Gratitude in Action:
Community Impact in 2024

Dear Friend,

Though it has been a challenging year for many in our community, we have reasons to be thankful.

One thing we are thankful for at the Community Foundation is closing a tremendous year of grantmaking that has helped advance opportunity for thousands across our region.

Fairfield County is home to an amazing array of nonprofit partners and, through $4.8 million in strategic grantmaking this year, we supported the efforts of more than 165 local nonprofits working to create lasting, sustainable change in our county.

Through partnership with our fundholders, another $6.25 million in financial support has flowed to Fairfield County organizations making a positive impact in our community.

As I reflect on our work over the past year, I’m also extraordinarily proud of the many new ways we are helping to make a difference:

• Honeycomb Credit, a peer-funded loan platform is working with us to invest portions of our endowment in small businesses started by diverse founders in low- to middle-income neighborhoods.

These loans are helping entrepreneurs like Nikkya Hargrove, who leveraged the capital provided through Honeycomb to turn her pop-up Obodo Serendipity bookstore into a brick-and-mortar community hub in Stratford.

• The Changemakers Fund — a power-building collaborative we are pursuing with peer community foundations is delivering direct cash payments to local changemakers with low incomes who are working to alleviate financial hardships for themselves and their communities.

Over three years, 40 households in Greater Bridgeport will receive monthly payments to improve their conditions — with similar efforts underway in New Haven and Hartford.

• The Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County, the Bridgeport Regional Business Council, and the Connecticut Data Collaborative have partnered with the Community Foundation to launch Arts in the Service of Equity — a $750,000, three-year program that is supporting local arts collaboratives in Greater Bridgeport to drive social change through the arts.

Together with these and many other wonderful partners and colleagues, we’re making real progress toward creating a Fairfield County where every person can reach their full potential.

And none of this would have been possible without the generosity of our donors— individuals, families, and organizations that are supporting their neighbors through their philanthropy.

This year, I’m more aware than ever about what makes our community special — and I’m optimistic that our best days are ahead.

Throughout this holiday season I encourage you to take a moment to celebrate the ways you’ve contributed to our community — and to commit to joining us in building on those contributions in the year ahead.

If you’d like to share some of your own reflections on the brightest moments, challenges or opportunities before us as we work together to make our community more just, fair and inclusive, we invite you to do so here.

And may you find joy, health, happiness, and gratitude in 2025.

In Community,

Mendi Blue Paca
PRESIDENT & CEO
FAIRFIELD COUNTY’S COMMUNITY FOUNDATION