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Who We Are

The New York Community Trust connects past, present, and future generous New Yorkers with vital nonprofits working to make a healthy, equitable, and thriving community for all.

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Our Work

A public charity, The Trust is a grantmaking foundation dedicated to improving the lives of residents of New York City, Long Island, and Westchester. We bring together individuals, families, foundations, and businesses to build a better community and support nonprofits that make a difference. We apply knowledge, creativity, and resources to the most challenging issues in an effort to ensure meaningful opportunities and a better quality of life for all New Yorkers, today and tomorrow.

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History

Since 1924, The New York Community Trust has helped make our region a better place for all: Young and old, newcomers and life-long residents. Our work is made possible through the enduring generosity of donors—from teachers and taxi drivers to Rockefellers. Nearly a century after we were founded, The Trust continues to produce a signature brand of philanthropy that is patient, strategic, and effective.

MORE ABOUT OUR HISTORY
Staff

Our diverse mix of professionals are experts in philanthropy, investment, and grantmaking. They are committed to helping donors take their vision for New York and transform it into a long-term plan to change the city for the better.

Meet our Staff
Board

Twelve dedicated New Yorkers—selected for their judgment, integrity, and understanding of philanthropic needs—serve as our board. Six are nominated by civic authorities: the Mayor of New York City, the Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the chairmen of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the Partnership for New York City, and the presidents of the City’s Bar Association and the New York Academy of Medicine.

MEET OUR BOARD
Financial Information

Our financial statements are available. Click button below. If you would like copies or have any questions about our work, contact The Trust.

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Westchester and Long Island Divisions

Philanthropy is most effective done locally. That’s why we created divisions in Westchester and Long Island. They are close to the donors in their communities, steeped in the most important issues, and overseen by boards of committed civic leaders. They work in many areas, from clean water to affordable housing, from job training to afterschool arts programs.

  • Founded 1975
  • Serves Westchester County
  • Population 976,000

  • Founded 1978
  • Serves Nassau and Suffolk counties
  • Population 2.9 million
Frequently Asked Questions
What is The New York Community Trust?
What is The New York Community Trust?

Founded in 1924, The New York Community Trust is a public charity and the New York metropolitan region’s largest community foundation. It serves New York’s five boroughs as well as Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk counties through its divisions in Long Island and Westchester.

It manages almost $3.2 billion in assets—making us one of the oldest and largest of the roughly 800 community foundations in the U.S.

What does The Trust do, and how does it work?
What does The Trust do, and how does it work?

The Trust connects generous people and institutions with high-impact nonprofits making the city and its suburbs a better place for all. It builds stronger communities, influences public policy, fosters innovation, improves lives, and protects our environment. 

The Trust makes thousands of grants to nonprofits each year from more than 2,300 individual charitable funds. Through these individually tailored funds, donors can support specific issue areas, improve the region as a whole, give to specific organizations over time, or suggest grants to nonprofits using our online portal.

Many of these funds are permanent, and allow The Trust to run a robust grantmaking program to which nonprofits can apply year-round. The staff vets grant proposals and organizations and match the most promising projects with available funding. The Trust also brings together nonprofits and funds their work to address complex problems. The board approves hundreds of grants each year, and the staff monitors the implementation of the projects and provides additional funding when it makes sense. 

The community foundation funds a broad set of issue areas, including poverty, justice, education, health, arts, environment, LGBTQ, elderly, children and teens, and civic affairs.

Among its family of funds, it manages more than 1,200 donor-advised funds or DAFs—a popular giving vehicle we invented in 1931. DAFs allow donors and advisors they appoint to easily suggest grants to organizations across the country. 

As a community foundation, The Trust is uniquely positioned to respond in moments of crisis. It has ready capital to address critical needs and the trust of partners in philanthropy, the nonprofit sector, and government.

What is Community Funds, Inc., and how does it impact my investment choices?
What is Community Funds, Inc., and how does it impact my investment choices?

Community Funds, Inc., (CFI) is The Trust’s nonprofit corporate affiliate that holds and invests funds established by our donors. It was created by The Trust decades ago to offer donors more flexibility and choices for investing their funds. 

