The Connecticut State Colleges & University System (CSCU) has a non-profit foundation that purports to provide students with financial support and claims to have helped “hundreds of students, thousands of families,” but the organization’s own tax reports indicate it hasn’t done much of anything aside of grow its investment portfolio.
The CT State Colleges & Universities Foundation, Inc., didn’t post a 990-tax report between 2013 and 2024, and the latest filing shows the Foundation sitting on $738,000 in assets, most of which are tied up in investments; $662,203 of those assets are donor restricted funds.
Meanwhile, the Foundation expended only $20,941 on “other expenses,” while listing nothing spent for any kind of grant making to other organizations or individuals, or programming. The Foundation also lists a mere $324 in liabilities.
The Foundation’s primary source of revenue appears to be investment returns, which generated $30,392, along with $27,192 in grants and contributions. The previous tax filing in 2013, listed $420,210 in assets – most of those in investments – and little more than $2,000 in expenses.
Oddly, the Foundation lists contributions of $79,748 in 2020 and $19,469 in 2021, although there was no tax filings made those years.
According to the state’s open records website, the Connecticut Department of Transportation has funneled $101,885 in advertising and marketing grants to the Foundation since 2020, although those donations – typically made in $20,000 increments – are also not listed on the 990 reports under government support.
Information on the website, aside from the usual self-accolades, is scant: the annual reports page gets a 404 Not Found message, and the link for “scholarships,” brings one to a list of small scholarships that have not been updated since 2023. The Foundation’s Students First Scholarship of $2,020 appears to have only been awarded to two individuals in 2021 as its “inaugural” award, according to a CSCU press release.
According to both the Foundation’s website and its 990 reports, the nonprofit is registered to an apartment building in Rocky Hill. However, recent updates on the Secretary of State’s business filings show a new address at the CSCU offices in Hartford.
The Foundation purportedly has a staff of four, including Mark Hanna, a risk management associate with a consulting firm in Boston who serves as president. Similarly, most staff members have jobs in the private sector, aside of the treasurer who serves as the controller for Post University in Waterbury. None of the staff receive pay, according to the tax filings.
The board all boast an impressive backgrounds and, according to the 2025 business filings with the Secretary of State, board member Todd Cooper, a management program analyst with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, has taken over as the principal agent, replacing former Foundation President Helen Sneed, who now lists an address in Florida.
Inside Investigator reached out to Hanna through an email address provided on the website, but the email was returned as undeliverable.
“CSCU’s institution-affiliated foundations play an important role in supporting our colleges, universities, and the students they serve,” said Sam Norton, spokesperson for CCSU. “CSCU is currently reviewing its affiliated foundation structure and how these organizations support our institutions and students. At the same time, CSCU is developing a Board policy to strengthen oversight of affiliated foundations and enhance financial controls across the system.”
The current, questionable status of the CSCU Foundation comes not only after a reckoning with how Connecticut supports nonprofits that have questionable origins and activities, but also amid a breakdown in the Board of Regents that oversees the CSCU system following back-to-back scandals at the highest level and multiple resignations.
The General Assembly passed new requirements for nonprofit organizations to receive legislative earmarks following the shuttering of Blue Hills Civic Association amidst a scandal involving former Sen. Doug McCrory, D-Bloomfield, funneling millions to an organization run by an alleged romantic partner. Legislative Republicans raised concerns over several nonprofits that, like the CSCU Foundation, had scant tax records, appeared to exist only on paper, and vague activities that were difficult to assess.
Former CSCU Chancellor Terrence Cheng stepped into an advisory role after his spending habits on the state credit card were scrutinized, and he failed to relocate to Connecticut despite his $450,000 salary and a contractual obligation to do so. Cheng’s replacement, John Maduko, then stepped down following a sexual harassment investigation that revealed the new chancellor sending scandalous pictures and propositioning female employees.
Several other BOR members resigned following Maduko when it was revealed they were slow to follow through in addressing concerns about Maduko’s behavior, including the BOR chair, and, most recently, vice chair who cited a “dysfunctional culture.”
The BOR has previously been lax in disciplining professors who have been found to engage in similar sexual harassment and violating numerous CSCU policies.
Central Connecticut State University President Zulma Toro also recently resigned amidst an investigation into workplace harassment and bullying, following years of complaints going back to at least 2019, based on emails previously obtained by Inside Investigator.
The CSCU system is comprised of 16 campuses for Connecticut’s state universities, community colleges, and Charter Oak State College online, serving roughly 10,000 students. The various colleges and universities were brought under the single administrative control of the Board of Regents in 2011 under Gov. Dannel Malloy, a move that was protested by many college and university employees and faculty.
The CSCU Foundation goes back to 2000, according to tax filings, which were regularly posted until 2013.
Ironically, the last press release from the Foundation came in 2023 announcing the organization had received the Silver Seal of Transparency from GuideStar, when even GuideStar didn’t have tax forms from the Foundation since 2013.
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