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Our 2025-2030 Strategic Plan

In 2024, we celebrated 100 years as the region’s community foundation. To mark this milestone, we reaffirmed our mission, vision, and values and engaged in conversations with our community—including nonprofits and our donors, staff, board, and local partners—to develop a strategic plan that will guide the start of our second century of service.

Mission, Vision & Values

Our Four Pillars

The 12.4 million people who call New York City, Long Island, and Westchester home deserve policies that advance justice and equity, a good quality of life, and opportunities to support their local community in ways that will be felt today and for generations to come. We're working in the following key areas to build a New York where everyone thrives.

EMBODY

FUND

LEAD

EVOLVE

EMBODY

We EMBODY New York’s spirit and diversity in our people and the ways we work.

Priorities:

  • Seek out staff, board members, donors, and nonprofit leaders from all backgrounds, identities, ages, and incomes from across our region.
  • Make it easier for nonprofits to work with us.
  • Expand the ways we invite community voices to help guide our work.
Examples
A group of people sit on wooden and stone benches around an unlit fire pit
Photo credit: Leaders of the Padoquohan Medicine Lodge meet in the prayer circle on the Shinnecock Reservation. The Shinnecock Nation founded the Lodge in 1994 to support Tribe members with food, health, and housing. The nonprofit recently received a Trust grant to lead advocacy efforts to protect sacred burial grounds. Photo by Ari Mintz.

FUND

We FUND solutions that expand the wealth and power of everyday New Yorkers, strengthen public systems, and improve quality of life.

Priorities:

  • Use funds left to The Trust in perpetuity to make grants to nonprofits for projects that expand the wealth and power of communities that historically have been denied both and strengthen the public systems New Yorkers rely on.
  • Help generous New Yorkers use their giving to advance meaningful, strategic, and lasting change in our region.
  • Inspire greater giving throughout our eight-county region—to, through, and beyond The Trust.
Examples
A young boy named Cosmo, age 5, photographed attending an event to kick off the New Yorkers United for Child Care Campaign with his family.
Cosmo, age 5, attended an event to kick off the New Yorkers United for Child Care campaign with his family. Photo by Amy Wolf.

LEAD

We LEAD with partners who want to tackle the region’s critical challenges, use our voice to speak out, and collaborate with others for greater impact.

Priorities:

  • Bring together donors, nonprofits, and community leaders to learn and take action together.
  • Partner with donors and foundations to support coordinated grantmaking to address timely and long-standing issues across our region.
  • Use our voice to speak out on critical local and philanthropic issues when we believe there is an opportunity for us to effect change.
Examples
The Trust-Long Island’s Senior Program Director Sol Marie Alfonso-Jones discusses local farms and food insecurity on a panel with Layton Guenther, Jacob Dixon, and Lisa Valentine. Photo by Casey Kelbaugh.

EVOLVE

We continue to EVOLVE to meet our mission, both by growing our community and supporting our internal teams.

Priorities:

  • Create the best experience for our donors and grantees by updating our technology and business practices to ensure our systems are efficient and user-friendly.
  • Expand our donor community by engaging with more New Yorkers, getting to know our current donors better, and providing a great donor experience.
  • Continue to build a welcoming and supportive organizational culture anchored in our values of deep collaboration, integrity, justice, and equity.
Examples
Trust donors Anna and Peter Levin on a Trust site visit to Governors Island. Photo by Casey Kelbaugh.

As an educator and an immigrant myself, I am deeply committed to holistically supporting young immigrant students and their families. Participating on this fund's grantmaking committee holds special personal and professional significance for me."

Rosmery Milczewski, Assistant High-School Principal and Grantmaking Committee Member of our Fund for the Newest New Yorkers

By partnering with The New York Community Trust, the Zakat Fund has efficiently and effectively distributed over $370,000 worth of grants since 2018 to nonprofits that provide food and housing programs and support domestic violence survivors."

Samir Malik: Cofounder and CEO at Firsthand, Board Member, Zakat Fund of NYC

This work brings to life the Universalist principles and is critical to protecting, empowering, and amplifying the voices of our neighbors who are often furthest from justice and opportunity.”

Marian Russo, Chair of the Long Island Unitarian Universalists Fund Advisory Committee

Our Four Pillars in Action

Below are just a few examples of how our work has supported and will continue to support a thriving region. You can read more about our recent work in our Newsroom.

Embody | Examples

  • Honoring the Muslim Value of Charity: The Zakat Fund
    Local families worked with The Trust to create the Zakat Fund of NYC. The fund offers a way for Muslim donors to collectively fulfill their Zakat, an Islamic pillar of faith that involves giving back to those in need. Since 2018, the fund has granted over $400,000 to programs addressing hunger, homelessness, and domestic violence.
  • A Collective Way for Unitarians to Spark Change
    Our Long Island Unitarian Universalist Fund was established by local community members committed to advancing an inclusive vision of social and economic justice aligned with Unitarian Universalist principles. Trust staff have helped them award hundreds of grants to promote social change across Long Island.
  • An Open Door for Nonprofits
    Any nonprofit or grassroots organization can attend virtual office hours with our program directors to share ideas, understand our work, and discuss how we might partner together through our competitive grants program.
  • Community Voices in our Grantmaking
    We are guided by the people closest to the issues we’re addressing. For example, the grantmaking committee for our Fund for the Newest New Yorkers includes community leaders who are immigrants themselves and who serve immigrants. As part of our centennial celebration, we asked New Yorkers how they would spend $3 million to support local communities. Based on their response, our 2025 competitive grantmaking includes $1 million directed to each of the following areas: affordable housing, mental and behavioral health, and nonprofit resilience.

Fund | Examples

  • Sparking Change from City to State
    We supported the successful advocacy that won free school meals for all students in New York City schools in 2017 and statewide for the 2025-2026 school year.
  • Customized Philanthropic Advising
    We are deepening and formalizing the services we provide to smaller foundations, family offices, individual donors, and professional advisors to inspire and facilitate thoughtful local grantmaking.
  • Opportunities to Connect & Explore New York Issues
    We are increasing the number of educational and public events that we host. These include briefings on charitable giving for attorneys and wealth advisors, virtual donor exchanges on pressing topics like immigration and affordability,  and outings and site visits to local nonprofits.

Lead | Examples

Evolve | Examples

  • Technology Upgrades
    We’re welcoming new donors and getting to know our existing ones better by investing in software that makes it easier to access our services and take advantage of customized learning and giving opportunities.
  • Expanded Investment Options
    We are updating our investment options to allow donors to continue using their existing financial managers to oversee their charitable investments at The New York Community Trust.
  • Growth Opportunities
    We are providing more enrichment and professional development opportunities to help staff grow in their careers.
  • Improved Donor Experience
    We are upgrading our donor portal, making it easier for donors to connect with our staff, and hosting more donor exchanges and visits with grantees.

Read more about what's happening at The Trust

Interested in learning more?

Emma Budd

She/Her

Manager, Development Strategy

Email: ebudd@thenytrust.org

Phone: (212) 871-6158

Emma Budd