Types of Grants

The majority of the Foundation's grantmaking occurs in this core area. Grants are made for a broad range of purposes to a wide variety of nonprofit organizations in social services, health, education, early childhood and youth services, arts and culture, housing and neighborhood development, and other charitable fields.

Enhancement or Strenghening of Existing Activities
The Foundation provides support to enhance, expand, or strengthen the range, quantity, and/or quality of an organization's programs and services. However, in general, the Foundation does not provide grant funds to maintain an organization's current activities or level of service.

New Activities or Services
The Foundation provides support for start-up organizations, new programs, demonstration projects, studies, or surveys that do not commit the Foundation to recurring expenditures.

Capital Needs and Campaigns
The Foundation provides support for capital improvements, such as the purchase, construction, or renovation of a building or the purchase of capital equipment including computers and related technology. However, the Foundation generally does not make grants to capital or building campaigns more often than once every six years.

Size of Regular Grants
In general, the Foundation does not make Regular Grants of more than $500,000 to an organization.  Most grants are significantly smaller than this maximum amount.  The Board of Directors carefully considers each application and may award an amount different than that requested by an applicant.

Frequency and Duration of Regular Grants
The Foundation often makes multi-year grants for program activities.  Many of these grants are for three years, with the possibility of a two-year extension under certain circumstances.

In general, organizations that have received a regular grant must wait three years from the date of the award before they are eligible to receive another regular grant.  This policy is known as the "Three-Year Rule."  Exceptions to this policy, which is intended to be administered flexibly, include:

• special Foundation initiatives
• Nonprofit Support Program grants, including:
  • strategic technology grants
  • technical assistance grants
  • grants for executive searches
  • loans from the Nonprofit Loan Fund
• summer program grants
• transitional operating support grants
• collaborative proposals, when grantee is fiscal agent/sponsor and receives no direct benefit
• other collaborative proposals
• grants from restricted funds
• grants pursuant to a Foundation RFP or other solicitation
• planning grants

Other exceptions to the three-year rule may be made under special circumstances. Applicants are encouraged to contact a program officer to discuss potential exceptions for emergencies, special opportunities, or projects in areas of particularly high need.

Overhead and Indirect Costs
The Foundation recognizes that the true cost of any project includes a portion of the agency's operating expenses. Thus, the Foundation will often support overhead costs that can reasonably be allocated to the proposed project. For example, the Foundation may fund a portion of the project's indirect costs such as staff development, fundraising, or general occupancy. For most program grants, such indirect costs will not be funded at more than 25% of the proposed program's total cost. For capital grants, an appropriate portion of indirect costs will be considered on a case-by-case basis to reflect reasonable expenses associated with completing the proposed capital project.

Download a print version of the Transitional Operating Support guidelines (PDF, 96KB).

In addition to its regular grantmaking, the Hartford Foundation offers Transitional Operating Support grants in special circumstances to enable select well-run nonprofits that have experienced unexpected income shortfalls to continue important community programs.  These grants are generally not awarded to support the organization as a whole.

As demand for the Hartford Foundation’s limited dollars increases, Transitional Operating Support is considered on a priority basis for programs that:

• Provide critical basic human needs, such as food and shelter, to indigent and working poor (priority one).
• Provide services other than basic human needs to vulnerable and disadvantaged populations, such as health, education, literacy, and legal services (priority two).
• Provide services that make a major impact on the quality of life and/or the region’s economy, such as arts and culture, workforce development, and economic development (priority three).

Other programs will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

The Hartford Foundation offers Transitional Operating Support grants to well-run nonprofits that:

• Have been operated competently and demonstrate evidence of positive impact on the lives of the population served.
• Have undertaken genuine efforts to identify alternative sources of funding for current needs.
• Have taken steps to reduce expenditures.
• Have explored opportunities for consolidation with other programs, where appropriate.
• Can reasonably identify future prospects after a period of transitional funding from the Foundation, or need support to phase down or phase out a program in a responsible manner.
• Would be particularly difficult or expensive to re-establish if they ceased operations.
• Provide services that are unique in that they are not duplicated for the same population.

Transitional Operating Support grants cannot exceed $200,000 over 12 months and are usually lower than $150,000.  The allowable overhead for such program grants is up to 35 percent.  Where appropriate, the agency should be willing to strengthen its operations by working with the Foundation’s Nonprofit Support Program, its consultants, or other resources.

