The Rutland Corner Foundation Fulfills Its Mission Through Asset Transfer to Boston Women’s Fund

For immediate release: January 15, 2025

Contact: Aisha Woodruff, aisha@bostonwomensfund.org  210-373-1993

BOSTON — January 15, 2025 —After 150 years of serving women and girls, The Rutland Corner Foundation (RCF) today announced that it is transferring its $2.1 million assets to Boston Women’s Fund (BWF), fulfilling its mission to empower women and girls and more than doubling the endowment of the oldest women’s fund in Massachusetts.

 “We found our ideal partner in Boston Women’s Fund,” said Lisa Johnson, President of RCF’s Board of Trustees. “BWF has great enthusiasm, as we do, for making one plus one equal more than two. We are excited to see BWF carry forward Rutland Corner’s legacy of empowering girls and young women.”  

The RCF Board agreed their most enduring next step in the fight to support girls and young women entailed partnering with a like-minded organization, exceptionally aligned with RCF’s mission, committed to intersectional justice, and making strides in support for young people today. BWF’s community-driven approach to philanthropy, youth-led grantmaking processes, youth leadership initiatives, and more, caught the attention of RCF’s Board of Trustees. RCF will cease operations as a standalone entity. 

“We are thrilled with RCF’s vote of confidence and are full of gratitude,” said Natanja Craig Oquendo, Executive Director of Boston Women’s Fund. “This partnership means we can take our support for young people to even greater heights while continuing to grow our socially responsible investments through our endowment, allowing us to protect the future of BWF's community-centered support. With women’s, girls’, and gender-expansive folks’ bodily autonomy increasingly under attack, this boost could not have come at a better time.”

With these funds, BWF will also increase its grantmaking supporting girl and gender-expansive youth-led organizations, expand staffing, grow its youth program, and more.

Despite growing attacks on women, girls, and gender-expansive people’s rights, women’s and girls’ organizations still receive a mere 1.9% of all charitable giving in the United States. 

Rutland Corner Foundation

The Rutland Corner Foundation’s (RCF) roots go back to the foundation of the Temporary Home for Working Women in 1877. It transformed into the Rutland Corner Foundation in 1998. Since 2008, the Rutland Corner Foundation has made grants totaling more than $1.8M to over sixty Massachusetts nonprofit organizations that demonstrate a strong commitment to girls and young women in their community.

Boston Women’s Fund 

Boston Women’s Fund (BWF) invests in women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals leading grassroots organizations working toward racial, economic, social, and gender justice. Founded in 1984 by progressive women, BWF was the first women’s foundation in Massachusetts and is one of the oldest nonprofit women’s foundations in the nation. Through forward-thinking grantmaking practices, BWF predominantly supports Black and Brown leaders from communities persistently excluded from philanthropy, including LGBTQIA+, people of color, immigrant, refugee, disabled, low-income, and elderly communities. BWF has granted more than $7.9 million in over 400 grant awards. Learn more at www.bostonwomensfund.org.

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Join Our 2025 Allocations Committee

We are excited to share that the Boston Women's Fund will be putting together an Allocations Committee in 2025!

With the leadership of the Allocations Committee, BWF will award grassroots organizations in the Greater Boston area with a one-year, unrestricted $25,000 grant to support their movement building work.

We cannot do this work alone — we are calling on you to assist us in our commitment to community-led and participatory grantmaking. As an Allocations Committee member, your assignment, both difficult and rewarding, determines who will receive these grant funds.

Allocations Committee members will review nominations, facilitate conversations with nominated organizations and their community members, conduct research and draft proposals, and use a consensus model to select organizations to receive grants from BWF. This approach decentralizes power by shifting it from foundations to the community — democratizing philanthropy through transparency, equity, and inclusion. 

We strongly encourage people of all ages and identities, inside and outside of philanthropy, to apply! No prior grantmaking experience is required! This is an incredible opportunity to learn more about BWF, gain hands-on experience with grassroots leaders, and engage with community-led solutions to local challenges.

If this sounds like a challenge and an opportunity you would like to be part of, please fill out our application form by December 31, 2024.

We will offer a virtual info session on Tuesday, December 3 at 6:00pm EST. If you are interested in joining the Allocations Committee and have any questions or would like to hear directly from our team about the process, register here!

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Responsibilities of Allocations Committee members include:

1. Attend one mandatory, in-person orientation on Saturday, March 8, 2025 from 10:00am - 3:00pm.

2. Research assigned organizations; interview their leaders and community members who have been impacted by the work; prepare, write and present grant proposals; and recommend organizations to the Allocations Committee and BWF staff and board for funding.

3. Participate in a mandatory, in-person Consensus Session on Saturday, May 10, 2025 from 10:00am - 3:00pm (selection of grant awardees).

4. A total time commitment of 40-45 hours.

Allocations Committee members will also receive a modest stipend.

Apply By December 31

Official Statement on The 2024 Presidential Election — Leaning Into US

In times like these, I am reminded of the enduring power of US — not the United States, but the power of each of us, standing together. We are the ones who strategize, support, and organize to make liberation tangible. We have always understood that change begins locally, where our voices echo the loudest and our actions carry the most weight.

As we look toward Project 2025, let’s not be fooled. We’ve seen this before. We know their blueprint, their playbook, and their attempts to undermine our freedoms. Project 2025 is not just a policy agenda—it’s a call to action for us to fight for our right to live freely and fully. They seek to take away our ability to make choices for ourselves—about our bodies, our identities, and our futures. But history tells us that when they try to suppress us, we rise stronger. From the Combahee River Collective to the fight for marriage equality, we have always resisted and reclaimed our power.

So today, I am choosing US. I am leaning into our shared commitment to equity, justice, and self-determination. This fight is not just for one community but for all of us. No matter your gender identity, sexual orientation, race, or background, we are in this together. We have the knowledge, the strength, and the resilience to face this head-on.

In the coming days and weeks, BWF will be hosting virtual spaces of reflection, processing, and solidarity. I invite you to join me on Zoom. Let’s process, reflect, and strategize. Let’s hold space for the anger, the grief, and the hope that fuels our work.



Together, we will rise.

Together, we will resist.

Together, we will keep building a future that honors all of us.

With love, fire, and unwavering solidarity,

Natanja Craig Oquendo

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Sign up for updates on upcoming gatherings here.

Donate now to support local movements and leaders here.