Private School Demand Dips as New Yorkers Skip $30,000 Tuitions

Demand is dipping at New York's elite private elementary schools as the weak economy hits parents' ability to pay tuitions exceeding $30,000 a year. The number of children taking entrance exams for private schools this year dropped 4.4 percent to 4,259, continuing a slide that began in 2009, according to the organization that administers the tests. Public-school enrollment in New York City rose for the first time since 2002.

Full text article by Janet Frankston Lorin is available via Bloomberg, 2/26/10.

Two Charities Start Fund to Help Haitians in New York

Two big New York charities have started a fund to support organizations that help the city's Haitian residents deal with the disaster in their native land. The NYC Haitian Community Hope and Healing Fund, created by the United Way of New York City and the Brooklyn Community Foundation, will make grants to help nonprofit groups that provide immigration help, education and employment training, grief counseling, and other services to local Haitians. Organizers say the effort is driven in part by expectations that needs in New York will grow as Haitians flee the devastated island.

Full text article by Kirk Semple is available via The New York Times, 2/10/10.

Offer to Take Over Ailing Hospital Stirs Outcry

Nonprofit Continuum Health Partners, one of New York's largest hospital systems, has made an offer to take over the financially ailing St. Vincent's hospital, the city's last Catholic general hospital, and turn it into an outpatient center. St. Vincent's has been losing millions of dollars a month and is facing a possible second bankruptcy three years after emerging from its first. The Greenwich Village hospital gained iconic status in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, when it became a gathering place for people searching for loved ones.
Full text article by Anemona Hartocollis is available via The New York Times, 1/26/10.

A New York Volunteer Effort Will Soon Spread to 10 Cities

A New York effort that has enlisted 18,000 volunteers since starting last spring will spread to 10 more cities. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined his Chicago counterpart, Richard M. Daley, and Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, to announce grants of $200,000 each to Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Nashville, Newark, N.J., Omaha, Philadelphia, Sacramento, Seattle, and Savannah, Ga., through the new Cities of Service Coalition. The funds will pay for a “chief service officer” to develop and run volunteer programs in the 10 cities, which were chosen from among 50 applicants.

Full text article by Diane Cardwell is available via The New York Times, 1/17/10.

Bloomberg Pledges $125 Million to Reduce Traffic Deaths

Michael R. Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, has pledged $125-million for an international program aimed at reducing and preventing deaths and injuries from automobile crashes. The five-year program will benefit 10 low- and middle-income countries with large numbers of deaths resulting from traffic crashes. The six organizations that will coordinate the program with the countries’ government agencies are the Association for Safe International Road Travel, Global Road Safety Partnership, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, World Bank Global Road Safety Facility, World Health Organization, and World Resources Institute Center for Sustainable Transport.

Full text article by Betsy McKay is available via The Wall Street Journal, 11/18/09.

Cuomo's pay-to-play rap for nonprofits

Dozens of New York State charities have been ordered by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to take back illegal political contributions or risk losing their tax-exempt status. A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo’s office said an investigation found “widespread” donations by nonprofit groups to candidates and officeholders, including state legislators and New York City Council members, in violation of federal and state law. Many of the groups reportedly received government grants arranged by the politicians they supported.

Full-text post by Fredric Dicker and Sally Goldenberg is available via the New York Post, 10/23/09.

A Brooklyn of Wealth and Needs Gets a Major Charity All Its Own

The Independence Community Foundation, by changing its tax status so it can raise money rather than simply rely on income from its roughly $50 million endowment, is now concentrating most of its fund-raising and all of its grant-giving on its Brooklyn neighborhood. The charity, to be renamed the Brooklyn Community Foundation, will be the first community foundation devoted to a single New York borough, as well as a potential rival to other groups that raise and disperse money in Brooklyn and other parts of the city.
Full-text post by Diane Cardwell is available via The New York Times, 9/28/09.

A Home Run for Harlem

Harlem RBI, a community-based nonprofit created to support youth development through sports activity and team participation, and its valuable summer program has just broken its all-time fundraising record. The organization hosted its annual Bids for Kids, honoring the Executive Vice President for Business of Major League Baseball Tim Brosnan, where the combined take from ticket sales and an auction exceeded $1.5 million, the greatest amount raised in its 18-year history.
Full-text post by Susan Carey Dempsey is available via onPhilanthropy, 9/15/09.

Arts Groups Seek Safety in Numbers

Eleven diverse downtown NYC arts organizations have come together to forge a collective and active response to the grim economic climate. Calling themselves the Lower Manhattan Arts Leaders, they meet once a week to plan strategy and exchange ideas about helping government policy makers and grant-making foundations become aware of the vital ways in which small arts groups feed the life of a neighborhood.

Full-text article by Charles Isherwood is available via The New York Times, 6.10.09.

The 100 Most Powerful People in New York Real Estate

Article listing the top 100 most powerful people in New York real estate.

Full-text article published by The New York Observer, 5.13.08.

Wall Street's Woes Hit Charities

New York charities, long dependent on steady donations from New Yorkers who earn big salaries on Wall Street, are starting to feel the strain of the uncertain economic times.

Full-text article by Louise Roug is available via The Los Angeles Times, 4.29.08.