Information about the Catalyst Awards
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A Catalyst is a volunteer or civic leader who reliably makes a difference in their community and mobilizes others into service.
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Created by The Neighborhood, the Catalyst Awards offer prestigious recognition and meaningful support for Connecticut’s most active volunteers and civic leaders. Each comes with a $15,000 award in recognition of the Catalyst’s record of civic achievement. The funds must be used to advance civic work by promoting service and volunteerism. The award is not compensation for services and is not contingent on the honoree performing any future services. Catalysts are also invited to join The Neighborhood’s Community of Practice: a statewide peer community of Catalysts who support each other in accelerating their civic impact.
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The nomination window opened on August 17, 2026 and closed at 11:59 p.m. EST on September 15, 2026. We received 181 nominations, representing 122 unique eligible nominees. The Neighborhood intends to name its inaugural cohort of Catalysts by November 2026.
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The Neighborhood intends to recognize up to 10 Catalysts in 2026, subject to available funds.
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Yes. 2026 is the inaugural year. The Neighborhood intends to recognize Connecticut’s most active volunteers and civic leaders with Catalyst Awards every year.
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Yes. There is ordinarily one honoree per community each year because The Neighborhood seeks to build a statewide cohort of Catalysts who reflect Connecticut’s geographic diversity.
There may be multiple nominees from any Connecticut town or city.
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Eligible nominees are Connecticut volunteers or civic leaders identified through third-party nomination who demonstrate a sustained record of civic leadership and volunteer mobilization. They must live and serve in Connecticut, and be 18 years of age or older. They must also be able to furnish a W-9 with a valid taxpayer identification number.
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Any member of the public can nominate an eligible Connecticut volunteer or civic leader to be considered for the Catalyst Awards. Nominations are not limited to a particular group; all are encouraged to nominate someone whose community service and leadership they admire.
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No. Nominees must be identified through third-party nomination in order to demonstrate that their service is recognized by others in their community.
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No. Nominees must be nominated by an independent third party—someone positioned to recognize their civic leadership from outside the immediate family, keeping the process fair and free from conflicts of interest.
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Yes.
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No. Catalyst Awardees must be individuals. That said, you are welcome to nominate as many individuals from a group as you’d like using separate nomination forms.
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Yes. Each nomination requires a separate nomination form.
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All nominations must be received by Tuesday, September 15, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. EST.
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The Neighborhood first reviews all nominations to determine their eligibility and completeness. An independent Selection Committee made up of volunteers and civic leaders reviews eligible and complete nominations and ultimately selects up to 10 honorees to each receive a Catalyst Award. The Neighborhood may interview nominees to gather information to inform the Committee’s deliberations.
Committee members use a scoring rubric to evaluate nominees against a consistent set of objective, civic-achievement-based criteria, including:
Sustained service to the community over time: a record of long-term, ongoing civic leadership, rather than a single or episodic contribution;
Demonstrated record of enlisting and mobilizing others in service: evidence the nominee doesn’t just serve personally, but actively brings others into volunteerism;
Community trust: evidence of community standing and working across lines of difference;
Demonstrated interest in peer learning: genuine willingness to learn from and share practices with peers across Connecticut; and
Town or city representation: geographic diversity is desired and therefore a town or city may be represented by no more than one honoree each year.
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Yes. Nominees who are not selected as Catalysts in 2026 are eligible for consideration in the future.
In addition, The Neighborhood intends to reach out to them personally to invite them to join our growing statewide community of active volunteers and civic leaders. We are eager to meet with them in their community to learn about their civic work and needs—and explore possibilities for collaboration.
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The Selection Committee includes five independent members:
Danielle Chesebrough of Stonington (Chair of the Committee): former three-term First Selectman and current member of the Stonington Board of Finance;
Anthony Afriyie of Stratford: Community Liaison at the Connecticut Port Authority and Chair of the Stratford Town Council;
Karen Goldberg of West Hartford: an active volunteer and community member;
Matthew Quiñones of Stamford: the city's Director of Operations and the former President of the Stamford Board of Representatives; and
Anne Ruwet of Torrington: a member of Torrington’s City Council and the First Vice Chair of the Northwest CT Community Foundation.
The Neighborhood invited these extraordinary volunteers and civic leaders to serve on the Selection Committee for their knowledge of Connecticut civic life, record of sustained community service and civic leadership, and sound judgment.
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Each Catalyst receives a $15,000 award in recognition of their civic achievement. The award is intended to advance a Catalyst’s civic work for the benefit of their community. Alongside it, Catalysts are invited to join The Neighborhood’s Community of Practice with their fellow honorees, beginning with quarterly convenings to build relationships, share what's working, and learn from one another.
