How We Create Lasting Change in Eastern Connecticut

We serve as a trusted civic leader, strategic partner, and resource steward—bringing together community members, nonprofit organizations, and donors who share a commitment to a more just, equitable, and thriving region.

By listening deeply, connecting across sectors, and focusing on long-term solutions, we help translate shared values into coordinated action. We do this by investing in community-led solutions, supporting the nonprofits that carry them forward, and advocating for the systemic change needed to unlock lasting progress.

The Foundation leads across sectors through four core strategies:

Grantmaking

Our grantmaking is an expression of our shared values and one of our most powerful tools for impact. Rooted in trust, informed by community voice, and focused on equity, we award millions of dollars each year to support nonprofits addressing the region’s most urgent needs—with particular focus on eliminating racial and economic disparities.

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Nonprofit Support

We strengthen the nonprofit sector through technical assistance, leadership development, and collaboration—so that local organizations can grow and sustain their impact.

Convening

We bring together community stakeholders—from residents and nonprofits to institutions, government, businesses, and subject matter experts—to share knowledge, build relationships, and drive collective solutions.

Advocacy

We advance policies that reshape the systems affecting the health, equity, and sustainability of Eastern Connecticut. This work complements direct funding by improving the conditions nonprofits and residents navigate every day. We leverage philanthropic resources entrusted to us and lead strategic efforts in partnership with donors, community organizations, and policy experts.

ADVOCACY in ACTION

OUR PRIORITY AREAS We focus our efforts around six interconnected community priorities.

Early Childhood Care & Education

Our Vision: Every child deserves a strong start. We invest in systems that ensure affordable, high-quality early care and education for all families.

  • Advocacy through the End Child Poverty Now movement that resulted in the establishment of an Early Childhood Education Endowment in the state of Connecticut. The Endowment will increase salaries and health care plans for early childhood workers, provide funding for child care facility improvements, and make early care free for many families starting in 2027.
  • Participation in the CT Early Childhood Funders Collaborative to bring a collective voice and philanthropic resources to build a comprehensive early childhood system that works for all families in the state.

Youth Development and Empowerment

Our Vision: Young people should be supported to lead, thrive, and define their futures with confidence.

  • Advocacy through the End Child Poverty Now movement for the state to fund universal, no-cost healthy school meals.
  • Since 2020, we have partnered with Connecticut College to fund a community internship for students that connects them to civic life in New London. Through the College’s Summer Civic Leaders program, they intern with nonprofits serving residents, gaining hands-on experience tackling local, real-world challenges.
  • $3.6 million in grants to support youth development and empowerment since 2020

Affordable, Safe, and Inclusive Housing

Our Vision: Everyone deserves a stable home. We work to expand housing access and challenge policies that create barriers to affordability.

  • Championing the launch of the Center for Housing Opportunity in Eastern Connecticut (CHO-EC). CHO-EC’s mission is to advance affordable housing by bringing together a myriad of partners working in tandem with municipalities, nonprofits, statewide advocacy organizations and more. The Center is a strategic partnership between seven nonprofits led by the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut and includes Connecticut College, Eastern Connecticut State University, the United Way of Southeastern Connecticut, the Housing Collective, Partnership for Strong Communities, and Regional Plan Association, which form the executive committee for CHO-EC.
  • Grants to create systemic solutions to the current housing affordability crisis for families. Through these inaugural grants, Access Community Action Agency and Partnership for Strong Communities are working with many partners to create innovative ways to overcome barriers to stable family housing in Eastern Connecticut.
  • Convening municipal leaders to discuss local solutions to the lack of affordable, stable housing in towns and cities across Eastern Connecticut. The Community Foundation has held meetings with various chief elected officials and town managers, as well as CHO-EC and nonprofits focused on affordable housing development and advocacy to answer questions, correct misperceptions about affordable housing, and brainstorm innovative solutions.
  • Advocating through the End Child Poverty Now movement for the expansion of good cause eviction protections to support family housing stability.

High-Quality, Affordable Health Care

Our Vision: Health is a human right. We work toward equitable access to care—especially mental and behavioral health—for all residents.

  • For several years, staff of the Community Foundation have held roles on the coordinating team of the Health Improvement Collaborative of Southeastern CT (HIC). The HIC is a group of organizations and community members committed to working together to create opportunities for health for all our community.
  • Participation in Health Equity Solutions & United Health Care Foundation roundtable discussions/convenings to increase investments in community health.
  • Submission of written testimony in support of the State naming racism a public health crisis.

Women’s and Girls’ Empowerment

Our Vision: When women and girls thrive, communities thrive. We advance gender equity in leadership, health, safety, and economic opportunity—supporting efforts that lift women’s voices and remove structural barriers.

Learn more about our Women & Girls Funds

  • The Community Foundation’s 2017 Report on the Status of Women & Girls in Eastern Connecticut led to the development of the Foundation’s Public Policy Task Force, which led efforts to galvanize constituents around issues critical to the needs and rights of women in our region: economic security, domestic violence, women’s access to healthcare, and political leadership.
  • Supporting expansion of paid sick days to support family economic security. This bill was signed into law in May 2024, thanks in large part to the advocacy efforts of our partner She Leads Justice.
  • Working with Safe Futures and the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence to advocate for legislation to protect victims.

Environmental Resilience

Our Vision: A healthy environment is essential to a healthy community. We support conservation, education, and environmental justice efforts that build long-term resilience.

Read more about our work around Environmental Education & Conservation

  • Lead advocacy and grantmaking as active member of the Long Island Sound Funders Collaborative. The health and well-being of Long Island Sound affects many people, and the problems we face cannot be solved by any one entity alone. Individuals, nonprofits, agencies, and foundations need to work together.
  • Convening experts and advocates to discuss environmental justice and community resiliency.
  • Funding regional efforts to mitigate challenges by climate change and environmental injustice, bringing together nonprofit, municipal and tribal advocates.
  • Funding for The Nature Conservancy to lead efforts that increase the pace and scale of conservation and in particular, climate change mitigation and adaptation.
  • Advocacy for environmental legislation in our state to protect our communities.