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.
Together We Can Make an Impact
Address mental health and substance abuse
Support biomedical research
Support arts education
Bolster historic preservation
Confront climate change
Reduce toxic exposure and pollution
Aid those with disabilities
Help kids in foster care
Brooke Astor established a fund in The Trust to support school libraries. Later, $45 million from her estate created the Brooke Astor Fund for New York City Education. With her generosity, we helped improve literacy instruction; teach English to children of immigrants, and much more.
LuEsther T. Mertz, co-founder of Publishers Clearing House, distinguished herself with philanthropic service. Through her gift to The Trust, she wanted to support (1) human and civil rights, (2) historic preservation, (3) arts and culture, (4) parks and open space, and (5) environmental protection—as well as “unrestricted” projects.
With her generosity, we helped:
- LGBTQ refugees fleeing persecution
- Create a fairer bail system
- Make shorelines resilient to climate change
Mildred Anna Williams created a fund in The Trust to help girls and young women. Thanks to her generosity, we help expand a Harlem figure skating/academic program, pass New York State sex-trafficking laws, and improve reproductive health clinics in Queens and Staten Island.
Barbara Scott Preiskel, the second black woman to graduate from Yale Law School, joined The Trust’s board in 1978, serving as chair from 1990 to 1995. When she passed away, she left a fund at The Trust. We’ve used it to help groups find jobs for Brooklyn residents in the Navy Yard as well as formerly incarcerated New Yorkers.