The E. Irene Boardman Foundation celebrated its 42th anniversary on January 17, 2021 Founded in 1979, its purpose was to carry on the charitable interests of Dr. Boardman in church and missions, religious education, public health, community improvement, and scholarships for women and girls.
Since 1979 the Foundation has given a total of $216,200 in grants to a number of institutions and organizations. Largest by far was the $70,000 donated to the town of Prospect to help build a new library, which was dedicated on June 16, 1991. The community room is named in memory of Dr. Boardman.
The Foundation has also given $21,000 to the elevator fund of the Prospect Congregational Church. Another grant was given to the church in 1997 to renovate the steeple. Dr. Boardman had chaired the committee to raise money to build the original steeple, which was dedicated with the church building in 1951.
Other grants have gone to the Religious Education Association, the First Congregational Church of Cheshire, the Christian Medical College and Hospital in Vellore, India, the American Association of University Women, the Greater Waterbury Interfaith Ministries, the Prospect Land Trust, the Prospect Historical Society, the YWCA, the American Bible Society, and the Community Foundation of New Haven. More recently an annual grant has gone to the Little Falls Watershed Alliance in Maryland.
For a number of years the Foundation gave a Science Award to the graduating 8th grade girl at Long River Middle School in Prospect with the highest average in Science. A scholarship award has also been given since 2004 to the graduating girl at Woodland Regional High School with the highest G.P.A. in Science. Starting in 2020 an award in memory of Nancy Lee Kathan has been given to a female student at Wesleyan University who has demonstrated proficiency in film studies. For some years, scholarship aid was given to students through the Waterbury Branch AAUW and the League of Women Voters of Cheshire.
There is an endowed scholarship fund in memory of Dr. Boardman at Smith College and is given each year to a pre-med student. Dr. Boardman graduated from Smith and taught on the faculty to earn money for medical school. There is also a Child and Maternal Health fund at the New Haven Department of Health in memory of Dr. Boardman. She had been the school physician in the city for nearly 30 years, and was the second woman medical doctor in the New Haven area. She had also been the health officer in Prospect for 21 years.