New York Foundation and New York Community Trust Create New Fund Aimed At Supporting A Fair and Accurate Census

Monday, July 2, 2018

New York Foundation and New York Community Trust Create New Fund Aimed At Supporting A Fair and Accurate Census

The New York Community Trust has joined with other funders in the state to create the New York State Grantmakers for Census Equity which plans to raise $1 to $2 million to help mobilize local and statewide efforts to make the 2020 Census accurate and fair, spokespersons with the trust told New York Nonprofit Media.

The collaboration of funders includes the New York Foundation, The New York Community Trust and its divisions – the Long Island Community Foundation and the Westchester Community Foundation – and other funders. They will make grants through the New York State Census Equity Fund which will be administered by The New York Community Trust and support education and outreach efforts, public policy advocacy, messaging and communication, and research and evaluation. The group’s formation was announced by Patricia Swann, senior program officer at The New York Community Trust, during Philanthropy New York’s recent annual meeting.

"The disruptive citizenship question is a significant threat to a proper census." - Tim Delaney, president of the National Council of Nonprofits.

Changes to the decennial census have nonprofits and their funders concerned about the effects that potentially unprecedented under-reporting could have on federal funding. At stake is $53 billion that the federal government funnels to New York state through programs whose funding formulas rely on data derived from the headcount. Concerns have also spurred the formation of a coalition of immigrant, religious, health, social services, business groups and other stakeholders working in partnership with state and local government officials called New York Counts...