Listen to this articleAffordable housing. Nonprofit resilience. Workforce development. Mental and behavioral health. Decarceration. Democracy. Immigration.
Which three causes resonate with you the most?
The New York Community Trust wants to know as it shapes its grantmaking for 2025. The 100-year-old foundation helps donors support causes that improve cultural and civic life in the region, including Long Island.
Now, it is asking New Yorkers to cast their vote to direct $3 million in grants from the foundation.
Through the trust’s “Our Votes, Our Vision, Our Community” initiative, New Yorkers, through Nov. 30, can weigh in on the causes they find most pressing through an online survey on the foundation’s website.
The results will shape the foundation’s grantmaking in 2025, determining three causes to which it will allocate $1 million each.
“The Trust has always helped New Yorkers champion the causes they care about,” Amy Freitag, the trust’s president, said in a news release about the initiative.
“Our goal with this initiative is to include even more voices from the community in our grantmaking to better serve our region,” Freitag added. “We hope as many New Yorkers as possible will vote and join our celebrations this fall.”
Over the course of the last century, the community foundation has connected charitable New Yorkers with effective nonprofits to support such causes as education, healthcare, racial and gender equity, the arts, affordable housing, and LBGTQ+ rights.
The foundation said its efforts have supported the region’s responses to the AIDS crisis, Sept. 11, and COVID-19. Its grantmaking has expanded local support for immigrants, funded critical medical research, increased employment opportunities for young people, cleaned up polluted waterways and more.
As part of the centennial, the foundation his hosting a series of free events throughout the region.