United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley

United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley

United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley began operating in 1935, channeling resources from Boston's corporate and political networks into community-level economic equity efforts. The foundation is governed by a board chaired by Tammi Wortham, a Senior Vice President at Sun Life, with an investment committee led by Ellen W. Griggs. Corporate backers include Bain & Company, and the organization has secured federal earmarks through Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey. Operations center on programmatic deployment rather than traditional fund-of-funds investing. The foundation's real assets include a headquarters at 9 Channel Center Street in Boston and additional offices in Beverly and Attleboro. An endowment fund and an investment portfolio support grantmaking, while a cryptocurrency donation program provides a modern giving conduit. The foundation also operates a Real Estate & Building Industry Committee chaired by Larry Curtis of WinnDevelopment, linking housing stability efforts with private-sector development leaders, and a Private Equity/Venture Capital Associate Council that engages junior investment professionals as donors and volunteers. An estimated $54 million in assets (Altss estimate) underpin the organization's work, though the foundation does not publicly disclose its exact investment pool. In March 2025, Marty Martinez was appointed President and CEO, succeeding prior leadership. His appointment coincided with ongoing board-level engagement from directors with deep investment and operational backgrounds, including Lorenna Buck of Ariel Alternatives and John Madondo of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Massachusetts. The foundation participates in the United Way Worldwide network while maintaining independent control over its local grantmaking and partnerships. The foundation's structural posture is hybrid: an operating charity with a managed endowment, direct corporate partnerships, and project-specific federal funding. This architecture divorces it from passive community grantmaking by embedding real estate, healthcare, and private-sector professionals directly into its committee and board structure — making allocation decisions by practitioners rather than purely by philanthropic administrators.