State law allows the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue “special background plates” on behalf of non-profit organizations. There are more that 70,000 on the roads today, and 65 specialty designs available, supporting a wide range of nonprofit causes. The most popular: Long Island Sound. The other may surprise you.
Read MoreThe Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, the community foundation for 29 communities in Greater Hartford, awarded more than $38 million in grants to the region’s nonprofit agencies and educational institutions in 2018.
“At a time when our state and many of our communities face significant fiscal challenges, the Hartford Foundation was able to award a record breaking number of grants this past year,” said Hartford Foundation president Jay Williams. “We continue to look for ways to work together with our donors, nonprofits, and community partners to ensure Greater Hartford residents have access to opportunities that enrich their lives and secure a better future for our region.”
According to the latest estimated, unaudited numbers, the Foundation ended 2018 with total assets of $933 million in 1,230 funds. The Foundation received gifts totaling $13.1 million and opened 22 new funds.
“Greater Hartford is fortunate to have so many generous residents who truly want to make a lasting difference in their community,” Williams said. “The historic amount of resources we have been able to provide to hardworking and dedicated nonprofit organizations is a testament to our donors’ level of commitment to the region and the work the Hartford Foundation supports.”
Officials noted that the Foundation’s 2018 grantmaking - with a total of 2,708 individual grants made - was based on the recognition that "a vibrant and strong Greater Hartford region requires that all residents, especially those with the greatest need, have equitable access to opportunities to achieve and flourish." The largest percentage of grants were in education (33%), followed by family & social services (25%), communication and economic development (13%), and arts & culture (11%).
Among the grants, in each program area:
Education
Family and Social Services
Community and Economic Development
Arts and Culture
Health
Nonprofit Capacity Building
Since its founding in 1925, the Foundation has awarded more than $758 million in grants.
Aimed at small to medium-sized cultural organizations seeking funding for “collaborative projects which demonstrate a clear vision of how individual sites and organizations can effectively tie together local, regional or statewide cultural assets,” the Good to Great grant program was created in 2014 during the administration of former Governor Dannel Malloy to “go beyond basic facilities repair or expansion to support projects that tell the stories of our cultural and historic sites in engaging, meaningful and relevant ways.”
The final round of grants – unless the program is renewed by the Lamont administration – were announced less than three weeks prior to the change in gubernatorial leadership. The Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) announced $3,051,971 in grants to 12 nonprofit organizations through the program in late December.
The grants may be used for capital projects that address the rehabilitation and/or adaptive re-use of existing facilities that will transform the visitor experience, site work associated with rehabilitation projects or additions, rehabilitation of historic landscapes, or protection and/or interpretation of archaeological sites. Other appropriate uses include artists’ fees, conservator fees, construction costs, ADA accessibility, evaluation services and documentation and exhibit scripts, fabrication and installation to complement capital improvement.
The grants range between $50,000 and $150,000 and require a 25 percent cash match; grantees will have two years from date of grant contract to complete the funded project. Applicants for the state grant must be a Connecticut 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(13) organization that owns, operates and/or sponsors a cultural venue or historic site in Connecticut with an average annual income of $500,000 or less.
The just under-the-wire recipients:
The grant award recipients constituted the final announcement of 2018 by the state Department of Economic and Community Development. Nineteen days later, Gov. Lamont took the oath of office. He is expected to announce the department's new leadership and management structure in the coming days.
It began as a casual conversation between Kate Farrar, Executive Director of the Connecticut Women's Education and Legal Fund (CWEALF) and Sharon Cappetta, Director of Development at The Community Foundation for Women and Girls, during the 2016 United State of Women Summit. Now, it is a full-fledged and far-reaching network aimed at providing support and collaboration for organizations serving women and girls across Connecticut.
The Connecticut Collective for Women and Girls (CCWG), launched last month with more than 20 members and six funders, gathered at Fairfield County’s Community Foundation to celebrate the beginning of the Collective. Members range from Girl Scouts to Planned Parenthood and the Commission on Women, Children and Seniors; the YWCA to The Alliance to End Sexual Violence and Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame.
