Community Foundation Expands and Extends Commitment to New Haven Promise with $1.3 Million Grant

[The Community Foundation for GNH]

New Haven, CT (September 19, 2016) –The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, the region’s permanent endowment and largest grantmaker to nonprofits, announces that it has committed $1.3 Million to New Haven Promise (NHP). The grant will be distributed over three years starting in 2017, following the end of The Foundation's current grant to NHP.

“The Community Foundation sees New Haven Promise as one of the most ambitious and important things happening in our community today,” says William W. Ginsberg, President and CEO of The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. “It is creating a college-going culture in our schools and promoting college access and success for our most promising young people. The Foundation is deeply proud of our role in helping to create, sustain and grow New Haven Promise since 2010 and we are very excited about what New Haven Promise can contribute over the next three years. With more and more NHP Scholars graduating and returning to our city with the education and skills needed in today’s economy, New Haven Promise is proving itself to be indispensable to how our community creates opportunity for the next generation of our young people.”

“Nearing the end of its sixth year of operation, New Haven Promise has provided invaluable scholarship benefits in excess of $5.2 Million for more than 1,000 students and their families in New Haven,” says Patricia Melton, President of New Haven Promise. “It has developed stronger connections for New Haven’s most accomplished and best educated students with Connecticut’s institutions of higher education and with local institutions and employers through mentorship and career-focused internships. Our students benefit from an entire city’s support and their success is our community’s success.”

Since its founding, New Haven Promise has been The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven’s largest and highest profile programmatic commitment. With this grant, it will remain so. The Foundation has provided approximately $3 Million in administrative support for NHP since 2010. The Community Foundation appoints a member of the NHP board of directors.

New Haven Promise was established in November of 2010 by way of a five-year three party agreement by and among The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, Yale University and the New Haven Board of Education. Its program consists of three pillars: “To: College Access; Through: College Success; And Back: Career and Civic Launch.” It provides scholarships of up to 100% tuition for residents and graduates of New Haven Public Schools and local charter schools attending a public college or university in Connecticut. A key to New Haven’s future, Promise is revitalizing the City of New Haven through increasing educational attainment, cultivating a culture of college-readiness, reducing high school dropout rates, and promoting community and parental engagement. New Haven Promise is currently supported and funded by Yale, The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, Yale-New Haven Hospital, and other donors and has received support from other funders, including Wells Fargo.

Thanks to the generosity of three generations of donors, The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven awarded over $30 million in grants and distributions in 2015 from charitable assets of more than $500 million composed of hundreds of individually named funds. In addition to its grantmaking, The Community Foundation helps build a stronger community by taking measures to improve student achievement, create healthy families in New Haven, promote local philanthropy through www.giveGreater.org® and The Great Give®, and encourage better understanding of the region. The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven’s 20 town service area includes: Ansonia, Bethany, Branford, Cheshire, Derby, East Haven, Guilford, Hamden, Madison, Milford, New Haven, North Branford, North Haven, Orange, Oxford, Seymour, Shelton, Wallingford, West Haven and Woodbridge. For more information about The Community Foundation, visit www.cfgnh.org, find us on Facebook at www.facebook.org/cfgnh or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cfgnh.

Media Contact: Ratasha Smith, Community Foundation for Greater New Haven 203-777-7096 [e-mail]