October, 2008
Dear Friend of the Foundation:
For nearly 70 years, the Community Foundation of Greater New Britain has made a substantial, positive difference in the communities it serves. We’ve done this not only through the generosity of our many caring donors, but through our ability to maximize the impact of that generosity by understanding the ever-changing nature of community challenges and how best to invest in solutions to address them.
We need your support today more than ever as our Partner in Philanthropy to continue making our communities the best places they can be to live, work and raise a family.
Of course, our communities were much different places 60, 40, even 20 years ago. A more demanding, complex world means that those entrusted to be community stewards, including the Community Foundation, must be ever-more diligent in embracing change, anticipating need and managing philanthropy to ensure that the programs and initiatives in which we invest meet the community’s most pressing needs.
We are proud to report that the Community Foundation is enthusiastically and successfully answering this challenge.
Some two years ago, we endeavored to answer a difficult question: How can we enhance our stewardship by achieving greater, more definable results from the grants we make? We spent countless hours evaluating who we are and what our role in the community can and should be, and working to identify the kinds of issues we wish to proactively address through future grant making. This process has resulted in:
• New community investment guidelines which will help the Foundation and its grantees partner more effectively to achieve measurable human gain;
• First Years First, a $1 million, five-year commitment to prepare the children of Berlin, New Britain, Plainville and Southington for success in school and in life through enhanced early childhood development;
• A renewed commitment to strengthen and expand our rich arts and cultural community, with a new resolve to link these programs and institutions with our area’s economic and community development efforts.
These newly energized efforts are making the Community Foundation a more relevant and vital agent for change than ever before. Add in our more than 140 professionally managed funds, which annually award upward of $1 million in grants and scholarships; our Celebrate Our Communities awards program, which salutes community heroes while raising awareness of the critical need for community service; and our Catalyst Fund, which takes grass roots philanthropy to a whole new level, and it is clear that we are truly living up to our founders’ vision of making a measurable improvement in our collective quality of life.
Of course, this momentum – and this impact – is vitally dependent on your generosity. As a Partner in Philanthropy, you, too, can be part of the Foundation’s fresh and exciting efforts to enhance our communities’ futures. Your gift, regardless of amount, will make a difference both today and tomorrow, and empower the Foundation to do the good work it does each and every day.
Please join us – become a Partner in Philanthropy today, and state emphatically to all, “I believe in my community, and I want to be part of the solution!”
Thank you for your generosity.
Sincerely,
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 |
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Gerry Amodio, Chair
Board of Directors |
James G. Williamson
President |
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