SUCCESS STORIES

The Anna B. Stearns Charitable Foundation recently sponsored a gender-specific social issue track of the Social Innovation Forum, a Boston-based capacity building program for emerging social innovators in the nonprofit sector.

Building Networks of Skills and Capital

The Social Innovation Forum scans the field to identify innovative, resourceful and results-oriented leaders. The forum provides the innovators will business consulting, executive coaching, and technical assistance that can accelerate their growth and development.
Each year, funders sponsor multiple social issue tracks through the forum, to which nonprofits can apply for a chance to be selected as a social innovator.

The 2008-2009 social issue tracks include: food security and nutrition, early childhood education, social enterprise, arts-based youth programs, programs for disadvantaged youth, and programs for women and girls.

A Social Venture Model

One organization is selected for each sponsored issue track. The organization receives coaching, organizational mentoring, and opportunities to polish their presentations at a social venture fair and other venues.

Modeled after a venture capital fair, the forum’s annual showcase event provides an opportunity for nonprofit organizations at a critical phase of development to gain visibility and expand their networks.

This year, Girls’ LEAP was selected as the up-and-coming social innovator to be showcased in the Stearns-sponsored Women & Girls: Addressing Their Needs by Design issue track.

Girls’ LEAP (Lifetime Empowerment and Awareness Program) seeks to build girls’ self-esteem and skills in preventing personal violence. Since 1997, over 3,000 Boston-area girls and young women have learned about self-defense and reflective decision-making that keeps them safe and healthy.

Innovative programs like Girls’ LEAP form the cornerstones of the grantmaking portfolio of the The Anna B. Stearns Charitable Foundation. The foundation is a Boston-area funder that supports programs promoting the healthy development of girls as the foundation for their adult lives, and strengthening the independence and self-sufficiency of women.

Project Name: Women & Girls: Addressing Their Needs by Design
Grantee: Social Innovation Forum
Project Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Grantmaker: Anna B. Stearns Charitable Foundation

For more Information Contact:
Yasmin Shah, the Anna B. Stearns Charitable Foundation c/o GMA Foundations, 617-426-7080;
Susan Musinsky, Director, Social Innovation Forum, 617-492-2305