The Somerville Foundation is about to mark its rebirthday.
Its second annual Stronger Together, coming Sunday to Arts at the Armory, is a very different event than the one a year ago, when the organization had given away the last of its money and was considering canceling.
Instead, the event went forward, said Sal Islam, who fought for the first Stronger Together to take place and was named the foundation’s interim executive director two months afterward. One hundred people – educators, workforce development partners, nonprofit leaders – showed up at 8 a.m. and formed working groups to talk over breakfast: How can we be stronger together? How can we collaborate and be more effective?
“Once the event wrapped, we were really facing the future of the foundation and where it was heading – without any funds, without being able to maintain the one staff member that we did have,” Islam said. He was also in a difficult personal position: out of work, pregnant wife.
By contrast, the upcoming Stronger Together is a four-hour nighttime party with food from Redbones, Saigon Tiger, Orleans and Waikiki; live music, arts and crafts; photos and videos; the presentation of the year’s Steph Aman Award for a person embodying the late community leader’s optimism, generosity, friendliness and hard work; opening remarks from mayor Jake Wilson; a keynote address from Geeta Pradhan of the Cambridge Community Foundation – and free entry, because TSF has $122,000 in the bank, a bright future and a turnaround story to share.
“Typically, a nonprofit would charge maybe $100 for an event like this, maybe $150, because there’s a gala or it’s a fundraiser. But I don’t see it that way,” Islam said.
The foundation just wants to celebrate with the community and share its next steps. “This event is a kind of a nice inflection point,” Islam said.
Critical moments
The organization existed from 2017 to 2023 to support schools and students as the Somerville Education Foundation. Its board realized the mission was broader – more like the city leadership and reinvestment of the Cambridge Community Foundation – and changed its name to The Somerville Foundation. But the that money came in went out again to other community organizations without building the foundation’s own finances, said president Greg Nadeau and Islam.
The foundation opted to give away its final $60,000 in November 2024 to two nonprofits in crisis, challenging itself to go essentially to zero dollars and build back. “Although we were facing closure and we were taking a risk, we felt that it was a greater risk for them,” Islam said. “The Somerville Foundation used to be completely volunteer led. We could always pivot back to our volunteer-led work.”
Both investments paid off. The $20,000 to Groundwork Somerville, which promotes urban farming, kept it afloat until an injection of funds from its national parent organization and allowed it to restructure to collaborative leadership; money to the Somerville Community Agencies Network helped it try a transition to a volunteer model. As of May, the organization is trying to build back with a grant-funded part-time consultant, said Stephanie Scherpf, an advisory board member and co-director and chief executive of Arts at the Armory.
“We feel those investments were worth it, and it really just highlights the need for a community foundation to be able to sustain organizations in critical moments,” Islam said.
Staff fundraising efforts had failed to replenish the $60,000 by May 2025, though.
The foundation’s sole remaining financial asset was a $14,000 workforce contract. “It would enable us to at least function for a few more months to see if we would want to hand off the organization or combine with another or what have you, but keep the mission and the momentum alive,” Islam said.
But buoyed by the first Stronger Together – and himself out of work – Islam stepped down from the board to take over the workforce contract. As director of partnerships, he felt the stirrings of success in outreach to businesses, banks and other organizations. In July he became interim executive director. “I said to the board, hey, I think I can take us in the right direction,” he recalled.
That September, the foundation’s second attempt at a Food Nation event, at which attendees sample dishes from Davis Square restaurants, drew 500 people and raised $25,000.
Finding jobs, fiscal sponsorship
Food Nation stabilized the organization, and now things are rolling, with some generous donations, “multiple contracts proposed by the city” and a quadrupling of workforce contracts that provide predictable annual income, Islam said. A Tufts University intern helps manage the work of the contracts, meeting with participants and finding them jobs.
That frees Islam to give time to the Somerville Mentorship Program and work with the foundation’s fiscal sponsorship program, which has grown to seven organizations from two navigating toward independence. TSF keeps 10 percent of revenue from their grants and donations. “A lot of organizations don’t do fiscal sponsorship, because it’s not worth the price of having a CEO-level staff member being” involved, Islam said. “However, I believe that this is the most important thing that we could do.”
“You’re getting one person that is organizing and managing five or six different projects, which is fine, because I used to do that in my consulting career – but now at least I’m doing it for something I love, right?” Islam said. Members include organizations such as Creative by Nature, Books of Hope and Youth Stream. The newest advisee is Parkour Generations, a for-profit company beginning to do charitable work, and there are nine applications for sponsorships waiting. “I just don’t have the capacity,” Islam said.
TSF’s Innovations in Education grant will go forward as usual. “We raised enough funds to be able to do that, and we think that’s a win,” Islam said.
Ready to grow
Nadeau, reached Thursday by phone, said of the foundation’s resurgence: “A lot of credit goes to Sal. He’s been a huge stabilizing force. He’s done great work, and we’re in a good position to begin growing again.”
Islam said his most important work was maintaining the partnerships built since transitioning into a community foundation – with the Cambridge Community Foundation, Barr Foundation and Boston Foundation.
“We’re positioned to work with the mayor to really reinvest the wealth that’s coming into Somerville back into businesses, nonprofits, residents and community initiatives,” Islam said. The Cambridge Community Foundation is creating a donor-advised fund framework and portal for the Somerville Foundation – meaning Somervillians can do their charitable giving through it instead of at businesses such as Fidelity or Schwab. The processing fees will go to good works within the community.
That network “really is going to be the long-term sustainability of the organization,” Islam said.
The Cambridge foundation, now 109 years old, “is supporting us to also make a mark on Somerville, to also exist for 100 years,” Islam said.
Stronger Together, The Somerville Foundation’s annual impact celebration, from 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday at Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Spring Hill, Somerville. Free entry with a suggested donation of $25. A VIP experience is $100.
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