The New Canaan Community Foundation (NCCF) recently announced $635,299 in grant investments supporting a total of 78 nonprofit organizations in New Canaan and neighboring communities.
The Foundation’s annual grant process distributes funds raised from donors across the community, who give at all different levels to pool their collective resources and make their community a better place. Together, with the Foundation’s other grantmaking programs, NCCF will invest more than $2.8 million in the community this year.
Every year, NCCF’s grantmaking goal is to provide impactful funding for a range of programs serving the community. This spring’s 78 grants support five categories, in pursuit of the following results:
• Human Services – Community members are able to meet their basic needs
• Arts, Culture & Community Resources – Community members benefit from New Canaan’s cultural, recreational, and other community resources
• Youth & Education – Youth have the academic, social, and financial support they need to succeed
• Health – Community members have the information and access to services they need to stay healthy
• Seniors & Special Needs – Older adults and persons with special needs achieve and maintain a high quality of life
This year, the Foundation chose to place additional focus on several key areas – including COVID-19 response and, for the fourth year in a row, behavioral health.
The Foundation’s COVID-19 Response Fund launched in March of 2020 and invested over $680,000 to: support the emergency financial needs of New Canaan families and workers; help nonprofit organizations adapt to changing client needs, as well as shifts in operations; and support critical services in lower Fairfield County. To date the Foundation has dispersed the entirety of the COVID-19 Response Fund, but continues to assess and include pandemic-related service needs in its overall grantmaking.
Behavioral health is a broad category that includes mental health as well as substance misuse issues. For the past four years, the Foundation’s Behavioral Health Committee has overseen this strategy. Together with this spring’s awards of $91,500 to nine organizations, the Foundation has invested nearly $350,000 in this issue area over the last four years. “Throughout the stress of COVID-19, and in the context of increasing national focus on mental health, the Foundation is especially pleased to continue grantmaking, collaboration, and community leadership work in the area of Behavioral Health,” shared Laura Dobbin, the Foundation’s Board Chair. At the start of the pandemic, the Foundation and more than 40 local partners worked on “Let’s Talk About It New Canaan,” a local campaign to increase visibility and reduce stigma associated with behavioral health. The re-launched website www.LetsTalkAboutItNC.org offers resources and information for New Canaan residents. More recently, the Foundation has also been engaged in partnering to support the new behavioral health assessment model that will launch soon at Silver Hill Hospital.
Lauren Patterson, the Foundation’s President & CEO, commented that this year’s grant cycle fully funded a record 22 grant requests, as well as leveraged nearly $56,000 in Donor-Advised Fund co-investments – a testament to the dozens of local families housing their charitable funds with the Foundation, who can give anywhere across the country but choose to frequently invest their dollars in local nonprofits.
Also notable, new grantees for the Foundation’s investments this year include: Children in Placement, Connecticut Inc.; Community Mindfulness Project; Gospel Garden; Howard Bossa & Peter Langenus Post No. 653 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars; Malta House, Inc.; New Canaan Chamber Music; New Canaan Ice Rink (NC Rink, Inc.); The Housing Collective; and Women’s Business Development Council.
Total grants this spring were made as follows. An asterisk (*) indicates co-investment by a donor-advised fund or a partner organization:
Human Services – $205,500 to 21 organizations, ensuring community members feel safe and are supported to get their basic needs met.
• Building One Community*: To support its Workforce Development Program, which addresses the need to integrate immigrants into the workforce by providing programs that are proven to help them gain the English language and job skills that increase their employability leading to self-sufficiency.
• Child Advocates of Connecticut, Inc.: To expand volunteer advocacy services for abused and neglected children in Fairfield County in three areas: Court Appointed Special Advocacy volunteers to advocate for abused children; Probate Court Volunteer Advocates; and Community Advocates for Children and Youth, a program where volunteers work on-on-one with vulnerable children.
• Children in Placement, Connecticut, Inc.: To provide volunteer court-appointed child advocates serving in court as Guardian ad Litem (GALs) for children and youth within the child welfare system who have been victims of domestic abuse, violence, or are living in unstable home and family settings.
