Boston, MA – June 14, 2022 – The Women’s Foundation of Boston (WFBoston), a nonprofit public charity that creates, funds, and accelerates economic empowerment, leadership and mentoring programs that equip women and girls in Greater Boston to be financially independent and successful leaders, is proud to announce that it will award a total of $1,262,653 to 10 nonprofits through its 2022 grant cycle for an average term of 2.6 years. In just five years of grantmaking, WFBoston has committed a total of $4,072,696.

WFBoston’s 2022 grants will enable local nonprofits that serve women and girls to expand their impact through leadership and mentor programming, professional development, and STEM and finance education. The 2022 grants will continue WFBoston’s reach beyond Greater Boston and into Gateway Cities, which lack sufficient women and girl serving programming to address the need.

The 10 grantees were selected through a rigorous process that evaluates each organization’s operations leadership and financial stability, along with the program’s impact potential and scalability. WFBoston’s grant-making process focuses on multi-year awards, giving women and girl-serving nonprofits the ability to build momentum and increase the impact of their programming over time. WFBoston’s Board of Directors approved the grants at its May 24 meeting.

“For too long women and girls have been underfunded by the philanthropic community. WFBoston is proud to be changing that through supporting and scaling the impact of these mission-driven and effective local organizations,” said Christina Gordon, Co-Founder and CEO of the Women’s Foundation of Boston. “It is vital that we invest in the empowerment and advancement of the current and future generations of local women and girls.”

The 2022 grantees include:

Strong Women, Strong Girls, one of Boston’s largest mentorship programs, empowers girls to imagine a broader future through a curriculum grounded on female role models delivered by college women mentors, who are themselves mentored by professional women. This three-year grant totaling $225,000 will fund the launch of the curriculum in Gateway Cities north of Boston where there is a crucial need. The program will enhance skills related to the 6 Cs of positive youth development—connection, caring, contribution, character, competence, and confidence, which are research-demonstrated capacities that promote asset-building and boost protective factors in young people, leading to more positive social, emotional and academic outcomes.

Girls Inc. of Greater Lowell is part of a national organization that combines research-based programming with long-lasting relationships to equip girls to overcome barriers and reach their potential. WFBoston will award a three-year $150,000 grant to fund a year-round STEM curriculum for 120 middle school girls—the only STEM-related program in the area—that will serve as a runway for offering the successful national Eureka! Program in the future.

Economic Mobility Pathways (EMPath) is a national non-profit that dramatically improves the lives of people struggling to make ends meet. WFBoston currently funds EMPath’s successful economic mobility program, and will now award $150,000 over three years to fund the organization’s AMP Up Boston program. AMP Up Boston is an extension of EMPath’s partnership with the Boston Housing Authority focused on economic mobility mentoring, especially for single mothers. WFBoston will fund coaching for 266 residents from BHA housing and Section 8. The program will track income gains, rent payments, savings, debts, and educational attainment of participants compared to a control group. The program’s results will be part of a randomized control study in conjunction with MIT and Harvard that will produce important findings about the efficacy of economic mobility mentoring.

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