New Canaan Community Foundation Launches Giving Challenge

Press release from the New Canaan Community Foundation:

September 28 2020

A group of donors has formed a challenge match benefitting the New Canaan Community Foundation’s COVID-19 Response Fund, hoping to bring additional support to neighbors who continue to be impacted by the lasting effects of the pandemic. The group will match dollars raised, up to $75,000.

The challenge group is largely spearheaded by the Anderson Fund and the Scripps Family Fund for Education and the Arts. The Anderson Fund is a donor-advised fund housed at the New Canaan Community Foundation, created last year by the Anderson Family to honor their parents, Harlan and Lois Anderson, and their legacy in town.

The COVID-19 Response Fund has mobilized more than $440,000 over the past six months, focusing on the local impact of the pandemic, including investments in emergency financial assistance, food, health care, and child care. “These needs are unfortunately not going away any time soon. The dollars raised through the challenge match will help us move another round of funding quickly by calendar year-end,” commented Lauren Patterson, President & CEO of the Foundation.

Emergency dollars have supported 27 local organizations to-date, as well as additional support for emergency financial assistance, on a rolling basis. Recent highlights include a partnership with the New Canaan Community YMCA to underwrite child care costs for New Canaan teachers; a partnership with the New Canaan Food Pantry and New Canaan Farmers Market to provide vouchers for families in need; and a round of grants over the summer that supported safe child care and summer options for local working parents. Earlier in the pandemic, the fund supported critical health care needs. Support for food, emergency financial assistance, largely for rent and utilities, and other needs like behavioral health – are expected to remain critical needs over the next several months.

The New Canaan Community Foundation, founded in 1977, serves as New Canaan's local partner for advice, leadership, and facilitation of charitable giving. Their vision strives for a New Canaan that comes together to address both individual and local challenges, enriching the lives of all community members. To-date, the New Canaan Community Foundation has invested more than $16.5 million in nonprofit organizations, working with individuals and businesses to achieve their philanthropic goals through donor-advised funds and other partnerships. Learn more at www.newcanaancf.org.

This press release was produced by the New Canaan Community Foundation. The views expressed here are the author’s own.