• Circle of Care: To support the Lifeline Emergency Fund, a financial assistance program that alleviates some of the financial difficulties families experience when their children are undergoing treatment for cancer. With 70% of families experiencing a financial crisis during treatment, and 50% of those the organization supports living below the poverty level, Circle of Care provides help by paying for expenses directly, like mortgages or utility bills, so that no parent has to choose between caring for a sick child and providing for their family.
• Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants*: To support affordable, high-quality immigration legal services to low-income immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and naturalized citizens, with a focus on victims of domestic violence and other serious crimes in the Stamford area.
• Domestic Violence Crisis Center*: To support the expansion of the Youth and Family Counseling program to better provide trauma-informed child and parent-child specific therapy as well as support groups for the children of their clients.
• Exchange Club Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse of Southern CT: To support to the Exchange Club’s home visitation model, which has become the organization’s most significant and successful method of fighting against child abuse by working directly with at-risk parents to break
the cycle of violence. This program focuses on helping individuals to broaden and build upon their strengths, replacing old violent habits with new strength-based strategies.
• Filling in the Blanks*: To support the organization’s core Weekend Meal Program, which provides food on weekends during the school year for students facing food insecurity, as well as their Summer Meal Program which serves students while school is out.
• Food Rescue US*: To expand the organization’s volunteer-driven, community-based food rescue platform in Fairfield County. The platform reroutes surplus food which would otherwise be thrown away to organizations serving food insecure people.
• Human Services Council: To support Children’s Connection, a Nationally Accredited Child Advocacy Center, which provides wrap-around case coordination, support, education and treatment services to children who have been sexually and/or physically abused and their family members. Services are available completely free of charge to individuals who live, work or were victimized in the communities of New Canaan, Norwalk, Wilton, Weston and Westport.
• Inspirica: To provide general operating support to both Residential Programs (which include emergency, transitional and affordable housing) and Non-Residential/Support Services Programs (which includes children’s services, job training, counseling and other support services). Inspirica’s mission is to shelter the homeless and to fundamentally break the cycle of homelessness by addressing not just the physical component, but also its underlying root causes.
• Kids In Crisis*: To support Safe Haven for Kids, which operates 24/7/365 to serve New Canaan and CT children (newborn – 18) who are unsafe at home, primarily as the result of severe family conflict, mental health issues, physical/emotional abuse or neglect, domestic abuse, parental substance abuse, family emergencies and family homelessness. Safe Haven for Kids comprises three 24-hour services at no cost: the Crisis Helpline, Crisis Prevention and Intervention, and an Emergency Shelter Program.
• Malta House*: To support the operational expenses of Malta House’s nurturing home environment and support services so they can break the cycle of poverty for pregnant and parenting mothers and their children. Services include: food and shelter; education; job skills training; parenting skills training; health, nutrition, cooking, budgeting, and finance classes; baby supplies; mentoring; childcare; and spiritual guidance.
• New Covenant Center: To meet the needs of the most vulnerable in Lower Fairfield County by reducing food and economic insecurity among the neediest in greater Stamford. Services include a Soup Kitchen/Café, Food Pantry, and collaborations with Inspirica, Saint Joseph’s Parenting Center, and others.
• Open Doors: To provide general operating support for Open Doors and their innovative model to end homelessness in the Greater Norwalk area by: preventing homelessness through their food pantry, clothing center, and Financial Opportunity Center; offering homeless services such as shelter, case management, hot meals, and employment services; and encouraging housing stability by providing transitional housing and case management.
• Pacific House: To support the Emergency Meals Program, which aims to meet the basic nutritional needs of the shelter’s clients. The program has seen a dramatic increase in demand since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic – in FY21, they prepared and served over 95,930 meals – a 58% increase from FY20.
• Person-to-Person: To provide general operating support so that P2P continues to provide clients with economic and educational inputs that result in well-informed, financially stable and hunger-free homes in Lower Fairfield County. Services include: grocery and dry good pantries; “free store” clothing centers; emergency financial assistance for covering rent, utility, childcare, medical, and skills training expenses; and college scholarships.
• Pro Bono Partnership: To support free legal services to nonprofit organizations serving Fairfield County, including many Foundation grantees.
