Fresh Research+Major Convenings+Task Forces+Action Agendas=Real Progress

The Civic Leadership Fund at the Boston Foundation was created in 2003 to support the Boston Foundation’s “beyond grantmaking” work in Greater Boston and our region. This unique fund helps to support the Foundation as it:

• identifies the critical challenges facing our community;
• publishes fresh research that illuminates our challenges;
• holds public forums as platforms for informed public dialogue;
• convenes volunteer task forces to accomplish ambitious action agendas; and
• most important of all—helps to create the change our community needs.

What does the Fund support?

Over the last several years, the Fund helped the Foundation hold a series of popular and provocative Understanding Boston forums that attracted thousands to the Foundation, including numerous public officials, and addressed topics ranging from education to housing to health. It also supported landmark reports on public education that are having a profound impact on education policies going forward:

• Boston’s Education Pipeline, the very first, detailed “Report Card” on how children are faring in Boston;
• The Arts Advantage, which builds the case for expanding Arts Education in the Boston Public Schools;
• Informing the Debate, a scientifically-conducted report which shows scientifically for the first time that charter schools outperform other schools in Boston;
• Getting to the Finish Line, which reveals that only 35.5% of Boston Public Schools class of 2000 graduates earned a two- or four-year postsecondary degree by September of 2007; and
• Who’s Making It, a detailed report on the academic achievement of recent Boston Public Schools graduates in the early college years.

Other important reports published over the last year include:

• The Greater Boston Housing Report Card 2009, which focuses on positioning Boston in a “post-crisis world,” and
• Healthy People in a Healthy Economy, a new “blueprint for action” in the health arena.

What kind of impact has the Fund had this year?

This year’s reports and activities have helped to move forward on progress in education, health, housing and new, crucial local revenues:

• helping to open doors to new charter schools both on a local and state level;
• contributing to the formation of Success Boston, a partnership of the Boston Foundation, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, higher education institutions and nonprofit organizations, all dedicated to helping Boston’s students “Get Ready, Get In and Get Through” college;
• helping to reframe the health care debate by emphasizing the importance of reducing preventable chronic disease and the high costs associated with it;
• encouraging our state’s cities and towns to develop affordable and practical housing near transportation and town centers, leading to 10,000 permitted Smart-Growth housing units in 28 cities and towns;
• building the case for new local revenue options for Boston through meals and hotel taxes.

What are we working on now?

Our civic leadership contributed to bills that were recently passed by the Massachusetts Senate and now are heading to the House, including:

• a sweeping education bill that passed the Massachusetts Senate on November 18th was informed by the Race to the Top Coalition—a group convened by the Boston Foundation—aimed at giving our state a real edge in the scramble to compete for $250 million in federal grants; and
  
• a “sentencing laws” act that would appropriately update the state’s Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) system to ensure greater accuracy and readability of criminal records Recommendations was informed by a Boston Foundation/Crime and Justice Institute (CJI) task force.

In addition, the Boston Indicators Project is publishing its biennial report in December, updating a Civic Agenda that is being embraced by the business, nonprofit and public sectors and presents measurable milestones for strategies that will strengthen our community going forward.

We Need Your Support

Your gift this year will help the Boston Foundation build on this essential work. For the last two years, the Foundation has surpassed our annual goal of $1 million for the Civic Leadership Fund. Feel free to contact Tara Henry at tara.henry@tbf.org or (617) 338-2276 with any questions you may have. Contributions can be sent to the Boston Foundation, c/o Tara Henry. Please make checks out to “The Boston Foundation: Civic Leadership Fund.” To make an online credit card contribution, please click here.

Join our mailing list to receive evites to Understanding Boston forums. Register by emailing rsvp@tbf.org. Just write: “Please add me to your evite mailing list,” and it’s done.