To the Editor:
Your recent article, “Growth in Wealth Empowers Foundation,” April 12, 2007 gave a misleading impression of the role of community foundations and, in particular, the place of the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving among the many foundations that serve this Greater Hartford region.
The Hartford Foundation is among the oldest and largest of the community foundations in this country. Located in Hartford, its mission is to improve the quality of life for residents in the 29-town Greater Hartford community. It is one of more than 600 foundations that serve Hartford County, the assets of which aggregate over $2 billion. Included in this number are family foundations (also sometimes referred to as private foundations) and corporate foundations, each of which is separate and distinct from the other. The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving does not control the assets of any other foundation.
For over 80 years, generous donors have trusted us to prudently invest their philanthropic gifts, and responsibly distribute income. To determine the amount of annual grantmaking, we established a spending policy designed to ensure that our donors’ contributions will have a similar economic impact over time. This replaced a policy based on spending total investment returns, which could cause grantmaking dollars to fluctuate wildly from year to year. If total investment returns were used for grantmaking during the period cited by the April 12 article, the $23 million in grants actually awarded would have been limited to $15.8 million, not the $50 million incorrectly stated in the article.
As a public charity under IRS rules and regulations and pursuant to state law, the Hartford Foundation is accountable to the public, including the donors, the nonprofit organizations, and the business, government and community leaders with whom we work to improve the quality of life in the region. In addition to federal and state filings, our activities are detailed in an annual report that is available to the public, and we maintain current information about the Foundation, including grants and financial statements, on our Web site.
Linda J. Kelly
President
Hartford Foundation for Public Giving
Hartford