• Saint Joseph Parenting Center: To provide general operating for SJPC to achieve their mission, which is to strengthen families at risk of abuse and neglect through comprehensive parenting education and targeted support. SJPC offers three programs: The General Parenting Program (GPP), which reviews essential material like Budgeting, Nutrition, Behavior and Discipline, An Overview of Learning Disabilities, and more; Women’s Circle Support Group, which offers mothers a space to bond, build support networks, navigate their personal histories, and explore topics around motherhood such as women empowerment, healthy relationships, and more; and the new Dads are the Difference (D.A.D.s) Fatherhood Program, which provides a space for fathers to explore their ideals around fatherhood, their role in the child’s life, co-parenting, and other important father-related topics.
• Tiny Miracles Foundation: To support the Financial Assistance Program (FAP), which provides services for families with premature babies, including: personal mentoring of families, provision of supplies, maintenance of family resource rooms, financial assistance, support groups, educational forums, After the NICU resources, and after-care programs.
• Women’s Mentoring Network: To support the E to the 4th POWER Program (Employment, Education, Economic Security, Empowerment), which provides the foundational tools for low-income women and their families to find better employment and educational opportunities resulting in increased financial security. Women’s Mentoring Network offers one-on-one individualized sessions in addition to weekly Life Skills Workshops. Services and programs are free and focus on job preparedess, financial literacy, digital & computer literacy.
Health – $132,500 to 13 organizations helping community members have the information and access to services they need to stay healthy. As part of this total, $91,500 specifically addresses behavioral health:
• Americares Free Clinics: To support the Bob Macauley Americares Free Clinic of Norwalk, ensuring that low-income uninsured patients are able to receive medical care.
• Family Centers*: To support for the Den for Grieving Kids, which provides bereavement programs that enable children ages 3-18 and their families who are struggling with the loss of a parent, spouse, sibling or friend to: process feelings of grief, learn coping strategies, gain support from others in the community, and begin their journey toward healing.
• Gospel Garden: To extend the retaining wall and tier the hillside to protect Gospel Garden, the volunteer-run vegetable garden located in the rear of St. Mark’s Church. The garden grows and delivers fresh fruits and vegetable to the New Canaan Food Pantry and Person-to-Person.
• The Rowan Center: To support the Sexual Assault Response and Prevention for Teens in Lower Fairfield County program, which will place a full-time state-certified Crisis Counselor/Youth Advocate in high schools. This counselor will meet the growing demand for support services from teen victims of sexual violence who choose school counseling.
Behavioral Health
• Child Guidance Center of Southern CT*: To support high-quality mental health services for children and teens in New Canaan and surrounding communities, regardless of their families’ ability to pay.
• Community Mindfulness Project: To support evidence-based meditation and mindfulness practices that support people’s physical, psychological, emotional and social well-being. Through workshops and trainings, this community programming has been offered in corporations, leadership organizations, and schools.
• Laurel House*: To support the salary of an additional Supported Education (SEd) counselor, who will work closely with students suffering from mental illness and substance use disorders to: choose a post-secondary program in which to enroll; complete financial aid applications; and provide ongoing assistance to sustain psychiatric stability and skills improvement.
• Liberation Programs: To support general operating, including inpatient treatment programs, outpatient services, and resources for youth, adults, and families impacted by substance use and mental health conditions.
• Mid Fairfield Child Guidance Center: To provide general operating support to Mid-Fairfield, which serves as the safety net for low and middle-income families in the greater Norwalk area who cannot afford or access private mental and behavioral health services for their children and other family members.
• New Canaan CARES*: To support the operational expenses that enable CARES to maintain and grow the high quality, curated educational programming that strengthen parenting skills, positive youth development, and healthy lifestyles.
• New Canaan Parent Support Group*: To support the organization’s mission to provide support for parents of loved ones struggling with substance use disorder or in early recovery; and to raise awareness about addiction, mental health and recovery in our community.
• Norwalk Community Health Center: To support Learning to Breathe, a research-based Mindfulness Program for Adolescents. The six-week program serves up to ten 11-17 year-olds, with a curriculum that cultivates emotion regulation, attention, and performance with special emphasis on compassion and trauma-informed practice. Ultimately, the program’s goal is to reduce risky behaviors, actions and decisions that can delay or derail their well-being and future success.
• New Canaan Recovery Corps: To support the operation and marketing of New Canaan Recovery Corps, a group of local recovery professionals offering free, confidential support to town residents looking to address existing or potential problems with drinking and/or substance use. Funds will be used primarily to generate awareness of the service, to make recovery services visible and to reduce stigma which prevents people from accessing these services.
