New York Community Trust Gives $5.1 million to 42 Nonprofits in the City, Nation

 

The New York Community Trust, the City’s community foundation, is spending $5.1 million on dozens of projects to make life better for all New Yorkers. This includes programs to develop a bionic eye using flat-screen technology; improve the State’s career and technical education system; help daughters of domestic violence victims break the cycle of abuse; and support Staten Island’s efforts to quash a heroin epidemic.

 

Several of these new grants illustrate an important strand of The Trust’s grantmaking: creating opportunities for children and young adults to prepare for careers.  “We’ve found that programs that reach young people at certain critical junctures have the greatest success,” says Pat Jenny, The Trust’s vice president of grants.  For example, very young children in foster care need a boost to keep from falling behind in school. “Our grant to Jewish Child Care Association of New York provides help for foster children at an important time,” Jenny says. “And research shows that only a fraction of high schoolers admitted to college end up graduating. So we’re supporting Graduate NYC! as it works to make sure students get in, enroll and succeed.”

 

These are a few highlights from the 42 grants approved at the Trust’s December the last board meeting of the year. In all, The Trust made $37 million in competitive grants in 2015 for the arts, environment, education, job training, and other areas. 

 

“Our donors have trusted us to get results on the problems they care about,” says Lorie Slutsky, president of The New York Community Trust. “Their generosity helps nonprofits working to fix problems that aren’t easy to fix.”

 

Read full release for listing of grantees.