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June 2010 NEWSLETTER
GRANTS
Most of the grants described in our newsletter are made possible through the generosity of past donors who established permanent, charitable funds with us during their lifetimes or through their wills. To learn more about how to set up a fund, please contact our general counsel, Jane Wilton, at 212.686.2563. TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 The Sound of Success
Building Knowledge on... Buildings
3 If a Tree Falls in the Forest and was SFI-Certified, was it Harvested Sustainably? 4 Fixing Albany: An Independent Redistricting Commission
Getting Help to Groups that Need it Most
6 Other Grants
Thinking in Beats and Bridges?
Art in the Classroom
B
udget cuts and an emphasis on standardized testing are threatening to erode years of painstaking advocacy to bring arts back to the City’s public schools—despite clear evidence that they significantly contribute to childrens’ ability to achieve in their academic subjects. The arts are also important for developing the conceptual thinking and social skills necessary for today’s job market. To make sure the arts stay in schools, The Trust is making two grants to groups that will expand and develop music and architecture programs that complement other coursework. These Bronx children in an Education Through Music-led class aren’t just playing—they’re learning how to read music, keep time, think creatively, and work together.
“Kids go from never hearing the word ‘architecture’ to noticing trusses, cantilevers, and cornices all around them.” —Kathryn Slocum, director of external affairs at the Salvadori Center
The Sound of Success
Building Knowledge on. . . Buildings
“The integration of music supports achievement in other core areas and helps build cognitive development,” says Louise Sedotto, a principal in the Bronx who brought Education Through Music (ETM) to her school in 2005. “Ninety-seven percent of students are on, or above, grade level in math, and I truly believe this improvement is due in large part to ETM’s involvement.”
Leonisa Ardizzone, president of the Salvadori Center and the Built Environment loves that ah-hah moment when teachers in her professional development workshops realize, “I can teach math by having my students look at the front of a building.”
And in a City where drop-out rates and truancy are big problems, students at schools with music programs are more likely to come to school each day and to graduate. “Some children who have difficulty focusing in the classroom are transformed in music class. They are attentive and eager to learn,” says one teacher. “Music helps them to build confidence and self esteem. It helps them when speaking up in class.” A $40,000 grant to Education Through Music will help teach 6,400 Bronx students how to read music, play instruments, and use music software. Principals and teachers will be coached on how to create and fund strong music programs for years to come. Sedotto continues: “Education Through Music brought in certified music teachers, enough to offer every child in the school a chance to learn music, a chance that most of our children do not have outside of school. Together, we have formalized a comprehensive music program for students in grades K through 5 and started a school band and an after-school chorus.” “We have helped schools apply for grants from borough presidents, foundations, and even alumni, for everything from a new PA system for the auditorium to getting risers for young musicians to stand on,” says ETM’s development director, Katherine Canning. The organization often stays at a school for several years and makes sure that music continues to ring out after it moves on.
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With a grant of $25,000, architects and engineers at the Center will train 22 teachers at 3 schools on the basics of how buildings stand up and how to lead model making and mapping projects. Most projects start with questions: How does a crane work? How are skyscrapers built? Field trips start with challenges: A walk around the neighborhood becomes a count of architectural styles; a trek across the Brooklyn Bridge ends in calculating how many feet of cable are needed to keep it from falling into the East River. “Kids go from never hearing the word ‘architecture’ to noticing trusses, cantilevers, and cornices all around them,” says Kathryn Slocum, director of external affairs at the Center. “They get very excited and bring their observations back into the classroom.” Salvadori educators take the lead at first, but as the semester goes on, classroom teachers take over and work with Center staff to integrate the Salvadori curriculum into their math, social studies, art, or science classes. Our grant will also be used to help 600 students sharpen math skills by studying the geometry on building facades, or learn about nomadic peoples and build a model and full-scale teepee. Some of the older students will take part in a design challenge with professional architects and engineers at the Winter Garden downtown. “We are able to make a pretty good case to school principals that we can meet their math content and improve writing and research skills,” continues Ardizzone. “Instead of seeing us as an add-on, we say ‘bring us in when you are setting your goals.’”
