What We Do


THE AURORA FOUNDATION

WHAT WE DO.


WHAT WE DO - THE AURORA FOUNDATION

EDUCATION

EMPOWER - EDUCATE - ENGAGE  2022 IMPACT REPORT

An online, interactive tool, the Women & Girls Data Platform provides access to publicly available data specific to regional, city, and statewide levels and aggregated for gender and race.

WHAT WE DO - THE AURORA FOUNDATION

STORIES OF IMPACT

STORIES OF IMPACT

LISA

On Lisa’s first day of “Launch Your Leadership Journey,” a college success program offered at Asnuntuck Community College, where she attended school, she was too nervous to even say her name. Lisa is a survivor of domestic violence, which she kept secret until this program helped her realize that breaking her silence was crucial to her success and to breaking the stigma for other women. Lisa had been isolated, “I didn’t know anything about the world!” She found a community in the all-female program. Now she is a role model for new women in the program, but even more importantly for her daughter, who has recently enrolled at Asnuntuck.

STORIES OF IMPACT

LAURA

When Laura began the YW Career Women program, an Aurora funded women’s college success program offered through the YWCA Hartford Region, she knew that school was her way to a better life. Barely able to support her family, Laura worked two jobs, was a devoted mom and a full-time student in the demanding nursing program at Capital Community College, all at the same time. The coaching she received through the YW Career Women program helped her plan her schedule, connect to campus resources and work towards her three goals: have a successful career, an independent identity and financial stability. Laura graduated with honors from the Capital Community College nursing program and now works at a Hartford-area dialysis clinic. But Laura hasn’t just changed her own life. She’s a role model for her daughter, who started taking college-level business classes in high school, was chosen for a prestigious national student business conference and landed a coveted internship with a top local corporation.

STORIES OF IMPACT

EMOINEE

Emoinee a participant in Goodwin College’s WISE program (Women Investing in Securing an Education) was thrilled for the chance to attend a national student leadership conference. This experience changed her life and she returned to campus with more confidence, new friendships and a commitment to finishing her bachelor’s degree. Dephtany was nervous to be a panelist at Aurora’s Women’s College Success Conference in September but overcame her fear and was proud of herself for taking the risk. And then there is Tracey who founded a food pantry at her community college, a social action project she took on as a participant in Asnuntuck Community College’s Launch Your Leadership Journey, a leadership program for students attending either Asnuntuck or Tunxis Community College. The food pantry now serves 300 students a month and Tracey has set an inspiring example for the girls that will follow her.

ENGAGE & EMPOWER 
THROUGH GIVING

Because women reinvest 90% of their earnings in their families, unlocking potential for women and girls starts a ripple effect in entire communities.
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  • Why Devote a Foundation to Women and Girls?

    In a perfect world, equal opportunity would ensure equal outcomes; but we are all not the same. When we fairly account for our differences and needs, we create equity — and equity is the means to achieving equality.


    Whether we are looking at education, economic security, health, crime and safety, or another issue, we can ask: what are women and girls’ distinct challenges and needs? Aurora works to meet those distinct needs to improve social and economic opportunities and outcomes for women, their families and community.

  • Why Should Men and Women and Businesses and Nonprofit Agencies Support Women and Girls, Specifically?

    When we create the conditions and means for women and girls to seize opportunity, we create immediate and sustained financial benefit. It’s good economics as well as good ethics.


    As we see it, and as the research convinces us, gender equity affects all of us. That’s why men and women, nonprofits, small businesses, and corporations with a stake in the Hartford area stand with us: Our community is healthier when we work together.


    Although women and their children make up nearly 80% of our nation’s poor—and the numbers grow each year—less than 7.5 cents of every dollar donated by organized philanthropy goes to programs that specifically address the needs of women and girls.


    The data shows significant economic and social benefits to the larger community when women are productive contributors. Healthy, educated, and secure women increase the quality, size and productivity of the overall workforce, tax base, and community capacity.


    Research and experience prove that “neutral” programs are less effective than programs that consider the nuanced needs of the people they serve.


    In other words, effective social strategies take into account that one size does not fit all. The needs and opportunities of women are distinct, and so their solutions should be too.

  • What Makes the Aurora Foundation a Great Way to Invest in Our Region’s Future?

    Thousands of nonprofit organizations provide valuable services in Greater Hartford. As a donor, how do you decide where to invest?


    Invest with purpose. Invest with confidence.

    The Aurora Foundation simplifies donor decision-making. We deeply understand the needs and potential of the region’s women and girls. As careful stewards, we identify both the problems and the groups working to solve them.


    Knowing the issues means we can target the issues. Knowing our community means we can explore programs and agencies to uncover the ones with proven results or innovative approaches that show the most promise.


    Through Aurora, you can make a thoughtful and strategic investment that will make an immediate difference to women and girls in need, collectively address systemic issues in our community, and build a better future for generations to come.


    Aurora advances local collaboration, investment, and impact. We are the only freestanding foundation in Connecticut focused exclusively on the needs of women and girls.


    Your generosity becomes a legacy of civic leadership.

    With social awareness and investment, you will help move women and girls into self-sufficiency and on to community involvement and leadership. You can unlock their potential, and in turn, the potential of our communities.


    Since 2004, the Aurora Foundation has distributed over $760,000 in grants that have made a difference to thousands of women and girls in our region. You can make a difference, too, with your contribution.

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