The Connecticut Trust, chartered in 1975 by a special act of the Connecticut General Assembly, is Connecticut's statewide, nonprofit preservation organization. The Trust's mission is to preserve the character and insure the vitality of Connecticut's historic architecture, streetscapes, urban neighborhoods, landscapes and scenic roads. The Trust is a partner organization of the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism and the National Trust for Historic Preservation and collaborates with the Connecticut Humanities Council in a granting program.

The Connecticut Trust's most effective new initiative is the Connecticut Circuit Rider program, jointly sponsored with the National Trust since 2001. Two part-time Circuit Riders have provided technical preservation and community development assistance to over 145 cities and towns, offering advice and access to preservation planning grants in more than 500 projects. Since 2003, 114 Historic Preservation Technical Assistance Grants totalling $637,368 have been awarded in collaboration with the Connecticut Humanities Council, leveraging five times that amount in private dollars and volunteer time.

And, while the Circuit Riders' field service work has produced some extraordinary successes and while the planning grants have been able to jumpstart larger projects, along the way we have uncovered a vital need for capital support for preservation projects, especially in our cities.

A critical and growing crisis for historic preservation is the "appraisal gap" - the difference between the cost of renovating a building and its expected value once complete. This phenomenon has stymied preservation efforts in urban areas, where historic neighborhoods languish due to lack of investment.  Here the selling prices for a restored building may be half the cost to rehab it.  In the long term, rising property values from neighborhood revitalization may close this gap, in the interim there is a need for short term financing to augment what conventional investors cannot provide.  The Trust has initiated a pilot Historic Building Financing Fund, a gap loan fund, whose goal is to join in the effort to halt disinvestment in urban neighborhoods."