Statement on the passing of Myra Kraft

We were incredibly blessed at the Boston Foundation to have had the honor of working with Myra Kraft, who served on our Board of Directors, not only on our own endeavors, but on a wide range of other efforts in service to the Greater Boston community.

Myra was a civic titan, a woman who played so many roles within our community that it is difficult to enumerate all of them and feel that one is doing justice to her memory.  However, there is one special role that Myra played that is of huge import to us at the Boston Foundation and will have an abiding impact on the city for years to come. As many of you know, Myra was the driving force behind the creation of the Boston Opportunity Agenda.  She always felt that the major charities of her beloved city could do so much more by working together to create opportunity for the young people and disadvantaged of Boston than they could apart.  The Boston Opportunity Agenda stands as a remarkable tribute to Myra’s vision and her strong belief in the power of collaboration.  All of us at the Boston Foundation, including the members of our Board of Directors and all of our staff, join the rest of the Greater Boston community in mourning the loss of this wonderful woman.

******

The Boston Foundation, Greater Boston’s community foundation, is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the nation, with assets of $733 million. In Fiscal Year 2010, the Foundation and its donors made more than $82 million in grants to nonprofit organizations and received gifts of close to $83 million. The Foundation is made up of some 900 separate charitable funds established by donors either for the general benefit of the community or for special purposes. The Boston Foundation also serves as a major civic leader, provider of information, convener, and sponsor of special initiatives designed to address the community’s and region’s most pressing challenges. For more information about the Boston Foundation, visit www.tbf.org or call 617-338-1700.