The Lenny Zakim Fund

The Lenny Zakim Fund is pleased to announce that applications for LZF's 2027 Grant Cycle will open in one month on July 1! Massachusetts-based non-profit organizations with an IRS 501(c)(3) status or a fiscal sponsor are welcome to submit a proposal. Prospective new applicants MUST attend one virtual information session prior to submitting an application.

Learn more and register for an information session here: https://thelennyzakimfund.org/how-to-apply/

In the face of continuous discrimination and marginalization of LGBTQ+ lives and erasure of q***r histories, a local Boston community archive was born. 46 years later, this group has become one of the nation’s largest independent LGBTQ+ archives, growing not only in the size of its archives, but into a new identity – Q***r History Boston.

Learn more about their work in LZF's May Grantee Partner Spotlight below.

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In the face of continuous discrimination and marginalization of LGBTQ+ lives and erasure of q***r histories, a local Boston community archive was born. Boston q***r individuals and communities wanted their history and their lives preserved for future generations, but they knew they could not rely on larger local institutions to do that work – they had to do it themselves. In 1980, a small group of volunteers founded the Boston Area Le***an and Gay History Project, known outwardly as The History Project: Documenting LGBTQ Boston. 46 years later, this group has become one of the nation’s largest independent LGBTQ+ archives, growing not only in the size of its archives, but into a new identity – Q***r History Boston.

Q***r History Boston ensures the histories of Boston’s LGBTQ+ lives, relationships, and stories are preserved and celebrated, reclaiming the past while ensuring Boston’s q***r history is never erased. The organization remained entirely volunteer-run until 2020, when Joan Ilacqua became QHB’s first Executive Director. Now as of 2026, the team has grown to three, including Matisse DuPont, QHB’s Director of Engagement and Advancement, as well as a full-time archivist, Mik Hamilton.

When the organization was founded, volunteers chose to operate under the neutral name of The History Project as a form of protection. They were able to gain nonprofit status and operate under a non-outwardly presenting q***r name, allowing them to move about the nonprofit sector with less fear of discrimination and attacks. In 2025, the organization went through a full rebrand, emerging as Q***r History Boston. “From a safety perspective in the 1980s [the name] makes complete sense. But we’re in a different time and place, and we’re looking to be much more out and clear about who we are, what we do, and who we serve,” Matisse shared.

Armed with a new design kit built to reference 90s q***r zine, button, and flyer activist movements, and a clear, local, name, Q***r History Boston hit the ground running last year to make sure the city of Boston knew about this decades-old organization. They celebrated their rebrand last October during LGBTQ History Month with an exhibit in the heart of Harvard Square, entitled ‘Cambridge: It’s always been a little q***r.’ Thousands of Bostonians saw their exhibit, which felt like the perfect representation of Q***r History Boston’s new era of being publicly seen, explicitly q***r, and centered in local history.

In 2025, the organization reached over 2000 people via their events and programming, which span from museum pop-up exhibits to author talks and film screenings to community-building events. QHB worked with over fifty other local organizations in the past year to promote q***r history on larger scales and make the Boston LGBTQ+ feel seen and represented throughout the whole city. Their archival materials and work have been featured all across Boston, including by The Boston Public Library, the Mayor’s Office, and Historic New England, as well as at the national and international level in their collaborations with other community-driven history projects and organizations.

“It is important to us to work closely with local aligned organizations, both to foster solidarity and challenge systematic oppression, but also to ensure that our work reaches community members, activists, and organizations who seek to understand and use our history to take action,” stated Matisse. Alongside their growing collaborative efforts, Q***r History Boston’s volunteer committees have been revitalized and continue to grow, keeping the organization’s community-run history alive.

As Boston heads into Pride Month, the organization has a full docket of exhibits, celebrations, and presentations. Throughout June 2026, they can be found at the Museum of African American History, the West End Museum, the Gibson House Museum, tabling at Pride celebrations across the city, including Boston’s annual Pride for the People festival, and at their physical archives in Back Bay, where they will be busy giving tours all month.

Alongside that, the team is gearing up for their annual award show: The Living Archive Honors, taking place on Saturday, September 26th. This year they will be honoring five awardees, consisting of local advocates, artists, and activists who prioritize local LGBTQ+ history and work to protect and uplift q***r communities across Boston, and the whole commonwealth of Massachusetts. “We’re an archive and we document things. [The awards show is] proof right now… we’re doing the act of documenting in front of you… we’re doing our mission in front of you currently… Look at these important people who are now in the archive” Matisse remarked. The awards show is not only to have a chance to celebrate their wonderful awardees, but to have a platform to show that q***r history is still being made each day.

