The Greater Hartford Gives Foundation seeks proposals from nonprofits or community groups conducting community organizing efforts led by people of color and/or people representing communities traditionally marginalized as they engage and activate residents locally for the purpose of more inclusive civic participation often with the potential for policy change.
Donor Name: Greater Hartford Gives Foundation
State: Connecticut
City: Selected Cities
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: (mm/dd/yyyy) 09/23/2026
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: 1 Year
Details:
Successful proposals could support community organizing efforts, broadly or around specific issue campaigns, increasing community organizing group or organizational capacity, and/or community organizing infrastructure to benefit the field in Greater Hartford.
Requests can address issues such as housing, education, health care, the concerns of returning citizens, and issues affecting LGBTQIA+ persons, or other issues identified by community members with preference given for efforts related to the advancement of racial justice.
Community organizing is defined as the process of building collective power among people— often those excluded from decision-making—to advocate for social, economic, or policy changes that address shared problems (Urban Institute).
Successful Community Organizing can lead to:
- Advocates representing underrepresented/marginalized populations who are communicating needs and ideas to those in positions of power
- Persistent community coalitions built to address identified local issues
- Policy changes reflective of broader community voice
- Legal action to address or current actions against negatively affected communities
Community organizing efforts might include conducting one on ones, information gathering and research meetings, hosting community meetings or forums, and leadership training. It could also include supporting community members as they identify common problems, develop strategies to address them, and support for community members as they participate in civic activities including advocacy
Funded requests could include but are not limited to efforts that increase racial/social justice issue awareness, increase civic education/issue awareness, increase community organizing organizational capacity (e.g. software, working with a consultant), increase resident leadership on racial/social justice issues, and/or increase community organizing network infrastructure to maximize effectiveness among multiple organizations. Examples of shared field infrastructure could include shared technology, meeting space or training providers/materials across groups in the Greater Hartford region.
Funding Information
Grant awards will range from $5,000 – $40,000.
Grant Period
1 year.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applications must be submitted by 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Community groups can use 501(c)(3) organization as a fiscal sponsor.
- Organization must be formed one year or more prior to applying.
- Applicant must be prepared to describe relationships and collaborations that support
organizing or advocacy efforts in application. - Board of directors and staff must be reflective of the racial/ethnic diversity of the
community members engaged. If the applicant 501(c)(3) is serving as a fiscal sponsor,
community group leadership must be reflective of the racial/ethnic diversity of the
population served. - Nonprofits may serve as a fiscal agent for multiple projects.
- Applications can be submitted for projects that support more than one group or
nonprofit. - The Foundation does not consider the typical activities of professional networking groups and associations to be community organizing
- Organizations and groups whose applications were previously denied should contact
Foundation staff before reapplying to discuss the reason for denial.
For more information, visit Greater Hartford Gives Foundation.
