Mission:
 The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving is committed to improving the quality of life for residents throughout the region surrounding Hartford, Connecticut. The organization provides financial and other support to help people and nonprofits serve the community effectively; promotes informed charitable giving in order to expand the region's philanthropic resources; and participates actively in efforts to identify important community needs and opportunities.

Purpose of Site:
 The current Web site of the Hartford Foundation was designed and developed by Embolden Design of Providence, Rhode Island, and was launched in November 2001. The site is designed to be a resource to community leaders, donors, and grantees in the greater Hartford area.

Background:
 In 1925, two Hartford bankers, Maynard T. Hazen and Clark T. Durant, convinced the Connecticut legislature to pass a resolution to create a community foundation for the Hartford area. The foundation made its first grant of $982.52 to Hartford's Watkinson Library in 1936. The community foundation moved into the areas of land conservation and health in the 1950s, helped start several nonprofit organizations in the 1960s, and expanded its support of the arts in the 1970s.

 Today, the Hartford Foundation is one of the largest community foundations in the country with an endowment of more than $500 million. It awards more than $25 million each year to nonprofits in Hartford and twenty-nine contiguous towns. The organization focuses its giving in the areas of arts and culture, children and youth, education, health, housing and community development, and social services.

Home Page:
 The Hartford Foundation Web site welcomes visitors with its mission statement and links to the various areas of the site. To learn more about the foundation and its activities, users can jump to About Us, Finance & Investments, Grantmaking & Programs, Opportunities for Donors, Resources for Professional Advisors, News Room, Contact Us, What's New, Planned Giving Design Center, Nonprofit Support Program, and the College Scholarship Directory. The home page also offers a keyword search function to help users seeking specific information.

Outstanding Feature:
 The News Room on the Hartford Foundation's Web site is an excellent resource for anyone wishing to find out more about the foundation and its activities in the Hartford area. The main page of the News Room features the site's What's New section, which includes links to recent publications, recent grants awarded by the foundation, and the scholarship directory for students in the greater Hartford area.

 Links to the other areas of the News Room are at the top of the page and include Media Contacts, Staff Bios, Search the Newsroom, Press Releases, Press Resources, and Publications. The News Room resources go even deeper within each of those subheadings. For example, in the Press Resources part of the site, users can select to view the foundation's at a glance information, a list of the towns that the organization serves, and a collection of philanthropy links. The resources section also includes an area called Stories of Philanthropy. These newspaper stories about the individuals and organizations that help the Hartford community thrive were discovered and pitched to area publications by the foundation.

Honorable Mention:
 The Nonprofit Support Program (NSP) is another impressive area of the site and a valuable resource for nonprofits in the Hartford area. Created by the foundation to help nonprofits strengthen their organizational capacity, the program provides grants and informational services to help small- to mid-sized nonprofits govern themselves effectively, think strategically, and respond to their constituents.

 The NSP area of the site includes information about Organizational Assessments offered through the program, the Technical Assistance Grants that are available, a directory of Consultants for nonprofits in Connecticut, and information about the program's Financial Management Assistance, Training, and Loan offerings.