With the new grants announced today, The Trust has now invested $17.5 million in 2025 to support thriving communities and a more equitable and vibrant New York.
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Lauren Stewart, Turn Two
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Courtney Biggs
Senior Manager, Public Relations
cbiggs@thenytrust.org | (212) 889-3963
NEW YORK, NY (April 17, 2025) – The New York Community Trust, New York’s largest community foundation, today announced more than $9.2 million in new grants to 55 nonprofits across the city and beyond. The grants address New York’s critical needs, from supporting older adults and providing vocational training to young adults with developmental disabilities to increasing food access through hydroponic farming.
“We’re proud to partner with nonprofits that are finding creative and meaningful ways to ensure all New Yorkers have access to the care and opportunity they deserve,” said Shawn Morehead, The Trust’s executive vice president and chief program officer.
The newly announced grants include a $100,000 grant to Community Access to open the city’s first peer-led crisis respite center to support the one in 25 New Yorkers who live with a serious mental illness such as personality disorder, schizophrenia, or major depression.
“Peer-led crisis response is a promising alternative to emergency departments or hospitalization, which often offer only short-term stabilization. It ensures safety for patients, professionals, and peer caregivers alike and often provides better clinical results,” said Irfan Hasan, The Trust’s vice president, programs and grants. “New York needs bold, long-term solutions to address the mental health crisis. The Trust is proud to fund an innovative model that has shown success in other countries”.
New York has one of the country’s largest aging populations, and services for older adults are not keeping pace with demand. There are currently more than 20,000 older New Yorkers waiting on the services they need. Six grants, totaling more than $600,000, will build on The Trust’s longtime support of older adults through dementia caregiver support and education, increasing access to end-of-life doulas, and advancing nursing home accountability and local and national campaigns to secure more funding for aging New Yorkers.
Vocational training, post-secondary school planning, and part-time employment offer important preparation for a successful transition to life after high school. But few NYC public high school students with intellectual and developmental disabilities currently participate in these types of programs. A $200,000 grant will allow the Adaptive Design Association to work with NYC Public Schools’ leadership to expand a program that trains young adults with developmental disabilities to build adaptive equipment for people with a disability.
“We are grateful to the generous community members who created funds at The Trust to care for future generations of New Yorkers,” said Amy Freitag, The Trust’s president. “Grants like these are proof that when New Yorkers come together to support those most in need, our whole region benefits.”
The current grants include more than $1.9 million to bring arts and culture to more New Yorkers through creating public art projects in New York City Housing Authority developments, including sign-language interpreters from diverse backgrounds at more live performances, and providing subsidized, accessible studio space to dance artists.
As New York’s largest community foundation, The Trust brings together the contributions of donors past and present to champion local causes, address the region’s urgent challenges, and advance long-term systemic change.
The following is a list of grants awarded today by The Trust. Longer descriptions of the programs supported are available upon request.
Creating a Healthier Region
American Public Health Association: $160,000 to coordinate a public health alliance.
Primary Care Development Corporation: $200,000 to help state-licensed primary care clinics and small physician-owned practices adapt to federal changes.
Community Access: $100,000 to open the city’s first peer-led crisis respite center for people with serious mental illness.
Northwell Health: $250,000 to develop a digital platform to provide mental health services to young people.
Lead Free Kids NY: $150,000 to support a state-wide effort to minimize lead exposures.
Health and Environmental Funders Network: $125,000 to advocate for a federal program to support lead-safe homes.
Supporting People with Disabilities
Adaptive Design Association: $200,000 to expand a program that trains young adults with developmental disabilities to build adaptive equipment.
Improving Quality of Life for Older Adults
CaringKind: $100,000 to provide education and support to caregivers of people with dementia.
LiveOn NY: $180,000 for a statewide advocacy campaign for older New Yorkers.
Long Term Care Community Coalition: $120,000 to monitor whether state and local governments are enforcing nursing home regulations passed in the wake of the pandemic.
Grantmakers in Health: $75,000 to mobilize funders to advocate for increased funding through the reauthorization of the Older Americans Act.
Doula Program to Accompany and Comfort: $60,000 to provide end-of-life support to vulnerable New Yorkers.
Grantmakers in Aging: $75,000 to mobilize funders to advocate for increased funding through the reauthorization of the Older Americans Act.
Investing in Teachers and Schools
Center for Educational Innovation: $150,000 to help students, teachers, and parents in the Bronx learn to build and use technology and artificial intelligence.
