# Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts

Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts is an Endowment / Foundation based in Springfield, United States.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Endowment / Foundation
- **Headquarters:** Springfield, United States
- **Region:** North America
- **Address:** 333 Bridge Street, Springfield, MA 01103, United States
- **Founded:** 1991
- **Assets under management:** $250M–$275M (Altss estimate)
- **Website:** communityfoundation.org
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/community-foundation-of-western-massachusetts

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts launched in 1991 to aggregate charitable capital across Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin Counties. Karin George, a principal at fundraising consultancy Washburn & McGoldrick, chairs the board; Megan Burke is president and CEO. The foundation does not trace back to a single wealth event — it operates as a publicly supported, geographically bounded community endowment whose donors remain unnamed. CFWM builds its portfolio across natural resources, private capital, and a venture allocation that tilts toward seed and early-stage Generalist VC through a fund-of-funds structure. While the foundation does not publish individual commitments, its strategy spans early-stage, expansion, and mezzanine tranches. Grantmaking leans hard into place-based cultural and equity work: the BIPOC Arts Equity Fund runs alongside Barr Foundation, and ValleyCreates — a partnership with the same Boston funder — channels capital to local artists. The Flexible Funding program, co-run with MassMutual Foundation, targets household financial resilience in Western Massachusetts. The board weaves together deep regional threads. Charlie D'Amour, retired CEO of supermarket chain Big Y, serves as vice chair; Payton Shubrick, founder of the first Black-owned cannabis dispensary in Springfield, sits as a trustee. The estate-planning and philanthropy networks — the Council on Foundations, Philanthropy Massachusetts, the Hampden County Estate Planning Council — function as both peer-learning circles and deal-sourcing pipes for donor-advised capital. Unlike a single-family office, CFWM is structurally an endowment sponsor for hundreds of anonymous donor-advised funds, field-of-interest funds, and unrestricted community grants. That architecture means the investment committee — not a founding patriarch — is the permanent fiduciary. Mauricia Geissler’s thirty-year institutional track record at Amherst College sets the tone: a disciplined, committee-driven asset allocation applied to a permanent regional pool, with no central family's preferences to navigate.

## Sectors

- Natural Resources
- Venture Capital (General)
- Real Estate

## People

- Karin George — Chair of the Board of Directors; Principal at Washburn & McGoldrick, LLC
- Charlie D'Amour — Vice Chair of the Board; Retired President and CEO of Big Y
- Mauricia A. Geissler — Chair of the Investment Committee; Retired CIO of Amherst College
- Megan Burke — President and CEO
- Sylvia Callan — Board Member; Senior Portfolio Manager at St. Germain Investments
- Payton Shubrick — Board Member; CEO and Founder of 6 Brick's Cannabis Dispensary

## Questions

### Who runs investment decisions at the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts?

Mauricia A. Geissler, former CIO of Amherst College, chairs the investment committee and is the central gatekeeper for asset allocation. The committee includes Sylvia Callan, a senior portfolio manager at St. Germain Investments, and draws on the board’s broader mix of operating executives and wealth advisors. The president and CEO, Megan Burke, handles day-to-day administration rather than investment selection.

### Does the foundation invest directly in companies or through fund commitments?

The strategy is predominantly a fund-of-funds model, particularly for its venture capital and private capital exposures. The foundation targets seed, startup, and expansion-stage Generalist VC through manager selection rather than direct co-investment. Real estate exposure includes the foundation’s own headquarters at 333 Bridge Street in Springfield.

### Where does the underlying capital come from?

The foundation aggregates charitable assets from hundreds of unnamed donors across Western Massachusetts through donor-advised funds, field-of-interest funds, designated funds, and unrestricted bequests. No single wealth origin or founding family is publicly identified; the permanent endowment has been built incrementally since 1991.

### What is the foundation’s geographic focus and does it invest outside it?

Grantmaking is sharply constrained to 69 cities and towns in Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin Counties. The investment portfolio, however, is globally diversified through external managers — natural resources, venture capital, and mezzanine strategies extend well beyond Massachusetts.

### Which local organizations co-invest or partner with the foundation?

MassMutual Foundation and Barr Foundation are the most visible co-funders, with MassMutual partnering on the Flexible Funding grant program and Barr on arts-equity and creativity initiatives. Big Y’s retired CEO, Charlie D’Amour, ties the foundation to the region’s largest grocery employer through his vice-chair role.

## Related profiles

- [Baptist Health South Florida Foundation](https://altss.com/profile/baptist-health-south-florida-foundation)
- [University of Ottawa Endowment](https://altss.com/profile/university-of-ottawa-endowment)

---

Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z

Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/community-foundation-of-western-massachusetts

Maintained by Altss — https://altss.com — methodology: https://altss.com/methodology