• Voices Center for Resilience: To implement a mental health awareness campaign consisting of live webinars conducted by subject-area experts on critical mental health and wellness topics.
Seniors & Special Needs – $101,800 to 11 organizations ensuring older adults and persons with special needs achieve and maintain a high quality of life.
• Abilis, Inc.: To support a partnership with the Café at the New Canaan YMCA, which will offer participants in the Abilis Employment program – members of the special needs community – the opportunity to be employed and gain work experience in a community setting.
• ElderHouse, Inc.*: To support the Financial Assistance Program (FAP), which increases access to ElderHouse’s affordable, high quality adult day services for low-income seniors. These essential services improve health outcomes for participants while family caregivers have an opportunity to continue employment or accomplish other necessities to maintain a stable home environment for their elderly family member.
• Family & Children’s Agency*: To support FCA’s Home Care programs that provide services to seniors that allow them to remain safe and independent as they “age in place.” Programs include Personal Alert Services, Home Health Aides, Assisted Transportation, household management assistance, chore services, and more.
• GetAbout: To support the organization’s mission of providing transportation services to seniors and anyone with special needs in the New Canaan community.
• Meals on Wheels of New Canaan: To support meal delivery for residents of New Canaan whose physical, emotional, mental, medical or social condition makes it difficult to provide these meals for themselves, regardless of their ability to pay.
• New Canaan Mounted Troop: To support the Super Troopers equine care and adaptive riding therapeutic programs, which are dedicated to serving children and adults with special needs who reside in the local community.
• Saint Catherine Center for Special Needs: To support their Arts & Movement program, which includes music, art, movement, and theatre, for children and young adults with special needs. Regular participation in the arts gives individuals with special needs the opportunity to participate more fully in the community.
• Stamford Museum & Nature Center: To support Animals for All, which provides special needs people of all ages hands-on, small group interaction with Heckscher Farm animals to teach kindness for all living creatures, foster a sense of trust and responsibility, help to create an understanding of boundaries, and deliver an essential outdoor experience. Participants will be allowed to engage directly in the care, feeding, enrichment, and cleaning of our farm and exotic animals in a small group atmosphere.
• STAR, Inc., Lighting the Way… : To support STAR’s early Intervention program which provides pediatric therapies to children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD), including speech, physical and occupational therapy, special education, parent support, social services, assistive technology and referral.
• Staying Put in New Canaan: To support the Staying Put Scholarship Fund, which will provide membership to those who have limited financial means and/or physical and emotional disabilities. Staying Put provides its members with hands-on support, including access to medical and life-planning advice and transportation to appointments. A primary goal is to support social interaction, which is a major factor in being able to lead a happy and healthy life.
• Waveny Care Center, Inc.: To support the implementation of state-of-the art telehealth services to our community, giving patients the opportunity to access medical diagnosis/ treatment and wellness maintenance care virtually, preventing possible complications and unnecessary hospitalizations.
Arts, Culture & Community Resources – $132,499 to 21 organizations working to preserve, expand, and use New Canaan cultural and recreational resources.
• Earthplace*: To expand Harbor Watch’s water quality monitoring program in the Five Mile, Noroton and Rippowam Rivers in New Canaan and for support of experiential learning programs for high school and college students, including New Canaan students. Water quality monitoring will provide municipal officials with the data necessary to locate and fix pollution sources. Due to budget limitations, most municipalities do not have the funding, laboratory space, or qualified personnel to collect this critical data.
• The Glass House: To support Glass House Presents, an ongoing series of free public talks about architecture, design, and Modernism in New Canaan and beyond. Glass House Presents brings together lectures and conversations by notable architects, artists, curators, scholars, and others who explore issues related to the built environment and contemporary culture. In the coming year, Glass House will present 7 programs at the New Canaan Library.
• Howard Bossa & Peter Langenus Post No. 653 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars: To enable VFW to continue their town-wide activities that are so much a part of New Canaan, including: maintaining Bronze plaques at Town Hall, placing flags on veteran’s graves on Memorial Day and wreaths on Christmas in collaboration with other local organizations, coordinating the Memorial Day Parade, collaborating with Scout Troops and Eagle Scout Projects, and more.
