Reflecting on 2024 and the Year Ahead

March 20, 2025

Dear Friends and Partners,

On this first day of spring, we’d like to extend our well wishes and gratitude to friends and partners with whom we’ve had the privilege of perpetuating Jean and Tom Yawkey’s philanthropic legacy over the past year.

In 2024, the Yawkey Foundation continued to deepen the impact and commitment to the communities the Yawkeys called home – Boston and Georgetown, South Carolina – through investing in nonprofits that provide opportunity and resources.

With the 2025 baseball season soon upon us, we’re once again reminiscing about the Yawkeys’ pure love for the sport, anchored in their seven decades of ownership of the Boston Red Sox (1933-2002). Further to their wishes, in 2024 the Foundation continued to perpetuate access to the game they loved through partnerships such as The BASE, which finalized the purchase of its urban baseball facility in Roxbury’s Newmarket neighborhood. The Foundation was particularly honored to collaborate with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, which Tom Yawkey began supporting in 1939, on its exceptional permanent exhibit, “Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball.” Having opened in May 2024 in The Hall’s “Yawkey Gallery,” this exhibit is a key part of Cooperstown’s Black Baseball Initiative, which shines a light on the many important, complex, and nuanced stories that need to be told, especially by individuals with lived experiences. As reflected in the timeline with documented history about the integration of baseball in Boston, the Trustees believe that the stories and conversations in this exhibit are as critical and relevant today as they’ve ever been. 

Throughout 2024, the Yawkey Foundation awarded more than $21 million to nonprofit organizations dedicated to increasing access and opportunity in the areas about which Jean and Tom felt particularly passionate – health care, education, arts & culture, human services, youth & amateur athletics and conservation & wildlife. The Foundation invested in Transformational Capital projects with partners providing critical basic needs, such as Pine Street Inn and Father Bill’s & Mainspring, as well as organizations enhancing pathways to academic and economic mobility through grants to Franklin Cummings Tech, Lawrence Catholic Academy, and a distinguished cohort of college students as part of the newly launched Yawkey 1933 Scholars program. And as the page turned on 2024, the Foundation also marked an important transition with the retirement of CEO Maureen H. Bleday after nearly two decades of exceptional commitment to the Foundation’s mission.

Looking ahead toward those sure signs of summer, the Foundation’s valued partner Camp Harbor View will soon be finalizing its plans for a one-of-a-kind summer for 1,000 Boston youth;  the esteemed Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will announce its “2025 Ocean and Climate Series”; and preparations are underway for the 100th anniversary of Tom Yawkey’s purchase of 20,000 acres of South Carolina shoreline – known today as the Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center – which he bequeathed to the State of South Carolina for conservation in perpetuity. Additionally, in what would have been especially poignant to Tom given his early support of Dr. Sidney Farber’s cancer research, the 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox exhibit curated by The Sports Museum will be on view beginning in April at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Dana Building Lobby.

The Foundation remains committed to providing clear and timely communications regarding priorities, guidelines, partnerships, and initiatives through its online channels. Please connect with us on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook to stay apprised of the Foundation’s latest news.

In the spirit of this seasonal renewal and revival, the Trustees would like to express their profound gratitude to the Foundation’s partners and friends, and to reaffirm a steadfast commitment to faithfully stewarding and perpetuating the Yawkeys’ quiet compassion and philanthropic values in 2025 and beyond.

Warm regards,