Supporting Our Community in a Shifting Landscape

Dear Community Partners,  

As your community foundation, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving was created to provide steady support to Greater Hartford in times of growth and in times of uncertainty. We remain committed to navigating the current changing landscape with our community partners, listening and learning how policy and budget changes are affecting our region and Connecticut. 

Staying the Course while Meeting Immediate Needs

Our response spans both ongoing strategic investment and responsive support to meet the moment. We approach our work with an unwavering commitment to racial justice and equity, balancing immediate needs with supporting community resilience over time.

We continue our annual grantmaking focused on dismantling structural racism and advancing equitable social and economic mobility. To do this, we work across five interrelated outcome areas – Basic Human Needs, Thriving Neighborhoods, Employment Opportunities (including education), Civic and Resident Engagement, and Arts and Culture – with intentional support for communities and groups facing the greatest challenges, including Black and Latine communities, immigrants, the LGBTQIA+ community, and households that depend on essential government programs.

Examples of 2025 grantmaking to help meet this moment include: 

  • Continuing two rounds of Basic Human Needs Emergency Assistance Grants that address critical gaps as they emerge and rolling community organizing and resident engagement grants that amplify resident voices about their experience of the impact of budget cuts and policy changes. 
  • Launching an inaugural Equality Fund seeding investment in solutions identified by the LGBTQIA+ community. Eight organizations received grants to address priorities identified in the recent DataHaven report the Foundation commissioned on LGBTQIA+ resident wellbeing in Greater Hartford.
  • Contributing to the Immigrant Communities Funder Group at the CT Council for Philanthropy, a pooled fund of nearly $1 million designed to advance immigrant community safety, wellbeing, and rights across Connecticut. A community leader advisory group to the Funder’s collaborative will guide how these dollars are deployed. 

This year, we also launched Centennial initiatives that build on our strategic work and will help to address current challenges:  

  • We are deepening and sustaining our commitment to our 29 Greater Together Community Funds where residents volunteer on town committees to recommend grants that respond to local needs.
  • Our new Greater Futures Scholarship in partnership with Hartford Promise creates a pathway to debt-free postsecondary education for Hartford Public School students. This significant investment also provides support for students and their families navigating new federal policy changes that affect student borrowers.

We look forward to sharing additional Centennial initiatives in the upcoming months.

Going Beyond the Grant 

We know funding alone is not enough. That's why we're expanding our capacity-building resources to help nonprofits work nimbly to assess and react strategically to the changing policy and funding environment. Additionally, we offer a curated and regularly updated compilation of relevant resources on our Nonprofit Support Program webpage: Resources and Tools for Navigating Uncertain Times.  

This month, we launched our Short-term Strategic Advising Support program that provides quick, substantive consultancies to organizations facing challenges due to sector-wide disruption. We opened this new program first to current grantees and will explore broader access based on what we learn about demand and impact.

Our Nonprofit Support Program continues to offer a broad range of services to all nonprofits based in our region including technical assistance grants, organizational assessments, learning opportunities, lines of credit through the Nonprofit Revolving Loan Fund, and access to skilled volunteers through sponsored memberships to Catchafire.

Based on conversations with nonprofits, we are also considering developing and offering new resources related to fund development and diversification, grant writing, legal consultation, strategic partnerships and mergers, and transitional operating support grants – all designed to help nonprofits adapt to the evolving landscape.

Working Together Given Resource Realities  

We know the Foundation’s resources cannot replace the scale of public funding losses. What the Foundation can do is support the collective power of nonprofits, residents, businesses, policymakers, and donors to reimagine how we work in this changing environment. 

We are positioned to lead, convene, and collaborate because of our partnerships at local, state, and national tables. These relationships enable us to exchange critical information and identify opportunities to build a collective response to community needs. 

Most importantly, we depend on you—our community partners—to guide our understanding of what's happening on the ground. Your expertise and experience inform everything we do. 

Let's Talk 

The best way for us to understand organizational needs and what you see in the community is through conversation. Working with you during these dynamic times helps us to identify organizational priorities and challenges. 

  • If you have a current grant or funding relationship with the Foundation, please reach out to your community impact officer. If you are unsure who that is, contact Tara Sundie at TSundie@hfpg.org. We encourage you to share with them your organizational or capacity challenges. These honest conversations help us identify meaningful support options and will not diminish our commitment to exploring ways we might work together.
  • If you don't currently have a funding relationship with us, you can reach out to Tara Sundie at TSundie@hfpg.org who can share information about available opportunities and connect you with other potential resources if we're unable to support your specific request. 

We'll continue to regularly update you about new resources and offerings as we navigate this changing landscape together. We believe in the power of our community to adapt, innovate, and thrive – even in uncertain times. Thank you for the work you do every day to make that possible.

Elysa Gordon 
Vice President, Community Impact