Racial Wealth Gap Partnership announces $1.5 million investment in Massachusetts Affordable Homeownership Alliance’s STASH Program
April 13, 2026
Boston – The Racial Wealth Gap Partnership at the Boston Foundation today announced that it is making an initial investment of $1.55 million in the Massachusetts Affordable Homeownership Alliance’s STASH Program.
The investment was made in collaboration with the MassMutual Foundation and the Boston Foundation’s donors and is the second from the Wealth Gap Partnership’s Down Payment Assistance Program. The program provides funding to housing organizations to create new or build upon down payment assistance efforts that create wealth via expanding homeownership in underserved communities.
MAHA’s STASH (Saving Toward Affordable and Sustainable Homeownership) First-Gen Home Program is a groundbreaking matched savings and education program that provides first-generation, first-time homebuyers in Massachusetts with down payment assistance and financial literacy and homebuyer education. Nearly 400 STASH participants have purchased homes since MAHA launched the program in 2019. The funds will be used to expand the program’s reach to all cities and towns throughout the state, with a goal of eventually catalyzing $5 million in investments to the program in the coming years. The Partnership projects that this will allow the STASH Program to provide matched savings to more than 200 households seeking to become homeowners.
“MAHA’s track record of coupling critically needed financial assistance with the education to find and maintain affordable homeownership opportunities aligns perfectly with the Partnership’s goal of expanding intergenerational wealth through homeownership,” said Lee Pelton, President and CEO of the Boston Foundation. “Thank you to all of the partners who are making this investment possible and available for prospective homebuyers across Massachusetts.”
“At MAHA, we are committed to making homeownership achievable for first-time and first-generation families. This investment in the STASH program helps us scale a proven model that builds financial capacity and long-term stability,” said Symone Crawford, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Affordable Homeownership Alliance. “Thank you to the Boston Foundation and the Wealth Gap Partnership for affirming this work through this investment.”
“MAHA’s STASH program has a demonstrated record of giving homebuyers the financial and educational support they need to navigate the purchase process and begin building equity for long-term wealth,” said Dennis Duquette, President and CEO of the MassMutual Foundation. “We are pleased to help make it possible for STASH to expand and enhance homeownership opportunities for families throughout Massachusetts.”
Launched in 2019 with a seed investment from the Boston Children’s Hospital, the STASH Program was the first in the nation’s first-generation homebuyer program. It contains two main components: the provision of eight hours of financial literacy and homebuyer education and up to $20,000 in matched savings for program graduates to use for down payment and closing cost assistance.
The announcement today marks the second major investment from the Racial Wealth Gap Partnership, which was founded in 2022 by the Boston Foundation and is a broad-based partnership of more than 40 members representing a wide range of financial, philanthropic, nonprofit, and civic leaders. In late 2024, the Partnership supported the launch of the ONE+ Program by the Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP) in collaboration with the Boston Foundation, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Eastern Bank Foundation, and State Street Foundation. To date, that effort has supported nearly 400 first-time homebuyers across Massachusetts.
“This collaboration with MAHA is a wonderful complement to our ongoing work with MHP’s ONE+ program, because it allows the Partnership to broaden the avenues for access to homeownership for first-generation, first-time homebuyers across the entire Commonwealth,” said Courtney Brunson, Director of Economic Equity Initiatives at the Boston Foundation. “Through its programs and partnerships with organizations across Massachusetts, MAHA is providing a powerful combination of resources to ensure families can buy their own homes and keep them to build long term wealth. We look forward to our continued partnership in this work.”