Fifteen Steward Foundation staff and board members standing on the steps of a historic downtown building, mid-laugh, dressed in casual layers on a Saturday morning with natural overcast light

Est. 1984 · Community Foundation

Forty Years of Showing Up for This Place.

Steward channels local generosity into the library wing, the restored creek trail, and the college fund that changes what's possible for a kid in this zip code. Quiet work. Real roots.

Reserve Your Seat Start a Fund

Scroll

Education · 2023

Young Black woman in a university library, looking up from her textbooks with a quiet smile, natural light from tall windows

$2.4M

disbursed in scholarship funds since 2001

The First One to Go

I didn't know what a community foundation was. I just knew someone believed enough to write a check with my name on it.

— Destiny Okafor, Westbrook First-Generation Scholar, Class of 2027

Destiny grew up two miles from the university she now attends. The Harrington First-Generation Fund, established by a retired Steward board member in 2019, covers the gap between financial aid and what it actually costs to stay enrolled — textbooks, a winter coat, the bus pass that gets her to her lab job.

Read the full story

Environment · 2022

Sunlit forest trail winding beside a clear creek, overcast morning light filtering through deciduous trees, lush green undergrowth

4.2 mi

of restored creek trail, fully accessible

The Creek Came Back

Kids who grew up here couldn't swim in it. Now their kids can. That's what twenty years of steady work looks like.

— Marcus Tran, Millbrook Creek Restoration Project Lead

The Millbrook Creek Trail was a drainage ditch when Steward first funded the restoration study in 2003. Today it's 4.2 miles of accessible trail, three pollinator meadows, and a classroom without walls for the district's sixth-grade science curriculum. Eleven grants. One watershed.

Read the full story

Arts & Culture · 2024

Interior of a bright modern public library with warm wood shelving, natural light through high windows, and a community gathering space in the foreground

$1.48M

raised for the Elm Street Library expansion

A Room Where Everyone Fits

We had the vision for fifteen years. Steward gave us the credibility to raise the rest.

— Priya Nambiar, Executive Director, Riverside Arts Collective

The new library wing on Elm Street opened last October with a 200-seat community room, a maker space, and the first permanent public art installation by a local artist in thirty years. Steward's $380,000 capital campaign anchor grant unlocked $1.1M in matching funds from three other sources.

Read the full story

Cumulative Impact

The line climbs because the work never stopped.

$0.4M

$1.2M

$4.8M

$12.3M

$21.7M

$38.5M

Year

2026

Cumulative Grants

$38.5M

Milestone

Elm Street Library wing opens

Annual Gala · 2026

The next chapter is already in motion. Come write it with us.

Date

MAY 92026 · Saturday Evening

Location

The Millbrook Pavilion

412 Riverside Drive · Doors at 6:00 PM

Evening Includes

Dinner by Harvest Table Catering
Live music from the Millbrook String Quartet
Presentation of the 2026 Steward Awards
Fund launch announcements
Remarks from this year's scholarship recipients

Attire

Garden formal — think linen, not boardroom.

Reserve Your Seat

You already belong here. You just haven't arrived yet. Join 320 neighbors, grantees, and civic leaders for an evening that feels more like a reunion than a fundraiser.

Funded Projects · 2019–2026

Every dot is a decision someone made to invest in this place.

Hover any project to see what it became. Each one began as a conversation at someone's kitchen table.

Environment

Arts & Culture

Education

Food Access

Youth

247

Grants awarded since 1984

Active nonprofit partnerships

Named endowment funds

$38.5M

Total community investment

Deeper Involvement

Your generosity deserves a structure as enduring as the work.

Starting a fund at Steward means your giving compounds — year over year, generation over generation. We handle the administration. You handle the intention.

📚

Scholarship Fund

Name a fund in honor of someone who shaped your life. Awards scholarships to students in perpetuity.

Min. $25,000 endowment

🌿

Field of Interest Fund

Designate your giving to a cause — the environment, the arts, food access — and let Steward direct it where it matters most.

Min. $10,000 endowment

🤝

Giving Circle

Pool resources with neighbors and colleagues to make grants together. The smallest unit of collective power.

Starting at $500/member

🏛️

Donor-Advised Fund

Contribute now, decide later. Get the tax benefit today and recommend grants on your own timeline.

Min. $5,000 to open

Two people sitting across from each other at a wooden table, reviewing documents in warm afternoon light, a coffee cup between them — a legacy fund conversation

Not sure where to start?

Our program team will sit with you — no obligation, no pitch. Just a conversation about what you care about and what might be possible.

Schedule a conversation

“We didn't want a plaque on a building. We wanted something that would keep working after we were gone. Steward made that straightforward.”
— Robert & Diane Ashworth, Ashworth Family Fund, est. 2017

Steward Annual Gala · May 9, 2026

The Millbrook Pavilion · Seats are limited

Start a Fund Reserve Your Seat