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February 12, 2014   |   By The New York Community Trust
A Good Life, a Gift for Women and Girls Who Struggle

Stories of Impact of the Mildred Anna Williams Fund

A young mother reads to her children. With help from the Mildred Anna Williams Fund, she was able to get vital services.

MOM IN TRAINING: Pregnant at 14, Annette Hankins ran away from home. After having her second child, Hankins moved to Inwood House, where she learned how to better take care of her children and herself, and went on to college.

 

Mildred Anna Williams traveled around the world twice after World War I, collecting paintings, bronzes, and furniture with her husband, Henry, a successful importer and exporter of wood and marble.

Williams never forgot that her childhood hadn’t been easy, and she set up a fund in The Trust to “support activities conducive to the welfare of girls.” It started with $2 million after her death in 1939, has supported dozens of nonprofits with hundreds of grants, and is now worth more than $23 million.

In June, we used the Williams Fund—with other funds—to pay for these grants: $90,000 to Sanctuary for Families to help victims of human trafficking; $146,000 to Inwood House, to guide single young mothers in making smart decisions about education, health, and future relationships; and $55,000 to Day One, to improve how social workers and school counselors work with teen girls to prevent date rape, and to push for legislation against sending abusive raunchy texts, or “sexting.”

While we doubt Mildred Anna Williams could have imagined a problem called “sexting,” we believe she’d be pleased by the ways she continues to help.

Read a biographical sketch of Mildred Anna Williams and Henry K.S. Williams

Learn more about giving through The New York Community Trust.

Press Contact Information

Peter Panapento
peter@turn-two.co
(202) 531-3886

Courtney Biggs
cbi@nyct-cfi.org
(212) 889-3963

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Press Contact Information

Peter Panapento
peter@turn-two.co
(202) 531-3886

Courtney Biggs
cbi@nyct-cfi.org
(212) 889-3963

>> Get our press kit <<

Statue of Liberty in Red