As writer and landscape architect Elizabeth Lawrence once said, "Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn." I interpret her words as a call for reflection and stillness; to pause for celebration and gratitude. I hope you have a moment to take a stroll this autumn and sit still with nature and reflect on the power of transformation and regeneration.

Thanks again for your sustained commitment to social justice.

On the evening of September 22nd, The Fund hosted the premiere of our Untold Stories video. Those who tuned in to watch used words such as incredible, amazing, spectacular, moving, powerful, and beautiful to describe their reactions. It has been wonderful to hear that Untold Stories has resonated so strongly and with so many of you. It is our hope that Untold Stories furthers people's learning about the advancement of social, economic, and racial justice and also serves as a call to action to join LZF as we continue to build bridges among people and communities.

If you haven't yet had a chance to watch Untold Stories (approx. 50 minutes), we invite you to do so on YouTube. And while you are visiting LZF's YouTube channel, please consider becoming a subscriber by clicking the "subscribe" button located just below the video. To learn more about The Lenny Zakim Fund and our storytellers featured in Untold Stories, please click here to view the electronic Untold Stories program booklet.

On October 11th, Team LZF members Christian Hassold and Kenia Pineda participated in the 125th running of the Boston Marathon. Once again this year, The Lenny Zakim Fund was fortunate to receive charity bibs through John Hancock’s Marathon Non-Profit Program, which enabled us to recruit Christian and Kenia to run the 2021 Boston Marathon and raise money on behalf of The Fund.

Christian and Kenia successfully completed the Boston Marathon in 5:00:59 and 5:28:28, respectively; it was the first, but unlikely the last, marathon for both of them. Together, Christian and Kenia raised more than $33,000 from over 100 family members and friends for The Fund, which will provide critical grant funding and technical assistance to our grassroots organization partners.

The Lenny Zakim Fund would like to thank Christian and Kenia for their incredible dedication to their marathon training and fundraising on our behalf. We are tremendously grateful for all of your efforts both on and off the marathon course.

If you or someone you know is interested in participating in the 2022 Boston Marathon as a member of Team LZF, please email Allison Picott, LZF’s Director of Development, at apicott@thelennyzakimfund.org.

The second cohort of our Transformational Leadership Cohort (TLC) program is underway and we're thrilled to inroduce the participants. The purpose of the 16-month TLC program is to build the critical skills of grassroots nonprofit leaders, exploring and developing their leadership abilities, and strengthening their connection to other grassroots leaders. As a matter of fact, a key aspect of the TLC program’s structure is executive coaching. We've paired each of the 10 participating fellows with their own executive coach for monthly individual coaching in addition to group coaching sessions. Learn more about our fellows and coaches below!

On Wednesday, October 20, The Lenny Zakim Fund kicked off our 20th annual No Show Ball campaign. This month-long campaign will culminate on November 17, LZF Giving Day, a new one day fundraising initiative to raise money for The Lenny Zakim Fund. For this year’s No Show Ball campaign, LZF seeks to raise a minimum of $100,000.

On LZF Giving Day, Lenny’s birthday, we will remember our founder and honor his vision for The Lenny Zakim Fund: To provide critical grant funding and technical assistance to grassroots organizations in support of their work advancing social, economic, and racial justice in communities throughout eastern Massachusetts.

The goal of LZF Giving Day is simple: To bring together a broader segment of the LZF community than those who usually donate to our No Show Ball to celebrate and support our grantee partners through a collective, one day online giving effort. For this year’s inaugural LZF Giving Day, we have set a one day fundraising goal to raise $10,000 in collective online gifts, which is the equivalent of an average grant award from The Fund to one of our grantee partners.

Each year, The Lenny Zakim Fund raises money to support our annual operating budget, which includes grant monies and technical support to our grassroot partners. As a nonprofit, charitable organization, LZF relies nearly 100% on the generosity of our donors to support our work with grassroots organizations throughout eastern Massachusetts.

To learn more or for questions, please contact Allison Picott, LZF’s Director of Development, at apicott@thelennyzakimfund.org or 617-838-5966.

We're excited to share news about an amazing opportunity offered to our grantee partners this year. The Data for Good Fund, established in partnership with UpMetrics and the Tides Foundation, expanded to new cities in 2021 and The Zakim Fund was proud to help organize a pilot cohort of Boston area nonprofit organizations to leverage the UpMetrics impact analytics and storytelling platform.

This new partnership allows nonprofits to access UpMetrics tools and services at no cost for one year and provides an additional and much-needed layer of technical assistance to our grantee partners who are seeking more capacity-building support as they seek to scale their proigrams.

Cohort participation benefits include the opportunity to co-create a data-driven impact framework tailored to each organization's mission; the ability to use the UpMetrics data visualization platform to gain actionable insights and inform storytelling; and ongoing support from the UpMetrics Client Services team for training and troubleshooting. In addition, there will be opt-in cohort convenings and data-driven professional development opportunities. We're so thankful to UpMetrics and Starrs Aligned for helping to make this possible!

Established in 1995 by the late civil rights leader Lenny Zakim, the Lenny Zakim Fund continues to reflect his work and ideals by providing financial support, education, technical assistance and networking opportunities to small, community-based organizations and individuals who are passionate about social, racial, and economic justice and determined to become vehicles of critical change.

The Lenny Zakim Fund knows grassroots leadership is integral to ensuring that programs are successful, culturally relevant, effective, and meet the needs of affected people. Social justice at The Lenny Zakim Fund is about more than just grantmaking – it is about coming together in partnership to support leaders and the grassroots in their work against systemic oppression and their fight for equity.