The Collective is a supportive network that unifies organizational members, facilitates collaboration, and bolsters their collective power to advance rights and opportunities for women and girls in Connecticut. CWEALF is the initiative's organizer.
“Now is the moment to come together to make progress for women and girls,” said Kate Farrar, Executive Director of CWEALF. “As the state’s leading champion for women and girls, CWEALF is thrilled to convene organizations across the state to increase our impact.”
Organizers say that while many organizations are doing critical work to transform the lives of women and girls in the state, too often, these organizations operate separately, leading to silos. The CCWG aims to “expand our strength as a collective force. It builds on participants’ individual assets with a community network of organizations that uplift and amplify each other’s work. The very act of coming together in this way increases each organization’s impact to advance rights and opportunities for women and girls in Connecticut.”
"Fairfield County’s Community Foundation’s Fund for Women & Girls is pleased to support the newly launched Collective. Collaboration, Diversity and Inclusion are core values of the Community Foundation’s. Through the Collaborative, partner organizations will develop a common language and requisite understanding of what is needed to advance gender equity," said Tricia Hyacinth, Director, Fund for Women & Girls. "Moreover, members, from all regions of the state, currently working independently, will achieve greater impact through their collective efforts." 
“The Community Fund for Women & Girls and The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven are delighted to support the Connecticut Collective for Women and Girls,” said Sharon Cappetta, Director of Development. “This emerging network of committed program providers are already doing great work with women and girls in the state. Together, working collectively, they strengthen their individual organizations and connect to potential partners, as well as bring attention and audiences to the gender implications of public policy in Connecticut. Our communities and our state benefit from targeted investments in nonprofit organizations, especially those who are working directly to advance women and girls.”
Other funders of the Collective are the Aurora Foundation for Women and Girls; The Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut's Women and Girls’ Fund; the Women’s Fund at Connecticut Community Foundation; and the Main Street Community Foundation's Women & Girls’ Fund. The Connecticut Collective for Women and Girls is guided by the following principles of gender equity, racial justice, LGBTQIA rights, civil rights, disability rights, ending and preventing violence, economic justice, reproductive rights, and immigrants’ rights.
The residents of Connecticut are the fifth most generous in the nation, according to a new analysis. The review of charitable giving by the financial website WalletHub, across the nation’s 50 states, found that Connecticut ranked:
Overall, only Minnesota, Utah, New York and Maryland placed higher than Connecticut in the ranking of Most Charitable States. Rounding out the top ten were Virginia, Georgia, Washington, New Hampshire and Wisconsin.
A year ago, Utah topped the list and Connecticut was just outside the top 10 at number 11.
The 18 key metrics used in the analysis were grouped in two categories weighed equally, Volunteering & Service and Charitable Giving. Connecticut ranked 7th in the former and 14th in the latter. The Volunteering & Service category included share of the population collecting or distributing food or clothes for people in need, volunteer hours per capita, and fundraising or selling items to raise money. The Charitable Giving section included donating money and time, as well as the number of public charities, and share of the population donating time.
The least charitable states, according to the analysis, were Arizona, Rhode Island and Nevada.
Americans are among the world’s most generous people, WalletHub points out, ranking fourth out of 140 countries. U.S. donors in 2017 gave more than $410 billion to charity, with 70 percent of the funds coming directly from individuals, according to the National Philanthropic Trust. In addition, nearly 63 million people volunteer in the U.S., serving a combined total of 7.9 billion hours per year, the equivalent of $184 billion of service.
https://youtu.be/t5lI9urlYkM
In an effort to get girls career-ready, Connecticut-based Girls With Impact, the nation’s only tech-enabled entrepreneurship program for teen girls, is launching a partnership with Girl Scouts of Connecticut to enable girls to parlay their cookies experience into their own businesses.
“Entrepreneurship is one of the four programmatic pillars that comprise the Girl Scout Leadership Experience,” said Mary Barneby, CEO for Girl Scouts of Connecticut. “We welcome the opportunity to partner with Girls With Impact to provide our older Girl Scouts with a ‘virtual MBA’ in developing their own business plans. We are creating the next generation of female leaders and programs like this give our girls a real edge and help them become more confident and career-ready.”
