Investing in our community's future by addressing today's needs.

Since 1925, thousands of donors have entrusted their gifts to the Hartford Foundation to distribute to projects, organizations, and collaborations that show promise of reducing the disparities in our region. 

Our understanding of the community’s needs is shaped by requests from nonprofits and by our own assessment of regional priorities. This means our grantmaking is both responsive to changing community needs and opportunities while addressing systemic issues that affect the well-being of the entire Greater Hartford region.

ENDOWMENT BY FUND TYPE

as of December 31, 2023

In 2023, we awarded 3,133 grants amounting to $49.9 million. We have awarded $998 million in grants since our founding in 1925.

Informed by best practices, our grantmaking investment supports substantial and sustainable community change.

  • CONVENE: Our grantmaking and investment decisions are evidence-based and influenced by existing data, our own research, community input and convenings we facilitate. 
  • INVEST: Using research and data, insights from our ongoing learning, our staff experience, community input and expertise from our nonprofit partners and stakeholders, we make significant investments in an effort to achieve progress toward our outcome areas and other community needs. 
  • EVALUATE: We promote evaluation practices that help us gauge progress in our outcome areas. In addition, we regularly commission evaluations of major programs and strategic initiatives. 
  • INFLUENCE: As an integral part of our collaborative process, we share data and research to better inform public policy decisions. We also engage in a broad range of public policy activity, so that our grantmaking can be more far-reaching, sustainable and responsive to critical community issues.