After a long career of entrepreneurship in the glass, HVAC, and construction industries, Ralph Papitto died a multi-millionaire at the age of 92.
But he wasn’t just leaving behind successful companies.
His widow, Barbara Papitto, who had her own career in accounting, found herself with a fortune, and she wanted to spend it right.
“I think of those that struggle now to put food on their tables, to fix a car that broke down,” she told WJAR News recently.
Since Ralph’s death about five years ago, Barbara has donated $100 million to 350 nonprofits in the couple’s home state of Rhode Island.
It was a natural extension of the philanthropy work the pair had already been doing.
In 2008, the Papittos founded a scholarship program to help underprivileged children improve their reading skills, called Read to Succeed.
The program encouraged students to read six books over the summer, after which they’d be eligible to take a test and receive a $1,000 college scholarship awarded to students each year for five years. Since its inception, the program has funded more than $2.2 million in scholarships.
After Ralph’s death, however, Barbara wanted to make an even bigger impact.
In 2020, she founded Papitto Opportunity Connection to honor Ralph’s legacy by supporting nonprofits in Rhode Island that serve communities most in need of help.
Papitto Opportunity Connection gives money to area grant seekers, focusing on three main areas of impact: education, skills training, and entrepreneurship.
Barbara still works to make sure children have access to literacy (in fact, she packages thousands of books to send out to public schools by hand in her own living room). But her offerings have also expanded; Now, students can apply to scholarships like the Transform RI program.
It asks students: “If you had $1 million to improve the lives of those who need it most in RI, how would you do it?” Then, Barbara invests that $1 million in making the winning idea a reality, and the student behind it gets a $25,000 scholarship.
Other finalists also get thousands of dollars, too.
“Every child should have the same access to education, yet in Rhode Island that is not always the case,” Papitto Opportunity Connection shares on its website.
The foundation adds that it “supports unique educational programming, especially in Rhode Island’s urban core communities, designed to provide children in need with access to such things as music education, financial literacy, STEM programs and the ability to access healthcare services right in school.”
Barbara also funds organizations that provide job skills training and employment opportunities to formerly incarcerated individuals. Additionally, the organization funds mentorships and microloans to entrepreneurs in marginalized communities, working with the Rhode Island Black Business Association to make dreams a reality.
But not all of her work falls neatly into these categories. Papitto Opportunity Connection also funds local food rescue organizations, supports refugee services for women and children, and keeps housing assistance programs stable amid uncertainties.
“Making connections, eliminating barriers to success, and clearing pathways to learning are the guiding lights behind every investment POC makes,” the foundation’s website states.
“To truly matter, make an impact, and help create systemic change, the programs we support are those most needed and wanted.”
Most recently, the organization made headlines for donating $1 million to a local health clinic — Amos Health — which specifically provides mental, behavioral, and primary healthcare to “justice-involved individuals and people in recovery.”
For a clinic that relies on Medicaid reimbursement, leaders say the new funding provides a much-needed cushion.
“POC operates as a trust-based philanthropy, working to empower RI nonprofits that create pathways to success in communities facing the most need,” Barbara said in a statement.
“We are confident The Clinic will remove barriers to essential medical services. Since 2022, Amos House has more than doubled their program’s capacity, increasing employment placement rates and wages by over 30%. We’re proud to support these outcomes.”
According to Eileen Hayes, the executive director at Amos House, this will allow her to hire more staff and serve 300 to 400 additional clients annually.
Last year, Barbara announced that Papitto Opportunity Connection was considering pivoting to distributing innovation grants, rather than funding basic services in the community. But, facing uncertainty in nonprofit funding on a federal level, she has decided to move forward with both.
“We need to be in the community like we have been to be responsive to any kind of need that comes forward,” Barbara told The Boston Globe. “We’ve always been there all during the pandemic with the basic services. You can’t help someone get a better job if they’re not being fed.”
And no matter what comes next for her philanthropy, she will do it all while remembering Ralph fondly.
“Everything I do,” she told WJAR News, “I do it with his name.”
Header image courtesy of Papitto Opportunity Connection
