Beginning August 1, 2025, we are making important changes to our grantmaking process to streamline the application and reporting, and to open up new opportunities for our nonprofit partners and staff. This includes adjusting our timeline. We encourage you to carefully review the Grant Overview information and Grant FAQs for detailed information and to ensure proper planning and timely submission.

At the heart of Connecticut Community Foundation’s work is a deep commitment to strengthening the nonprofits, leaders, and communities we serve. Over the years, we’ve listened closely to our partners, reflected on our own practices, and asked the hard questions: Are we creating the conditions needed for trust, effective collaboration, and measurable impact? Are we using our time and yours wisely? Are we setting ourselves up to work well together and deliver the kind of impact this moment demands?

With these questions in mind, we are making intentional shifts in our grantmaking process. We are streamlining applications and reporting, making grants more sustainable, and removing unnecessary administrative hurdles. This isn’t about doing less; it’s about doing more of what matters most.

By making the process more efficient, we’re opening up new opportunities:

• Opportunities for nonprofits to focus on what drives impact.
• Opportunities to build stronger, more aligned partnerships.
• Opportunities for our staff to engage more meaningfully.

At Connecticut Community Foundation, we believe in strategic philanthropy that supports long-term resilience and bold collaboration. Our updated approach allows us to invest more deeply in people and ideas, not just proposals and forms.

Change requires both courage and clarity. This shift reflects our belief that the work ahead will necessitate more than grants; it will require a shared vision, meaningful connection, and a foundation that leads with purpose.

Please read more about our Grantmaking process on our website, and seek answers on our FAQs page. Nonprofits are welcome to contact our Program Officers to discuss specifics about your grant applications.

As always, we are grateful for the important and impactful work our local nonprofits do to help our community thrive. Connecticut Community Foundation remains honored to support it.

1. Building Equitable Opportunity: We are moving to an annual grant cycle for this comprehensive area, including economic security, educational equity, workforce housing, and youth development, with applications accepted each Fall. The next application will open on August 1, 2025, with a deadline to apply of September 8, 2025. There will not be a separate grant round in Spring 2026.

2. Health and Environmental Justice: We are moving to an annual grant cycle for this area focused on healthy communities and our environment. Grant applications will now be accepted once a year in the Fall. The next application will open on August 1, 2025, with a deadline to apply of September 8, 2025. There will not be a separate grant round in Spring 2026.

3. Pathways (Older Adults) We are moving to an annual grant cycle for the Older Adults focus area, with applications accepted each Spring. The next opportunity to apply will be in Spring 2026. The application will open February 8, 2026, and the deadline to apply is March 17, 2026. There will be no Fall 2025 grant round.

4. Strengthening Nonprofits is becoming a staff-led committee to foster more open and candid conversations while providing ongoing, responsive support. By deepening these relationships, we aim to be more flexible and supportive in meeting the evolving needs of partners, grantees, and organizations, thereby strengthening the nonprofit ecosystem in Greater Waterbury and the Litchfield Hills.

5. We’ve simplified the application to make it easier and more efficient for you to share what matters most about your work.

   While there are no date or deadline changes to our other grant focus areas at this time, please consult the Grantmaking Schedule closely.
   It will be updated with any future changes.

Josh Carey, Director of Grants Management 
jcarey@conncf.org
Arts and Culture; Building Equitable Opportunity; Pride in the Hills Fund; Southbury Community Trust Fund; scholarships.

Francesca Evangelista, Program Officer
fevangelista@conncf.org
Pathways for Older Adults; Health and Environmental Justice (Including Herbst Eye Research Fund); Saunders Fund for the Sick and Infirm of Naugatuck.

Patrick McKenna, Senior Program Officer
pmckenna@conncf.org
Organizational capacity building initiatives; Strengthening Nonprofits grants; Grassroots Leadership: ION Bank Foundation; Women’s Fund; McMillen Fund, Whittemore Travel Scholarship.

Yadira Perez, Director BRASS Program
yperez@conncf.org 
Director of older adults program, BRASS, in Waterbury.

Tallitha Richardson, Scholarship & Collective Giving Program Officer 
trichardson@conncf.org
Scholarships; Grassroots Leadership, Whittemore Travel Scholarship, general information about the Foundation’s Giving Circles.