December 2013 Grants Newsletter

grants DECEMBER 2013 NEWSLETTER

Sports+Studies=Success The Trust’s grants bring kids to the ballpark and the classroom | page 3

Questions about setting up a fund at The Trust? Contact: Jane Wilton, general counsel, at (212) 686-2563; Gay Young, VP for donor services, at (212) 686-2234; or Bob Edgar, VP for donor relations, at (212) 686-2564.

5 Questions for

the New Grants Guru Pat Jenny, our new vice president for grants, has spent 29 years at The Trust, primarily managing grantmaking for community development and the environment. A graduate of Brown University, she has a master’s in regional planning from the University of North Carolina.

The Trust gets so many proposals—how does your staff decide which to select?

Our two dozen program areas range from biomedical research to strengthening arts groups, and from bettering the life of the elderly to helping poor people become more self-sufficient. We publish guidelines for the kinds of projects we support and the objectives we’re trying to meet, and judge every proposal against these guidelines.

What recent project made you proud?

We’ve spent five years helping redesign the Sheridan Expressway, which slices through a neighborhood in the South Bronx. Thanks to private, City, State, and federal money, the area is now slated for new parks, new housing, and pedestrian-friendly amenities.

You often talk about The Trust’s strategic approach. What is it?

Even though we make mostly one-year grants, we have long-term agendas. We support multiple organizations working on an issue from different approaches. For

The Trust makes donors’ charitable dreams come true by funding the nonprofits that make the City and its suburbs great places to live, work, and play.

example, educators are focusing on the challenges of the new national Common Core Learning Standards.

We make grants at the State level to ensure New York’s policy focuses on helping students here, at the City level to see that public schools have resources to train teachers, and at the neighborhood level to make sure parents are involved in schools.

New York and its suburbs have so many pressing issues. What difference can The Trust’s grants make?

Because we’re the City’s community foundation, we are here for the long haul. We do everything possible to make sure that our donors’ dollars alleviate poverty, improve quality of life, and create opportunities.

Why should someone set up a fund in The Trust now or name it in a will?

We’re a leading supporter of nonprofits in New York. We know them, and we help them seize opportunities. If someone loves New York and wants to give back, this is the place.

Words of Wisdom from Nonprofits What lessons can the best-run nonprofits teach other nonprofits? What can they teach for-profit companies?

The Trust asked for words of management wisdom from a couple of finalists for the New York Community Trust-New York Magazine Nonprofit Excellence Awards.

BronxWorks offers job skills training, services for people with HIV/AIDS, preschool, summer camps, and evictionprevention programs. Its tips: • Create an environment where quality and excellence are the norm and mediocrity is frowned upon.

• Don’t be afraid to ask questions—they’re one of the keys to getting and staying smart.

• Use data to make decisions and do not be intimidated by it. Data is a powerful tool.

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Legal-service provider Bronx Defenders says: • Never lose sight of who you serve, and make sure that shapes every decision you make.

• Don’t be afraid to take on difficult, creative projects that could impact your clients’ lives.

• Schedule time to take a step back and consider the “Big Picture” for your organization, your cause, and your clients.

An elder with dolls made in a BronxWorks senior center arts and crafts class.

COVER STORY

Sports + Studies = Success

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n the heart of East Harlem, a baseball diamond is a haven for children at an after-school program to drill students in sports—and much more.

Players at Harlem RBI learn teamwork and develop friendships on baseball and softball teams like the Kings and the Lady Royals. Off the field, they learn life skills: Educators share lessons on preparing for college, finding a career, and getting involved in the community.

Often the students come for the sports, but are enticed by academic opportunities.

The program requires everyone to keep up school attendance and grades. Ultimately, the goal isn’t perfect innings; it’s graduating and going to college.

Manuel Vasquez, 16, hopes to study engineering, but —15-year-old doesn’t have time to research Woizero Jarvis colleges. Harlem RBI helps by offering test-prep seminars and workshops on applying to college. The program even organizes a scavenger hunt to get kids out to see campuses across the City.

Since 2001, The Trust gave $700,000 to Harlem RBI. Now, an additional $50,000 will expand the program to Mott Haven in the South Bronx. Organizers are recruiting children from several elementary and middle schools.

