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.

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