Overview & Facts About The Community Foundation

The Community Foundation's offices are located at 70 Audubon Street in New Haven, CT

We're turning 85 this year!

The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven is a philanthropic institution that was established in 1928 through a bequest. For 85 years, thousands of donors have built the community endowment by establishing permanent funds or making gifts to existing funds that distribute grants. These donors, past and present, make their gifts to ensure that programs and causes that matter most to them will be supported today and forever.

The Community Foundation is among the oldest and largest of approximately 800 community foundations in the United States and remains the largest grantmaker in a region of twenty-towns located in the heart of central Connecticut. The Community Foundation is recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)3 organization, and as such is exempt from federal income tax; donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

• Mission: To create positive and sustainable change in Greater New Haven by increasing the amount of and enhancing the impact of community philanthropy.
• Assets: The Community Foundation currently manages approximately $380 million in charitable assets. It uses a long-term asset allocation model to provide a predictable, increasing amount of revenue for grantmaking while maintaining the endowment’s purchasing power against the effects of inflation. 
• Funds: Over 900 charitable funds established by individuals, families, non-profit and for-profit businesses since 1928.
• Grants made: The Community Foundation’s funds distributed over $21 million in grants in 2012 (including grants made by funds of its affiliate the Valley Community Foundation) - contributing to the missions of hundreds of non-profits in Greater New Haven.

Local Communities Supported

• Ansonia
• Bethany
• Branford
• Cheshire
• Derby
• East Haven
• Guilford
• Hamden
• Madison
• Milford
• New Haven
• North Branford
• North Haven
• Orange
• Oxford
• Seymour
• Shelton
• Wallingford
• West Haven
• Woodbridge

History

The  original newspaper ad announcing the birth of The Foundation appeared in the New Haven Register in 1928. It reflects the founding members' vision that the institution become a vehicle to benefit the community, today and forever.

Osborne Day, a lawyer and bank executive in New Haven, was one of a small group that publicly launched The New Haven Foundation at a dinner in February 1928.

The group of 53 of the city’s most prominent citizens met in the President’s Room at Woolsey Hall. The evening’s guest speaker, New York Community Trust director Ralph Hays, explained the benefits of a community trust model to the audience of lawyers, bankers and educators.

The Foundation's Resolution and Declaration of Trust was adopted in 1927; eleven local banks accepted the Resolution and agreed to manage new funds established from that day forward. The Foundation received its first funds in September 1928 from the estate of Nettie J. Dayton.

 80th Anniversary Video Link

     Download The Foundation's 75th Anniversary Book

     Resolution and Declaration of Trust

     By-Laws