with Josh Kraft
Real People. Real Work. Real Impact.
A statewide civic media platform, foundation, and consulting practice telling the stories — and doing the work — that move Massachusetts forward.
When Business Backs Community, Both Grow.
Local investment isn't charity — it's strategy. The dollars stay closer to home, the trust runs deeper than advertising can buy, and the next generation of customers and employees is watching who shows up. MassForward brings business, community, and civic institutions into one place to do that work together.
of Gen Z believe companies should take a stand on social and community issues.
more of every dollar stays local when spent at an independent business versus a national chain.
of consumers say they'd spend more to support a local business.
sponsorship earns a trust halo advertising can't buy — alignment with a community that already trusts.
One Platform. Three Engines of Impact.
Most organizations do just one of these. MassForward connects all three — telling the stories, funding the work, and building the capacity to sustain it. Explore whichever fits what you're trying to do.
MassForward Media
A long-form interview series hosted by Josh Kraft, spotlighting the leaders and ideas shaping Massachusetts — with an audience already tuned in.
Explore Media → 02Small Business Incubator
A statewide micro-grant and accelerator program helping local businesses make visible improvements — simple applications, fast decisions.
Explore the Incubator → 03MassForward Consulting
Strategy and capacity-building that help nonprofits and corporate giving programs turn good intentions into measurable impact.
Explore Consulting →
MassForward Media
A high-quality, long-form interview series hosted by Josh Kraft, in conversation with prominent leaders from across the Commonwealth — business, arts, sports, education, public service, and community. Thoughtful, optimistic, forward-looking.
Presenting Sponsor of MassForward Media
- Naming rights across the series and podcast ("presented by [Company]") in all show art, episode descriptions, and promotional posts.
- Logo on every thumbnail and social promotion post.
- Full distribution inclusion — broadcast, YouTube, social, and partner brand and institutional networks.
- Sponsor mention on every episode — audio and video, pre-roll or mid-roll, guaranteed for the sponsorship period.
- One featured guest interview for company leadership, subject to editorial fit.
- Monthly performance report on views, engagement, and reach specific to your placements — not just aggregate numbers.
Episode Sponsor
- Opening sponsor read or mention at the top of the sponsored episode.
- Episode-specific logo placement on that episode's thumbnail and social post.
- Show notes mention in the episode description and notes.
Digital Amplification
- Co-branded short-form clips cut from the interview, sized for your own social channels.
- Ready-to-post captions and copy so your marketing team can publish without writing or editing.
Alignment with a community an audience already trusts creates a halo effect paid advertising can't buy — and every tier reports back on what it delivered.
Editorial independence is retained on every episode — a firewall that protects both the trust you're aligning with and your own brand.
How a Sponsorship Works
Align
We match your brand to the series or episodes that fit your goals and audience — and lock the tier and placements.
Produce & Distribute
Your placements run across broadcast, YouTube, social, and partner networks, built for shareability from the start.
Report Back
A monthly report on views, engagement, and reach specific to your placements — what your sponsorship actually delivered.
Sponsorship here isn't a logo on a page — it's your name on the stories and the work that move Massachusetts forward, with the reporting to prove it landed.
— MassForward
Small Business Incubator
Small investments. Visible impact. Stronger communities. A statewide micro-grant and accelerator program for improvements that fall just outside a local business's budget — but create outsized impact for their customers, neighborhoods, and growth.
Incubator Partnership Tiers
One per industry category. The company that gets to say it helped build the Incubator.
Visible, recurring presence tied to one grant category or one full cycle.
A low-commitment entry point into the Incubator and the MassForward network.
Tiers are a starting point — we meet with your team to tailor a package to your goals, category, and region.
Founding Incubator Partner — Everything Included
- Category exclusivity — only one company per industry holds this tier at a time.
- A named, themed grant cohort — e.g. a storefront-beautification or digital-transformation cohort.
- Input on category focus — which grant categories your dollars prioritize within your cohort.
- Quarterly impact report built around real funded projects — photos, quotes, before/after detail.
- Naming rights on the Incubator itself or on one full grant cycle, across print, digital, and in-room.
- Top-tier branding on the website, all Incubator collateral, and the annual impact report.
- Introductions to funded businesses for potential vendor, supplier, or procurement relationships.
- First right of renewal at the same tier, or to upgrade, before the category is offered elsewhere.
One signature experiential activation per year, drawn from the MassForward relationship network — a private client or employee event, a memorabilia experience, or an experience made possible through the network. Confirmed case-by-case based on availability.
