The Initiative on Cities is proud to announce the release of its first City Insight publication. This inaugural report, One Fund Boston: Lessons for Leaders, focuses on the factors that contributed to the success of the One Fund. Based on interviews with key community, corporate, and government stakeholders as well as insight shared by Kenneth Feinberg, One Fund Administrator, in his keynote address at Leading Cities Through Crisis: Lessons from the Boston Marathon conference, it is the first comprehensive examination of one of the most successful charitable relief funds ever created. The report provides a roadmap for urban leaders needing to provide financial, medical, and social support to those affected by mass trauma. [Download the Full Report Here.]
The author identifies five “ingredients” that contributed to the fund’s scale and usefulness in supporting victims and survivors’ families in Boston and beyond. He highlights the important role played by political and private sector leaders, the speed of execution, transparency, survivor engagement, and the decision to create a single disbursal engine. The report provides insight into the contrasts between the One Fund approach and previous compensatory efforts at disaster relief. It examines which aspects of the One Fund model may be distinctive to Boston and, thus, harder to replicate elsewhere. With an initial distribution of $61 million dollars, the One Fund far outpaced comparable funds raised in other cities in the aftermath of mass trauma.