New York City Workforce Development Fund

The New York City Workforce Development Fund was established in The Trust in 2001 by a group of foundations interested in employment issues, called the New York City Workforce Development Funders Group. 

Its first collaborative grants provided technical and financial assistance to youth and adult employment organizations. In 2004, it developed a sectoral employment initiative with the City’s Department of Small Business Services to support groups of training organizations and employers in health care and biotechnology, called the New York City Sectors Initiative. Since then, the Funders Group has continued to work closely with the City on workforce development programs and has participated in the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, aimed at establishing more partnerships of training providers and employers to serve disadvantaged job-seekers.  The National Fund is led by the Ford and Annie E. Casey foundations, as well as the U.S. Department of Labor. It has also begun a new partnership with New York State. 

Since 2001, the Funders Group has raised $5.5 million from the following foundations for various workforce initiatives in New York City.

Funders include:

• Altman Foundation

• Brooklyn Community Foundation (formerly the Independence Community Foundation)

• The Clark Foundation

• Ira W. De Camp Foundation

• Deutsche Bank

• Bernard and Alva Gimbel Foundation

• William T. Grant Foundation

• JP Morgan Chase Foundation

• Liz Claiborne Foundation

• Mizuho USA Foundation

• National Fund for Workforce Solutions

• The New York Community Trust

• Pinkerton Foundation

• Rockefeller Foundation

• Helena Rubinstein Foundation

• Taconic Foundation

• Tiger Foundation

• United Way of New York City

For more information, contact Pat Jenny at (212) 686-0010 x201