2022 Responsive Grant Awards total $3.1 Million for Greater New Haven Nonprofits
The Foundation distributes grants to highest number of organizations in a single year.
Organizations working to advance racial equity and provide vital services in the community as it recovers from COVID – including affordable housing, entrepreneurship, food, basic needs, arts and youth programs – receive funding.
New Haven, CT (Aug.1, 2022) – In the second year of an unprecedented spending increase to advance racial equity and address the impacts of COVID-19, The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven has awarded $3,097,307 in one-year and multi-year grants to 63 Greater New Haven nonprofit organizations. The Foundation made the awards through its responsive grants process, its largest annual competitive grant program.
In addition to the 63 new grants being recommended for 2022, The Foundation is distributing $2,083,500 in grants to 73 organizations that were awarded multi-year grants in 2021 and 2020. The distributions were made to the highest number of organizations that The Foundation has ever funded in a single year.
The funding level was made possible by a historic increase in spending from The Foundation’s endowment under Stepping Forward, a $26 Million commitment The Foundation launched in early 2021 to advance racial equity and address the impact of COVID-19.
The Community Foundation’s grant funding and strategic program decisions are informed by listening sessions and roundtable discussions with community stakeholders, nonprofit reports, nonprofit sector analysis, and community data reports. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a lasting impact in many areas of the community, including rising demands for basic needs, affordable housing and mental health services. Across nonprofit sectors, advancing racial equity has become a central priority for Greater New Haven.
“The 63 organizations that are receiving funding in this docket are at the forefront of our community’s efforts to build equity and opportunity for everyone,” said The Community Foundation President and CEO Will Ginsberg. "The Foundation is committed to supporting their work now, during this time of transformation, and for the long term."
The significant investment in multi-year grants in 2021 and 2022 has been critical in helping provide stability to nonprofits operating under the burden of the pandemic.
In addition to increasing grant resources with Stepping Forward, The Foundation modified its application process to increase accessibility by streamlining application forms and eliminating traditional prerequisites. As a result, 20 percent of the grant awards went to organizations that were applying for the first time.
Among the first-time recipients, The Black Business Alliance (BBA) received $70,000 over two years to help Black-owned businesses access capital and other resources to seed and grow their businesses. Other grantees working to advance equity in new business creation include the Collab, Gather New Haven, MakeHaven and the Dixwell Community House (Q House). The Q House was reborn in New Haven’s historically Black Dixwell neighborhood, and is providing activities, classes and programming in its recreational and kitchen facilities for arts, culture, fitness, business, education, innovation and entrepreneurial ventures.
The three largest grants were made to Beulah Land Development Corporation ($135K), Boys & Girls Club of New Haven ($120K) and Fellowship Place ($110K); these organizations address some of the most pressing needs in the community including mental health, basic needs, affordable housing, and childcare; and all three primarily serve Black and Brown populations.
Among other grantees working to advance equity are: New Haven Ballet, which recently hired a dancer from the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater to direct its children’s program; Educators for Excellence, which is working to ensure that diverse perspectives from educators are involved in educational policy; and the educational program, Discovering Amistad.
About half of the grant recipients are working to address COVID relief and recovery, including organizations such as New Reach, Operation Fuel and Gaylord Specialty Healthcare.
The Community Foundation’s responsive grants process represents one piece of The Foundation’s overall grantmaking each year. In addition to the new responsive grantmaking and multiyear commitments, throughout the year The Foundation has been awarding small grants of up to $15,000 on a rolling basis for general operating, program or capacity/capital support.
In 2022, The Foundation expects to spend approximately $32.2M in total grantmaking and program and leadership activities, including non-competitive grants from designated, donor advised and organization funds, as well as competitive grants under other processes.
