Hip Hip Hooray, New York Community Trust Awards $7.5M To Address Critical Needs

The New York Community Trust today announced more than $7.5 million in grants to 40 nonprofits working to advance economic and educational opportunities for New Yorkers and improving lives throughout the city and beyond.

The latest round of grants supports local organizations addressing a wide swath of community needs and opportunities ranging from an initiative to train middle and high school students to launch businesses, deploying AI technology for heart research, aiding new immigrants, and supporting older adults and individuals with disabilities.

The Trust’s competitive grantmaking program, which includes these latest grants, awarded $45 million to support nonprofits in 2023 — an extraordinary total made possible by generous New Yorkers.

“These investments represent philanthropy’s ability to foster innovation, test new approaches to longstanding challenges, and meet the needs of some of the city’s most vulnerable populations and promising artists and creators,” said Shawn Morehead, The Trust’s vice president for grants.

Nearly half of the grants support efforts to increase equitable economic opportunities for young people and immigrants. The Trust’s support of organizations — including Internationals Network for Public Schools and Havens Relief Fund Society — helps ensure the newest New Yorkers have the chance to build and sustain quality lives and learn to fight for issues they care about. Grants to groups including Good Call NYC, New York Transgender Advocacy Group, and New York Birth Control Access Project will equip young people to advocate for issues they care about.

As New York’s community foundation, The Trust brings together the contributions of donors past and present to address the city’s immediate challenges and advance long-term systemic change while also honoring the charitable goals of donors.

The following is a listing of many of the recent grants awarded by The Trust. Longer descriptions of the programs supported are available upon request.

Preparing New Yorkers for the Workforce

The three grants below help unemployed New Yorkers prepare for jobs in high-demand sectors such as health care, technology, building operations, media, and finance. Grants support scholarships for workforce training and staff at two City University of New York (CUNY) community colleges:

• City University of New York: $448,000
• Fiorello H. LaGuardia Community College Foundation: $180,000  
• Hostos Community College Foundation: $172,000

In addition to these three grants, The Trust also made awards to the following organizations:

Getting Out and Staying Out: $75,000 for an education and employment program for young people with a history of incarceration.

New York City Workforce Development Fund: $250,000 to support joint grantmaking for workforce development initiatives and programs. The NYC Workforce Development Fund is a grantmaking collaborative at the Trust comprising 12 foundations and corporate philanthropies.

Providing Leadership Opportunities for Young People

Avenues for Justice: $70,000 for a media advocacy and communications training program for justice-involved young people.

Businesses United in Investing, Lending, and Development: $75,000 to train middle and high school students in New York City public schools to launch and operate businesses.

Good Call NYC: $70,000 to expand a paid, citywide internship program that engages young people affected by the criminal justice system in advocacy.

Kings Against Violence Initiative: $100,000 to build this organization’s capacity to provide mental health support to young people in Brooklyn.

New York Transgender Advocacy Group: $180,000 to prepare transgender and gender non-conforming young people from New York City and Westchester to advocate for inclusive city and state policies.

Championing Human Justice

Advocates for Children of New York: $220,00 to advocate for schools that are safe and effective for immigrants.

Havens Relief Fund Society: $200,000 to provide emergency financial relief to migrants who have recently arrived in New York City.

New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC): $450,000 to coordinate a statewide campaign to aid newly arrived immigrants. This grant also supports an NYIC grantmaking program that provides immigrant families with critical resources to acquire housing, food and clothing.

Improving Education

Fund for Public Schools: $500,000 to improve reading instruction for elementary school students in New York City public schools.

Internationals Network for Public Schools: $175,000 to prepare high schools to meet the needs of recently arrived immigrant students who are multilingual learners. Since the spring of 2022, the city’s public schools have added approximately 30,000 new immigrant students who moved to New York after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

Teaching Matters: $250,000 to provide small group instruction to students in kindergarten through second grade who are struggling with reading.

Making New Yorkers Healthier

Engagewell IPA: $180,000 to expand virtual care for people seeking treatment for addiction.

Healthcare Chaplaincy: $150,000 to train chaplains from New York City and Suffolk, Nassau, and Westchester counties on new federal guidelines that authorize the provision of pastoral care in health care settings. 

Mount Sinai Hospital: $150,000 to help low-income, trans-femme New Yorkers under the age of 30 gain access to gender-affirming medical treatment.

New York Birth Control Access Project: $150,000 to train young adults to advocate for increased access to birth control.

New York University: $200,000 to use artificial intelligence models to study heart disease.

Making Life Better for Older Adults

Center for Hearing and Communication: $65,000 to help older adults understand and receive treatment for hearing loss.

Healthcare Association of New York State: $150,000 to help healthcare providers offer care that meets older adults’ clinical and emotional needs.

Urban Health Plan: $200,000 to help a federally qualified health center in the Bronx provide coordinated, comprehensive care for the elderly.

Helping People With Disabilities

Center for Independence of the Disabled in New York: $157,000 to improve access to voting for people with visual and other disabilities.

City Access New York: $100,000 to expand an internship program for blind and visually impaired high school and college students.

District Council 1707 Educational Corporation: $500,000 to train childcare workers to serve and advocate for children with disabilities and their families.

JBI International: $200,000 to improve the accessibility of social service and cultural institutions for older adults and people with visual disabilities.

New York Stem Cell Foundation: $300,000 to create an innovative treatment for macular degeneration, a disease that causes people to lose their central vision, using stem cells.

Boosting Arts and Culture

Luna Composition Lab: $167,000 to develop young female, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming composers and diversify audiences for classical chamber music.

Queens Museum: $151,000 to support Indigenous Practice Studio programs that promote Indigenous organizing, land stewardship, and culture. This new initiative seeks restorative ways of working with and promoting Indigenous communities, including long-term learning and relationship-building.

Redford Center: $300,000 to help environmental filmmakers develop, produce, and increase the social impact of their feature-length films.

Supporting Community Development and Civic Engagement

Brooklyn Level Up: $100,000 to create a community land trust, a shared equity program that helps keep land available and affordable for low-income community members, in Southern Central Brooklyn.

Neighborhood Housing Services of New York City: $100,000 to ensure new loan options are available to homeowners and homebuyers struggling with the lingering economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

New York Civic Engagement Table: $100,000 to coordinate a coalition advocating for measures that make it easier for voters to participate in elections.

New York Professional Advisors for Community Entrepreneurs: $75,000 to support small, minority- and women-owned businesses in low-income communities and industries hardest hit by the pandemic.

Supportive Housing Network of New York: $100,000 to encourage more efficient and effective government investment in supportive housing, which pairs social services with permanent, affordable housing and thus provides stability and safety for those who would otherwise be homeless.

Protecting our Environment

Central Appalachian Network: $320,000 to advance the Central Appalachian region’s clean energy economy.

Columbia University: $85,000 to foster a better understanding of the public health impacts of proposed transportation policies along the Eastern Seaboard.

NYC Green Fund: $120,000 for a City Parks Foundation program that supports the responsible use and stewardship of New York City’s green spaces.

The New York Community Trust

The New York Community Trust is a public charity and New York City’s largest community foundation. It connects generous people and institutions with high-impact nonprofits making the city, Westchester, and Long Island better places for all. It builds stronger communities, influences public policy, fosters innovation, improves lives, and protects our environment.

Photo credit: Columbia University in Harlem.

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