Community Foundation for Greater New Haven Awards $4M In Grants

NEW HAVEN, CT — The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven has awarded $3,881,700 in one-year and multi-year grants to 72 local nonprofit organizations through its competitive responsive grants for 2021. The total dollar amount more than doubled the amount typically awarded through The Foundation's largest competitive grant program and was made possible by an unprecedented increase in spending from The Foundation’s endowment.

The increased resources were made possible by Stepping Forward, a three-year $26 Million commitment The Foundation launched in early 2021 to address the impact of COVID-19 and advance racial equity. Stepping Forward added $1,675,000 to this year’s competitive responsive grant program, which provides general operating support to nonprofits working in twenty towns of Greater New Haven.

“This is far beyond what we’ve done in the past. It reflects new spending and new priorities around racial equity and COVID recovery,” Community Foundation President and CEO Will Ginsberg said in a news release. "Of all the things The Community Foundation is doing in response to challenges of today, none is more important than supporting the recovery of the local nonprofit sector."

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 pre-requisites. As a result, a quarter of the grant awards went to organizations that are new to The Foundation.

“Modifying the responsive application process opened it to small and emerging nonprofits for the first time, while still providing access for those who had received prior funding,” Vice President of Grants and Scholarships Sarah Fabish said. “Deciding to award all grants through the process as General Operating Support was intended to further the general mission and work of organizations and allow for them to build infrastructure to support programming for greater sustainability. Local nonprofits need the flexibility to direct spending where it is needed most as organizations continue to recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Many grantees have plans to use grant funds to support their work advancing racial equity. Grant awards included support for organizations that work in advocacy and organizing, provide equitable access to opportunities, and advance change in racially inequitable outcomes in health, education, employment housing and civic participation.

A new, emerging group that The Foundation was able to support was Inspired Communities Inc., whose "main focus of work is to disrupt the cycle of poverty through local community economic development."

“There is no better way to serve a community that has served you well than to create a place and a space that will allow residents an opportunity to give voice to living their best life possible,” Inspired Communities Inc. creator Kim Harris said. "ICI is looking forward to becoming the doorway to making possibilities. Life changing information, clarity of empowerment, and education is what Inspired Communities Inc. will bring to communities of need, thanks in part to this new grant support from The Community Foundation.”

The Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice, which serves an estimated 250 individuals within Greater New Haven annually, is another multi-year grant recipient using Foundation resources to help them increase their services.

"With support from The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, Katal has been able to increase training for local residents and allies. This means we are able to get more people civically engaged locally, as well as connect people from the New Haven area to statewide campaigns," Katal co-founder and co-executive director Lorenzo Jones said. "We are excited to continue our partnership with The Community Foundation, and look forward to engaging more residents in the area in the upcoming year."

Health and education organizations received the most funding with grants for social justice and economic success close behind. Recognizing the extraordinary pandemic-related challenges faced by local arts organizations, donor support enabled The Foundation to significantly increase arts support this year.

"This grant support is what a great community foundation is about, providing the financial resources to bring communities together,” Artspace executive director Lisa Dent said. “I'm thrilled Artspace received multi-year support which will help us provide more professional development opportunities and commission more new work from artists. Given the continued vulnerability of the artist community, a group that was disproportionately financially impacted by Covid-19, this funding is critical to helping artists regain financial stability and begin to rebuild."

The grants come after a year when most nonprofit organizations had to pivot and adapt their services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the organizations continue to face challenges and uncertainty.

At Christian Community Action, which provides emergency housing, food, and a host of support services to families that are homeless, or at risk of homelessness, a multi-year grant from The Foundation is viewed by its Executive Director Reverend Bonita Grubbs as, “much welcomed assistance for our community, many of whom are African American and Latino residents."

"Knowing that we have continued funding helps us be able to direct our energies toward serving the people as well as planning for our future,” Grubs said.

The Mercy by the Sea Center in Madison was awarded $20,000. And the Branford Electric Railway Association, Inc., which also runs the Shore Line Trolley Museum in East Haven, was awarded $24,000.

Click here to see the full list of beneficiaries of the grants to non-profits.