2022 Responsive Grant Awards
Organization |
Total Award |
Agency on Aging of South Central Connecticut |
$20,000 |
Audubon Connecticut |
$35,000 |
Believe In Me Corporation |
$50,000 |
Bethesda Nursery School Inc |
$75,000 |
Beulah Land Development Corporation |
$135,000 |
Black Business Alliance, Inc. |
$70,000 |
Boys & Girls Village |
$30,000 |
Boys and Girls Club of New Haven |
$120,000 |
Canal Dock Boathouse, Inc. |
$40,000 |
Center for Children's Advocacy |
$60,000 |
Children's Center of Hamden |
$30,000 |
Collab |
$70,000 |
Community Action Agency of New Haven, Inc. |
$70,000 |
Connecticut Audubon Society |
$40,000 |
Connecticut Green Building Council |
$45,000 |
Connecticut Women's Education and Legal Fund |
$50,000 |
Continuum of Care, Inc. |
$50,000 |
Creative Arts Workshop Inc |
$90,000 |
Discovering Amistad |
$30,000 |
Dixwell Community House/Q House |
$70,000 |
Educators for Excellence |
$50,000 |
Fellowship Place Inc. |
$110,000 |
Firebirds Society of Greater New Haven, Inc. |
$20,000 |
Fostering Family Hope |
$20,000 |
Gather New Haven |
$40,000 |
Gaylord Hospital, Inc. |
$50,000 |
Girl Scouts of Connecticut Inc. |
$20,000 |
Good Child Development Center |
$8,000 |
Green Peacock Corporation |
$35,000 |
Huneebee Project |
$40,000 |
Interfaith Volunteer Care Givers of Greater New Haven |
$40,000 |
International Festival of Arts & Ideas |
$75,000 |
IRIS - Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services |
$75,000 |
Jewish Family Service of Greater New Haven |
$40,000 |
Liberty Community Services, Inc. |
$30,000 |
MakeHaven |
$30,000 |
Milford Fine Arts Council |
$40,000 |
Music Haven |
$60,000 |
Nature Conservancy in Connecticut |
$20,000 |
Neighborhood Music School |
$80,000 |
New Haven Ballet |
$50,000 |
New Haven Ecology Project |
$75,000 |
New Haven Legal Assistance Association Inc. |
$80,000 |
New Haven Scholarship Fund |
$40,000 |
New Lifestyles Transitional Housing for Women |
$20,000 |
New Reach |
$80,000 |
Operation Fuel |
$30,000 |
Planned Parenthood of Southern New England |
$60,000 |
Pro Bono Partnership |
$20,000 |
Project Model Offender Reintegration Experience, Inc. |
$30,000 |
Reach Out and Read |
$15,000 |
Ronald McDonald House Charities of CT and Western MA |
$15,000 |
Saint Martin de Porres Academy |
$25,000 |
SARAH Inc. |
$30,000 |
Save the Sound |
$35,000 |
Solar Youth, Inc. |
$75,000 |
Spanish Community of Wallingford |
$50,000 |
Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut, Inc. |
$25,000 |
Student Loan Fund |
$50,000 |
Towers Foundation |
$55,000 |
Urban Resources Initiative |
$60,000 |
Waggle Foundation, Inc. |
$24,307 |
Women's Health Research at Yale |
$90,000 |
Total |
$3,097,307 |
About The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven
The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven in Connecticut is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the U.S. and was established in 1928 as the permanent charitable endowment for New Haven and its surrounding communities of: Ansonia, Bethany, Branford, Cheshire, Derby, East Haven, Guilford, Hamden, Madison, Milford, North Branford, North Haven, Orange, Oxford, Seymour, Shelton, Wallingford, West Haven, and Woodbridge. In 2020, The Foundation began implementing a 5-year strategic plan and enacted new mission and vision statements toward expanding opportunity and equity in Greater New Haven. In 2021, it launched Stepping Forward, a $26 million commitment to addressing the impact of COVID-19 and advancing racial equity. The Foundation’s mission is to inspire, support, inform, listen to and collaborate with the people and organizations of Greater New Haven to build an ever more connected, inclusive, equitable and philanthropic community.
For more than three generations, generous local donors have built The Community Foundation’s endowment by establishing permanent funds or making gifts to existing funds that distribute grants to a broad variety of issues and organizations. These donors, past and present, make their gifts to ensure that programs and causes that matter most to them will be supported today and forever. As of December 31, 2021, The Foundation’s assets were valued at more than $871 million after distributing more than $35 million in grants and distributions into the community that year. For more information about The Foundation visit www.cfgnh.org or follow @cfgnh on facebook and twitter.
Media Contacts:
Kathleen Cei
Communications Officer
The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven
Direct 203-777-7082
Email
Matt Higbee
Content and Engagement Manager
The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven
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