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The Community of Practice is the standing peer community that brings each cohort’s group of Catalysts together over the course of their award year. Facilitated by The Neighborhood, the cohort meets four times, with each gathering built around what Catalysts actually need: getting to know one another and their communities, exchanging what's working and what isn't, digging into a shared challenge the group identifies together, and closing the year with reflection and recognition. The goal is simple: support Connecticut's most active volunteers and civic leaders with a genuine peer community to help advance their civic impact. After the initial award year, the program may evolve depending on the needs and desires of the Catalysts and The Neighborhood.
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No. The award recognizes a Catalyst's record of civic achievement; it is not compensation and is not contingent on the honoree performing any future services.
Catalysts are warmly invited into the Community of Practice because it's part of what makes the recognition meaningful, but declining to participate carries no financial consequence and does not put the award itself at risk.
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The Catalyst Award, including the $15,000 funding, is in recognition of the Catalyst’s record of civic achievement. Award funds must be used to advance civic work by promoting service and volunteerism for the benefit of the Catalyst’s community. This requirement is a use restriction, not a service obligation owed to The Neighborhood. Within this civic-use requirement, the Catalyst may determine the specific application of the funds. However, the award funds may not be used for purely personal purposes. Award funds also cannot be used to lobby or promote a political cause or campaign. The Neighborhood reserves the right to condition or decline payment where a proposed use does not qualify.
The honoree may choose to either (a) receive the $15,000 directly to advance their civic work, in which case the funds are generally recognized as income subject to tax (the honoree should consult their tax advisor), or (b) direct the funding to a qualifying charitable organization, subject to The Neighborhood’s approval, in which case the award should not be reportable income to the honoree. The Neighborhood will work closely with the Catalyst through each step of the process.
In either option, the Catalyst remains closely involved with the expenditure of funds, since they are intended to advance the Catalyst’s civic work. This work should inform the Catalyst’s voluntary participation in The Neighborhood's Community of Practice—and, in turn, their peers. In this way, the funding not only directly benefits the Catalyst’s community, it also furthers the impact of the entire cohort.
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The award is deliberately flexible. A few illustrative examples suggest the range.
Examples of how a Catalyst might use the funding should they choose to receive it directly include:
A local organizer uses the funds to launch a town’s first volunteer fair, renting a venue and printing materials to bring dozens of local organizations and prospective volunteers into one room. He then documents the model so a civic leader in another community can replicate it.
A parks and recreation volunteer uses the funds to build a simple app connecting the town's unused open spaces to local youth sports leagues and community groups—something she'd tried to do for years with spreadsheets and phone calls. She open-sources the design so another town's civic leader can adapt it without starting from scratch.
Examples of how a Catalyst might use the funding should they choose to direct it to a qualifying charitable organization include:
A food pantry director who has run her operation for 12 years directs the award to her organization, and uses the funding to recruit and train a standing volunteer corps, covering a modest coordinator stipend, a volunteer appreciation event, and outreach materials.
A local volunteer who has recruited neighbors to help maintain and clean up public parks in their community for years directs the award to a local conservation nonprofit so they can purchase additional supplies, hire a videographer to capture compelling content, and create and publicize professional marketing materials to help her recruit even more volunteers and protect more public spaces.
In each case, the honor attached to the Catalyst; the resources flow to the civic work they judge their community needs most, consistent with the civic-use requirement.
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No. The funding may not be split.
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No. The Catalyst Award, including the $15,000 funding, is in recognition of the Catalyst’s record of civic achievement. The nomination process does not include review of their future plans for using the funding should they receive the Catalyst Award. Specific plans will be developed with support from The Neighborhood’s team once the honoree is named.
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No. While the Catalyst Award is in recognition of the Catalyst’s record of civic achievement, the award funding must be used to advance their civic work by promoting service and volunteerism for the benefit of their community.
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Yes.
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A qualifying charitable organization is a governmental unit or a 501c3 nonprofit organization in good standing.
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Yes. However, the organization may not use those funds to pay their wages or otherwise provide a personal financial benefit of any kind to the honoree. For example, the honoree may not direct the funding to the organization in order to give themselves a raise.
Questions? Reach out and we’ll provide answers.
Information about The Neighborhood for Volunteers and Civic Leaders
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The Neighborhood is a newly created venture within the Redwood Endeavors platform, a Connecticut-based 501c3 nonprofit organization. The Neighborhood’s purpose is to support Connecticut’s most active volunteers and civic leaders by building a statewide peer community that makes their impact more sustainable, their problems more solvable, and their solutions more scalable. It exists as statewide infrastructure: helping the people already doing the work do it better, stay in it longer, and inspire others to join them. The moment is now, and the people doing the work are saying so clearly.
