One business leader trying to make a difference is Howard K. Hill.
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Howard K. Hill
Hill runs the successful Howard K. Hill Funeral Services, which owns funeral homes in Hartford, Bloomfield and New Haven. He is also the board chair of the Prosperity Foundation, a community foundation designed to strengthen Connecticut’s Black communities in areas including health, education and economic development.
Hill has long been known as a community leader and his profile was lifted in 2020 when the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving announced it was giving the Prosperity Foundation a $1 million grant to support its mission.
Hill said the funding “was an important first step needed to bridge a 225-year wealth-gap when it comes to our whole health, education, economic development and overall sustainability for a people badly in need of the opportunity.
After starting her career more than two decades ago at community lender and business advisory nonprofit HEDCO Inc., Kim Hawkins recently was named CEO of the organization that serves minority-owned businesses, which have historically had a harder time accessing credit and loans.
That inequality was brought to the forefront during the pandemic, when minority-owned firms experienced difficulties accessing a financial lifeline from the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program.
HEDCO led the charge in trying to address those needs, working with the city of Hartford, Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and Capital For Change to launch an emergency small business grant program.
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The foundation ended 2020 with $1.125 billion in total assets, per estimates, and received gifts totaling $26.7 million. The foundation opened 40 new funds last year. Since 1925, the foundation has awarded more than $837 million in grants.
The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving boosted its giving by more than a third in 2020 to address pandemic needs, giving nonprofits grants of $52.7 million ‒ its highest-ever yearly total.
“The foundation was able to nimbly, flexibly and effectively respond to the greatest demand for assistance that our communities have experienced in any of our lifetimes,” said Hartford Foundation President Jay Williams.
Major efforts included the foundation’s COVID-19 Response Fund, which made more than 200 grants totaling $9.5 million through the end of 2020 for basic needs and improving pandemic safety at area nonprofits.
The foundation also launched a $1.4 million relief program for Hartford-area small businesses that distributed 150 grants of up to $10,000 each, with some of the funding earmarked for enterprises owned by women and people of color.