Partner on a Cohort
- Adopt one funded small business or nonprofit for a defined period, typically one grant cycle.
- Your employees volunteer time and skills directly — matched to categories like marketing, digital, or workforce training.
- MassForward manages the match and all logistics.
- A dedicated wrap-up impact report, built for your recruiting and internal comms.
Showcase Event
Grant Categories
How the Incubator Works
Apply
A Massachusetts small business submits a simple application for a specific improvement.
Review
Applications are reviewed on a fast, transparent cycle — no months-long wait.
Fund
Approved projects are funded and completed, with photos and before/after detail captured.
Showcase
Funded businesses are celebrated at the annual Showcase and in partner impact reports.
The Network Behind It
Founding partners join a platform backed by the relationships of Josh Kraft and Big Night Entertainment — from Kraft Sports + Entertainment to CardVault — turning a sponsorship into experiences and introductions most programs can't offer. Founding logos will appear here as the first cohort is confirmed.
What Does This Investment Actually Look Like?
From feeding kids at Beat the Odds to the MassForward Double Play with the Worcester Red Sox — see the real partnerships your investment makes possible.
MassForward Consulting
A community-investment advisory practice — drawing on some of the most respected nonprofit strategists in the Commonwealth — that helps nonprofits and corporate giving programs design strategy, build capacity, and prove outcomes.
How We Work
Audit
A working session with your leadership, then a review of current giving and sponsorship spend, benchmarked against 4–6 peers.
Strategy
A written strategy and 12-month calendar — focus areas, a budget model, and a KPI framework.
Activate
We source partners and causes, run the program and volunteer days, and manage the logistics.
Report
A quarterly dashboard and recruiting-ready impact one-pager — proof of what changed.
The Corporate Giving Package
monthly retainer
- Strategy Audit & Roadmap — a working session with leadership, marketing, HR, and community relations, then a review of current giving and sponsorship spend benchmarked against 4–6 peers in your sector.
- Managed Giving Program — we source local partners, causes, and Incubator-supported businesses matched to your strategy, manage logistics, and deliver a monthly dashboard plus quarterly review.
- Employee Engagement Activation — turnkey volunteer days, matching-gift program design, and employee communications templates.
- Written strategy & 12-month calendar — recommended focus areas, a budget allocation model, a giving calendar, a KPI framework, and an executive readout.
- Impact Reporting for Recruiting — a quarterly one-pager for your careers page or recruiting deck, with drafted leadership quotes, a photo/video asset package, and ready-to-post copy.
of employees whose employer runs a volunteering program report a positive view of their culture.
Corporate giving isn't a cost center — done well, it strengthens brand reputation, deepens stakeholder relationships, and shows up where recruiting and retention are won. We build the strategy, run the program, and hand you the proof.
Cross-Platform Founding Partner
Presenting Sponsor of MassForward Media, Founding Incubator Partner status with a named grant cohort, and the Corporate Giving Package — bundled below the cost of the pieces bought separately, with one signature experiential activation included.
Give to the Foundation
For individual donors and philanthropists: multi-year gifts and matching challenges that close opportunity gaps across the Commonwealth. Gifts can be directed to a grant cycle, a category, or the Incubator as a whole — and are reported back with the same project-level detail sponsors receive.
Nonprofit Services
Capacity & Team Building, Fundraising & Development, and Financial Planning & Budgeting are available to nonprofit clients as standalone engagements — including for the nonprofits a corporate partner already supports.
Find Your Partnership
Three ways to move the Commonwealth forward. Tell us what you're trying to do and we'll scope the right fit — most partnerships combine more than one.
Sponsor the Platform
Align with the stories shaping the Commonwealth and reach an engaged statewide audience.
You get: naming/placement, statewide reach, per-placement reporting.Partner on a Cohort
Adopt a business or nonprofit, deploy your own team, and report measurable community impact.
You get: a named cohort, employee engagement, a recruiting-ready impact report.Give to the Foundation
Close opportunity gaps across the Commonwealth with multi-year gifts and matching challenges.
You get: directed giving, matching challenges, project-level impact detail.Tell Us What You Need
Questions
Built By People Who Do the Work
MassForward pairs three decades of on-the-ground community leadership with award-winning creative and media — and the relationships to make it move across the Commonwealth.
The Founders
Josh Kraft
Josh Kraft has spent 35 years working in the communities of Boston. Most recently he was President of the New England Patriots Foundation, and for three decades worked with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston — including 12 years as its President and CEO. He began in 1990 as a program coordinator at what is today the Edgerley Family South Boston Club, and in 1993 established the organization's Chelsea branch, serving as its executive director until 2008.