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Andrew Ferguson, Gerry Goldberg, and Don Kendall. As co-founders, they began by listening to Connecticut’s most active volunteers and civic leaders as they shared their needs and goals. Throughout 2025 and into 2026, Andrew, Gerry, and Don hosted meetings and focus groups throughout Connecticut to better understand what support the state's volunteers and civic leaders actually needed. What emerged was clear: despite sharing common motivations and challenges, volunteers and civic leaders struggle to connect across towns and cities, and sometimes even within their own community. The infrastructure to support them doesn’t exist. The Neighborhood exists to build it. To explore the key learnings that shape The Neighborhood’s strategy, visit www.neighborhoodct.org/focus-groups.
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We envision a Connecticut where the state’s most active volunteers and civic leaders are woven together in a genuine peer community where geographic distance doesn’t prevent neighborly connection, where good ideas spread organically from one community to another, and where showing up for your community means joining a larger movement. In a neighborhood, people look out for one another, share resources, and celebrate each other’s contributions. That’s the Connecticut we’re building.
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The Neighborhood exists to support Connecticut's most active volunteers and civic leaders by building a statewide peer community that helps their impact become more sustainable, their problems more solvable, and their solutions more scalable. In practice, that means recognizing the people already doing this work, connecting them to peers across communities who understand what they're carrying, and helping the solutions that are working in one community reach others facing the same challenges. The goal isn't just to support the people already showing up—it's to increase the number of people actively serving their communities by making service visible, valued, and easier to sustain over the long run.
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Connecticut’s civic landscape is rich with individuals and organizations doing important work. The problem is what exists between and above them: almost nothing. There is no statewide infrastructure designed to connect the individuals who animate this ecosystem—the highly active volunteers and civic leaders who carry disproportionate civic responsibility in their communities—to each other across town lines. There is no standing peer community for these inspiring leaders, too little prestigious recognition of their contributions, and no platform for sharing what works across Connecticut’s 169 towns and cities. The result is a civic sector under strain: a small core of deeply committed people carrying a disproportionate share of the work, burning out without peer support, and recruiting far fewer new volunteers and civic leaders than they could if they were connected and supported.
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The Neighborhood's strategy centers on a statewide peer community of active volunteers and civic leaders, built and reinforced through three interconnected pillars:
The Neighborhood Catalysts Awards program recognizes and resources up to 10 Catalysts each year from across the state, supporting them through a $15,000 award for their civic work and an invitation to the Community of Practice;
The Neighborhood Square brings volunteers and civic leaders together at in-person, statewide convenings to build relationships and share ideas across communities; and
The Neighborhood Platform shares stories and practices so that what works in one community can be discovered and replicated in another.
The accumulated effect of these interconnected levels produces something the individual activities cannot: civic ecosystems that are structurally more resilient and create a broader network of volunteers and civic leaders. More residents are mobilized relationally through the expanded reach of well-resourced Catalysts. More communities benefit from practices that were once trapped behind town lines. This is the long-horizon outcome: a measurable change in the vitality of civic life throughout Connecticut.
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Yes! We are eager to partner with any individual or organization that shares our fundamental commitment to service and active civic life in Connecticut. Reach out to Andrew Ferguson at af@neighborhoodct.org to collaborate.
Questions? Reach out and we’ll provide answers.
Information about Redwood Endeavors
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Created in 2025 by Andrew Ferguson, Redwood Endeavors is a Connecticut-based 501c3 nonprofit organization that builds civic infrastructure across New England. Rather than running one program itself, it operates as a shared home for social entrepreneurs launching or growing public benefit ventures—providing the legal structure, operations, compliance, and back-office support each initiative would otherwise have to build alone. The Neighborhood is one of two current ventures built within Redwood Endeavors, alongside Redwood Fellows, a statewide leadership community for accomplished professionals across Connecticut's civic, nonprofit, government, and private sectors. Visit redwoodendeavors.org to learn more.
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Redwood Endeavors' Board of Directors includes Stefan Pryor (Chair), Erik Clemons (Vice Chair), Dr. Karen DuBois-Walton, Joe DeLong, and Dr. Khalilah Brown-Dean. Andrew Ferguson serves as Redwood Endeavors' Founder & CEO. Together, they bring deep experience across Connecticut’s government, education, community development, and civic leadership sectors. Visit redwoodendeavors.org/team to learn more about these leaders.
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Redwood Endeavors serves as the nonprofit platform for two separate ventures today: The Neighborhood and Redwood Fellows. Redwood Fellows is a growing statewide community of 85 influential leaders representing 12 professional sectors and 42 towns and cities across Connecticut. Visit redwoodfellows.org to learn more.
Questions? Reach out and we’ll provide answers.