The tradition of community archiving, which dates back to 1970s era grassroots liberations movements, remains incredibly important in our modern age. To this day, there are extensive gaps and distortions in the ways that LGBTQ+ communities are represented not just in history, but in the media and in everyday conversations. Through their work each day, Q***r History Boston works to ensure that the lives and work of q***r Bostonians will not only be preserved but be celebrated.

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Current needs at Q***r History Boston include new volunteers and members on their Public History, Archives Advisory, and Archives Working Group Committees, as well as support and attendance at their upcoming events and exhibits. Community nominations for their upcoming Living Archive Honors show are open now through June 8, 2026. To learn more about their work, visit their website at https://www.q***rhistoryboston.org/ or reach out to their team at info@q***rhistoryboston.org. To see more pieces of Boston’s Q***r History, visit their Instagram, or take a look through the digital QHB archives: https://historyproject.omeka.net/digitized

Before the doors opens, The Zakim Light early sponsors and ticket holders are invited to a highly-curated whiskey and chocolate tasting. Purchase soon to share this sensory experience balancing the warmth with richness of these spirits with locally made chocolate. Brought to you by the Team and of Sudbury.

Support The Zakim Light before July 1st to gain access to this special experience. Find tickets, sponsorships, and more information here at the link in our bio.

Thank you to our incredible planning team and event ambassadors for making this event possible.

Happy May from LZF's Grantee Partners! Check out these wonderful public events held throughout the month to support the work of these incredible local grassroots organizations.

Featuring: Think Outside the Vox, Pleasant Street, Neighborhood Counseling and Community Services, Inc., City Strings United Boston, and The History Project: Documenting LGBTQ Boston.

On the last day of Month, The Lenny Zakim Fund is proud to share our April Grantee Partner Spotlight: Bryce's Journey - Autism. Bryce's Journey works to reduce disparities of care for working class families and underserved children with ASD and ADHD across Boston's inner-city neighborhoods.

When Michelle Jenkins’ son, Bryce, was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) at age three, she struggled to find accessible resources and programming for her and her son. Her son needed socialization, and she searched for a social-skills group where he could play and form relationships with other children, but the only support available to her son was one-on-one therapy. Her search for a safe, welcoming, and accessible space turned up short, leading Michelle to create her own organization, Bryce’s Journey, in 2017.

Bryce’s Journey, named for Michelle’s son, works to reduce disparities of care for working class families and underserved children with ASD and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in the inner-city Boston neighborhoods of Dorchester, Mattapan, Hyde Park, Roxbury, and Roslindale. Their services are available on a sliding-scale fee basis, and they are committed to keeping their programming available to all who need it.

For participating youth, Bryce’s Journey provides year-round support. For the majority of the year, children can attend their after-school programming where they gain a safe space to come to each day where they know they will be cared for, they will have friends to connect with, and where they are able to gain new experiences in a way that accommodates their own needs. The team takes the children on field trips, both for fun and to teach new skills. Michelle recounted stories of taking the kids to the library to practice picking out books for themselves, to the bowling alley for a fun outing, and to the swimming pool to be sure all the kids were able to swim and float to keep themselves safe.

Outside of the school months, children can attend Bryce’s Journey’s summer enrichment programming that prioritizes teaching important life skills and safety lessons to increase the children’s confidence and independence. Together, they practice skills like riding the bus, checking out with cashiers at convenience stores, and learning how to keep themselves safe and look for help in public if they are ever alone.

Bryce’s Journey’s work extends outside of their interactions directly with participating children. Michelle works with families to support their children’s education, serving as an advocate for families in school meetings and aiding families in creating and understanding their child’s Individualized Education Program (IEP), an important accessibility support for children with ASD and ADHD who have specific educational needs. The organization also provides guidance, informational resources, monthly support groups, and educational workshops for parents and caregivers.

At the beginning, Michelle was just renting space where she could find it, often at local community and health centers. In 2024, Bryce’s Journey finally began renting their own space in Hyde Park, which can accommodate twelve children and four adults. To this day, they rely heavily on word-of-mouth to share their services and programming with families who need it. Michelle has worked to get to know members of her community, learning what resources other families like her own are seeking and how she can best support them.