The safe environment gives kids a place to go after school, where they’re surrounded by close friends— their teammates. “I feel like this is our second family,” says 15-year-old Woizero Jarvis, a pitcher for the Harlem RBI Lady Royals.

“I feel like this is our second family”

nycommunitytrust.org

Trust grants of $315,000 to Row New York have helped girls from poor neighborhoods thrive on land and water. Graduates of the program have won athletic scholarships to row at Smith College, Michigan State University, Syracuse, and other schools.

Bronx Soccer Program Kicks Off With a $50,000 Trust grant, Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club started an after-school soccer program for kids ages 7 to 12 from immigrant communities in the Bronx.

“Baseball and football may be popular in the United States, but the world plays soccer,” says the Club’s foundation director Tony Santiago. About three-quarters of the participants are from Latin America and Africa. In addition to fostering sportsmanship and teamwork, the Club provides tutoring and homework help.

The Science of Skating With $160,000 in Trust grants, the young women of Figure Skating in Harlem are learning about the physics that makes their bodies spin, jump, and glide on ice. This approach is taught along with a strength-conditioning program.

This fall, the girls performed in Times Square for the Olympic Committee as part of the countdown to the 2014 Winter Games.

October 2013

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Linking Local Food to the City There’s nothing like the crunch of a just-harvested Gala apple or the sweetness of a fresh-picked grape tomato. The City’s 50-plus farmers markets are wonderful for families, but what if nonprofits, schools, and restaurants had their own wholesale source?

The demand is there, but less than five percent of produce sold at Hunts Point wholesale market—the largest food distribution center in the world—is local.

Trusts grants totaling $200,000 to the Natural Resources Defense Council and GrowNYC are helping suppliers push for a wholesale market featuring regionally grown produce in the renovation plans for Hunts Point.

Better access would help small and mid-sized regional produce growers cut transportation costs, boost production and plan next year’s crop—creating jobs in rural areas. “Economic benefits radiate outward in all directions from this project,” says Mark Izeman, a senior attorney at the Council. “Part of our job is to tell decision-makers that preserving food production and keeping farms is good for our State, and good for everyone’s pocketbook.” The grant also helps send fresh and healthful produce to low-income communities.

With last year’s grant, the Council and GrowNYC set up a temporary wholesale farmers market next to Hunts Point; helped organize a standing-roomonly mayoral forum on food; and enlisted the support of restaurants, schools, and local government, along with farm, health, and hunger organizations. Three New York governors have endorsed such a market and advocates will keep up the pressure when negotiations resume.

At the National Dinner Table • Federal policies that encourage consumption of fruits and vegetables “could save taxpayers billions and save lives,” says Ricardo Salvador, director of the Food & Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, in Cambridge, Mass. “But current farm policies favor unhealthy, processed food and they’re making Americans sick.” A $75,000 grant allows the organization to promote reforms.

• A $75,000 grant to the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation trains grassroots leaders—including New Jersey farmworkers and Louisiana fishermen—to advocate for sustainable food and farming legislation.

• Decomposed food makes rich soil that eliminates the need for chemical fertilizers.

A $75,000 grant to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, based in Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., promotes composting biodegradable household waste in New York and three other cities.

Cows grazing in the Hudson Valley on land conserved by the Agricultural Stewardship Association, photo by Lawrence White.

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K a t h e r in e

and our grants program often dovetail to get results. To learn more, contact Jane Wilton at (212) 686-2563. nycommunitytrust.org

October 2013

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New Grants The full list of grants approved at the October board meeting can be found in the Latest News section of our website, nycommunitytrust.org.

Roulette Intermedium, a Brooklyn group showcasing experimental contemporary music, creates programs for online broadcast with a $60,000 grant, photo by Boran Sadja.

Edward and Sally Van Lier set up a fund to help gifted young artists with limited incomes. Since 1991, The Trust’s Van Lier Fellowship Program has helped 1,638 artists, several of whom have gone on to become MacArthur “Genius Grant” winners, perform and direct on Broadway, and show in museums. This year, 12 grants totaling $851,000 are helping 85 recent college graduates launch careers in the arts.

