Valley Native to Chair Local Foundation

New Haven – The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven is pleased to announce that lifelong Ansonia-resident James (Jimmy) E. Ryan is chairing its Board of Directors in 2018.

This year is Mr. Ryan’s seventh and final year on the Board that governs Greater New Haven’s 90-year-old permanent charitable endowment, valued at over $600 Million. Now retired, Mr. Ryan served for over thirty years as the President of the Shelton Economic Development Corp. (1984-2016).

The Community Foundation serves a 20-town region of more than 640,000 people in Connecticut helping donors to fulfill their charitable wishes and strengthening the nonprofit sector through grants and training. Per affiliation agreement, Mr. Ryan also sits on the Board of the Valley Community Foundation, The Community Foundation’s partner in philanthropy in the Valley.

Great Give Raises Nearly $19,000 for Valley Homeless Shelter/Food Bank

SHELTON – The Area Congregations Together (ACT) Spooner House in Shelton was among the non-profits benefiting from the 36 hours of online giving during the Great Give^® organized by the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. Donations totaled $18,910 from 78 different individuals during the 2017 Great Give^® held on May 2 and 3.

The goal of raising more money from more people was met.

Spooner House did not receive enough donations during the designated fund raising period to unlock matching gifts and additional prize opportunities this year. Learn more about the results from Great Give® at thegreatgive.org.

In 2016 Spooner House received $17,374.27 in donations from 56 individuals and $1,310.64 in matching funds from the Valley Community Foundation and the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. More than 470 non-profit organizations participated in the 2017 Great Give^®.  

The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven’s 20 town service area includes: Ansonia , Bethany , Branford, Cheshire , Derby , East Haven, Guilford , Hamden , Madison , Milford , New Haven , North Branford, North Haven, Orange , Oxford , Seymour , Shelton , Wallingford , West Haven and Woodbridge.   

On Saturday May 13th the United States Postal Service (USPS) is running the annual

National Association of Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. Everyone in the lower Naugatuck Valley is encouraged to leave a bag of non-perishable food items next to their mailbox for this important nationwide collection. All donations from Shelton Households will be donated to Spooner House.  

More detailed information can be found on the Spooner House website, www.actspooner.org.   

Non-profit Area Congregations Together, Inc. (ACT) was formed in1979 to help fill gaps in the lower Naugatuck Valley 's social service network. Today, Spooner House is operated by ACT and is a facility that provides food, shelter and support services to approximately 175 men, women and children each year.

More than 4,000 individuals have been served by the Food Bank this past year, comprising more than 120,000 meals. Spooner House is recognized as one of the most comprehensive emergency shelter programs in Connecticut and through its food bank provides ten days' worth of groceries each month to participating families throughout the lower Naugatuck Valley . Spooner House is devoted to helping people establish self-sufficiency in an atmosphere of respect and dignity. Area Congregations Together, Inc. is a partner agency of the Valley United Way.

(This is a press release from Spooner House/ACT) 

The Community Foundation awards more than $2.4 million to Greater New Haven nonprofits

The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, the permanent endowment and largest grantmaker to nonprofit organizations serving the Greater New Haven region, announces that it has awarded $2,405,044 in one-year and multi-year grants to 43 nonprofits serving its 20-town region.

These grants are the culmination of The Community Foundation’s largest, annual competitive grants process, which began in March with 123 applicants requesting $9.2 million in total funding. This competitive process is only one element of The Foundation’s overall grantmaking, which is expected to exceed $20 million in total competitive and non-competitive grants in 2014.

“Each year The Community Foundation’s competitive grantmaking process highlights all the great work being done by nonprofits in our community and poses very difficult decisions for us in choosing which grants to support. As always, in making these decisions we have sought to find a balance among our community’s many opportunities and needs,” said William W. Ginsberg, president and CEO of The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.

Grants broken down by category are as follows: protecting the environment (1 grant for $20,000), supporting arts and culture (3 grants for $120,500), promoting civic vitality (4 grants for $183,000), boosting economic success (4 grants for $170,000), nurturing children and youth (6 grants for $278,000), meeting basic needs (7 grants for $355,000) and providing quality education (9 grants for $350,000). Because The Community Foundation has a sizable number of preference funds that support health services, the largest number of grants was made in the category of ensuring health and wellness (9 grants for $882,544), as in years past.

In seeing greater evidence that there is a transition occurring in the manner in which homeless shelter services are funded and delivered, The Community Foundation awarded several grants to nonprofits serving the homeless population in the region to ensure individuals and families at risk of being homeless or who are chronically homeless do not experience an interruption in services. These grant recipients include: Christian Community Action, Columbus House, Community Soup Kitchen, Connecticut Veterans Legal Center, Corporation for Supportive Housing, Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen, New Reach and Youth Continuum.

