The Hartford Awards Nearly $1 Million in Grants to Organizations

The Hartford Financial Services Group, headquartered in the city that bears its name, recently awarded $929,500 in grants to 20 nonprofit organizations in the Greater Hartford area. The company awards grants four times a year.

“In keeping with The Hartford’s philanthropic focus on local education, the majority of the grants fund programs that offer academic and cultural enrichment opportunities for city youth.,” said the bulletin.

“We believe education makes a permanent, positive difference in people’s lives,” stated Lynda Godkin, The Hartford’s senior vice president for state and community relations. “Our corporate grant program is closely aligned with our educational strategy to help ensure that by 2010 every graduating senior in Hartford city schools is academically prepared for college. We are pleased to support these many fine local organizations that will help meet that goal as well as those that improve the quality of life in Hartford.”

The proposed Connecticut Center for Science and Exploration was awarded a $185,000 grant for its capital campaign. The new attraction will be built at Adriaen’s Landing in downtown Hartford. Ramani Ayer, The Hartford’s chairman and CEO, serves on the Center’s executive committee.

The Boys & Girls Club of Greater Hartford received a $100,000 grant to install a vocational education center at its new headquarters, currently being built on Huntington Street. The organization was awarded an additional grant of $50,000 to fund its Brighter Futures program at West Middle Elementary School in Hartford’s Asylum Hill neighborhood.

The Northside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance (NINA) has been given $125,000 to further its work supporting homeownership and improving public safety in Asylum Hill. NINA’s member companies are The Hartford, Aetna, Mass Mutual Financial Group, ING, Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center and Webster Bank. In October, NINA announced its first major project, the restoration of five blighted Victorian homes that will be sold at prices affordable to working families.

Other organizations receiving grants ranging in size from $10,000 to $75,000 are: The Artists Collective; The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts; Camp Courant; Connecticut Rivers Council, Boy Scouts of America; Family Life Education; Foodshare; Foundation for Excellent Schools; Hartford Action Plan on Infant Health; Hartford Consortium for Higher Education; Hartford Proud and Beautiful; Hartford Stage Company for its InterACT program; Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford; Local Initiatives Support Corporation; Mayor Eddie Perez’s Homeownership Program; Rebuilding Together Hartford; and South Arsenal Neighborhood Development Corporation.

The Hartford has contributed about $5 million annually to various organizations, $2 million of which is earmarked for educational initiatives, college scholarships and support for its three partnership schools, West Middle Elementary School, Quirk Middle School and Hartford Public High School. Its employees volunteer at local schools and a variety of non-profit organizations, donating 30,000 hours of community service last year.

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