The Boston Foundation--one of the nation's oldest community foundations--had always been committed to equity and even played an important role during Boston's fractious school desegregation era. But the board knew it could do more and needed to do more; the future well-being of individuals, families, communities and the city as a whole demanded it. New leadership took the Boston Foundation on a bold new path. Rather than stay "behind the scenes" as it had in the past, the foundation began commissioning rigorous research, publicizing results, and bringing people together to discuss the findings and develop strategies to address needs, some of them unexpected, that the research revealed. It also began to pursue an active policy agenda aligned with its research. This new, riskier stance meant challenging common myths, revealing unpleasant truths and taking policy positions that were not always popular. But the magnitude of the equity challenge demanded nothing less. This case study reveals key strategies and insights that can help funders address new and critical challenges in pursuit of educational equity. [For "The Equity Journey: NewSchools Venture Fund and Lumina Foundation Pursue Diversity on the Road to Equity. Case Study No. 16," see ED581722.]