Trinity Church Wall Street Philanthropies announced our 2022 grants total of $57 million
By: Neill Coleman, Executive Director, Trinity Church Wall Street Philanthropies
2022 was a year of ongoing—and new—challenges: from stubborn systemic issues of racism, homelessness, and incarceration, to responding to immediate needs such as the arrival of asylum seekers in New York City.
Once again, we are humbled by Trinity's ability to respond with and in awe of all our grantees and their work. As the infographic below shows, this includes $57 million in grant awards to 206 grantees. We strive to approach our engagement with our grantees from a posture of grace and generosity.
We try to manifest grace by walking alongside our grantees. We understand this as a way to be in relationship with our grantees, playing to our respective strengths and competencies, and—as a funder—to be more than a check-writer. This has included financial capacity building for thirty grantees, partnering with the Nonprofit Finance Fund, as well as advertising and marketing support by partnering with FY Eye.
For me, a particular manifestation of grace in 2022 was opening the doors of the Trinity Retreat Center to more than 20 staff from grantee organizations, giving folks on the front lines of social services and social justice work the opportunity to disconnect and decompress for three days. We plan to host this retreat again in 2023.
"I’ve been overseeing relations with our funding partners for more than 7 years…and I can say that this was the kindest gift and recognition we ever received from a partner organization."
GRANTEE RETREAT PARTICIPANT
For us, an attitude of generosity means stepping up when a need arises and being willing to go above and beyond. For example in 2022, Trinity Church Wall Street Philanthropies awarded nearly $2 million in grants to support asylum seekers arriving in New York City. The funds support over 20 organizations and more than 5000 asylum seekers.
Another urgent need to which Trinity has been called to respond is the youth mental health crisis in New York City. Additional funding from Trinity in 2022 will be deployed to grantees including Children’s Aid, the Wellness Classroom, and Eye to Eye for comprehensive support services, mental health outreach to homeless LGBTQ+ youth, and equipping school environments to better support the learning and social needs of students with learning disabilities.
Generosity also manifests in seeking to use all of Trinity’s resources towards the greater good. In 2022, we launched a new mission investing fund; early investments focus on affordable housing, including the New York City Acquisition Fund and MSquared. With these investments we will be able to further increase the number of affordable housing in New York City which Trinity has helped to fund with our grantmaking: currently 4,500 and counting.
Internationally, we launched a new revolving loan fund with the Church Commissioners of Kenya. We expect the $2.3 million Trinity investment to be leveraged five times, generating income for the mission for dioceses across Kenya. And in 2022, we welcomed the first class of Trinity Leadership Fellows, with participants from the US and across the globe.
As we move forward in 2023, let us together recognize the humanity of everyone, communities that are healthy and thriving, full of grace and generosity for each other.