Trinity Church Awards $12.6 Million in Community Grants in Fall Distribution

The latest grants highlight Trinity’s commitments to addressing racial justice in childhood education, economic vitality and housing affordability.

NEW YORK, November 18, 2024 – Trinity Church New York today announced its fall grant cycle awards, providing $12.6 million in grants and program-related investment to 57 organizations. These grants support a broad range of programmatic work focused on maximizing opportunities for young people while ensuring local communities flourish economically.

"When our children excel, our communities excel, and this targeted grantmaking supports that critical mission,” said the Rev. Phillip A. Jackson, Rector of Trinity Church. “We live the Gospel imperative to serve our neighbors by steering funding directly into the communities where it’s needed most.”

Between 2023 and 2024, Trinity issued nearly $18 million in grants and gifts to programs supporting youth enrichment. During that time, nearly half of all Trinity’s Racial Justice grants included goals related to improving educational outcomes for young people, and Trinity’s fall grant cycle represents an expansion of that commitment through additional targeted investments in youth programming for underserved communities.

"We know that supporting young people is a critical part of achieving broader racial and economic justice, and Trinity is proud to support those efforts,” said Chief Philanthropy Officer Beatriz de la Torre. “From expanding access to graduate education for immigrant students to improving how faith leaders around the world engage in economic justice work, Trinity is focused on driving impact by supporting the work of our grantee partners.”

Those efforts include a $300,000 grant to Partners for Dignity and Rights to continue supporting management of the Dignity in Schools Campaign, which works to end punitive disciplinary policies in schools. Trinity also issued a $200,000 grant to Community Connections for Youth, which connects young people to a network of services, including mentoring, counseling, and education assistance, to prevent future engagement with the criminal legal system and place youth on a pathway to success. Trinity’s efforts also include a $250,000 Special Opportunity grant to CUNY CARES to evaluate a pilot program offering holistic support services to low-income students enrolled in CUNY public colleges.

“Trinity Church NYC’s latest vital support for CUNY will greatly bolster our efforts to connect students across 25 campuses with resources to support their success in school and beyond,” said CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. “Trinity’s generous grant will allow us to evaluate the effectiveness of our CUNY CARES demonstration project, launched last year on CUNY’s three Bronx campuses to mitigate food and housing insecurity and support students’ health and well-being. Understanding which aspects of the program have been most successful will be critical to our effort to expand CUNY CARES to students across the university system. We thank Trinity for its sustained support of CUNY and its students.”

In response to housing issues in New York City, where 1 in 8 public school students experience homelessness, renewal grants from Trinity’s Housing and Homelessness initiative will help children and families find housing stability and wraparound services. We are proud to issue Good Shepherd Services a $250,000 grant to support Chelsea Foyer, a transitional support housing program for young adults who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

We are also investing deeply in support for LGBTQ+ youth, including a $200,000 renewal grant to the Ali Forney Center to support the expansion of on-site mental health services for homeless LGBTQ+ youth, and a $75,000 grant to New Alternatives for Homeless LGBT Youth for their continued efforts to help young LGBTQ+ youth transition out of the shelter system.

“We at Safe Horizon are so grateful to Trinity Church NYC for their commitment to ending homelessness in New York City and their support of our Streetwork Project, a program that has been supporting young people experiencing homelessness for forty years,” said Liz Roberts, Safe Horizon CEO. “Through our partnership, we will connect more than 200 youth to long-term housing, develop key training resources on housing applications, and pursue advocacy efforts to increase housing resources for homeless youth.”

Trinity also believes in expanding access to education and housing for all. To achieve that goal, we issued a $1 million program-related investment to the Social Finance Fund to support expanding access to graduate school education to immigrant students under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protects Status (TPS) programs.

Our support also includes a $2.3 million investment in the United Church of Christ Cornerstone Fund, which will catalyze $23 million in flexible loan funding at below market rates for faith-based, mission real estate development projects across the nation.

“The Cornerstone Fund is thrilled to be partnering with Trinity Church NYC,” said Maria C. Coyne, President & CEO of Cornerstone Fund. “Trinity’s investment will allow us to further our mission of joining together in faith to invest in and build community. This will be realized by providing low-cost financing for numerous property projects throughout the country that provide shelter, further environmental justice, feed the hungry, fight racism, and assist marginalized communities.”

The full list of grantees in this cycle is below. Learn more about all of Trinity's recent grants here.

Housing and Homelessness
Ali Forney Center
Arab-American Family Support Center
Bailey House
City Limits
Corporation for Supportive Housing
Fifth Avenue Committee
Funders for Housing & Opportunity
Good Shepherd Services
Hebrew Free Loan Society Incorporated (PRI)
Housing Plus Solutions
Housing Rights Initiative
JustFix
Legal Aid Society
Local Initiatives Support Corporation - LISC NY
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI-NYC)
National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty d/b/a National Homelessness Law Center
Nazareth Housing
New Alternatives for Children
New Alternatives for Homeless LGBT Youth
New York Foundation
Osborne Association
Queens Power
Regional Plan Association
Rising Ground
Safe Horizon
Settlement Housing Fund
Trinity Community Connection
United Way of New York City

Leadership Development
Bloy House
Gather Lab
Oikos Institute for Social Impact
Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation
St. Paul's University
Yale University

Mission Real Estate Development
Diocese of Buhiga, Burundi
Anglican Diocese of Masvingo, Zimbabwe
Church of the Valley, San Ramon, CA
The Cornerstone Fund (PRI)
Saint John’s Cathedral - Denver, CO
St. David's Episcopal Church - Austin, TX
St. Philip's Episcopal Church - Buffalo, NY
Virginia Episcopal Real Estate Partners

Racial Justice

The Breathe Collective
Common Justice
Community Connections for Youth
Justice Committee
Legal Action Center
Marshall Project
Mobilization for Justice
Muslim Community Network
The National Economic and Social Rights Initiative DBA Partners for Dignity & Rights
New York Peace Institute
Social Impact (PRI)

Special Opportunity Fund

Design Trust for Public Space
NYC Kids Rise
Research Foundation of the City University of New York (CUNY CARES)

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About Trinity Church

Trinity Church is an Episcopal parish in New York City founded in 1697. We work for justice, serve our neighbors, and bring people together to experience God’s love in community. Trinity’s outreach in the city includes 20 weekly worship services, food assistance seven days a week for people in need, support for asylum seekers, housing for the elderly and people living with disabilities, youth programs, and a wide array of free music and educational events throughout the year. The church also supports communities and ministries serving the world in Africa, Asia, and across the Americas.