $1.2 million in cash grants torecovery in the year ahead, lets use our love for our of police brought renewed awareness to a second1,475 individuals and households and emergencyunique and irreplaceable Cambridge to nurture a pandemicthe deep-rooted inequities and racialgrants to 65 nonprofits to help them address urgentsense of equity and a general sharing of prosperity injustice in our society.needs. Meanwhile, we maintained steady supportthat will protect us all, in good times and bad.of our nonprofit partners through our regular And that is where our story begins. grantmaking cycle and lifted restrictions on those grants to help our partner organizations address As an organization thats of and for the people, pressing needs through flexible, trust-based support. the Cambridge Community Foundation has longGeeta Pradhan,Richard Harriman,known how close to the edge some of our neighborsThis work could not have happened without thePresident Board Chairtruly are. One in eight Cambridge residents lives inspectacular wave of giving from neighbors like you, poverty. More than half struggle to find affordablewho reached out to help in any way possible. homes. More than 41 percent of our public school students receive free or reduced-price lunch. One inYouthe 1,300 donors who offered gifts of all nine Black and Latinx households has no internet. sizes, the hundreds of supporters and volunteers 3'