Despite their successes and the impact Bryce’s Journey has made on countless children and parents, they are still in need of support. They have outgrown their space and are searching for a larger space that can meet Early Education and Care (EEC) standards, while remaining affordable and accessible. They are also searching for partnerships with other organizations and with the Boston Public School system to be able to broaden the reach of their impact.

This year marks Bryce’s Journey’s fifth and final year as a grantee partner of The Lenny Zakim Fund. Not only has the funding provided by LZF been immensely helpful in allowing the organization to offer their programming at little to no cost to working families, with LZF’s help Michelle has been able to grow as a leader and nonprofit executive. In the past five years, she has taken advantage of many of LZF’s seminars, trainings, and consulting opportunities and conveyed gratitude for all that she has learned, as well as the connections she has been able to form with LZF staff and board members. “I don’t feel like a number. LZF gets it,” Michelle expressed.

Nine years after funding Bryce’s Journey, Michelle shared that they are still the only organization offering the wrap-around services and support that they do. Moments of learning that may seem small to those who do not have a child with ASD or ADHD in their life, are recognized as huge moments of celebration to the team at Bryce’s Journey. Where we may see a young child going to the post office and simply dropping a letter off, Michelle tells me[CB2.1] the story of a child who has learned to cross the street safely themselves, who identified a task and was able to complete it, and who was able to comfortably interact with a post office worker all on their own.

The team behind Bryce’s Journey has continued to grow, allowing them to help more families in the way that Michelle herself needed help over a decade ago. To Michelle, the clear sign of success is in the love the children have for the organization; “The children love the space, they feel safe. School can be very difficult for children with disabilities, but here they know everyone is there to be their friend.”
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Current needs at Bryce’s Journey include support with finding a new, larger EEC certified space for their expanded programing, partnerships with similar organizations, and funding/donations. To learn more about their work, visit their website at www.brycesjourney.org or reach out to Executive Director Michelle Jenkins at [email protected].

Learn more about LZF's Grantee Partners: www.thelennyzakimfund.org/grantee-partners

At The Lenny Zakim Fund, we have been thinking deeply about what it truly means to stand with our grantee partners in this moment. Through conversations, surveys, and learning efforts over the past year, one sentiment rose to the surface again and again. As one partner described it, “I don’t just feel supported by LZF—I feel held.”

That sense of being “held” is at the heart of our work.

To be held is to know that someone is walking alongside you—not only when things are going well, but when the work is hard, uncertain, and evolving. It means being seen for the full scope of your mission and the realities you face. Our grantee partners have told us that what distinguishes LZF is the depth of our relationships—that we take the time to truly understand their work, their communities, and their long-term vision.

Thank you for standing with The Lenny Zakim Fund and with the grassroots leaders who are shaping a more just and equitable future. We look forward to continuing this work together in 2026.

Read more about LZF's impactful 30th year in our 2025 Annual Report: https://isu.pub/k7jyutP

THEY DID IT! Yesterday, Team LZF Runners Itamar and Becca crossed the finish line at the 130th Boston Marathon - and with your help, they met their fundraising goal for The Lenny Zakim Fund.

Thank you to all who gave and helped our runners go the distance by reaching our $20,000 goal—helping LZF’s grantee partners do the same in their communities.

Still want to give? Help us keep the impact going at https://wl.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=tlzf&id=55

Today's the day! Team LZF runners Itamar Shevach and Rebecca Kinsella, LMSW have laced up their shoes and are headed out to represent The Lenny Zakim Fund at the oldest marathon in the country.

Download the B.A.A Racing App to keep tabs on our runner's progress and cheer them on as they cross the finish line! From all of us at LZF; THANK YOU for running alongside our team in spirit and in generosity!

Still want to give? The impact continues. Donate today → https://wl.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=tlzf&id=55

We are officially 98% of the way to our 2026 Boston Marathon Fundraising Goal! Team LZF Runners Itamar Shevach and Rebecca Kinsella need your help to cross the finish line this Monday at the 130th . Every step they take makes a difference for grassroots nonprofits across Eastern Massachusetts - are you ready to join them in this race to change?

Make your gift today to support community-led change: https://wl.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=tlzf&id=55