Donors can now choose between setting up a fund in The Trust or Community Funds, Inc. Both are public charities and file a combined report with the IRS. If a donor creates a fund in Community Funds, Inc., they have a choice of four investment vehicles appropriate for different grantmaking objectives. 

Donors may also establish funds at any one of the 12 trustee banks that have adopted The Resolution and Declaration of Trust creating The New York Community Trust. The trustee bank is the fiduciary and manages the fund; investment performance and asset allocation are monitored by our staff and reviewed by the Investment Committee. Most of our trustee banks have minimums of $1 million or more to establish a trust.

No matter how the donor chooses to create their fund, they can be assured that it will be safeguarded by a professional staff and experienced investment professionals who volunteer countless hours as members of our Investment Committee. 

BY-LAWS OF COMMUNITY FUNDS, INC. (PDF)

RESOLUTION & DECLARATION OF TRUST (PDF)

How do The Trust and other community foundations differ from private foundations?
How do The Trust and other community foundations differ from private foundations?

Unlike foundations funded through a single donor, family, or corporation, such as the Ford or the Coca-Cola foundations, The Trust is a community foundation and a public charity. It has a defined geographic focus, bringing together individuals, families, foundations, and corporations through more than 2,300 funds.

Who sits on the board of The Trust?
Who sits on the board of The Trust?

Of its twelve-person Distribution Committee, six members are nominated by civic authorities broadly representative of the public. These include the Mayor of New York City, the Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the chairs of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the Partnership for New York City, the president of the City Bar Association, and the Chairman of the New York Academy of Medicine. Six others are chosen by the Distribution Committee itself for their knowledge of the city’s needs.

Meet the board of The Trust.

Why were community foundations created?
Why were community foundations created?

More than a century ago, Cleveland banker Frederick Goff had a vision: to pool the charitable resources of his community’s philanthropists into a single, great, and permanent endowment for the betterment of the city. That vision led to the formation of the world’s first community foundation, the Cleveland Foundation, and subsequently the New York Community Trust in 1924. 

The 1920s were a time of enormous flux, and banks and their customers understood that times were changing, and that today’s problems were not necessarily going to be tomorrow’s. The community foundation model allowed banks to work with professional grantmakers to steward charitable legacies, making sure gifts were used to stay relevant and respond to the challenges of the day.

Today, nearly 800 U.S. community foundations collectively grant more than $6.5 billion each year and manage more than $82 billion in charitable assets.

Roger Juan Maldonado, photo by Ari Mintz
Meet donor Roger Juan Maldonado

“My father and grandfather were both Army veterans and my mother gave birth to me at a military base, so I was literally born into a world of public service.

While in law school, I worked one summer helping people in Vieques, Puerto Rico, who were trying to stop the U.S. Navy from using a portion of their island as a bombing range during military exercises. After that experience, I said, ‘This is what I want to do.’”

Roger Juan Maldonado is a trustee emeritus of The Trust, partner at Smith Gambrell Russell LLP, and a past president of the New York City Bar Association. He established a fund in The Trust in 2007 and is a member of our Legacy Society.

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Hallie S. Hobson, photo by Marty Lipp
Meet donor Hallie S. Hobson

“In philanthropy, I think it’s important to put your dollars where your values are. It takes resources to bring good into the world, so we should commit to causes that are important to us and support them.

I’ve lived all over the country, but I fell in love with New York because of its energy and vibrant arts community. One of the incredible things about New York is you don’t have to buy a ticket and go in to see a show at a museum or theater. There’s just magic on the streets all the time in these serendipitous encounters with people and culture.”

Hallie S. Hobson is the Harlem-based founder and principal of HSH Consulting LLC, a boutique management consulting firm supporting nonprofit arts organizations. She created a fund in The Trust to honor her late father, Emmy award-winning television producer Charles Hobson, who, beginning in the 1960s, produced pioneering programs that gave a powerful voice to Black New Yorkers and helped dissipate racial stereotypes.

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200500000
2022 grants awarded
2085
Funds in The Trust
10897
2022 grant payments