By Dan Murphy
As The Boston Globe first reported on Christmas Eve, Women’s Lunch Place recently received an unprecedented $1 million donation from an individual philanthropist.
The donation came from Anne Bromer, a retired businesswoman and longtime housing advocate. She began regularly donating her money and time to WLP after she and her late husband, David, attended one of its signature annual Spaghetti Dinner fundraisers. She would also go on to serve on the nonprofit’s board for three years.
(As a local businesswoman, Bromer, now 82, was the longtime owner of Bromer Booksellers, a still-operating Boylston Street bookshop specializing in rare and antique volumes.)
“There is no other organization that is more important to me, or ever has been more important to me, than the Women’s Lunch Place,” Bromer told Globe staff member, Niki Griswold. “Its mission from its beginning has not changed, it has been rock solid in its commitment to women in the most wonderful way.”
In a Dec. 26 email announcing the gift, Jennifer Hanlon Wigon, Chief Executive Officer of WLP, wrote in part: “This is the first seven-figure gift WLP has received from an individual philanthropist. It will provide programmatic support to enable WLP to ensure Boston’s women’s experience of homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring.”