A powerhouse assortment of public officials, charitable leaders and financial donors gathered Sunday for Stronger Together, an annual fundraiser for The Somerville Foundation, and learned of a new way the organization plans to invest in its city.
The Somerville Foundation will run a donor-advised fund, giving residents a way to give to any nonprofit in the nation and have the processing fees go to local good works instead of to corporate firms such as Fidelity, Vanguard or Schwab. There will be a portal set up through Cambridge Community Foundation on its website, the latest aspect of a partnership and mentorship for paired organizations that take in contributions and invest them back into the community, addressing problems too big for a single solver.
“This partnership will build upon the base of Somerville donors already engaged in donor-advised fund giving,” including some through the Cambridge foundation’s donor-advised fund who now can do it to more directly benefit their own city, said Geeta Pradhan, president of the Cambridge Community Foundation and Stronger Together’s keynote speaker. It “creates a way for that activity to be more intentionally aligned with Somerville and the needs of Somerville and its nonprofits.”
There was a sign-up sheet for the fund available that night along with The Somerville Foundation merchandise and other opportunities to give, said Pradhan and TSF interim executive director Saladin Islam. They addressed a filled ballroom of more than 200 people at the Armory community arts building sharing the stage with mayor Jake Wilson in a night of music, food and concentrated charitable power. The turnout was roughly three times the number of people as last year’s inaugural event, Islam said.
Wilson acknowledged the elected officials in the room – state representative Christine Barber; City Council president Lance Davis and councilors Emily Hardt, Jon Link, Will Mbah, Matt McLaughlin and Ben Wheeler; and School Committee member Laura Pitone. They were joined by community members such as former councilor Jack Connolly, Licensing Commission and Somerville Media Center leader Joe Lynch, Arts at the Armory’s Stephanie Scherpf, givers such as Jenny and John Bonham-Carter and Daniel Shugrue, Chris Vining of The Goods cannabis and Somerville Foundation president Greg Nadeau.
Collaboration amid economic anxiety
Somerville is a complex ecosystem in which public entities need nonprofit partners and all need to coordinate, Wilson said. That inspired the creation of a community partnerships liaison position filled by Brenna Broderick, formerly a Wilson campaign manager and the chief of staff for his transition team.
He credited the Somerville Foundation for stepping up as part of a collaborative solution by looking “at what was happening in another city and said, ‘Why not here, why not us,’” Wilson said. But it is a hard time to raise money and even to get people to volunteer, he said. “There’s a lot of economic anxiety out there. People are tighter with their wallets than they typically have been. And that’s why, in this moment, it’s so important that we’re here for organizations like The Somerville Foundation.”
“Tonight, I reupped my donation” to the foundation, Wilson said, encouraging the room to do the same. “If you’re not already a member, donate – do your part, become a member, encourage people that you know to do the same. That’s what it takes.”
Around $6,000 came in during the event for a combined total with sponsorships to $45,000 raised for this campaign before expenses, Islam said.
Another partnership announced at the event was with the Homa Safaii Charitable Operating Foundation, whose Amir Shahsavari – Islam’s brother-in-law – focuses on aid to women and children and saw possibilities for matching grant making opportunities in Somerville. Priorities could be nailed down within weeks, said Shahsavari, with the Stronger Together event as inspiration. “It’s a pleasure to give,” he said, “and we can encourage others to give.”
“We see it differently”
Pradhan noted that the large commercial platforms have been taking a much more cautious approach to giving in a different way: avoiding issues that are controversial “or not in line with the federal government’s thinking.”
Fidelity Charitable and Vanguard Charitable last month blocked giving through its platforms to the Southern Poverty Law Center after the Justice Department announced it was investigating the group, which has worked with past U.S. governments to take down hate groups and domestic terrorists.
“We see it differently” than the corporate funds, Pradhan said. “This is not a moment to hold back. This is a moment for us to reengage. There is immense need and opportunity, and we need to be successful – we need to be there to support our nonprofits to invest in communities and to act with urgency and purpose.”
A shared history
The Somerville Foundation started as the Somerville Education Foundation in 2017. It broadened its mission, and changed its name, in 2023 – with the guidance of the Cambridge Community Foundation.
When The Somerville Foundation reached another inflection point recently, the Cambridge Community Foundation was there again. As Islam explained in an interview Tuesday and referred to on stage during the Sunday event, he had to rely on partnerships with the CCF and others to emerge from fundraising stagnation and a stalling mission.
“Things were challenging. I knew that I couldn’t do this alone. I knew that I needed allies in the community foundation space within our networks, and to see who would be out there willing to support. I reached out to lots of different connections, and it just so happened that one of my most important connections, Cambridge Community Foundation, had reached back out to me, and they told me, ‘Sure, Sal, we can be with you, we’d love to support you,’” Islam said. “We have built such a good relationship between us and the Cambridge Community Foundation. They’ve been mentors to me, supporting me, giving me sound advice for the direction of where the foundation could go.”
Somerville is the only community that the CCF is working with in this way, Pradhan said, referring to four years of insights and sharing experiences – just in June, the board updated a somewhat old-fashioned trust structure – as well as the creation of the donor-advised fund portal.
Pradhan: Our cities are connected
Pradhan addressed the special relationship during her keynote address, noting decades in which the CCF has supported Somerville nonprofits such as the Community Action Agency and The Welcome Project.
“Why this partnership? Because the truth is our cities are already connected, our borders are porous, our challenges are shared,” Pradhan said. “Our cities have partnered on advocacy for the green line extension and on immigrant support through the Cambridge-Somerville United Legal Defense Fund. The Cambridge Community Foundation deployed Covid relief funds through some of our nonprofits, and through that work, something became clear – our futures are intertwined. We face the same challenges: affordability, housing pressures, economic inequality, education gaps. But we also share something else, a robust and exciting arts infrastructure and a deeply creative, resilient and engaged community.”
Another truth, she said, connecting directly with the Stronger Together theme of the event, was that “no one of us can do as much as all of us can together.”
This post was updated May 19, 2026, with statistics from the Stronger Together event and information about the Homa Safaii Charitable Operating Foundation.
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