Fellow Janelle Iglesias creates kinetic sculpture at Smack Mellon in Dumbo, Brooklyn, photo by Etienne Frossard.

The nation’s first public library in a fine arts museum is scheduled to open in the Queens Museum of Art in 2015. A $100,000 Trust grant helps develop educational programs that bring together the museum and library collections.

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Many elderly New Yorkers can’t afford food and can’t get to pantries. The Trust helped start Citymeals-on-Wheels’ mobile food pantry, which delivered free weekly groceries to 850 elders last year. This year, a $100,000 grant keeps the project trucking along.

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n esplanade shouldn’t be an obstacle course. But with a three-mile series of sinkholes, broken piers, and hard-tofind entrances, the East River waterfront from 125th to 60th Street sometimes feels more stressful than serene.

“Roped-off hazards make piers unusable, while potential gardening spots are fallow because there’s no irrigation,” says Lauren O’Toole, interim executive director of Civitas, a planning group working to improve life on Manhattan’s East Side.

With the City’s eyes on the waterfront in the wake of superstorm Sandy, a $55,000 Trust grant will help Civitas bring Upper East Side and East Harlem residents together to plan for an upgrade of the esplanade.

A recent Civitas competition challenged architects and planners to envision a welcoming space for bikers, walkers, gardeners, kayakers,

A New East Side Esplanade Renderings by David Elzer (left) and Gerard Cadger and Xenia Semeniuk (right) entered into the “Reimagining the Waterfront” competition.

local workers, and families. It received more than 90 submissions from 24 countries. The Trust grant supports community events featuring an exhibition of these renderings and organizing residents to help plan and advocate for a new esplanade.

“The next twenty years are going to be awesome for this City,” says Sharon Pope, Civitas board member and urbanist. “With Brooklyn Bridge Park, Governors Island, and Hudson River Park to look to, it’s a wonderful time to be involved in the waterfront.”

Solving a Rental Crisis

Suburbanites who struggle to find affordable rentals now have confirmation of what they suspected: Long Island has far fewer rentals than other areas around New York City, and fewer than 5% are vacant. Despite high demand, the Island is building townhouses and apartments slower than nearby suburbs. Rents have increased far more than incomes, undermining Nassau and Suffolk counties’ efforts to attract young workers and professionals starting careers.

Those are findings of a study by the Regional Plan Association and Long Island Affordable and Fair Housing Initiative Advisory Group, supported by an $86,000 grant from the Long Island Community Foundation, a division of The Trust. Other key findings: • 56% of Long Island renters pay more than 30% of their income for housing.

• 55% of 20- to 34-year-olds live with parents or other older relatives.

• The Hudson Valley, northern New Jersey, and southwestern Connecticut have two-and-a-half times more available rental homes per household than Long Island.

The study found a major obstacle: Zoning regulations often prevent construction of residential buildings on small lots in tightly packed neighborhoods near train stations, where they’d benefit the most

nycommunitytrust.org

Long Islan d’ Hous s Rental ing C risis

people and take away the least green space.

Of course, the affordable housing crisis isn’t just in the suburbs. To address the problem in the City, The Trust helps groups to stabilize management and improve conditions of affordable housing; build or convert space into new apartments; support developers of such housing; and push for equitable housing policies.

Recent grants include $40,000 to Picture the Homeless, a group founded by the homeless, for research and advocacy to convert foreclosed and vacant properties into housing for the poor. Grants of $65,000 each to Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, a coalition of nearly 100 neighborhood housing groups, and Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, a tenant advocacy group, help promote the transfer of apartment buildings in foreclosure to responsible owners.

October 2013

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Make your philanthropic dreams come true.

If you’re interested in the work in these pages, contact Jane Wilton, general counsel, at (212) 686-2563; or Bob Edgar, vice president for donor relations, at (212) 686-2564.

For more stories about our grants in New York City, Westchester, and Long Island, see nycommunitytrust.org

grants December 2013 NEWSLETTER

Inside: Linking Local Food to the City An New East Side Esplanade Solving a Housing Crisis The Lower Eastside Girls Club opened a clubhouse with a planetarium, art studios, computer center, radio station, gym, and instructional kitchen. A $30,000 Trust grant funds a new website and technical support for the staff.