Boston Foundation applauds Pine Street Inn, hopeFound merger

For immediate release: January 30, 2012
Contact: Ted McEnroe (617) 338-3890

Boston – The Boston Foundation, Greater Boston’s community foundation, is praising the decision of thePine Street Inn and hopeFound, two of the city’s leading service providers for the homeless, to merge effective March 2012.

“This merger creates an organization that is stronger and better positioned to provide comprehensive services to homeless men, women and families in Boston,” said Paul Grogan, the President and CEO of the Boston Foundation. “Strategic mergers like this one open the door for innovation and improved service delivery.

“The Pine Street Inn and hopeFound have a history of providing complementary sets of services to provide basic needs, support, job training and placement services to Boston’s homeless population – this merger will help ensure clients are served even more effectively.

“The Boston Foundation is a proud founding partner in the Catalyst Fund for Nonprofits, a fund specifically designed to support the thoughtful consideration of mergers and other nonprofit collaborations – solutions that can deliver the greatest possible service impact, while reducing duplication and inefficiency.”

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The Boston Foundation, Greater Boston’s community foundation, is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the nation, with net assets of $850 million.  In 2011, the Foundation and its donors made almost $78 million in grants to nonprofit organizations and received gifts of $81 million. The Foundation is made up of some 850 separate charitable funds established by donors either for the general benefit of the community or for special purposes. The Boston Foundation also serves as a major civic leader, provider of information, convener and sponsor of special initiatives designed to address the community’s and region’s most pressing challenges.  For more information about the Boston Foundation, visit  www.tbf.orgor call 617-338-1700.

The Catalyst Fund for Nonprofits is a unique five-year fund launched in September 2010, created through a partnership of the Boston Foundation, Boston LISC, The Hyams Foundation, and United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, and managed by Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF). It provides critical financial and technical advisory support as a catalyst for promising voluntary collaborative ventures and mergers among nonprofit organizations. The fund is initially focused on support to Greater Boston nonprofits, with the goal of developing a permanent resource infrastructure to support nonprofit collaborations—rooted in best practices and data-based outcome metrics.