Tuesday, May 12, 2015
New York Public Schools Fund Struggles to Secure Donations
The Fund for Public Schools, the nonprofit organization that former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his schools chancellors built into a fund-raising juggernaut, has struggled to attract donations under Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The fund, which raised an average of $29 million a year over the last decade, has raised just $18 million this fiscal year, which ends June 30, fund officials said. And about half of that comes from two large multiyear grants that began under the Bloomberg administration.
In an interview, Iris Chen, who has been the fund’s executive director since August, acknowledged that donations were down from previous years, which she said she had anticipated given the changes both at City Hall and in the leadership of the fund. But there also appear to be deeper issues that could hamper the fund for years to come....