A civic leader of great compassion and wide reach, and an ardent supporter of the Cambridge Community Foundation, Ellen Moot died in Chocorua, N.H., on September 3, 2016. “Ellen was involved in everything in Cambridge,” said Patricia Pratt, who herself served 13 years on the Foundation board with a 12-year stint as president. “She knew so much – so she ran the distribution committee.” After years of helping to shape the Foundation’s grantmaking work, Ellen finally stepped down in May of 2001 after serving for 18 years. Made an honorary board member at that point, she accepted her new status as a professional opportunity – and continued to attend board meetings and contribute from a seemingly bottomless fund of knowledge and compassion. “In spirit and in deed, she shaped the Foundation,” said Robert Hurlbut, longtime executive director of the organization, who retired in 2015. “She urged me to join it after I retired as headmaster of the Park School. Her knowledge of Cambridge and of the nonprofit organizations that served it and contributed to the qualities that make this city so special was truly inspiring.” Her engagement with the Foundation has continued. “I was delighted to meet Ellen earlier

The Cambridge Community Foundation has been selected among 1,400 applicants from across the country to be a finalist in a major grant program that aims to increase the role of arts and culture in community planning and development. On June 7, 2016, ArtPlace America announced that the Cambridge Community Foundation’s Central Square: Preserving Equity in a boom town project, is one of 80 projects that will be considered for its 2016 National Creative Placemaking Fund. ArtPlace America (ArtPlace), a New York City-based organization, is a ten-year collaboration among 16 partner foundations, along with 8 federal agencies and 6 financial institutions, that works to position arts and culture as a core sector of comprehensive community planning and development in order to help strengthen the social, physical, and economic fabric of communities. ArtPlace focuses its work on creative placemaking, which describes projects in which art plays an intentional and integrated role in place-based community planning and development. This brings artists, arts organizations, and artistic activity into the suite of placemaking strategies pioneered by Jane Jacobs and her colleagues, who believed that community development must be locally informed, human-centric, and holistic. “This is wonderful news,” said Geeta Pradhan, president and CEO of

Cambridge Community Foundation President Geeta Pradhan will interview Karl Dean, former mayor of the City of Nashville, in a forum open to the public on March 29 in Boston. Dean earned national attention for his efforts to leverage a building boom to connect neighborhoods, expand transit and build greater opportunity for local residents. He is the first Mayor in Residence at the Boston University Initiative on Cities, a program created to advance strategies to help cities serve as centers of economic growth and positive social development. The one-on-one conversation, titled Urban Identity Quest, brings together two civic leaders who have earned reputations as agents of urban change and increased quality of life. He will be interviewed by Geeta Pradhan, a catalyst in efforts to leverage expanded transportation access to increase opportunity in low-income Boston neighborhoods.  Her work was crucial to the creation of the Fairmount Corridor Initiative, which brought jobs, housing and economic investment to a nine mile stretch of Boston neighborhoods. She currently serves as president of the Cambridge Community Founding, the only foundation serving all of Cambridge, making grants to local nonprofit organizations and serving as a neutral convener working across sectors to identify critical issues and

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $82 million to fund local arts projects and partnerships in the NEA’s second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2016.  Included in this announcement is an Art Works award of $25,000 to Cambridge Community Foundation. “As the community foundation of the City of Cambridge, we are delighted to receive this funding,” said Geeta Pradhan, president and CEO of the Foundation. “The goal of our project is to ensure that Central Square can continue to be both a vibrant cultural destination and a place where every part of Cambridge comes together. This grant creates a wonderful opportunity for us to partner with neighborhoods, businesses and the cultural community.” The Cambridge project, titled Cambridge Connects, will bring together artists and community leaders to tell stories that describe what kind of community local residents want Cambridge to be. The focus is on five neighborhoods including the Port, Cambridgeport, Riverside and Mid-Cambridge, as well as the Central Square District. It will use a variety of forms storytellers find compelling to place local residents in a dynamic and changing city. The work is designed to inform the Cambridge Community Foundation’s future work

A network of more than 52 local nonprofit organizations in Cambridge that recently joined to create the Cambridge Nonprofit Coalition has announced the hiring of a coordinator to develop the Coalition’s institutional profile and impact. Elena Sokolow-Kaufman comes to her new role from Mass Mentoring Partnership, where she served as senior manager of government relations and field resources. She was formerly with United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, where she served as director of community impact. Sokolow-Kaufman is a graduate of Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs Master’s Program in Bloomington, IN, and earned a bachelor’s degree from Barnard College in New York. In her new role, which is half-time, she will be based at the Cambridge Community Foundation and report to the steering committee of the Coalition. The Coalition grew out of a series of community-wide meetings over two years that focused on issues related to providing services to residents of the City of Cambridge. The goal of the new network is to build strong partnerships, meet changing needs, close the opportunity gap and improve the quality of life for local residents. “This is an exciting opportunity for the nonprofit organizations serving the people

The Cambridge Community Foundation has announced the appointment of Usha Pasi as vice president for Donor and Philanthropic Partnerships. She will work with the president, the leadership, members of the board, and donors to increase the reach and impact of the foundation. “It is an exciting opportunity to be able to add someone of Usha’s caliber to our team,” said Geeta Pradhan, president of the foundation. “She brings an extraordinary record of achievement at some of the most significant organizations and institutions in our region, and nationally.” Pasi served most recently as chief development officer at Facing History and Ourselves, which engages students of diverse backgrounds in an examination of racism, prejudice, and antisemitism in order to promote the development of a more humane and informed citizenry.  She played a leadership role there, and with her team, secured $150 million to support the organization’s mission. During her tenure, Facing History recorded its largest number of donors to date; grew its endowment substantially; and, raised the largest commitments in its history. Earlier, she was director of leadership gifts and associate campaign director at the Museum of Fine Arts, during an historic campaign that reimagined and greatly expanded the museum. She