The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving has established a $100,000 Greater Together Community Fund for the Town of Simsbury.

The purpose of the Greater Together Community Funds is to:

  • support the community in taking ownership around the needs in their towns
  • encourage broad and inclusive civic engagement and
  • anchor the Hartford Foundation in each town.
Representatives of organizations funded in 2024 at awards ceremony

The Simsbury Greater Together Community Fund Announces Recipients of Our 2024 Grant Funding

Simsbury, CT 11/12/24 – The Simsbury Greater Together Community Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving has announced the recipients of the 2024 grant funding cycle. After a rigorous review process, The Simsbury Greater Together Fund has awarded $31,000 in grants to 8 deserving nonprofit organizations.

This year's grant funding program was highly competitive, with a number of thorough and well-prepared applications from organizations across our community. The selection process was guided by the Simsbury Greater Together Community Fund’s commitment to supporting initiatives that address critical community needs and create lasting, positive change.

"We were delighted to award grants to both familiar local organizations as well as some new (to us) organizations whose missions were right in line with our values," said Greg DeFrancesco, Chairperson at The Simsbury Greater Together Community Fund Advisory Committee. "A number of the selected organizations serve multiple towns in the area including Simsbury and assured us that the grant money would be utilized here."

The 2024 Grant Funding recipients are:

Let Me Run ($1,750) - Let Me Run Simsbury will host two teams in Fall 2024 with trained volunteer coaches who provide a safe and supportive space for boys to grow in mental, emotional, social, and physical health. The grant award will make full and partial program scholarships, athletic shoe purchases, and race entry fees available to up to 28 participants. No family will be turned away for lack of funds or appropriate gear for running safely.

Gifts of Love ($5,000) – Gifts of Love is a nonprofit organization which helps meet the basic needs of individuals and families in the Greater Hartford area experiencing a short-term fiscal crisis so they can return to self-sufficiency. A grant was awarded for the second year in a row in support of the Weekend Food Backpack Program. The program serves students in need from Simsbury to help ensure that they have access to basic necessities and can focus on their education without worrying about hunger or other financial hardships.

Operation Fuel, Inc. ($2,500) – Operation Fuel will use the grant to provide energy and utility assistance to residents of Simsbury. The greatest challenge is that Operation Fuel receives many more requests for assistance than can be provided.  The grant will allow more struggling families to be help thus reducing the number of families who will be turned away. 

Healing Meals Community Project  ($5,000) – Healing Meals Community Project (HMCP) is a non-profit organization with a mission to provide healthy, organic meals to people who are in a health crisis while fostering compassion and empowering youth and adult volunteers in our communities. A grant was awarded to support this mission.

Greystone Foundation ($5,000) – The Simsbury Basic Needs Initiative will provide both monetary assistance and financial advice free of charge to residents of Simsbury in need. The Greystone Foundation works directly with eligible clients who are struggling to pay for housing, utilities, transportation, healthcare, or other essential services.

Covenant to Care for Children ($2,500) – Covenant to Care for Children (CCC) provides a safety net for abused, neglected, or impoverished children in Connecticut by providing essential support in moments that are critical for a child's ability to thrive and a family's ability to stay together.  Through a collaborative system of program delivery, Covenant mobilizes the generosity of caring individuals and leverages the resources of social service agencies to provide direct assistance and critical goods to families struggling to meet the basic needs of their children.

Hartford Partnership & Horizons at Westminster ($4,250) – Horizons at Westminster provides a six-week summer academic enrichment program for students from Hartford. The grant from the Community Fund is to support the hiring of Simsbury high school students as counselors. The program is proud to provide this annual employment opportunity and training to students from Simsbury and is grateful for the partnerships with many other constituents in the town that enable the program to provide a robust experience for Horizons students each year.

Simsbury Community Media ($5,000) – With the generous support of the Simsbury Greater Together Community Fund, SCM will undertake a comprehensive redevelopment of its website. This project will involve modernizing the backend technology to ensure a more reliable, user friendly, and accessible platform. By improving the website's design and functionality, SCM will be able to better serve the community with timely updates, more engaging content, and enhanced digital accessibility.

These organizations represent a range of worthy causes including food insecurity, general assistance to families enduring hardships, children’s welfare, improving communication within our town, and growth opportunities for local students.

"We are proud of the process we utilize to select our grant recipients, which is effective due to the compassion, openness, and flexibility of our board members," added Mr. DeFrancesco. "I want to recognize the members of the Simsbury Greater Together Community Fund Advisory Board this year for serving the community with their time, skills, and dedication: Christine Bilotti Peterson, Ben Cerny, Megan Leonard, Steve Ruth, Craig Thompson, Sarah Knortz, Steve Lombardi, Shiamala Palani, Abby Wilson, and Rafaella Rosadio. And of course, none of this would be possible without the partnership with the Hartford Foundation and the support of Ashley Coleman and team.”

The grant recipients were honored at a special awards ceremony, where they had the opportunity to share more about their projects and how the funding will be utilized.

For more information about Simsbury and its grant programs, please visit https://www.hfpg.org/donors/ways-to-give/community-funds/simsbury

GTCFs Committee Members

The role of the Greater Together Community Fund Committee is to design and lead an inclusive process to identify the needs in your community, and design a grantmaking process aimed to ensure that the Greater Together Community Funds can have the greatest impact for the benefit of town residents.

The Committe members for your town are:

Greg DeFrancesco, Chairman, Craig Thompson, Sarah Knortz, Shiamala Palani, Ben Cerny, Steve Ruth, Megan Leonard, Abigail Wilson, Rafaella Rosadio, Steve Lombardi

Click here to read the Committee Conflict of Interest Policy.

For questions, contact the committee at simsburycommunityfund@gmail.com.

For media inquiries, please contact Chris Senecal at csenecal@hfpg.org.