The Link
February 2024
A Message from Co-Presidents Kelsea and Jennifer
Dear TPC members and friends,
TPC has started 2024 with some real momentum! We cannot believe we are already a month into this new year. From fruitful grant team discussions to our upcoming events, we have already done so much and there is a lot to look forward to.
This energy is a continuation of all of our members’ fantastic work in 2023. Because of your contributions, we welcomed our stellar 2023-2024 grantees, held workshops that deepened our collective understanding of advocacy as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion, gathered in-person and over Zoom for a great group of events, and more! In November, we were invited to speak about our successes as a giving network at the Philanos conference, including about our tiered membership investments. Groups across the country are now considering adopting the structure that TPC pioneered.
And we connected with many more people in our community interested in collective giving – at our very successful New Member Invitational in October, the Massachusetts Women’s Conference in December (where we met over 90 women!), and through our dedicated members. If you are new, welcome! If you helped bring in someone new, thank you!
This year, we will keep this great work going.
- Already, our grant teams have finished evaluating 87 LOIs and will soon move to full proposals – ensuring we have a dynamic group of grantees to welcome in May.
- We are so excited that we have re-launched our Young Professional Fellows program and are welcoming six new fellows. (Meet them below!)
- Read on and you’ll learn about some of the exciting work already planned, like our upcoming events and volunteer opportunities. We cannot wait to develop a mix of virtual and in-person gatherings soon!
TPC’s members make all of this possible. No matter how you get or stay involved with TPC, your commitment is strengthening our community and impact. Thank you!
Best,
Kelsea Médard and Jennifer Morrison
Events
TPC Grantee Dialogue: Stories from the Field – Grantee Successes and Challenges
Join this virtual conversation to learn how our collective giving makes a difference. Three of TPC’s newest grantees – Apprentice Learning, Boston Food Forest Coalition, and Root – will share about their experiences, the communities they engage, and the people on whose lives they have an impact.
Hear firsthand from the Executive Directors, Letta Neely (Apprentice Learning), Orion Kriegman (BFFC), and Allison Caffrey (Root), about what it takes for these grantees to achieve successful outcomes and the challenges they face and overcome in the process. Please invite your friends!
Date: Tuesday, February 20
Time: 6:30-7:30PM
Location: Zoom
Save The Date! Demystifying Nonprofit Board Service and Leadership
Are you wondering what it takes to serve on the board of a nonprofit organization? This workshop will cover the essentials and best practices involved in being a board member. Facilitated by Patty Hurley of ESC (Empowerment Success Corps), this promises to be an evening of learning and networking. Watch your inbox for an invitation soon.
Date: Wednesday, March 6
Time: 6:00 – 8:30PM
Calling TPC Members to volunteer with Dignity Matters on February 13!
We are organizing a TPC Volunteer Day at Dignity Matters in Framingham. We will work for several hours helping to package items for distribution to their partners. We are looking for a total of twelve TPC members to volunteer.
Dignity Matters’ mission is to assist homeless women and girls by providing underwear and menstrual products when they need them most. They support women in regaining self-confidence and dignity by helping them stay healthy and clean. Redistributing gently used bras is also good for the environment by keeping these items out of landfills.
Who: Dignity Matters – we are looking for 12 TPC volunteers
What: Help Dignity Matters prepare for distribution by packaging bras as well as loose menstrual products.
When: Tuesday, February 13th, 10am
Where: 861 Edgell Road, Framingham, Suite 204 (Volunteers must be able to handle stairs.)
Questions? Email Diane Roseman, Dignity Matters TPC Liaison (diane.roseman@gmail.com) or Rosemary Driscoll, Grantee Engagement (rosemary@driscollresearch.com
Welcome our 2024 Young Professional Fellows!
TPC is proud to have resumed our fellows program this year. Our Young Professional Fellows program empowers young women to deepen their commitment to philanthropy.
Please join us in welcoming our eight new fellows! Each brings a passion for their community and an excitement to learn about collective giving. Start to get to know them:
Yasmine Anderson is from Indianapolis, Indiana, and works in Population Health at Boston Medical Center. She also serves full-time as CEO of Black Women in Charge Inc. working to democratize autonomy over one’s wellness and education from a human rights perspective.
Carol Li currently works in operations at 424 Capital, a private equity firm that invests in mission-driven companies in the healthcare and renewable energy space. Carol is passionate about food equity and recently served on the Board at Backyard Growers.
Samantha Lovewell is your typical New Englander and lifelong Massachusetts resident. Contributing to her community and mission-driven efforts have always been part of Sam’s core values. She currently serves as a Customer Success Manager at OpenGov, the leader in modern government cloud software.
Medjine Lucien is a passionate youth advocate. Most of her youth development work has been focused on ensuring that young people are engaged in out-of-school time programming by addressing barriers to equity in afterschool programming. She currently works at Waltham Partnership for Youth.
Georgia McKee originally pursued a bachelor’s degree in primatology and osteoarchaeology; in doing so, she found that what she really enjoyed was telling anyone who would listen fun facts. This developed into an interest in using storytelling for developing strong relationships and communities, ultimately leading her to pursue a career in the cultural heritage sector.
