2023 Responsive Grant Awards: 136 Nonprofits Serving Greater New Haven Receive General Operating Grants
The Community Foundation delivers $3.76 million to organizations providing food, healthcare, housing, economic opportunity, arts and cultural experiences and other essential services.
New Haven, Conn. (Aug.3, 2023) – The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven has awarded general operating support funding to a large and diverse group of nonprofit organizations serving Greater New Haven. The funding supports a wide variety of programs that are creating opportunity and advancing equity while providing vital community services including affordable housing, entrepreneurship, food, healthcare, arts and youth enrichment programs.
New one-year grants totaling $2,076,020 were awarded at The Community Foundation’s July 20 board meeting to 77 nonprofit organizations serving Greater New Haven. The Foundation made the awards through its annual responsive grants program, its largest competitive grant program and part of $27.6 million that The Foundation plans to spend on grantmaking, program and leadership activities in 2023.
In addition, The Foundation is distributing $1,679,500 to 59 organizations that were awarded multi-year grants in 2021 and 2022.
The funding awards are for general operating support, providing nonprofits with flexible resources to deploy where needed without being restricted to specific programming. The Foundation shifted the entirety of its responsive grant making to unrestricted general operating support at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to better help nonprofits deliver their services with maximum effectiveness.
The Foundation is in the final year of Stepping Forward, a three-year multi-million-dollar effort launched in early 2021 to advance racial equity and address the impact of COVID-19. As part of Stepping Forward, The Community Foundation adapted its grant processes to be more accessible and was informed by the community through listening sessions and roundtable discussions with community stakeholders.
“The Foundation is proud of our shift to providing unrestricted funds to Greater New Haven nonprofits, which have risen to meet the crisis of our time and continue to provide the services and programs essential to our community’s thriving,” said The Community Foundation President and CEO Will Ginsberg. “This type of funding is what our great local nonprofits need most.”
2023 Grants
In 2023, The Foundation received many more grant applications than in the previous two years as the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects continue to be felt by the nonprofits and the people they serve. Many applicants to The Foundation reported budget challenges as public pandemic relief funds diminish, along with difficulty finding and retaining staff. They also reported high levels of mental health needs in the community.
Grant awards averaged $25,000 each and were distributed across a diversity of service areas, with the highest number of grants and total awards to organizations serving youth, health and education. More than a quarter (26%) of the nonprofits receiving new grant awards in 2023 are led by people of color and more than three-quarters (77%) serve a population that has a Black and Brown majority.
Awards were made to both newly established nonprofits and many of the region’s longest standing organizations including All Our Kin, American Red Cross, Central Coast YMCA, Columbus House, Gaylord Hospital, LEAP, Long Wharf Theatre, Ronald McDonald House and The Shubert Theater.
Grant recipients include the NAACP's One Million Jobs Campaign (OMJC) in Connecticut, which is assisting up to 700 underemployed and underserved returning citizens in Greater New Haven. The Prosperity House is a first-time grantee to The Foundation that offers safe and drug-free housing with wraparound social service programs and counseling for men, a majority of whom are formerly incarcerated and returning to the community. Freedom Reads, a young nonprofit that is a new grantee to The Foundation, is building up libraries in Connecticut prisons.
Latinas & Power received funding to provide Latinas in Greater New Haven with opportunities for networking, professional and business development, and resources for building success in order to increase equity in the workforce. Funding was also awarded to Urban Community Alliance, a community-minded organization dedicated to improving the developmental outcomes of low-income urban children, adolescents, and families in the Greater New Haven area.
In addition to its responsive grantmaking, The Foundation is making unprecedented investments to promote equity by supporting the development of a new generation of diverse leaders in both the nonprofit and private sectors and in local neighborhoods, including:
- The Black Futures Fund, which supports Black-led organizations and the promotion of Black leadership and grassroots advocacy, including emerging voices, ideas and collaborations on the front lines of challenging historical and cultural attitudes.
- Nonprofit Management Cohort: A Program for Emerging Leaders of Color, a leadership development program for mid-level nonprofit staff on track for leadership roles.
- Nonprofit Executive Leadership Institute, a leadership program for existing and new executive directors; the inaugural cohort was predominantly attended by people of color.
- The New Haven Equitable Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, a small business support network and grant program.
- The Neighborhood Leadership Program, a leadership program for community members.
- The Girls of Color Mentoring Program, which brings together organizations providing mentorship to young women of color.
- Ongoing investment in The Prosperity Foundation, which exclusively serves organizations that primarily serve people of color.
- Free community access to Racial Equity Institute’s Groundwater training
2023 New Responsive Grant Awards
Organization www.giveGreater.org link |
Award Amount |
$30,000 |
|
$15,000 |
|
$35,000 |
|
$45,000 |
|
$25,000 |
|
Applied Behavioral Rehabilitation Institute, Inc. d/b/a Homes for the Brave |
$13,000 |
$35,000 |
|
$25,000 |
|
$25,000 |
|
$25,000 |
|
$35,000 |
|
$45,000 |
|
$15,000 |
|
$30,000 |
|
$30,000 |
|
$15,000 |
|
$15,000 |
|
$45,000 |
|
$30,000 |
|
$45,000 |
|
$30,000 |
|
$35,000 |
|
$25,000 |
|
$25,000 |
|
$25,000 |
|
Connecticut Players Foundation, Inc. d/b/a Long Wharf Theatre |
$35,000 |
$30,000 |
|
$25,000 |
|
$25,000 |
|
$20,000 |
|
$20,000 |
|
$20,000 |
|
$50,000 |
|
$20,020 |
|
Governor's Partnership to Protect CT's Workforce d/b/a The Governor's Prevention Partnership |
$30,000 |
$35,000 |
|
$30,000 |
|
$25,000 |
|
$40,000 |
|
$30,000 |
|
$25,000 |
|
$30,000 |
|
$35,000 |
|
$25,000 |
|
$35,000 |
|
$20,000 |
|
$25,000 |
|
$20,000 |
|
$45,000 |
|
$40,000 |
|
$35,000 |
|
$10,000 |
|
$20,000 |
|
$45,000 |
|
$20,000 |
|
$15,000 |
|
$25,000 |
|
$35,000 |
|
$18,000 |
|
$20,000 |
|
$20,000 |
|
$30,000 |
|
$19,000 |
|
$10,000 |
|
$15,000 |
|
$16,000 |
|
$35,000 |
|
$20,000 |
|
$16,000 |
|
$20,000 |
|
$20,000 |
|
$40,000 |
|
$30,000 |
|
$30,000 |
|
$14,000 |
|
$30,000 |
|
$15,000 |
|
Total |
$2,076,020 |
About The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven
The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven’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. Established in 1928, The Foundation is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the U.S and has been built by donors supporting a broad variety of issues and organizations. As the permanent charitable endowment for 20 towns in Greater New Haven, The Foundation is implementing a 5-year strategic plan to expanding opportunity and equity in our region. Stepping Forward, a commitment addressing the impact of COVID-19 and advancing racial equity is also in place through 2023. For more information about The Foundation visit www.cfgnh.org or follow @cfgnh on facebook and twitter.
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