Left: A landslide caused by logging practices certified by Sustainable Forestry Initiative on steep slopes above Washington State’s Stillman Creek caused flooding, killed salmon, and caused millions of dollars in damage downstream. Photo: David Perry
Above: After the independent Forestry Stewardship Council redesigned their logo (also its certification mark) in 1996, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative-— started by the paper industry’s trade association-—redesigned its logo in 2000. Notice a resemblance?
If a Tree Falls in the Forest and was SFICertified, was it Harvested Sustainably? In 2007, a series of landslides in southern Washington State caused massive flooding, killed scores of wild salmon, and cost millions to clean up. The landslides resulted from clear-cutting trees on steep riverbanks using practices approved by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). The Initiative was started in 1994 by the American Forest and Paper Association, an industry trade group, in a bid to capture a larger share of the global green market, valued at $500 billion. In addition to SFI, a dizzying array of more than 400 “eco-friendly” product labels have been produced by profiteers intent on cashing in. “One of the dangers is that people who are trying to do the right thing by buying green are getting duped. If they realize they’ve been duped, it may turn them off from trying to buy truly sustainable products altogether,” says Todd Paglia, executive director of Forest Ethics, an environmental group that has protected nearly 70 million acres of wildlife habitat from logging. It encourages companies to use the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) label, which requires companies to comply with high environmental and social standards for
forest management. Forest Ethics also keeps the pressure on FSC to continually improve its own requirements. The SFI label, on the other hand, can be affixed to “wood that barely meets legal requirements—requirements that the industry has weakened over the past 100 years,” continues Paglia. Furniture, paper, and building materials with this logo can come from old growth forests or endangered species habitat, and from companies that rely on large-scale clearcutting or use highly toxic chemical pesticides. Forest Ethics has been working to convince big wood and pulp buyers to stop using the SFI label. Already successful in convincing Tropicana and FedEx, Forest Ethics will expand this campaign using a $100,000 grant from The Trust. “In order to protect forests worldwide, we are funding Forest Ethics to not only expose SFI’s false claims, but to bolster the meaningful certification of wood and paper products by the Forest Stewardship Council,” says Pat Jenny, program director for community development and the environment at The Trust. “Over the next generation, who decides what is green is going to be of critical importance,” says Paglia. If we are going to allow logging industry executives to decide what’s green, the future looks brown. If truly independent groups like the Forest Stewardship Council are making those decisions, it will lead to real empowerment of people to make truly green choices.”
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“As a watchdog with clout at the City and State levels, Citizens Union is in a good position to finally help change the redistricting process.” —Pat Swann, senior program officer, community development and the environment
Fixing Albany: An Getting Help to Groups Independent Redistricting that Need it Most Commission New Yorkers rely on it for meals, health and child care, There are many problems that need fixing in Albany, but most observers agree that creating a fair redistricting process is an important place to start. That’s because the State’s party leaders control redistricting with one goal: protecting incumbents. In fact, a report by the Citizens Union Foundation of the City of New York found that in the past ten years, a State legislator was more likely to be removed from office due to ethical misconduct than be redistricted out of one’s seat or die in office. “Legislative gerrymandering is practiced to the extreme in New York State and results in the polarization of issues, and is probably the single largest factor in the dysfunction and chaos in our State government’s operation,” says Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union. He continues: “The more competition in a district, the more likely we are to have real conversation about how to solve the State’s problems.” The 2010 Census presents an opportunity to rethink how the State redraws districts. A $70,000 grant to Citizens Union Foundation will help it advocate for an independent body to take over redistricting from the legislature-appointed body that currently handles the job. “As a watchdog with clout at the City and State levels, Citizens Union is in a good position to finally help change the redistricting process,” says Pat Swann, senior program officer for community development and environment at The Trust. “In addition to issuing recommendations, it has assembled a panel including former Mayor Ed Koch and former Attorney General Robert Abrams to champion reform. All announced— and unannounced—gubernatorial candidates have already pledged to support reform.”