In selected instances, agencies that have received a Transitional Operating Support grant for one year may apply for a second-year grant if they can develop a realistic plan for sustaining the target program.

For information on how to apply for a Transitional Operating Support grant, call the Hartford Foundation at 860-548-1888 and ask to speak with a program officer.

The Foundation provides funding to support camperships and tutorial programs for Hartford children and, under some circumstances, children living in other towns in the Foundation's service area. Funding is also available for Counselors-in-Training programs for Hartford youths ages 12-16, and for summer youth employment programs for Hartford youths ages 14-16.

There are additional evaluation criteria, special application forms and instructions, and a submission deadline for Summer Program Grant Applications. For more information, please call the Foundation at 860-548-1888.

Current grantees, access the Summer Program Evaluation Kit here »

The Foundation's endowment is made up of more than 1,000 funds, the majority of which are unrestricted, meaning the donor has given the Board of Directors grantmaking discretion. These unrestricted funds support the majority of the Foundation's grantmaking.

However, in setting up a fund, some donors express certain charitable preferences or direct their funds' income. These restricted funds include Scholarship Funds, Donor Advised Funds, and Designated Funds.

Grants from restricted funds must be made to fully qualified charitable agencies but are not required to fully conform to the policies described in these guidelines. All, however, are subject to review and approval by the Foundation.

The purpose of an application planning grant is to produce a strong application based on a carefully developed work plan with measurable outcomes that demonstrate community benefit.  Up to $7,500 may be allotted for an application planning grant.

Criteria for an application planning grant:

• Seeks help to implement a promising strategy to address a priority issue/need
• Generates innovative local approaches to priority community issues/needs
• Encourages best practice research and effective implementation in our community
• Promotes collaboration among two or more agencies or community groups on priority issue/need
• Demonstrates the capacity and the commitment of the agency to undertake complex planning and implementation of a theoretical framework and work plan (willingness of senior staff to participate, research capacity)
• Has compelling reason why quality planning cannot be carried out without a grant
• Enables a good proposal to become an excellent proposal.

Evaluation may occur either throughout the project, to continuously assess progress and identify possible changes in implementation strategy in order to meet the intended grant outcomes, or at the end of the project, to document grant outcomes and lessons learned.  Decisions regarding grants for evaluation will normally be made when the project grant is made, but will also be made early in the project for which the original grant request was funded.

Criteria for an evaluation grant:

• Implements a promising strategy addressing a priority issue/need
• Highlights an important challenge or issue in our community
• Measurable and significant community benefit is anticipated
• Project possesses a good theoretical framework and work plan, but implementation is untested
• Potential for generating public/governmental support for replication or change in public policy is good
• Proposal is considered by the agency and the Foundation to involve risk, but may provide promising outcomes
• Foundation’s contribution is significant part of overall project budget
• Evaluation strategy proposed can appropriately measure project outcomes
• Agency demonstrates the capacity and commitment to support the evaluation

These grants are to help strengthen implementation of a larger, existing grant.  They are awarded when a program officer, with the help of the grantee, identifies an appropriate intervention that can remedy problems or respond to needs that arise during implementation of the grant project that could not have been anticipated.  A request for an implementation support grant may be initiated by the grantee or may be the result of site visits or other communication by the program officer on a grant that has already been made.  Implementation support grants are funded at up to $7,500.

Criteria for an implementation support grant:

• Initial grant addresses high priority of the Foundation and is of sufficient size and scope ($100,000 or more).
• Need is identified early enough in project implementation to allow sufficient time for intervention to make a difference in the outcome.
• The grantee initiates the formal request, identifying the need and providing substantial input into the solution/remedy.
• The grantee demonstrates that it is doing all it can within its resources to remedy the situation before seeking the additional discretionary grant.
• In the judgment of the program officer, the proposed intervention can make a real difference in the outcome of the initial grant project.

Examples of items eligible for funding:

• Small capital grants to purchase a necessary piece of equipment
• Consultant support for aspects of project organization or implementation
• Purchase of a necessary piece of software
• Purchase of community outreach materials or implementation of other community outreach activities
• Purchase of necessary materials or supplies for the grant project
• Small adjustments in staffing

The Foundation awards scholarships to hundreds of area students to help them afford a college education.  To learn more and apply for scholarships, visit our College Scholarships Directory.