FROM THE PRESIDENT

Lorie A. Slutsky, President Proud to Serve My Fellow New Yorkers

It’s been my privilege. . . A phrase that I’ve used hundreds, if not thousands, of times in my 45 years at The New York Community Trust. But as I began to write my 32nd—and final— president’s message, I paused. What does it mean to be “privileged”?

The dictionary defines privilege as “a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available to only a particular person or group.” At The Trust, we are privileged to use our resources to make New York a more livable, equitable, welcoming, and vibrant city. We have the opportunity to support the compassionate and creative people and organizations who dedicate themselves to making the word “privilege” obsolete—expanding equal rights and advantages to all New Yorkers.

But far too often we fail to recognize our privileges—the advantages of being born into families with resources, citizenship, and living in neighborhoods with good schools, healthcare, supermarkets, parks, and safe streets.

For almost a century, The Trust has made grants that creatively and effectively confront the abiding problems that affect our city and prevent many New Yorkers from experiencing these benefits. But these longstanding inequities are exacerbated by crises, and the pandemic disrupted the lives of all New Yorkers, especially those often characterized as “underprivileged.” As a community foundation, we are well-positioned to respond. We can apply “patient capital,” which gives us the time and money to stick with issues over the long-term. We live in the city’s neighborhoods and understand its cultures and assets as well as its problems. We work closely with all levels of government. And we coordinate with New York’s many private foundations, housing a number of collaborative programs that bring together multiple funders to tackle challenging issues.

These collaboratives have honed our ability to act quickly in emergencies; we’ve had no shortage during my tenure. When the World Trade Center was destroyed in 2001, we set up a fund to deal with the consequences less than five hours after the attack, ultimately raising a half-billion dollars that helped the city recover.

In 2008, as the market crashed, we immediately increased our grants to the city’s linchpin social service providers to make sure New Yorkers could weather the downturn. And in 2020, we brought together dozens of donors to distribute more than $70 million in a matter of weeks through the NYC COVID-19 Response & Impact Fund.

Although we have begun to emerge from the dislocation of 2021, the fallout from lost jobs, shuttered storefronts, emotional trauma, and an almost unimaginable death toll, lingers.

But as we have before, The Trust will help New York recover. I am proud of our determination to never give up on finding solutions to seemingly intractable problems, and what we have accomplished over the years.

And yes, it has been my privilege to lead this extraordinary organization. I am grateful to our board and staff for their dedication and hard work, our donors—past and present— who have built this community endowment, and our nonprofit partners without whom none of this work would be possible. The New York Community Trust is a New York institution, and I am confident that it, like its city, will remain vital and strong. n