Forward Together: The 2025 Annual Report
As Greater Boston’s community foundation, we are undeterred from our commitment to bring people and resources together to build a thriving and equitable future for our region.
About the Report
As we close another remarkable year, we're pleased to share something new with you: Forward Together, the Boston Foundation’s first fully digital annual report.
We chose a digital format to better reflect this evolving work and to share our story in a more connected, dynamic, and responsive way. We invite you to explore the report and reflect on what we’ve accomplished together—and on the possibilities that lie ahead. Thank you for the many ways you partner with us, believe in this work, and help move Greater Boston forward.
Partnering with Purpose
We are living through a time of profound challenge and change. Divides are widening, trust is eroding, and the institutions that bind our communities are being tested as rarely before. Yet moments like this also reveal something essential: conviction, courage, and clarity of purpose.
At the Boston Foundation, we believe that leadership begins with listening. Through listening, we learn; through learning, we act. This year, our work has been shaped by that principle, standing firm in our values and working across differences to strengthen the common good.
In an era of uncertainty, we have chosen to move forward with resolve—responding to urgent needs, supporting a strained nonprofit sector, and grounding every action in data, partnership, and trust. We have done so alongside hundreds of donors, civic leaders, and organizations whose shared belief in possibility continues to light the way. You will meet some of them in the pages that follow.
Leadership is not defined by the absence of challenge, but by our response to it. For the Boston Foundation, it means showing up for one another, standing together in the face of adversity, and choosing hope over hesitation. In this moment, our purpose is clear: to build a Greater Boston rooted in trust, belonging, and shared opportunity.
M. Lee Pelton
President and CEO