🔒Amid rising nonprofit demands, DuBois-Walton boosts Community Foundation fundraising in first full year

In her first full year as CEO, Karen DuBois-Walton has helped push the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven toward surpassing last year’s fundraising total — a solid start for the longtime housing leader who took over in September 2024. DuBois-Walton previously spent 16 years leading the Elm City Communities/Housing Authority of the City of New Haven before succeeding longtime CEO Will Ginsberg. She now heads one of the region’s anchor philanthropic institutions during a period of rising need and federal uncertainty. For calendar year 2024, the foundation — established in 1928 — received $29.5 million in new gifts and transfers and another $3.8 million in program-related grants, for $33.3 million in total contributions. DuBois-Walton said fundraising is running ahead of that pace this year, helped by several major commitments, including a more than $10 million donation to support civic engagement, basic needs and local nonprofits. “That was pretty significant,” DuBois-Walton said. Most contributions come from local donors or people with ties to the region who establish funds during their lifetime or through estate plans. (In 2023, the organization received $41.9 million in new gifts and transfers.) Foundation spokesman Matthew Higbee noted that annual grant making is not tied to how much the organization raises, but to a 5.5% spending rate applied to its $667 million endowment. DuBois-Walton said this year’s giving has been especially meaningful amid federal spending reductions affecting nonprofits and uncertainty around SNAP benefits during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. “We’ve been able to increase our fundraising with some significant gifts that were really important, because I think our community has recognized that there are a lot of changes going on, particularly at the federal level, and that has real local impacts,” she said. “We had a significant increase in our basic needs fund, which is really essential right now, about getting food on people’s plates and roofs over people’s heads.” In 2024, the foundation awarded $31.4 million in grants and distributions across the region, down slightly from $32.7 million the previous year. It didn’t have its 2025 tallies by press time, but in late November announced $425,000 in new basic needs fund grants to 44 local organizations. The awards support essentials such as food, housing and heat and are part of $1.6 million in basic-needs funding distributed so far this year. Meantime, in September, the organization expanded its development team, hiring Walter Woods as senior vice president of development.

Beyond fundraising and grant making

In terms of other key priorities, DuBois-Walton pointed to the foundation’s participation in the Immigration Strategic Funders Collaborative for Connecticut, a statewide group that supports legal services, advocacy and community programs for immigrant residents. She also highlighted the foundation’s role in advancing the New Haven Equitable Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, or NHE3, launched in 2022 to expand access to capital for small businesses. As part of that effort, the foundation created an innovation and growth fund that has raised $5 million to date and aims to reach $20 million by the end of next year. Since its inception, NHE3 has awarded $2.78 million through 485 small-business grants across Greater New Haven. “There are not a lot of community foundations that are doing that sort of mission investment work,” she said. A major focus this year was community engagement. DuBois-Walton said the foundation spent significant time listening to residents’ needs and concerns as it refines its strategic framework. “We started with being out and listening in every well in the various areas of our region,” she said. “We engaged hundreds of Greater New Haven community members to really hear their hopes and dreams for the region, and that’s leading us to a refinement of our strategic framework, which will guide our work going forward.” Since she joined as CEO, the foundation has hosted 11 webinars with donors, three in-person community listening sessions and an in-person annual meeting, all aimed at increasing transparency and direct engagement. “This has been a whirlwind of a year in so many ways, and I am thrilled that we were able to, in the midst of that whirlwind, actually be thoughtful about being in the community and doing a lot of listening,” she said. Housing emerged as the top concern across the region. “People are struggling to find places where they want to be that they can afford, and that’s at all sorts of levels,” she said. “That was universal, whether we were on the shoreline, whether we were in the valley, whether we were in the more urban centers, like neighborhoods in New Haven.” Despite the year’s progress, DuBois-Walton said she wishes the foundation could move even faster to meet demand. “Our ability to move as quickly as I’d like to … is something we’re going to continue to work on,” she said.