COLLABORATIVE FUNDS

Joining Forces for Impact

We created our first collaborative fund in 1977 to respond to the city’s economic crisis, and since then we’ve continued to bring funders together to meet the moment in addressing big challenges across New York City, Long Island, and Westchester. By consolidating resources and expertise we can tackle the biggest, toughest challenges at the appropriate scale. In 2021, The Trust and its suburban divisions housed 12 collaborative funds that connected funders with dynamic nonprofits making our region better. In addition to those highlighted below, our collaboratives include: Early Childhood Partners Fund, Foster Care Excellence Fund, Fund for New Citizens, Good Neighbors Initiative, Long Island Immigrant Children’s Fund, Long Island Racial Equity Fund, Long Island Sound Stewardship Fund, Mosaic Network and Fund, New York State Census Equity Fund, and Westchester Workforce Funders Collaborative.

We thank our generous funding partners who make this work possible. To learn more or join a collaborative, contact Barbara Taveras at bt@nyct-cfi.org.

GETTING OUT THE VOTE

New York City’s elections in 2021 were some of the most consequential in a generation, with the mayor, comptroller, public advocate, all borough presidents, and two-thirds of City Council up for election. In addition, the city rolled out ranked-choice voting for the first time even as it faced decades of downward trending in voter turnout. In response, the GoVoteNYC Fund invested more than $1 million in activities to increase turnout and educate voters on rankedchoice voting, important dates, and information about the candidates. Grants to nine community groups reached well over a million often-overlooked voters through a multilingual campaign, including forums, workshops, mailed materials, social media, and outdoor signage (shown here, courtesy of grantee F.Y. Eye). The fund analyzed voter turnout and compared the effectiveness of different outreach strategies to improve civic engagement in future elections.

PAVING PATHWAYS TO JOBS

Recent immigrants often need skills training and certifications to secure good-paying jobs. Furthermore, the needs of the labor market continue to evolve due to technological change and shifting employment demands, making finding a good job more difficult for those born here as well. The city has experienced larger spikes in unemployment than anywhere else in the nation as a result of the pandemic, and many service industry workers have sought to change careers for more stable, better-paying jobs—further intensifying competition.

In 2021, The New York City Workforce Development Fund made more than $1 million in grants to train New Yorkers for in-demand, higher-paying jobs. The Fund built up the capacity of job training programs across the city and improved their technology-based offerings. In 2018, one of the grantees, New York Association of Training and Employment Professionals, advocated for a more effective statewide workforce development system, resulting in the unprecedented investment of $175 million in new state funding for workforce services through 2021. The Association also just played a critical role in working with the governor’s office to ensure that level of funding is included in the state’s 2023-2024 budget. The funding established a new state Office of Workforce Development to oversee the allocation, which will be administered to state employment agencies and authorities, regional economic development organizations, nonprofit workforce training providers, and private sector employers to provide workers with skills-based training and jobs.