What we built together

Five years ago, TBF’s assets stood at roughly $1.6 billion. Today they stand at $2.7 billion. When I arrived, we were directing around $160 million a year into the community. This year, we are on track to receive $512 million in total contributions and disburse $392 million in grants to the communities we serve.

These numbers represent the scale of trust donors have placed in this institution, and the power of translating philanthropic intent into impact. To achieve that impact, TBF took action—both inward and outward facing—toward ambitious goals over the last five years:

• We listened and learned from community, built trust, and partnered more closely with grassroots and nonprofit leaders.
• We strengthened the partnership among the Board, staff, donors, and community, building the alignment and shared ambition needed to move TBF forward.
• We reinforced our equity funds, which are in a magnificent place, growing and thriving and serving the AAPI, Latino, and LGBTQ+ communities.
• We thought and iterated how we frame our work to optimize the complex interconnectedness and many levers working together in community ecosystems—of which TBF is one part.
• We created the Greater Boston Partnership to Close the Racial Wealth Gap, which is approaching its initial $25 million goal and on track to generate $170 million in home equity for more than 700 first-time homebuyers.
• We established a learning and measurement function, one of the first at a community foundation, which has helped us make great strides in how we think about and measure impact.
• We rebranded and launched a marketing team.
• We continued to strengthen our research capacity, especially through Boston Indicators, a powerhouse of fact-finding, truth-seeking, and thought leadership at TBF.
• We launched a climate initiative.
• We invested in the technology infrastructure this institution needs for the next decade, including a deliberate and ongoing conversation about how to use AI for good while staying true to our values.
• And, as the federal government compounded its assault on democratic rights and freedoms, seeking to erase the cultural, social, and human identities of those we serve while starving vulnerable communities of life-sustaining resources, we launched Meeting the Moment in two timely phases: Sustaining Families ensured that hungry residents could get food and nourishment following the 2025 SNAP cuts; Supporting Our Immigrant Neighbors stood with and supported immigrant communities and the organizations that serve and protect them amid federal threats, policy changes, and cruelty.

These accomplishments are huge, and there are hundreds more. I am immensely proud to have been at the drawing board on some of these; an advisor to others; and a champion, supporter, or sounding board for many more. That said, none of this happened simply because of me. It happened because our staff showed up every day, listened and thought deeply about where and how TBF could make a difference. And they did all that in close partnership with community leaders, donors, policymakers, and others.