• The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk: To provide general operating support to help the Aquarium carry out its mission: to inspire people to appreciate and protect Long Island Sound and the ocean beyond through exemplary living exhibits, marine science and environmental education initiatives.
• New Canaan Chamber Music*: To provide general operating support to NCCM, which brings fine classical chamber music played by world class performers to audiences from New Canaan and the surrounding area. NCCM provides a full season of performances in New Canaan, produces outreach programs that foster interest and understanding of classical music among young people, and enhances the town’s attractiveness as a destination for visitors.
• New Canaan Ice Rink (NC Rink, Inc.): To provide general operating support to the community-led initiative intended to bring an open-air ice rink for seasonal recreational purposes. The rink will be the first of its kind in New Canaan, bringing to our community a winter-time gathering space.
• New Canaan Land Trust*: To support a series of programs that connect to and build on the theme of the 2022 Sculpture Trail, including: a field trip for NCPS students; an outing for local seniors; an outing for those with special needs in New Canaan; and a program featuring an invited lecturer.
• New Canaan Museum & Historical Society: To support October4design, NCM&HS’s annual celebration of architecture, art and design, including: six speakers, and an online system for registration, ticket distribution, and attendance monitoring.
• New Canaan Nature Center: To support the organization’s mission of inspiring people of all ages to respect, protect, and enjoy the world of nature through environmental education, stewardship of natural resources and service to the community and to support the salary cost of a part-time grounds keeper to ensure the upkeep and maintenance of the Nature Center.
• New Canaan Society for the Arts – Carriage Barn: To further contribute to the renovation of the Carriage Barn, which – in addition to creating new spaces dedicated to educational programs, creative workshops, artist meet-ups and community gatherings – will make the facilities safer, more ADA compliant, and more comfortable.
• New England Dance Theater: To provide general operating support to sustain and expand all components of their Arts Accessibility Program: NEDT Productions, which covers costs of putting on performances; NEDT in the Community, which underwrites performances directly in the community, such as the annual Nutcracker Benefit Show; and NEDT Dance, which provides widespread access to dance classes for underprivileged children and adults with developmental disabilities.
• Norwalk Symphony Orchestra: To support the (Not) Just for Kids program, a flagship education program that reaches into after-school programs for underserved students and presents 24 programs over six weekends during the concert season. Each weekend’s theme of programs is tied to an upcoming Symphony concert and spotlights different instrument families, mixed ensembles, conducting, composing and other topics. A moderator provides STEAM related history, math concepts, and musician vocabulary through the discussion of topics.
• Shakespeare on the Sound: To support the launch of the Shakespeare Teen Troupe in fall 2022, initially recruiting students from Norwalk and Brien McMahon High Schools (and then others from the area, if necessary) for half a dozen or more weekends of training and rehearsal under the guidance of the Director of Educational Outreach, with planned performances in the winter/spring of 2023.
• Silvermine Guild of Artists: To kick-start the first phase of a Ceramics studio renovation, which will upgrade the aging facility to serve the next generation of students and art-lovers.
• Stamford Symphony Orchestra: To expand both a free community concert series, which will start with a performance at the Carriage Barn Arts Center, and a series of music education activities in partnership with New Canaan Public Schools.
• Summer Theatre of New Canaan: To support the continued development of the Theatre for a Young Audience (TYA) programs, including the summer young family shows and the show’s touring elementary schools in the off-season.
• Sustainable CT: To support one Fellow, a college student, to be placed with the Western CT Council of Governments to work directly with New Canaan, Darien, Norwalk, Stamford and Wilton. The mission of Sustainable CT is to provide municipalities with resources and tools to help them become more sustainable and to certify and recognize municipalities for their on-going sustainability achievements.
• The Housing Collective: To support Fairfield County Talks Housing, a fact-based, community-led discussion series that allows residents to learn more about the housing issues they care about and for the organization to better understand how Fairfield County residents feel about housing affordability and related issues like education and economic development. Ultimately, this program aims to develop intentional and collaborative policies to address disparities, reduce segregation, and increase housing affordability in CT, while also addressing the public misunderstanding about the implications of affordable housing opportunities.
• Treetops Chamber Music Society*: To support the Concert Series at the Carriage Barn Arts Center, as well as post-concert receptions which allow for audience members to interact with the artists and ask questions, which further enhances the educational experience.
