The grants address New York’s critical needs, from advocating for affordable housing and supporting immigrant communities to opening the city’s first older adult center designed for people with profound autism.
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Lauren Stewart, Turn Two
lauren@turn-two.co | (804) 690-9966
Courtney Biggs, Senior Manager, Public Relations
cbiggs@thenytrust.org | (212) 889-3963
The New York Community Trust, New York’s largest community foundation, today announced more than $8.3 million in new grants to 43 nonprofits across the city and beyond. The grants address New York’s critical needs, from advocating for affordable housing and supporting immigrant communities to opening the city’s first older adult center designed for people with profound autism.
The newly announced grants include more than $1.5 million to support local and national climate advocacy and resilience efforts, including reducing climate pollution from buildings. A grant to help low-income households install solar rooftop panels will save residents money while benefiting the environment.
Four grants totaling $725,000 will build on The Trust’s decades-long investment in research-backed reading instruction for New York students. Funded projects will advocate for the Department of Education to adopt proven methods for teaching kids to read and train educators to screen prekindergarten students for language-based disabilities.
“We’re still course correcting from decades of inadequate and even misguided reading instruction for New York’s kids,” said Shawn Morehead, The Trust’s executive vice president and chief program officer. “These grants build on the significant progress education advocates and service providers have made in recent years to help more students and teachers benefit from research-backed approaches to literacy education.”
New York State recently passed legislation that makes it easier for established land trusts to access acquisition and development funding. A grant to Brooklyn Level Up, a grassroots economic development and community ownership nonprofit, will support the development of a community land trust in Southern Central Brooklyn to help address the city’s affordable housing crisis.
“Community land trusts are an important source of permanent affordable housing for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers at a time when affordable housing vacancies are at a historic low and New Yorkers are struggling to stay in the city,” said Chantella Mitchell, The Trust’s program director for community development, housing, and human services.
The current round of grants also includes ongoing support for nonprofit resilience, another cause in which The Trust has invested decades of support. A grant to Staten Island NFP Association will support organizational capacity building, professional development, and advocacy efforts for its members, which include 150 of the Island’s 1,500 nonprofits.
“Nonprofits play a vital role supporting our local communities and the many opportunities and cultural offerings New York is known for,” said Amy Freitag, The Trust’s president. “We’re grateful to New Yorkers who, over the past century, included The Trust in their wills to invest in New York’s future with us—and we owe it to them to make sure our city remains a place where all of its residents can thrive.”
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.
Supporting Affordable Housing and Economic Mobility
Brooklyn Level Up: $125,000 to continue developing a community land trust in southern central Brooklyn.
City Limits: $125,000 to expand news coverage of the city’s public housing system.
Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners: $100,000 to help low-wage workers avoid or escape predatory debt.
New York Professional Advisors for Community Entrepreneurs: $ 75,000 to support small, minority- and women-owned businesses in low-income communities and growing industries.
Improving Quality of Life for Older Adults
Fair Health: $100,000 to help older adults make health care decisions.
India Home: $100,000 to open a day program for South Asian older adults with dementia.
Preventing Overdoses & Addiction
Housing Works: $150,000 to plan for an overdose prevention center in Hell’s Kitchen.
National Black Harm Reduction Network: $150,000 to advocate for better addiction treatment for Black New Yorkers.
Supporting People with Disabilities
Tech Kids Unlimited: $45,000 to create a free online resource about technology training for young people with disabilities.
Eden II School for Autistic Children: $250,000 to prepare to open the city’s first older adult center designed for people with profound autism.
Improving Literacy Education
Advocates for Children of New York: $280,000 to advocate for the Department of Education to adopt proven methods for literacy instruction.
Literacy Academy Collective: $80,000 to coordinate a statewide effort to improve the way teacher preparation programs prepare teachers to teach reading.
Promise Project: $200,000 to train educators to screen prekindergarten students for language-based disabilities.
Teaching Lab: $165,000 to identify and share schools’ successful tactics for improving reading instruction.
Supporting Young People
Girl Scout Council of Greater New York: $200,000 to operate a girl scout troop for immigrant children living in emergency shelters.
Unchained at Last: $220,000 for research and public education about bodily autonomy and healthy relationships within arranged marriages.
Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York: $200,000 to expand a youth organizing program.
Supporting Immigrants
African Communities Together: $200,000 to support African immigrants at risk of misinformation, hate crimes, and mass deportation.
Immigrant Defense Project: $300,000 to advocate for policies prohibiting state and local government agencies from collaborating with ICE.
Staten Island Community Job Center: $100,000 to advocate for legislation to protect workers from extreme temperatures.
Addressing Rural Healthcare Shortages
University of Kentucky Research Foundation: For graduate fellowships in health care fields across Appalachia.
Advocating for Sustainable Child Care Systems
Day Care Council of New York: $250,000 to advocate for an early child care system that is financially viable for providers.
Supporting Cancer Patients
Cancer Care: $300,000 for financial aid to low-income cancer patients.
God’s Love We Deliver: $300,000 to feed cancer patients undergoing treatment.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center: $300,000 to feed cancer patients undergoing treatment.
New York Legal Assistance Group: $300,000 for legal services to help people with cancer get treatment.
Supporting Culturally Sensitive Care
Footsteps: $75,000 to train human service workers to incorporate the needs of former members of the Haredi Jewish community.
Workforce Development
Workforce Professionals Training Institute: $200,000 to help child welfare agencies improve their workforce programs.
Investing in Arts and Culture
Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York: $225,000 to design a membership database.
Harlem Chamber Players: $225,000 to expand and diversify audiences for classical chamber music.
New York City Arts in Education Roundtable: $260,000 to advocate for adequate arts instruction for New York City public school students.
Increasing Civic Engagement
New York Civic Engagement Table: $210,000 to coordinate a coalition advocating for measures that make it easier for voters to participate in elections.
Protecting the Environment
Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center: $150,000 to advocate for federal and local policies to protect flood-prone areas of Appalachia.
Community Foundation Climate Collaborative: $200,000 to support a national network of community foundations collaborating on climate change.
New York University: $200,000 to support policies that protect wildlife in New York City and other urban areas.
Right to Democracy: $300,000 to support U.S. island territories’ local and federal environmental advocacy.
Urban Green Council: $280,000 to help reduce climate pollution from New York City buildings.
Urban Ocean Lab: $90,000 to support the development of resilient working waterfronts.
Solar One: $300,000 to help community groups and nonprofit affordable housing developers install shared solar arrays on rooftops.
Investing in Nonprofits
Staten Island NFP Association: $150,000 to advocate for and provide technical assistance to nonprofits on Staten Island.
Bernard M. Baruch College of CUNY: $500,000 for a leadership development and management training program for mid-level nonprofit managers.
