PREPARE FOR WINTER DINNER 2025

The Prepare For Winter Dinner is On The Rise’s annual fundraising event, a premier event in Cambridge with over 300 attendees, inspiring presentations, and a delicious dinner. The dinner raises over $250,000 of On The Rise’s annual budget, and is critical to keeping the doors open to people who have no place to go during cold winter days.

join us for the 28th year

For 30 years, On The Rise’s Safe Haven has offered not just shelter, but connection and hope.

Join us at the Prepare for Winter Dinner to celebrate this impact. Your support provides life-saving care all season long

Sponsorship Opportunities

EVENT DETAILS

When: Thursday, October 9, 6:00 PM

Where: Royal Sonesta Hotel Cambridge, MA

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our 2025 program highlights

On The Rise Founder

Katya Fels Smyth is the Founder and CEO of the Full Frame Initiative, working to advance wellbeing and equity nationwide. Her experiences volunteering in a Cambridge emergency shelter while she was a student at Harvard inspired her to start On The Rise, a Cambridge-based community for women facing homelessness and systemic injustice. Katya’s leadership has shaped systems change across child welfare, justice, housing, and urban planning, including national efforts to redefine success for survivors and guide equitable infrastructure investments. A frequent writer and speaker on poverty and wellbeing, she holds an AB from Harvard and lives in western Massachusetts with her family, pets, and rescued farm animals.
Contact: Katya@fullframeinitiative.org / 617-620-6718

Pusey Minister, Memorial Church, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals, Harvard Divinity School
Matthew Ichihashi Potts, MDiv ’08, PhD ’13, is the Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church and Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard. A faculty member at Harvard Divinity School since 2013, his work focuses on sacramental and moral theology, pastoral ministry, and religion and literature. A priest in the Episcopal Church, Matt lives on campus with his family and their dog, Suki.