David P. O'Sullivan Fund

Throughout most of his working life, David P. O’Sullivan was in the business of asking for donations — for vegetables and fruits, money and bread — anything to keep New Haven’s Community Soup Kitchen feeding the many people it cared for.

With two million meals served across 40 years, seven as a volunteer and 33 as executive director, O’Sullivan was continually moved by the people he served and by the community’s generosity.

After he received an inheritance from his aunt, Patricia Barbara O’Sullivan Lucey, a legendary golfer who won many Connecticut and New England Women’s Amateur Championships, he established the David P. O’Sullivan Fund at The Community Foundation.

“One of the things that struck me was that I’d been asking for money throughout my career, and I thought 'wouldn’t it be neat to be able to give something.’ That was my motivation,” he said.

He had seen The Foundation’s impact firsthand, as the Community Soup Kitchen received Foundation grants and “donations from a great many family funds similar to mine, only older and more established,” he said. “I like the Fund’s permanence and the flexibility to be able to give to different causes.”

His first donation to the Catholic Archbishop’s Annual Appeal honors their longstanding support for the Community Soup Kitchen, said O’Sullivan, as “they were a long source of support for Community Soup Kitchen, and it’s a way to distribute more money to more groups.” Since then, he has supported more than a dozen local organizations, from the New Haven Symphony Orchestra to the Community Soup Kitchen.

O’Sullivan has also made estate plans through The Community Foundation, ensuring the David P. O’Sullivan Fund will support human services in perpetuity, and so echoing O’Sullivan’s own remarkable contributions to social services and basic needs in Greater New Haven.

He is proud to be able to “honor my aunt and to do something unique that I don’t believe anyone else in our family has done,” he said. “I feel very lucky to leave a legacy like this and to use this gift to help others.”

O’Sullivan said he hopes more people can learn about and lean on The Foundation in the future. “I think more people need to know The Foundation is there. It helps literally thousands of people; it has a very good reputation; and you don’t have to be a billionaire to help. A $50 donation is appreciated and will be put to good use,” he said. “I’m presenting that perspective of working both sides of the table, from asking for money from The Foundation to working with them.”