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housing and legal help, even getting a better tax refund. It nourishes our parks, brings art into schools, runs and fills theaters, and nurtures new talent—all while providing more than 15 percent of all jobs in the City. But despite how much it gives, the City’s nonprofit sector is not getting what it needs to meet increases in demand and cope with decreases in revenue. In the recession’s first year, some agencies had been able to get by with federal stimulus funds, grants received before the downturn, and safety-net grants from The Trust and other foundations. But with a jobless recovery, large State and City cuts looming, and stimulus money running out, many groups must take a long, hard look at how they are going to make it. The health of the nonprofit sector has long been a Trust priority. Grants made last year helped community health centers get millions of dollars in stimulus funds, enabled community development corporations to cut costs, and brought in teams of experts to work with nonprofits in financial distress; but more help is needed. “After talking to dozens of executive directors and other nonprofit leaders, we have found consensus on four critical areas of nonprofit need,” says Joyce Bove, senior vice president for grants and special projects at The Trust. “A need for new approaches to fundraising; legal and financial counseling; help using outsourcing, shared services, and other ways to reduce operating costs; and help with debt.” The Trust has made six grants totaling $760,000 to fill these needs. An $80,000 grant to Cause Effective will allow it to help nonprofits cultivate individual donors and diversify
and stabilize revenue. “The recession has definitely promoted organizational change through necessity, and as a result, we have been inundated with calls for our help,” says executive director Judy Levine. “Many organizations have friends, allies, and others who respect and are touched by their work but who have never been tapped to contribute. We help monetize that respect.” This work will build on a grant last year which helped groups including Pratt Area Community Council, Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, and Good Old Lower East Side to generate nearly half a million dollars in individual gifts, many of them from new donors. Community Resource Exchange (CRE) is the go-to place for help with nonprofit management. Last year, The Trust funded a hotline so that CRE could counsel executive directors with management and Greg Cohen from Cause Effective leads a “Raising Friends, Raising Funds” workshop for personnel challenges. This year, a $250,000 nonprofit leaders learning how to diversify their revenue sources. grant will help the Exchange take its show on the road, bringing its services to clusters of small Coordinating Committee of New York to help them community groups in the far corners of the five boroughs, manage it—matching nonprofits with quality, affordable from East New York, Brooklyn to Far Rockaway, Queens. vendors that can provide back-office services for less money than doing the work in house. “In poor communities, it’s these organizations that make the difference, but it’s hard for them to come all the As revenues decline, many groups are struggling with way to Manhattan for consultations and workshops,” says managing debt. A $125,000 grant to the Lawyers Alliance executive director Fran Barrett. “Our strategy is to work for New York will help the agency provide free businesswith an anchor group in a community, and then identify law services, such as restructuring debt out of court and other smaller groups near by that may need help. Once terminating commercial leases. The Alliance will work with assembled, we’ll ask them what kinds of help they need. It other Trust grantees to identify struggling groups in the might be a workshop on nonprofit compliance issues or an poorest neighborhoods—many of which provide affordable explanation of how City budgeting works. We will most housing and help to elders, youth, and immigrants. likely connect them to the network of services available to groups like theirs, and help them raise money.” “Arts groups are particularly challenged because they bought their buildings, and now can’t support their The Trust made one of the first grants to costs. Now they are seeing decreases in grant money, NYCharities.org, a group that makes it easier for smaller ticket sales, and other revenues,” says Kristin Giantris, organizations to take full advantage of online fundraising Northeast vice president of the Nonprofit Finance and donor cultivation. To date, it has helped more than Fund. With a grant of $150,000, her organization will 9,000 nonprofits raise $22 million. This year, an $80,000 help prevent arts and other groups from going under grant will help NYCharities.org demonstrate the potential during the recession by helping them accurately project of online fundraising for nonprofits that work in poor their debt burden so they can manage it successfully. communities. In addition to helping groups raise money, “Once they are able to do this, they are in a better place The Trust is making a $75,000 grant to the Nonprofit to talk about refinancing, or finding funding solutions.”
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Other Grants CHILDREN, YOUTH, AND FAMILIES
Advocates for Children of New York, $55,000 to prevent students from getting locked up for minor, school-related problems and to improve the quality of education for youth in detention, as well as help those youth return to school after release. Good Shepherd Services, $80,000 to expand a program that helps disadvantaged Brooklyn and Bronx youth go to college or begin careers. MFY Legal Services, $80,000 to help seniors caring for their grandchildren gain guardianship rights and financial assistance. New Yorkers Against Gun Violence Education Fund, $55,000 to train young people in high-crime neighborhoods to speak out and organize against gun violence, and work with elected officials to strengthen gun laws. They will also show and distribute topical videos produced by Trust grantee Downtown Community Television Center. CITY ENVIRONMENT
Regional Plan Association, $75,000 to advocate for more sustainable economic development policies in the City. NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT
Clean Air Task Force, $100,000 to protect the Arctic from climate change by reducing global emissions of black carbon and other short-lived pollutants. League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, $75,000 to build public support for federal and state action on climate change. Science Communication Network, $40,000 to increase the quality of reporting on environmental health research by training scientists to communicate and helping journalists interpret environmental health research.