In alignment with emerging strategies identified by The Foundation’s Board of Directors, two grants were awarded to address issues of 1) incarceration and community reentry and 2) immigration integration. The Connecticut Women’s Consortium received $160,000 to support trauma-informed, gender responsive training and technical assistance to four agencies that provide services to formerly incarcerated individuals reentering the Greater New Haven community. That grant follows a decision by the Board earlier in the year to award $50,000 to The Transitions Clinic Network to serve the reentry population. To support immigration integration, JUNTA, which ensures that the rights of immigrants are respected and protected and that the Latino population is better represented in all segments of the community, received $50,000 for its general operations.

“The Community Foundation is committed to making New Haven and the region a welcoming community to all including the most vulnerable among us. This means ensuring that nonprofit organizations are prepared to serve the most vulnerable populations like undocumented immigrants and those returning to the region after incarceration. We want to ensure that these individuals have access to well-coordinated and quality services and that they have the tools they need to become civically engaged citizens. The Community Foundation has a long history working in these two areas and is committed to making more strategic investments that will lead to positive outcomes for individuals and the community,” says Christina Ciociola, Senior Vice President for Grantmaking & Strategy.

Illustrating how preference funds are used to support requests that align with donor intent, distributions from the Konopacke and Phelps Funds were used to support a local animal shelter and services for the aging, respectively.

Thanks to the Lillian and Henry Konopacke Fund, a grant was awarded to Animal Haven Inc., a private, nonprofit no-kill shelter for homeless cats and dogs located in North Haven. The Konopacke Fund was created in 2013 by bequest of New Haven native Henry Konopacke, who worked as a machinist at the Winchester Repeating Arms Factory. The fund states a preference to assist nonprofit animal shelters in the Greater New Haven area. The grant will be used to train staff and upgrade Animal Haven’s facility to prevent disease, ensure animal health and wellbeing and serve as a model for other shelters in Connecticut.

The John P. & Cora E. Phelps fund was established in 1962 as a preference fund by bequest of Emma P. Pelton, in honor of her grandfather and mother. A grant to the Town of Hamden was made possible from the fund for the Hamden Phelps Community Project, which provides short-term or emergency support to needy senior residents.

“Honoring donor intent is central to The Community Foundation’s grantmaking,” says Angela Powers, senior vice president for Development, Stewardship and Donor Services at The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. “We are very pleased to have identified grants that will make our community stronger in ways envisioned by Mr. Konopacke and Ms. Pelton.”

This year, as in the past, the responsive grant process for the Lower Naugatuck Valley was carried out collaboratively with The Community Foundation’s affiliate, the Valley Community Foundation. In addition to The Community Foundation’s $2.4 million, 12 Valley grants totaling $420,304 were awarded by the Valley Community Foundation, including one joint grant by the two foundations to Literacy Volunteers of Greater New Haven to help reestablish its literacy program in the Valley.

A complete list of grant recipients is available at http://www.cfgnh.org/

This is a press release from Tricia Caldwell, communications manager for The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.

President named at Valley Community Foundation

Appointment effective Jan. 28 

The Valley Community Foundation announced today that Sharon Reiss Closius has been appointed as VCF’s new President & CEO.
Effective Jan. 28, Closius will succeed Jamie Cohen, who had announced his upcoming retirement in July. Cohen led the organization for five years.
 

Closius

“In Sharon Closius we have found a candidate who has finance, operations and development experience, combined with an in-depth understanding of what a Community Foundation is and does. We believe that her diverse skill set will help VCF grow and expand Valley philanthropy well into the future,” said John Zaprzalka, Chairman of the VCF Board of Directors, who also led the Search Committee.

 “With her years of experience, Sharon understands the workings and challenges facing our local non-profit organizations, the necessity of prompt response to our community needs, and the wisdom of engaging with our Donors,” said Gregory Stamos, founder of several funds at VCF, and immediate past Chair of the VCF Board.

“I’m excited for this opportunity to join this young and growing organization that has such a strong local presence,” Closius said. “I look forward to working with the Donors and the nonprofits, and building on the work of my predecessors, so that VCF can have an even greater philanthropic impact in the Valley.”   

Closius comes to VCF from the Fairfield County Community Foundation as that organization’s Director of Philanthropic Services. In that capacity, she worked directly with donors on their philanthropic plans, and oversaw fund management and administration.

Prior to that, she served as FCCF’s Director of Development, and as Director of Finance and Administration. 

A Minnesota native, Closius earned a B.S. degree from the University of California Irvine, and an M.A. from Pepperdine University. 

She is a Certified Fund Raising Executive, the President and a Charter Member of the Bethel Toastmasters Club, and the mother of three children.

Established in 2004, the Valley Community Foundation is an affiliate of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. 

It serves Ansonia, Derby, Oxford, Seymour and Shelton, and is dedicated to making the Valley a better place to live and work. 

The organization is governed by a 15-member Board of Directors, each of whom lives and/or works in the Valley. 

In its first eight years, VCF has grown to 130 Funds and more than $14 million in assets, and has distributed more than $4.4 million to Valley not-for-profit organizations. Most importantly, it has become the go-to vehicle through which Valley people may continue their philanthropy in perpetuity. 

For information visit www.valleyfoundation.org.

This information was provided in a press release from the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.