Emily Moss is passionate about ensuring equitable access to opportunity for people and communities. She is currently pursuing an MBA and Master in City Planning at MIT with a focus on affordable housing and local economic development.
Jessica Nguyen is an advocate for social justice within the realms of philanthropy and media. Currently serving as the Senior Program Associate of the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund at Borealis Philanthropy, she plays a crucial role in strengthening the capacity and sustainability of cutting-edge news organizations led by and for people of color.
Dr. Ciyadh Wells is a multi-talented musician who not only considers herself an artist, but also an activist and scholar. Ciyadh strives to leverage the power of music to ignite transformative change and to foster community. Currently, she is the Executive Director at Castle of our Skins.
Featured grantees
Click on the links below to learn more about 3 of our amazing grantees and amplify the impact of their missions with your support.
Boston Food Forest Coalition
Boston Food Forest Coalition is a coalition of neighbors working to transform vacant lots into locally-run, public, edible parks protected by land trust.
Together, they are building a network of environmental and social resilience across Boston through community collaboration and the protection of local green space, prioritizing neighborhoods where there is inequitable access to parkland and its critical benefits.
Learn more and show your support: https://www.bostonfoodforest.
ROOT
Root’s mission is to help young adults create a pathway to independence through foodservice training and employment. By developing essential life and work readiness skills, youth leave Root prepared for success in the workplace.
Root’s programs not only feed opportunities for their young adults, but also feed their communities by producing over 500 meals each week for children, seniors and families experiencing food insecurity.
Learn more and show your support: https://rootns.org/
School on Wheels
School on Wheel is working to end the cycle of homelessness through education. Their mission is to support the academic, social and emotional growth of students impacted by homelessness and poverty.
The need for their services has grown exponentially. This year alone School on Wheels supported more than 250 students with tutors, supported 87 high school and college students – and distributed more than 10,000 customized backpacks.
Learn more and show your support: https://www.sowma.org
Advocacy and TPC
The grantmaking process introduces us to many local nonprofits that address significant inequities, including housing, education, immigration, food insecurity, and domestic abuse. Many members are invested by their missions and seek greater involvement by making additional donations or by volunteering. Because TPC members may also want to dig deeper, to better understand root causes and to consider how we might address them more systemically through studying and advocating for policy changes, TPC’s advocacy team is considering how we might have an impact beyond the funding of services or programs.
We are exploring and gathering information about how our grantees are engaging in advocacy work. One way is to invite local and/or state officials to our dialogues so they too may learn of the needs and challenges. Our representatives and senators are keenly aware of their constituents’ interests. They are aware of who attends district meetings, who shows up at the State House or who write them to oppose or advocate for various bills, who come on lobby days, and more.
Two examples of how TPC grantees have used policy advocacy to have a major impact:
1. One of our grantees, Dignity Matters, provides feminine hygiene products for those who cannot afford them. Last October a bill to make feminine hygiene products available for free in certain publicly funded restrooms — such as public schools, group homes, shelters, and prisons — unanimously passed in the Massachusetts Senate. Now Dignity Matters is working to move the bill through the legislature and the Governor’s desk to become law. Several years ago, Massachusetts eliminated a tax on feminine hygiene products.
2. Another grantee, Project Citizenship, as well as other groups, worked toward the passage last year of The Work and Family Mobility Act, allowing Massachusetts residents to apply for standard driver’s licenses regardless of immigration status. A driver’s license can be essential for people to access work, medical care, etc.
If you are interested in TPC’s advocacy conversations, please contact Sarah Rahman or Sue Meehan.
Black History Month in Action
Building off TPC’s motto, we encourage members to “give”, “receive”, and “learn” during Black History Month this February, and in addition we encourage members to take action:
GIVE
- Take part in the Boston Black Restaurant Challenge and visit black owned restaurants in February and all year round! https://
bostonblackrestaurants.com - Prioritize donating to organizations through a lens of reducing racial inequities. This article, titled “Overcoming Racial Bias in Philanthropic Funding,” highlights ways that racial bias infiltrates philanthropic systems, and offers solutions for what funders can do.
RECEIVE
- If you have not already, sign up to receive newsletters or regular updates from TPC’s current grantees. This is a great way to continue learning about their great work and to find out about opportunities to engage further with our grantees. Find TPC’s 2023-2024 Grantee Organizations here: https://
thephilanthropyconnection.org/ grantees/ - Bonus: sign up to receive updates from past grantees as well!
LEARN
- Listen to this “Under the Radar with Callie Crossley” interview with two of the 2024 Embrace Honorees, L. Duane Jackson and Deborah Jackson.
- Read more about all Embrace Heroes: https://stories.embraceboston.
org/heroes - Hot off the press: “Criminal Justice Reform in Massachusetts: a Five Year Progress Report” is the first systematic look at the impact of two landmark criminal justice reform laws passed in 2018 written in partnership by researchers at Boston Indicators and MassINC.
TAKE ACTION
- From allies to co-conspirators – Dr. Tiffany Jana’s article explains how co-conspirators “have, seek and create meaningful relationships with the people they actively support” and show a “willingness to put [them]selves on the line…whether it’s assets, reputation, time, connections or other resources – co-conspirators always have skin in the game.” Dr. Jana points out that “the people [we] aspire to empower and help liberate, don’t get the chance to opt out.”