Celebrating Five Years of the Greater Together Community Funds

In 2019, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving created 29 community funds, one for each of the towns in our grantmaking region. The Foundation seeded each fund with $100,000 for a total initial investment of $2.9 million. With the Foundation's support, residents of each town make decisions about how money from their funds is spent.

The Greater Together Community Funds is one of the largest participatory grantmaking programs ever created. The idea came from a Listening Tour that the Foundation held in 2018. After visiting each of our 29 towns and hearing from residents, we realized that the people in each town understood the challenges facing their town better than anyone, but lack the resources to make positive change. By giving town residents the resources to make grants, we can put the power in the hands of those closest to the issues.

This video celebrates the 5-year anniversary of the Greater Together Community Funds by looking back at its inception, from the Listening Tour, to the launch of the funds, to the present state of the program, and what's in store for the future. It was shown at a series of events honoring the Funds' anniversary.

At the beginning of 2025, as part of the Hartford Foundation's 100th anniversary, we announced another investment of $100,000 additional dollars toward each of the funds: https://www.hfpg.org/what-we-do/new-a...

Learn more about the Greater Together Community Funds: https://www.hfpg.org/donors/ways-to-g...