Sandy Hook foundation is running out of money
HARTFORD, Conn. — The nonprofit organization that was put in charge of the $12.5 million in donations that poured in following the Sandy Hook massacre — and then declined to give it all to the families of the 26 victims — is now quietly seeking more funding because it will run out of money before the children who survived in 2012 are done with school.
After giving families from the school $7.7 million to settle the dispute, the foundation now has just $1.5 million left after distributing $3.3 million in grants and to local mental health programs. The foundation had planned to continue in operation making grants until the youngest children who were at Sandy Hook Elementary School graduate from high school.
This week the board of the Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation sent a letter to all 26 families of victims explaining that they were about to embark on a “targeted fundraising effort designed to raise funds for general operating expenses.”
“To date, the Foundation has avoided the use of any of the initial $12.5 million in charitable giving for general operating expenses,” Director Lucie Connell wrote in the letter.
Connell said they have been able to use a federal Department of Justice grant and income from investments to pay operating expenses so far, but the grant is drying up.
“Without support from additional sources, the Foundation will find it necessary to utilize the fund for operating expenses,” Connell wrote, adding that the consequence would be an earlier end to the foundation than planned.
The letter warns the foundation is going about the fundraising efforts quietly and wants “no publicity.”
The foundation is supposed to dissolve on Dec. 31, 2025, after the last of the students who were inside the Sandy Hook Elementary School graduate from high school. On Dec. 14, 2012, Adam Lanza shot his way inside the school and killed 26 people, including 20 first graders, before killing himself.
“I can’t tell if they are asking for money or just letting us know they are going out looking for more. It’s upsetting when you think how they insisted on not giving all the money to those who suffered the most,” said one family member who asked not to be identified.
Following the shooting, donations poured into the United Way of Greater Danbury, which ended up with $12.5 million in donations. A very public fight ensued with the families of the victims claiming all of the money should go to them since it was raised because of the deaths of their children.
Eventually they gave $7.7 million of the money to 40 families directly impacted by the massacre. The 26 victims’ families received $281,000 each, the families of the 12 children who survived the massacre in two classrooms got $20,000 each and the two teachers who were injured received $75,000 each.
The decision on how to distribute the money was controversial and created bitterness. Some argued the entire fund should go to the victims and others, including then-Newtown First Selectwoman Pat Llodra, said the foundation neglected the survivors of the massacre who will need years of therapy.
The foundation was formed and the remaining $4.8 million was to be used to provide mental health services to the victims’ families, first responders, teachers and students from the school.
The letter to the families gives a breakdown of how the $4.8 million has been spent so far. It says that $2.1 million has been spent on mental health and wellness costs and another $1 million has been handed out in grants. All told, about $3.3 million has been distributed, leaving only $1.5 million to last nearly five years when the last of the Sandy Hook students from 2012 finish high school.
Connell said in the letter that the Foundation was recently given an opportunity to participate in a “matching challenge grant” to anchor a general fundraising operation. Connell said they are quietly seeking donors to contribute to help offset the foundation’s operating costs.