Opportunity Network: $200,000 to train educators to help interested high school students pursue careers as an alternative to college.
Urban Assembly: $300,000 to help high schools use technology to give teachers feedback to improve their instruction.
Expanding Access to Affordable Child Care
5BORO Institute: $ 60,000 to involve employers in advocacy to expand access to affordable child care in New York City.
Supporting Gender Equity
New York Women’s Foundation: $180,000 for a funder collaborative focused on girls and young women of color.
Addressing Food Insecurity
Food Bank for New York City: $125,000 to prepare pantries to combine food with financial coaching to help struggling New Yorkers.
Sharing Excess: $100,000 to expand a food rescue program at the Hunts Point Produce Market.
Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture: $125,000 to study the effect of healthy food distribution and farming education for South Bronx families.
Supporting Family Unity
NYC Family Policy Project: $200,000 to study the effects of unnecessary child welfare investigations and advocate for better ways to connect families to services.
Family Justice Law Center: $200,000 to bring litigation on behalf of families harmed by the city’s child welfare practices.
Youth and Families Forward: $300,000 for a collaborative fund to keep low-income families together and support best practices in the city’s child welfare system.
Her Justice: $270,000 to for legal representation and advocacy to reform child support proceedings in New York State.
Investing in Young New Yorkers
Phipps Neighborhoods: $260,000 to expand healthcare and building maintenance training programs for unemployed Bronx young people.
Stanley M. Isaacs Neighborhood Center: $200,000 to prepare young jobseekers with limited education and job skills for work.
Beam Center: $90,000 to expand a science and creative design apprenticeship program for high school students.
Getting Out and Staying Out: $75,000 to continue an education and employment program for young people with a history of incarceration.
Teens for Food Justice: $360,000 to expand a school-based hydroponic farming program in Far Rockaway, Queens.
Supporting Arts and Culture
ArtBridge: $150,000 for public art projects in New York City Housing Authority developments.
Brooklyn Arts Exchange: $175,000 to manage leadership and space transitions.
Chamber Music America: $540,000 to strengthen chamber music ensembles.
Creative Time: $100,000 for sound installations in the city’s mass transit system.
Gibney: $300,000 to provide subsidized, accessible studio space to dance artists.
Hands On Sign Interpreted Performances: $60,000 to make live performances more accessible for Deaf audiences.
Louis Armstrong House Museum: $50,000 to provide high-quality music instruction to young people in Corona, Queens.
National Black Theatre: $300,000 to train Black playwrights, directors, and producers.
Increasing Civic Engagement
Vera Institute of Justice: $100,000 to educate Latino and Asian American voters about public safety issues in local elections.
Supporting Immigrants
New York Legal Assistance Group: $120,000 to help the city’s nonprofit legal service providers respond quickly to changes in immigration law and practice.
Creating Affordable Housing
Metro IAF: $90,000 to organize NYCHA tenants to advocate for timely repairs to improve health and safety.
Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation: $200,000 to revitalize housing, infrastructure, and small business support in East New York.
Neighborhoods First Fund for Community Based Planning: $300,000 to support grassroots organizing and advocacy in communities slated for re-zoning, housing development, and other capital investments.
Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation: $200,000 to revitalize housing, infrastructure, and small business support in East New York.
Supporting Nonprofit Resilience
F.Y. Eye: $100,000 to help nonprofits develop and air public service announcements.
Lawyers Alliance for New York: $250,000 to provide support and information that addresses threats from the federal administration.
National Council of Nonprofits: $50,000 to provide support and information that addresses threats from the federal administration.
New York Lawyers for the Public Interest: $300,000 to provide support and information that addresses threats from the federal administration.
Nonprofit New York: $250,000 to provide support and information that addresses threats from the federal administration.
Protecting the Environment
Caribbean Mangrove Coalition: $175,000 to conserve and expand mangrove forests in the Caribbean Basin.
Nature Conservancy: $100,000 to create guidance to improve communications with audiences skeptical of nature-based solutions.
Prospect Park Alliance: $ 50,000 to help address wildfire damage and risks.
Van Cortlandt Park Alliance: $60,000 to help address wildfire damage and risks.
Governors Island Foundation: $150,000 to support the development of urban climate solutions.
Wildlife Conservation Society: $250,000 to create and improve wildlife corridors in India, Nicaragua, and Tanzania.
