It’s the season of giving and Greater Hartford’s financial services sector is leading the way.
B of A grants
Hartford-based Billings Forge Community Works and the Hartford Area Habitat for Humanity each has received a $200,000 grant from Bank of America’s Neighborhood Builders program. Each grant is unrestricted and comes with leadership training.
Additionally, five Local Heroes were selected for their commitment to community service. A $5,000 donation will be made to the nonprofit charity of his/her choice:
• Jackie Benton / HARC, Inc.
• Lourdes M. Fonseca / Achieve Hartford!
• Maxine Smith / Career Beginnings
• Jim & Sandy Varney / Foodshare
• Elijah Walcott / ServCorps.
People’s distributes grants
People’s United Community Foundation, the philanthropic arm of People’s United Bank, announced today that it has awarded $2,335,300 to nonprofit organizations throughout its footprint during the 2011 fiscal year.
A total of 278 grants were awarded throughout the communities that People’s United Community Foundation serves in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and Westchester County, New York. The grants were distributed to programs and services within the Foundation’s areas of focus, with 43 percent allocated to community development, 40 percent to youth development, and 17 percent towards affordable housing initiatives.
The Hartford award
The Hartford Financial Services Group has awarded $100,000 to Charter Oak Cultural Center for youth programming.
The Hartford center’s Youth Arts Institute offers dance, theatre, and visual arts instruction that serves more than 1,000 Hartford students each year.
The grant was made through the Connecticut Neighborhood Assistance Act Tax Credit Program and will allow the center to expand its after-school programs.
Travelers’ grant
A $60,000 grant from The Travelers Cos. Inc. will allow the Girl Scouts of Connecticut can continue its College Pathways program, specifically designed to introduce girls to the benefits of college education and show them how to succeed on campus.
The program is an out-of-school activity that has meetings on a regular basis. Activities include helping a girl determine a choice of college, and preparing her with practice tests and information about admissions requirements. A large part of the program includes college tours. Girls go on bus tours throughout the state and to other states, visiting college campuses, learning about financial aid, and learning about life on campus. In addition, College Pathways helps cultivate a girl’s confidence in financial literacy, time management, and other life skills that will set her on the track towards collegiate success and economic self-sufficiency.
Credit unions donate
For the ninth year, three chapters of the Connecticut Credit Union League combined efforts to celebrate the year-end holidays with a gathering that benefitted the Marines’ Toys for Tots program. The event, at the Aqua Turf Club in Plantsville, drew 145 guests from 23 credit unions. They jointly donated more than 500 toys and $1,655 in cash from chapter coffers and raffle ticket sales to the toy collection program.
RBC donation
The Hartford office of RBC Wealth Management took an innovative approach to helping fund the mission of Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters, Connecticut’s youth mentoring organization.
“I was cleaning my desk one afternoon,” said James Goldman, first vice president — financial advisor, “and I was surprised to find just how much spare change I had accumulated. I checked with others in the office and learned they were experiencing the same situation. Everybody at RBC Wealth Management agreed to pool the loose change we’d found. Once a couple of personal checks were added, the total came to $1,110. We decided to donate it all to Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters, a results-oriented organization that we believe changes disadvantaged children’s lives and helps them reach their highest potential.”
Union Savings donates
The Union Savings Bank Foundation of Danbury has awarded $214,300 to 33 nonprofit organizations across western Connecticut in support for local organizations that provide healthcare, promote educational achievement and address human needs.
The foundation’s 2011-2012 grants represent a 6.9 percent increase in dollars allocated compared with $200,380 allocated in 2010. Since the USB Foundation was founded in 1999, it has distributed 241 grants totaling $1,550,210 to more than 100 nonprofit organizations.
