October 10 — Cambridge, MA The tenants of 93-99 Bishop Allen Drive celebrated the news of the building sale last week. There was celebration in Cambridge late last week, when the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority (CRA) and the nonprofit Enroot finalized the purchase and sale of the building at 93-99 Bishop Allen Drive in Central Square. Under the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority’s ownership, the building will remain affordable and available for the provision of nonprofit services today and in the future. The transaction, supported by local advocates and organizations, is an important step toward addressing the bigger regional issue of dwindling affordable office space for nonprofits. Enroot, formerly Cambridge Community Services, has owned and operated the building since 1965. Today, the 1855 converted townhouse building is home to over 100 staff from 11 nonprofit agencies that support Cambridge residents by providing children with affordable summer camps, improving math literacy and other academic skills, engaging youth with chronic illnesses in the arts, bolstering the City’s nonprofit sector and small businesses, and providing counseling to survivors of sexual violence. Building tenants have been aware of Enroot’s decision to sell the building since September 2018.  The property was formally put on the market in

On Friday, October 25th, join us for an evening of dance, live music, and support for immigrant communities. The event will feature live music by Somerville's classic rockers Stanley and the Undercovers, plus a special dance performance by Jean Appolon Expressions. All proceeds benefit the United Legal Defense Fund for Immigrants, which gives grants to local organizations offering pro-bono legal assistance to immigrants. Help our neighbors stay out of and get out of detention centers. Get your tickets now at dancefordignity.eventbrite.com Event details: When: Friday, October 25th, 7-10:30pm Where: The Somerville Armory, 191 Highland Avenue Cost: Tickets are $20 Organized in partnership with the City of Cambridge and Mayor Marc McGovern, the City of Somerville and Mayor Joe Curtatone, and Stanley and the Undercovers. Why we need your support Many immigrant families, children, and workers in our community are caught up in a humanitarian crisis that is tearing families apart, threatening to deport TPS holders and DREAMers from the only home they have ever known, and exposing asylum seekers to the persecution and abuse they faced in their home countries. Help us help our most vulnerable neighbors in Cambridge and Somerville with a tax-deductible contribution to

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

The Cambridge Community Foundation’s ‘We are Cambridge’ Annual Dinner on May 6, 2019 drew the who’s who of Cambridge from all sectors—universities, nonprofits, businesses, and philanthropists, as well as local artists. An underlying theme was shared by all: that Cambridge is a wonderful place to live but we cannot take it for granted. Its future is hardly guaranteed and all of us have a responsibility to invest in and nurture what we love best about the city and to take some responsibility for its challenges. CCF’s Board Chairman Rick Harriman kicked off the evening with his observations of Cambridge. He noted some of its strengths—world class universities, an innovation ecosystem, industry-leading companies, well-managed city government, cultural richness, diverse residents—and some of its weaknesses—escalating cost of living, the loss of economic and social diversity, the threats to the nonprofit community. “We will not satisfy our civic responsibility if we do not strive to bring the citizens and sectors of this city together to address these weaknesses and threats to the inclusiveness of Cambridge,” said Rick as he set the stage for our President, Geeta Pradhan, to share her thoughts on Cambridge and its future. Geeta Pradhan's Remarks