Yawkey Foundation spreads proceeds from sale

The 2002 sale of the Red Sox turned into the greatest boon for charities in the history of New England sports philanthropy.

Overnight, the Yawkey Foundation II, created by the late Sox owner Jean R. Yawkey, swelled to a $368 million endowment from $30 million thanks to proceeds from the sale of the team and became one of the largest private foundations in the region. Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly also reached an agreement with the new Sox owners that they would create a charitable foundation and distribute at least $20 million within 10 years.

In addition, the Yawkey Foundation extended its reach throughout Boston's neighborhoods after it entered a governance agreement with Reilly's office that required the foundation to expand its board of trustees. The new trustees, who required Reilly's approval, included the Rev. J. Donald Monan, former president of Boston College; the Rev. Ray Hammond, co-founder of the Ten Point Coalition and pastor of the Bethel AME Church; and Ron Burton Sr., founder of the Ron Burton Training Village for underprivileged children (Mr. Burton died in 2003).

In 3 1/2 years since the Sox sale, the Yawkey Foundation II has donated more than $55 million to charity and maintained an endowment that should ensure a similar level of giving for decades. The largest commitments have been to such established institutions as Massachusetts General Hospital ($25 million), Boston Medical Center ($15 million), Boston College ($15 million), WGBH ($7 million), and Emmanuel College ($5 million).

But the foundation also has made a major impact on a number of traditionally underfunded projects, as it did with a $750,000 grant to help rebuild Greater Egleston Community High School for high-risk students in Jamaica Plain and Roxbury. The foundation also committed $750,000 to Nativity Preparatory School in Jamaica Plain, $150,000 to the Urban Dreams after-school program in Dorchester founded by Mo Vaughn, and $125,000 to Project Right for outreach workers in the Grove Hall section of Roxbury and Dorchester.

Reilly, after monitoring the Yawkey Foundation for nearly three years, decided April 22 that the charity had fully complied with the governance agreement and formally ended it.

The Red Sox Foundation has made similar progress. The new owners already have contributed more than $8 million to the foundation and have pledged to donate an additional $9 million by the 2012 deadline. And the foundation is positioned to raise far more than the $3 million it will need to reach the $20 million commitment, according to executive director Meg Vaillancourt. A raffle of three official World Series rings, for example, raised $2 million.

''It's a lot of work because the need and our ambitions are so great," Vaillancourt said, ''but it's an honor to work for this ownership group because they are clearly determined to be a force for positive change in our community."

The foundation has distributed more than $9.5 million to charities in its first 3 1/2 years, with more than $2 million going to the Jimmy Fund, $900,000 to an array of recreation and social service programs serving inner-city children in Massachusetts, $400,000 to a scholarship program for Boston public school students, and more than $100,000 to the Dimock Community Health Center in Roxbury.

The Sox soon plan to break new ground by organizing a ''Foundation Nation Service Day" in which fans, volunteers, and team staffers will help refurbish the Dimock teen center. Vaillancourt said the event signals a commitment to enhance the foundation's charitable giving with the previously untapped ''sweat equity" of Sox fans.