Girls With Impact CEO Jennifer Openshaw says her goal is to train 10,000 young women as entrepreneurs, equipping them with the skills to start businesses or serve as innovators within corporate America.
Girl Scouts members will be entitled to participate in the Girls With Impact Academy – a 12-week “mini-MBA” program, valued at $2,000, that equips girls with business skills. The program, now in its third year, has helped some past participants to earn full scholarships at top colleges. Sessions are offered throughout the year, with various schedules. The reduced fee for Girl Scouts will be just $450, and scholarships are available.
It is both a skills-builder and confidence builder, critical for teenage girls as they navigate their teens and look forward to careers. Openshaw points out that only 6 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women and just 36 percent of entrepreneurs are women. Those are statistics she hopes to change. The after-school, extra-curricular program has seen exceptional results in confidence, empowerment, college prep and career readiness, including STEM areas.
“Girl Scouts is one of our nation’s most powerful leadership training grounds for young women,” said Openshaw. “We’re thrilled to support Girl Scouts as it seeks to modernize and remain relevant for young women in the new global economy.”
Girl Scouts of Connecticut serves over 26,000 girls and over 12,000 adults giving girls the skills they need to empower themselves for life. Through the Girl Scout Cookie Program, the largest girl-led entrepreneurial program in the world, Girl Scouts learn five essential skills that they will carry with them for a lifetime: goal setting, decision making, business skills, money management, and people skills.
Through the Digital Cookie® platform, Girl Scouts are able to take their cookie businesses online, using their own personal website to reach customers across the country, experiencing true enterprise. Barneby called on girls to bring a friend to Girls With Impact and “build your network for tomorrow.” She says the tech delivery enables girls to connect with others nationwide and build that support system so critical to career success.
Girls With Impact, a nonprofit, is the nation’s only entrepreneurship program just for teen girls, delivered live from the home or road. Applications are accepted at www.girlswithimpact.com.
It is described as a “framework to advance policy and strategic school district planning to more effectively address the mental health and trauma needs of students and promote student success.” A new report, driven by research highlighting the connection between mental health and educational outcomes, is aimed at school districts looking to increase integration of student mental health services and supports.
The 40-page report, developed by The Child Health and Development Institute of Connecticut (CHDI), a subsidiary of the Children’s Fund of Connecticut, in partnership with the national Center for School Mental Health at the University of Maryland, provides a framework for policymakers and school districts interested in improving outcomes by addressing the mental health and trauma needs of students. The report indicates that “in a typical classroom of 25 students, approximately five will meet criteria for a mental health disorder but most of them are not receiving appropriate mental health treatment or support. Among those who do access care, approximately 70 percent receive services through their schools.”
Connecticut is cited as an example of how states can promote collaborations within and across the behavioral health, education, and juvenile justice systems to provide an array of trauma-informed, evidence-based, and tiered services for students. It notes that school principals indicate that mental health is one of the most challenging unmet needs among their students and schools are increasingly seen as a critical setting for the delivery of mental health services.
The report provides “a blueprint and resources to guide state policymakers and school district leaders," including:
“Approaching student mental health with a comprehensive lens that integrates health promotion, prevention, early intervention, and more intensive treatments leads to better school, student and community outcomes," said Dr. Sharon Hoover, Co-Director of the Center for School Mental Health at the University of Maryland and lead author of the report.
National prevalence rates indicate that approximately 20 percent of children meet criteria for a mental health disorder; however, many children’s mental health needs are not identified and the majority of children with identified challenges do not receive services, the report explained. Among those who do access care, approximately 70 percent receive services through their schools. Linking children to services through their schools reduces many traditional barriers to care. School mental health services are also associated with higher completion rates than treatment delivered in traditional outpatient community-based settings.
The report uses Stamford Public Schools (SPS) as a” local model for improving outcomes by adopting a trauma informed approach to school mental health.” CHDI began working with SPS in 2014 to conduct a review of the district’s mental health system and to develop a plan to enhance trauma-informed mental health services district-wide. That plan was subsequently implemented, and “lessons learned in Stamford are being used to engage other Connecticut districts to … integrate school and community-based mental health services, and promote quality and sustainability of these enhancements.”
