10 Columbus Boulevard, 8th Floor, Hartford, CT 06106 | 860-548-1888 | www.hfpg.org
Our Mission: Putting philanthropy into action to create lasting solutions that result in vibrant communities within the Greater Hartford region.
Goals
We partner with a diverse range of nonprofit organizations and community leaders to work toward a number of strategic outcomes, including the following:
• Increase the number of Hartford residents living in high opportunity neighborhoods
• Increase housing stability and investments in Hartford neighborhoods
• Increase hiring of residents with low income and low skills
• Increase access to capital for Black and Latinx small business owners and entrepreneurs
• Increase food security, homeless diversion and supports for vital human services
• Increase engagement among Greater Hartford residents who actively participate in their communities (e.g., census completion, voting, neighborhood decision making)
• Increase access to funding and opportunities for artists of color (including COVID-related recovery and resilience)
• Strengthen our regional data, research and evaluation ecosystem
• Collaborate with highest-need school districts to address barriers to student progress
This effort to help each other is of the utmost importance, and I can’t stress it enough: together we can really make a difference.
– Damaris Rivera, Wethersfield
How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted your organization?
In March 2020, when the coronavirus began to impact our region, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving launched the COVID-19 Response Fund to rapidly deploy resources to support residents who were most significantly affected by the pandemic. On July 1, the Hartford Foundation transitioned the focus of the Fund from emergency response to ensuring nonprofit staff and clients are prepared and safe during the re-opening phase. During this year, as we transitioned our staff and internal processes to function in a socially-distanced environment, we also simplified our grantmaking and reporting processes to respect the pressures facing area nonprofits.
One of the primary revelations from the pandemic was not a revelation to us at the Foundation. Generational disparities created by systemic racism are firmly entrenched within American society, including Greater Hartford. These disparities have been exposed and exacerbated by the pandemic. The people most significantly impacted by COVID-19 are those who were least able to afford it. Furthermore, this year’s protests and other events across the country serve as painful reminders that structural racism remains prevalent in our country.
The “dual pandemics” of COVID-19 and systemic racism have affirmed our commitment to dismantle significant barriers to health, safety, education and prosperity for many people in our region. This work is not simply the right thing to do; it will also help us repair the social damage caused by COVID-19, get our economy back on track and safeguard us against future crises.
Unless and until an ever-increasing number of our fellow citizens acknowledge the insidious problem of systemic racism and persistently act against the status quo, we are destined to repeat this vicious cycle, one which erodes our country and society in ways that none of us will be able to escape. Each of us can and must do more.
