Historical Timeline
1995-1996
“I believe that our early days as an LZF grantee were absolutely formative for us and that your support enabled us to make it through much turbulence and uncertainty all these years. We also cherish that we are still able to attend workshops and kept informed about resources.”
1995
Lenny Zakim founds The Lenny Fund (TLF). TLF is fiscally sponsored, managed and advised by The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI).
1996
- To promote secular and religious educational efforts
- To promote the Jewish tradition of social justice and programs supporting civil and human rights
- To combat illiteracy and poverty
- To advance the causes of medical research and healthcare
TLF awards its first grants – $49,752 to 11 nonprofits.
TLF hosts its first Annual Awards Ceremony, LZF’s longest standing annual event.1999
TLF awards matching grants to grantee partners for the first time.
Douglas and Judi Krupp announce a $1 million challenge grant. This grant raises $2 million to establish an endowment.
Lenny Zakim passes away at the age of 46 on December 2, 1999.
TLF publishes its first business plan, which describes The Fund’s model as a giving circle rooted in the emerging concept of venture philanthropy.
TLF publishes its first community newsletter, celebrating The Fund’s early impact and its distinctive practice of listening and responding to the community – an approach that would later become central to trust-based philanthropy.
2000
The Lenny Fund receives its 501(c)(3) status from the IRS.
Mary Carty becomes TLF’s first Executive Director.
2002
TLF hosts its first No Show Ball fundraiser, an annual tradition in which donors are invited to “show up” for The Fund with a gift, rather than showing up to an event.
2004
The Lenny Fund is renamed as The Lenny Zakim Fund (LZF).
2006
Jude Goldman begins as LZF’s Executive Director.
2007
DLA Piper begins offering pro bono legal assistance to all of LZF’s grantee partners.
2010
LZF’s Young Leaders hosts its first Casino Night, raising both dollars and awareness for LZF. For ten years, Casino Night is LZF’s flagship fundraiser, collectively raising approximately $1.5 million by its final year in 2019.
2012
LZF receives its first 2 Boston Marathon bibs. As of 2026, over 20 runners have run for Team LZF, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars.
2013
For the first time, LZF awards over $500K in grants, including $40K for summer programming that provides jobs for teens.
2014
LZF approves its first 5-year strategic plan with the goals of ensuring a current and clear mission statement, increasing organizational impact, increasing financial capacity, and ensuring ongoing sustainability and excellence.
2015
LZF updates its funding priorities, supporting organizations that:
- Improve educational opportunities for children, youth, and immigrants
- Promote positive youth development and prevent violence
- Promote social and economic justice, and human and civil rights
- Serve people facing medical challenges and/or physical or cognitive disabilities
LZF celebrates its 20th Anniversary with a fundraising event featuring twenty grassroots leaders, each representing one year of LZF’s existence, and a performance by Sting.
2018
LZF establishes seven funding categories:
- Access to Food, Housing, and Economic Opportunity
- Child and Youth Development and Education
- Civil and Human Rights Advocacy and Support
- Health Promotion and Accessibility for All
- Organizing and Support for Immigrants and Refugees
- LGBTQIA Community Support and Organizing
- Violence Prevention, Criminal Justice Reform and Family Outreach
2019
The Transformational Leadership Cohort (TLC) Program which supports grantee partner leaders with executive coaching launches. As of 2026, LZF has supported 56 leaders of current and former LZF grantee partner organizations through five TLC cohorts. LZF welcomes Eric Esteves as its third Executive Director.
2020
LZF launches COVID-19 Emergency Response and Recovery Fund for its current and former LZF grantee partners.
LZF celebrates its 25th Anniversary.
By December, LZF awards over $1 million in grants, the largest total dollar amount awarded in a single year.
2022
LZF’s approves its newest 5-year strategic plan, in which it reaffirms LZF’s existing mission statement and values and adopts a new vision statement for The Fund of, “a more just and equitable world where communities thrive because of the contributions and leadership of grassroots organizations.”
Allison Picott is named as LZF’s fourth Executive Director.
2023
LZF begins offering weekly Office Hours for grantee partners led by LZF Board Member Deborah Seidel.
In October, LZF receives a $666,000 gift from the former Temple B’nai Israel of Revere to establish an endowed fund to support LZF grassroots organization partners in Revere, Chelsea, Lynn, and along the North Shore over the next 18 years.
2024
LZF launches its Catalytic Consulting Program, which provides access to high-quality consulting support for grantee partners to work on a specific project.
LZF hosts its inaugural annual fundraiser: Light the Night at Alcove Boston, under the shadow of the Zakim Bridge.
2025
LZF celebrates its 30th Anniversary.
Rob Sherman, the last of LZF’s founding board members, retires from the LZF board.
2026
LZF’s annual fundraiser rebrands as The Zakim Light.
LZF completes its 30-Year Longitudinal Impact Study
In November, Tiffany Lau begins as LZF’s fifth Executive Director.
Grantee Partner Case Study
Kids in Tech
Giving kids the skills they need to succeed in the 21st century and beyond. (Funded 2018-2022)
“[LZF] helped us move towards independence and self-sufficiency in a number of areas from strategic planning to marketing to building financial infrastructure and much more. As a young nonprofit, these capacity-building opportunities enabled our organization and our leaders to develop competencies and skills that make us more effective and sustainable, thus increasing the potential for Kids in Tech to enrich lives of youth in the Greater Lowell area.”
In 2013, Olu Ibrahim set out to do something simple and ambitious at once: get kids in Lowell, Massachusetts excited about technology before the world convinced them it wasn’t for them. Kids in Tech’s mission is to excite, educate, and empower children ages 8 to 14 to use technology, fostering a lifelong interest through free, hands-on STEM programming. Working alongside organizational and educational partners, the organization brings volunteers directly into classrooms to connect science with students’ interests, teaching everything from coding and robotics to wearable tech and audiovisual production. The program reaches kids from low-income households who might otherwise have no access to this kind of education.
Kids in Tech became an LZF grantee partner in 2018, when the organization was still finding its footing: one full-time and five part-time staff, working alongside volunteers to serve 95 students. The organization continued to grow through their time with LZF, taking advantage of capacity-building support and receiving a total of $69,000 in grants.
Thanks to LZF capacity-building seminars, Kids in Tech was able to update their employee handbook, build a strategy for net-asset-based language in donor communications, and draft volunteer liability waivers. In 2020, Kids in Tech was named a partner of Massachusetts STEM Week, a role that’s now an annual fixture for the organization. By 2022, Kids in Tech’s annual revenue had grown by $512,313.
Two years after their final LZF grant, Kids in Tech honored the Fund with their inaugural “Philanthropic Partner Award.” Today, Kids in Tech calls itself a “statewide organization.” Its after-school programs, summer initiatives, and job-shadowing experiences have expanded well beyond Lowell into Boston and Somerville; far from the small neighborhood tech club it once was. Olu remains committed to giving back to future generations of LZF grantee partners, participating as an application evaluator in LZF’s annual grant cycle.
33 Arch Street, 26th Fl. | Boston, MA 02110 | (617) 406-5945 | office@thelennyzakimfund.org
The Lenny Zakim Fund is a tax-exempt, 501(c)3 organization under the IRS. | EIN 04-3485146