Under his leadership, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston doubled membership and grew its budget to $26 million. A graduate of Williams College with a master's from Harvard's Graduate School of Education, he has served on the boards of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts (as Board Chair), Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and Brigham and Women's Hospital. His approach to philanthropy has consistently emphasized getting involved directly rather than simply writing a check.
Scott Heigelmann
Scott Heigelmann is Managing Partner and VP of Creative at Big Night Entertainment Group and a founder of Big Mind Creative. He is the creator of some of the most iconic brands in entertainment, hospitality, technology, media, and sports — a 40 Under 40 winner, a Cannes Lions Certified Creative, a GRAMMY Awards Voting Member, and a Sert Council member at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
With a background spanning media, experiential, and brand development, he focuses on building scalable platforms at the intersection of culture, commerce, and fandom. At Big Night — one of the nation's preeminent entertainment and hospitality companies — his creative work anchors the venues, activations, and media ventures the group is known for across New England.
Relationships That Become Perks.
MassForward partners tap into a network most platforms can't offer — experiential assets and relationships that turn a sponsorship into something a company's clients and employees actually remember.
Kraft Sports + Entertainment
Access and experiential moments through one of the most recognized names in sports and entertainment.
Big Night Entertainment
Premier venues, nightlife, and live-event activations across New England for signature partner experiences.
CardVault
Memorabilia and collectible experiences that make a partnership tangible for clients and teams.
Signature activations are confirmed case-by-case based on availability and partner tier.
Want to Build Something With Us?
Tell us what you're trying to do and we'll find the right way in.
Find Your Partnership
Real Investment. Real Communities. Real Impact.
Meaningful community investment isn't a year-end check — it's a partnership that shows up where people actually need it. Through MassForward, your business is matched with trusted local organizations and the resources to strengthen them, so your commitment turns into lasting impact you can see, measure, and stand behind.
The Impact You Can Make Together
These aren't hypotheticals. Through MassForward, businesses have come together with trusted local organizations to create real, measurable impact — and the next partnership can be built around the causes your business cares about most. Tap any story to explore it.
When Beat the Odds — a Boston nonprofit supporting under-resourced youth through music and the arts — needed reliable meals for its young people, MassForward brought three local businesses to the table. JuiceUp, Lani's Pizza, and Joe's Steak & Cheese stepped up together, turning an occasional need into fresh meals that show up consistently.
Ask how your business could power a partnership like this →Through MassForward, your business partners with a proven professional at The Drawing Lab to bring the arts directly to veterans, seniors, and youth. Each session pairs the visual (drawing) with the audio (live music) — because impact isn't only material, and the arts reach people in ways nothing else can.
Ask how a partnership becomes a season of sessions →Through MassForward, a business partnered with City Realty to put 8 single mothers through a real estate licensing class — with childcare covered so nothing stood in the way. It's a model MassForward extends across countless fields: medical billing, digital literacy, college prep, coding, the trades, and more — turning a class into a career.
Ask what a full sponsored cohort looks like →Launching in partnership with the Worcester Red Sox, the Double Play pairs your business with local nonprofits for a full year — modeled on the Patriots Foundation's acclaimed Community Captains. Beyond a cash donation, MassForward strengthens each grassroots organization's infrastructure — marketing, operations, and capacity — so a one-year commitment builds strength that lasts long after it ends.
Ask about becoming a Double Play partner →Some companies want their people at the table, not just their name on a check. Through MassForward, your business gets a platform for consistent, weekly volunteering — so employees across every generation invest their time in the causes they care about. We host nonprofit board fairs organized by the categories your company most wants to support.
Ask how the matching and board fairs work →From Catie's Closet — clothing and basic necessities so students in need can thrive in school — to Hope & Comfort, ending hygiene insecurity across Massachusetts, to free access to cultural institutions like the MFA, the Norman Rockwell Museum, and the Basketball Hall of Fame. Whatever your business cares about, MassForward can build the partnership around it.
There's a lot more to share once we're talking →Every Month, a Different Focus.
Most corporate giving clusters at year-end — one big drive, one big check, one photo op. We think the need doesn't take a season off, so neither should the commitment. Each month spotlights a different everyday issue, giving your company a way to follow through all year, not just check a box once.
Tap any month to see its focus.
Ready to Make It Happen?
These partnerships are powered by the Small Business Incubator. See how businesses fund the work — or tell us what you care about and we'll build it around you.