• Waveny Park Conservancy: To help initiate and onboard Waveny Park Conservancy’s first Executive Director, who will help lead development efforts and guide maintenance process to assure new projects are sustainable.
• Women’s Business Development Council: To provide general operating support to WBDC, which seeks to strengthen and support economic success for women through entrepreneurial services that launch and grow businesses across Connecticut by facilitating mentorships, holding workshops, and making grants.
Youth & Education – $63,500 to 12 organizations helping youth build the academic, social, and financial support they need to succeed.
• Carver Foundation of Norwalk: To support the redesign of the Carver High Afterschool Program, which takes place at the Carver Community Center and provides hands-on, personalized learning experiences for students who are economically challenged and/or academically at risk.
• Children’s Learning Centers of Fairfield County: To support its early childhood education (birth to five years old) and support services for low-income families in Stamford and lower Fairfield County.
• Domus Kids: To support the Work & Learn employment readiness training program, which exposes young people to paid, hands-on work in a supportive environment. The program targets disengaged and disconnected youth between the ages of 12-25 in Stamford and surrounding towns.
• Future 5: To support the organization’s mission serving motivated, low-income high school students in Stamford, so that they graduate with an actionable plan and the necessary resources to move on to a four-year or two-year college, trade school, professional job, or the military.
• Horizons at New Canaan Country School: To support the organization’s mission of transforming the lives of underserved children and youth from Stamford and Norwalk through year-round academic and enrichment programs to inspire learning, encourage success, and close the opportunity gap.
• INTEMPO: To provide high-quality intercultural music education to low-income children – predominantly from immigrant or first-generation backgrounds and from communities underrepresented in the arts; to help them build critical emotional, cognitive, and behavioral skills; and to empower them to leverage these skills to achieve lifelong success.
• LiveGirl: To support general operating for the girl’s leadership organization that builds confident, inclusive leaders using evidence-based programs. Programming includes: Confidence Club, a small group of middle school girls that meet weekly with a Professional Mentor; Camp LiveGirl, a middle school leadership camp at St. Luke’s School; LiveGirl League, a high school leadership program that creates change agents; SHE WORKS, a college & career readiness and internship program; and She Cares: 1:1, a mentorship program that provides mental health and career readiness support (grades 5 through college).
• Mercy Learning Center: To support the Early Childhood Education Program, which provides a safe, educational and compassionate space for children so that mothers can focus on their own basic literacy and life skills training. Ensuring that children are English-fluent and prepared for success in kindergarten and beyond is key to MLC’s two-generation family literacy approach.
• Norwalk Community College Foundation: To support the Summer Bridge Math Intensive Program, which prepares students who have placed into remedial math for college-level courses, and provides them with connections to college support services, student activity groups, tutoring, and financial support.
• Norwalk/Stamford Grassroots Tennis & Education: To support year-round, out-of-school time youth development, based on the organization’s strategic mission to develop and implement a clearly defined Grassroots pathway for student-athletes both on and off the court.
• Stamford Cradle to Career: To expand the Restorative Practices initiative to students in 4 out of 5 of Stamford middle schools. The goal of the initiative is to implement a system-wide approach to creating safe, welcoming, inclusive environments where ALL students’ academic, social, emotional and physical health needs are met by adjusting practices all across the community—in schools, after school programs at community centers, the public library system, law enforcement, and more.
• Stepping Stones Museum for Children: To support the Youth Enrichment at Stepping Stones program (YES2) and the Mutt-i-grees program, which is an integrated part of YES2. YES2 offers participants, age 11-18 years old, enrichment opportunities and skills in leadership, workplace readiness and positive social/emotional development. Participants are provided with real-world hands on work experience at the museum and through mentor guidance. The Mutti-i-grees program is unique in its bridging of humane education and the use of shelter animals with the emerging field of Social and Emotional Learning.
The New Canaan Community Foundation, founded in 1977, serves as New Canaan’s local partner for advice, leadership, and facilitation of charitable giving. Their vision strives for a New Canaan that comes together to address both individual and local challenges, enriching the lives of all community members. To-date, the New Canaan Community Foundation has invested over $21 million in nonprofit organizations, working with individuals and businesses to achieve their philanthropic goals through donor-advised funds and other partnerships. Learn more at www.newcanaancf.org