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Collaborative Fund

NYC Workforce Development Fund

The New York City Workforce Development Fund Helps low-income New Yorkers train for and get well-paying jobs in in-demand fields. The Fund makes grants to nonprofits that help New Yorkers prepare for, get, and keep good jobs, and to organizations working to improve the coordination and effectiveness of the workforce development sector.

Other Collaborative Funds

The New York City Workforce Fund was established in 2001 to promote a robust, coordinated, and effective workforce development system for low-income New Yorkers. The collaborative is guided by a committee of 12 contributing foundations and corporate philanthropies that pool resources, set priorities, and make joint decisions to support projects. Since 2001, the collaborative has awarded nearly $20 million in grants for organizational capacity building, advocacy and policy research, employer engagement efforts, and demonstration projects. It also organizes quarterly meetings to discuss pressing workforce issues and to identify opportunities to coordinate and align funding.

 

Strategic Objectives:

1.     Promote racial and gender equity and increased economic mobility for low-income New Yorkers, and advance policy to ensure fair wages, working conditions, and business practices.

2.     Promote a strong value proposition for investing in coherent public and private workforce development systems.

3.     Influence public policy and programmatic priorities.

4.     Amplify and expand promising practices.

 

In 2018, a Fund grantee, New York Association of Training and Employment Professionals, advocated for a more effective statewide workforce development system, resulting in the unprecedented investment of $175 million in new state funding for workforce services and a new State Office of Workforce Development to oversee the allocation. The Association also played a critical role in working with the governor’s office to ensure that level of funding is included in the state’s 2023-2024 budget.

For more information about the collaborative fund, please contact Judith Smith at nycworkforcefunders@gmail.com. 

A group of advocates wearing tee-shirts that read “skills make New York work,” stand in a hall in Albany in front of a sign.
Photo courtesy of New York Association of Training and Employment Professionals (NYATEP), a grantee that is seen here lobbying in Albany for additional workforce development funding.

Learning and sharing with colleagues who are fellow members of the NYC Workforce Development Fund, as well as the more in-depth quarterly meetings, gives me a much better sense of what is happening in the workforce field than if I was doing my work in a silo.  I am exposed to what is going on beyond what Pinkerton funds, which impacts the wider field, and helps me be more effective in my work.

Laurie R. Dien, Vice President and Executive Director for Programs, The Pinkerton Foundation

Executive Committee

Megan McAllister

Altman Foundation

Laurie Dien

The Pinkerton Foundation

Lindsey S. Crane

Ira W. DeCamp Foundation

Marci Hunn

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation

Alessandra DiGiusto

Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation

Joshua Elder

Siegel Family Endowment

Co-chair Roderick V. Jenkins

The New York Community Trust

William Owh

Capital One

Laurel Dumont

Solon E. Summerfield Foundation

Randy Moore

CD&R Foundation

Cass Conrad

The Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation

Chymeka Olfonse

Robin Hood Foundation