This June, the Women’s Giving Circle and the Waterbury Black Giving Circle rounded out their annual grantmaking cycles by awarding funds to several deserving, change-making groups who work to make our region a place where people have what they need to thrive.

 

“Giving Circles” are groups of generous, caring, community-minded people who come together around shared values and interests to make a bigger impact together. By pooling their resources, time, and ideas, circles support local nonprofits in meaningful ways. 

Connecticut Community Foundation is proud to strengthen these efforts by holding their funds, providing administrative support, building capacity, cultivating connections, and helping amplify their collective impact. 

In turn, throughout the year, Giving Circle members meet in welcoming ways and places to learn about the issues and opportunities affecting people ‘in their own backyards’ and beyond their neighbors and community. These gatherings are all about connection, learning, and collective action. 

At the end of each cycle, the group reviews proposals from nonprofit organizations and makes funding decisions as a community—supporting the projects they believe will make the most difference on the issues they care about most. 

The non-profit groups that receive support from the giving circles may be smaller or lesser-known organizations that are solving immediate problems and addressing needs at the local grassroots level. Because of their proximity to the people being served, circle members often feel a more personal, participatory connection with these causes.  

Members describe the satisfaction, the joy, the fun – and the greater sense of community – gained from making new social relationships and from the knowledge that they are helping right where they live, work, worship, play and call home. This joyfulness naturally carries into the celebrations that mark the culmination of each giving cycle. This year, the Women’s Giving Circle enjoyed a lovely spring evening reception at The Taft School as they voted on their final selection of grantees while the Waterbury Black Giving Circle awarded their grantees at a lively, music-filled Juneteenth celebration at Connecticut State Community College, Naugatuck Valley.

And with that, their collective contributions will flow out into the community to do serious, transformative, and amazingly beautiful work for our neighbors. The Foundation applauds the generosity, energy, and open hearts and hands of all giving circle members! 

 

 

The Waterbury Black Giving Circle – 2025 Grant Awards



The goals of the Waterbury Black Giving Circle (WBGC) are to cultivate charitable giving within the Black community, build capacity and sustainability of Black-led nonprofits, and address the most pressing needs of the Black community in Waterbury. For people of African descent – a population systematically denied wealth accumulation – collective giving carries cultural resonance and historical significance.  

This year, grant awards prioritized programs that tackle economic inequality through education and partnerships, help organize the Black community to gain political influence, and build networks for learning. The following groups received a total of $15,000 in funding from the WBGC:  
 

  • Black Boarders of Connecticut – For their ‘Moms on the Mountain’ program.
  • Lady of Love – For providing daily living essentials to local families in need.
  • North End Co-operative Market – For their Fall Harvest.
  • UnGroup Society – For the “Weekend Wind Downs” program. 


  • Additionally, the WBGC will award $2,600 in college tuition assistance to the top five African–American Waterbury Public High School graduates of 2025, through the In Search of Excellence Scholarship fund.  
     
    Thanks to the generosity of its members, the Waterbury Black Giving Circle at Connecticut Community Foundation has awarded over $50,000 in three years! 

 

 

The Women’s Giving Circle – 2025 Grant Awards
 
Since 2017, the Women’s Giving Circle has been convening in an energized spirit of caring and collaboration to actively help improve the lives of women and girls in the Greater Waterbury and Litchfield Hills community. Members share a passion for learning more about the consequential issues that impact women in our region, and a strong desire to support effective philanthropy that improves women’s health, employment, pay equity, and economic stability, housing opportunity, and parenting support. Over the last eight years, the Circle has awarded over $250,000 in grants to organizations advancing opportunities for women and girls in Greater Waterbury and the Litchfield Hills.
 
This year, the following organizations received a total of $30,000 in awards:

  • Greenwoods Counseling Referrals in Litchfield to support its affordable mental healthcare and addiction treatment for Women & Girls in Litchfield County. 
  • Brian Gibbons Homeless Outreach for its emergency services and outreach to  women in need who are at risk of being unhoused or are currently unhoused.  
  • Hang Time Connecticut for peer-led support for formerly incarcerated women 
  • McCall Behavioral Health Network  for a peer-led support group for adolescent youth that promotes voice, agency, and self-awareness.  
  • Naugatuck Valley Soup Kitchen for its free meal delivery program for vulnerable residents of Naugatuck.  
  • New Milford Affordable Housing for its Brookside Commons Basic Needs program, which provides shelter, food, healthcare, education, and safety for up to 99 women and children who were previously unhoused. 
  • YMCA of Greater Waterbury Youth Services to support youth and family emergency services including crisis support, family counseling, and housing assistance.  

To Join the Waterbury Black Giving Circle: 

Find out more here
Or contact Tallitha Richardson at trichardson@conncf.org

To Join the Women’s Giving Circle:
Find out more here
Or contact Mark Berardi at mberardi@conncf.org

Subscribe to the Foundation’s newsletter for updates to find out when the Waterbury Black Giving Circle and the Women’s Giving Circle will reconvene.