“Schools are well positioned to promote wellness and social emotional competence for all students, as well as identify and address mental health concerns for students in need,” said Dr. Jeana Bracey, Director of School and Community Initiatives at CHDI and report co-author. “However, the responsibility is not on schools alone to integrate or fund these supports. This framework helps districts connect to and collaborate with Connecticut’s robust network of trauma-informed state and community-based services and programs so all students can be successful.”
The report concludes that a “systematic and streamlined partnership between families, schools, and communities to support a continuum of mental health supports in schools can lead to better behavioral health for all students, as well as increased access, earlier identification and intervention, and ultimately better outcomes for students with mental health challenges.”
[Visit wwws.chdi.org to download the IMPACT report or to read more about CHDI’s work related to school mental health.]
In conjunction with its 25th anniversary celebration this year, New Haven-based DataHaven has announced plan to launch the DataHaven Innovation Awards, which will be open to nominees from throughout the state. Winners will be selected in a number of education and community impact categories. Nomination will be accepted through October 1, and the award recipients will be announced at DataHaven’s 25th Anniversary Celebration on November 19, 2018. DataHaven is a non-profit organization with a history of public service to Greater New Haven and Connecticut. The organization’s mission is to improve quality of life by collecting, sharing, and interpreting public data for effective decision making.
“We are proud to highlight the creativity and ingenuity of those who employ data to make Connecticut a better place,” explained DataHaven Executive Director Mark Abraham. The awards will recognize organizations, groups and individuals who have demonstrated the ability to use data to improve the well-being of Connecticut communities.
The inaugural Data in Education Awards will recognize the outstanding use of data for projects developed within a classroom or educational setting. Nominations will be accepted in two categories, University and Graduate Level and K-12 Level. Nominees can include teachers, students, school-based organizations, and non-profits working with youth.
The Data for Community Impact Awards will recognize the outstanding use of data to make a positive difference in one or more Connecticut communities. Nominations will be accepted in two categories: Large Organization, with more than 20 employees, and Small Organization, with less than 20 employees. Nominees can include nonprofits, for-profits, funders, unincorporated groups, and municipal/state agencies.
Liberty Bank Foundation is underwriting the DataHaven Innovation Awards.
DataHaven maintains extensive economic, social, and health data, including information collected through the DataHaven Community Wellbeing Surveys in 2012 and 2015. DataHaven is a formal partner of the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership of the Urban Institute in Washington, DC.
“We believe that data is a powerful force, uniting our state and helping make life better in Connecticut communities,” says Abraham. “Our statewide survey provides neighborhood-level data in key areas such as health, education, civic engagement and economic opportunity, so that programs and resources can be deployed to change lives for the better. Our goal is still to make life better for our neighbors.”
Presenting sponsors for the organization’s 25th anniversary year are the City of New Haven, Yale University, Yale New Haven Health and The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. Nomination forms for the DataHaven Innovation Awards can be found at http://www.ctdatahaven.org/anniversary and are due by October 1, 2018.
What would happen if ways to integrate nature into a major urban community were pursued? In Connecticut, the largest city is Bridgeport, and the Connecticut chapter of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has been undertaking an effort to find out.
Nature offers a lot of benefits to communities, TNC points out. “Trees provide shade and help clean the air. Gardens absorb and filter water, which reduces flooding and runoff into nearby rivers. Healthy dunes and wetlands protect coastlines from storms.” In addition, the organization points out, “nature can also transform the way people experience their neighborhood.”
With 70 percent of the world’s population predicted to live in cities by 2050, heat and air pollution constitute a major public health concern, TNC points out, underscoring the importance of the organization’s initiatives to plant trees in urban areas across the country, among a series of related undertakings.
“People are at the core of our efforts to identify how neighborhoods are addressing daunting challenges in this formerly industrialized city,” said Drew Goldsman, Urban Conservation Program Manager. “We want to partner with communities to implement natural solutions in Bridgeport that help both people and nature.”