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West Harlem Environmental Action, $75,000 to hold a series of community forums around the country to educate environmental justice leaders about the effects of climate change on their communities and how to respond. EMPLOYMENT
New York City Employment and Training Coalition, $75,000 to help New Yorkers find jobs by providing upto-date information and resources on a changing labor market and evolving federal, State, and City employment programs. The coalition will also guide its member organizations on how to best help Haitian immigrants and refugees in New York who need work. Workforce Professionals Training Institute, $85,000 to improve the training and resources given to City job seekers by making the professionals who help them more effective. THE ARTS
Apollo Theater Foundation, $50,000 to coordinate a consortium of music groups working to build audiences for jazz in Harlem. HISTORIC PRESERVATION
Coney Island USA, $25,000 for a publicity campaign to celebrate Coney Island history and bring visitors to cultural and historic sites in this seaside neighborhood and its renovated amusement park. EDUCATION
Donors’ Education Collaborative, $200,000 for a joint foundation effort to support advocacy for public education reform in the areas of accountability, State and City funding formulas, teaching effectiveness, and college preparation. Make the Road New York, $50,000 to increase the ability of low-income immigrant parents in Elmhurst, Queens and Bushwick, Brooklyn to participate in their children’s schools.
New Visions for Public Schools, $54,000 to help students make the transition to high school by testing a new monitoring system in 10 schools that helps teachers and parents respond quickly to academic and attendance problems of 9th graders. Urban Youth Collaborative, $100,000 for a youth-led organization to advocate for courses and instruction in City high schools that prepare students for a Regents diploma and college-level coursework. HUMAN JUSTICE
Fund for New Citizens, $150,000 for a funder collaborative that supports immigrant groups to help immigrants and refugees get basic services, strengthen their own operations, and for advocacy and organizing. In response to the crisis in Haiti, it will help those eligible get Temporary Protected Status and work with small nonprofits serving Haitians.
Institute for Community Living, $65,000 to test a health and wellness education program for mentally ill people with chronic health problems. Mental Health Association of New York City, $175,000 to continue a program that offers mental health training and resources for staff at agencies helping New Yorkers weather the recession. Primary Care Development Corporation, $125,000 to reduce hospitalization and increase preventive care by helping community health centers become “medical homes.�
Sanctuary for Families, $100,000 to provide legal help to an increasing number of poor and immigrant young women and girls who are victims of domestic violence. It will also help Haitian clients apply for Temporary Protected Status. HEALTH AND PEOPLE WITH SPECIAL NEEDS
Associated Medical Schools of New York, $30,000 for stipends for minority pre-med students working in biomedical research laboratories. Coalition of Behavioral Health Agencies, $125,000 to hire consultants to help mental health clinics adapt to new Medicaid reimbursement regulations. Council of Senior Centers and Services of New York City, $75,000 to operate and expand a moneymanagement program for frail elders. Fountain House, $65,000 to expand a clinic that helps seriously mentally ill people with chronic physical and mental health problems.
Comments or questions? Please contact Amy Wolf, at aw@nyct-cfi.org.
June 2010
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June 2010 NEWSLETTER
Inside: The Sound of Success, Building Knowledge on Buildings, Fixing Albany, Getting Help for Groups that Need it Most, and More. . .
GRANTS
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The grants described in this issue were approved by The New York Community Trust’s governing body at its April 2010 meeting. For grantee contact information, or for more information about the grants, please call The Trust’s receptionist at 212.686.0010, ext. 0. This issue and past newsletters can be found at www.nycommunitytrust.org. If you’d prefer to receive our newsletter by email, write to newsletter@nyct-cfi.org.
Salvadori Center architect-educator Janny Gedeon brings architecture, math, and science together as she works with students from P.S. 52 in Springfield Gardens, Queens.
Most of the grants in our newsletter are made possible through the generosity of past donors who established permanent, charitable funds with us during their lifetimes or through their wills. To learn more about setting up a fund, please contact our general counsel, Jane Wilton, at 212.686.2563.