FOR RELEASE:                                                     Tuesday, January 29, 2008
CONTACT:                                                          Denise Moorehead, 617-532-6565

Out of the Blue Grant Recognizes Capacity Builder for Exceptional Regional Leadership

BOSTON, MA – Third Sector New England has been awarded a grant of $75,000 from the Boston Foundation. Each quarter, the foundation makes the unsolicited and unrestricted Out of the Blue grant to an area nonprofit in recognition of its “exceptional leadership” in the region.

“Receiving the award is a wonderful, unexpected tribute to the cumulative impact of the work of our staff and board,” stated Jonathan Spack, TSNE’s executive director. “It is especially gratifying that our work as a capacity builder is being recognized.”

According to Spack, TSNE’s board president is appointing a small ad hoc committee of board and staff to make recommendations to the board on the best use of the funds. The project to funded by the Out of the Blue grant will be announced in the next month.

Third Sector New England is a nonprofit organization that provides management support and resources to strengthen individual organizations and build the nonprofit sector’s capacity to advance social justice. Headquartered in Boston, TSNE’s programs and services include executive transition support, management consulting, fiscal sponsorship, and grantmaking to foster diversity and capacity building. In addition, TSNE has developed the multi-tenant NonProfit Center for social change organizations. It shares the nonprofit sector’s best practices, with an emphasis on helping to create supportive nonprofit networks.

The Boston Foundation, Greater Boston’s community foundation, is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the nation, with assets of over $964 million. In 2007, the foundation and its donors made more than $92 million in grants to nonprofit organizations and received gifts of more than $155 million. The foundation is made up of some 850 separate charitable funds established by donors either for the general benefit of the community or for special purposes. The Boston Foundation also serves as a major civic leader, provider of information, convener and sponsor of special initiatives designed to address the community’s and region’s most pressing challenges.