Their Eco-Urban Assessment looked at areas in Bridgeport that have poor air quality, high risk of flooding, and limited access to nearby green spaces and layered it with data on income level, impervious surfaces and asthma rates. The team was able to pinpoint neighborhoods where trees, green stormwater systems and open spaces will make the biggest difference for people and nature. Air quality and flood risk topped the list of most acute needs.
In collaboration with local partners, the Conservancy is supporting a neighborhood-led greening effort known as ‘Green Connections’ in Bridgeport’s East Side neighborhood. Creating a plan for ways natural resources can shape the future of the community while making immediate changes to the landscape —through tree plantings and green stormwater infrastructure projects— is one of the initiative’s main goals, along with empowering volunteer stewards living in the community to take ownership of these natural areas. All of this helps create safe spaces for the community to gather, provides cooler and cleaner air, and improves wildlife habitat in the city.
According to the Nature Conservancy, Bridgeport currently has a 19% tree canopy cover, for example. If all open spaces, vacant lots and parking lots could be planted, the city would have a 62% tree canopy cover. The ramifications would be substantial, impacting various health and quality of life factors.
“Healthier people, cooler temperatures in the summer, cleaner air, reduced flooding, more urban habitat, parks and forests, less sewage overflow, a clean Pequannock River a more resilient coastline and green jobs” are cited as potential benefits.
The national publication Governing pointed out last year that “Streets cover about a third of the land in cities, and they account for half of the impervious surfaces in cities. Impervious surfaces don’t allow water to soak through them, which means they can alter the natural flow of rainwater. City streets collect, channel, pollute and sometimes even speed along water as it heads to the sewers.”
Goldsman indicates that currently efforts are focusing on the city of Bridgeport, but the Eco-Urban Assessment model is available to urban communities that want a deeper understanding of where nature can bring solutions to some of the most pressing urban issues.
“With the Eco-Urban Assessment model, we’re able to help municipalities identify the places and ways we can work together to use nature to improve residents’ quality of life and build more sustainable communities,” said Dr. Frogard Ryan, Connecticut state director for The Nature Conservancy. “From the beginning, we wanted this to be a community-led and TNC-supported program. Residents help us identify areas of other focus that aren’t highlighted by the model and be sure our study reflects what people experience day-to-day.”
Foodshare has signed a three-year commitment with the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), a national nonpartisan nonprofit led by some of the most respected health and childhood obesity experts in the country, along with health advocates such as former First Lady Michelle Obama and U.S. Senators Bill Frist and Cory Booker.
Earlier this month, Foodshare was recognized as a new healthy Food Assistant Partner at the 2018 PHA Summit in Washington, DC. The program “elevates and accelerates the work of food banks and large-scale food pantries committed to addressing hunger and malnutrition,” according to PHA. 
At the organization’s annual Summit in 2018, “we were thrilled to welcome Foodshare as one of several new partners in this program.” More than 15 million U.S. children live in “food insecure” households, according to PHA.
Dr. Katie Martin, the nonprofit’s Chief Strategy Officer, represented Foodshare at the Summit. In a recent article that she co-authored, Martin pointed out “food pantries have significant potential to promote better nutrition for the communities they serve,” adding that “recent national data show that 63 percent of households who visit food pantries acquire food through the charitable food system on a regular basis to help with their monthly food budget.”
As part of the commitment, Foodshare has agreed to:
“This is an exciting opportunity for all of us at Foodshare. More produce and healthier options: that’s the future of food banking,” said Jason Jakubowski, President and CEO of Foodshare.
Foodshare is the regional food bank serving Connecticut’s Hartford and Tolland counties, where 121,000 people struggle with hunger. As a PHA partner, Foodshare will increase supply and foster demand for healthier options in several ways, such as evaluating the nutritional quality of at least 50 percent of the food in its inventory, increasing the amount of nutritious food and beverages it distributes, and incentivizing the organizations it works with to select more nutritious foods.
Foodshare joins ten other partner food banks from across the country, as well as Feeding America, in this national partnership. Created in 2010 with the goal of ending the national epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation, PHA’s strategy rests on transforming the marketplace, so that the healthy choice becomes the easy choice for American families.
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