Our mission at The Legacy Foundation of Hartford, Inc. is to address disparities in health and education by providing substantive academic and experiential learning opportunities to the region’s most underrepresented students. We further facilitate student development through our comprehensive and personalized college coaching program, and a health and wellness focus. Under the leadership of highly qualified and nurturing staff, we aim to serve as community change agents in ultimately developing well-rounded students who have embraced a college-going mentality and are positioned for a successful future. We take going to college seriously, which is why our Saturday Academy is now held on campus at the University of Hartford.

From elementary school through college, we commit to our scholars! Tavis Williams with founder Greg Jones, to the right in 2019 and here in 2023.

Recognizing a lack of opportunities for many students in Hartford’s North End, Legacy Foundation was initially started to directly address the access gap via four pillars of success: increasing performance in core academic subjects, exposing students to new educational experiences outside of the classroom, encouraging a healthy lifestyle, and developing a college-going culture. Ten years later, this vision has been encapsulated in the nonprofit’s keystone program: LEAP (Legacy’s Exposure and Access Program), a comprehensive offering of high-quality, uniquely tailored academic and enrichment programming for students in third grade through high school. The core element of LEAP is our Legacy Saturday Academy, held weekly during the school year to provide a supplemental educational and enrichment curriculum.

As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the Legacy Foundation of Hartford seeks to work in tandem with other social purpose organizations and business leaders to address the needs of the area’s most challenged students. For investors and donors, our venture philanthropy model offers an effective alternative approach to solving social challenges through charitable giving.  We are passionate about the advocacy of our students—serving as a vehicle to help them overcome obstacles and march confidently toward a path of college graduation and a boundless future.