Neighborhoods First Fund for Community-Based Planning

Neighborhoods First Fund (NFF) is a donor collaborative founded in 2015 to promote equitable, inclusive, and accountable housing development and policies in New York. NFF supports neighborhood organizations, city- and state-wide coalitions, and technical and capacity building organizations working on housing justice issues for marginalized populations in New York City and throughout the state. The Fund supports organizations that are reacting to changes in housing policy but also works to bring about systemic legislative changes. NFF’s work is anchored in the belief that housing is a human right and that effective engagement by residents is essential if development is to serve the needs of all New Yorkers.

The Kornfeld Foundation is providing multi-year general operating support for the Fund and joins a learning community of twelve philanthropic partners. The Fund is hosted by the New York Foundation. If you are interested in making an investment in NFF, please contact Program Director, Rini Fonseca-Sabune at rinifonseca-sabune@neighborhoodsfirstfund.nyc.

For more information, visit: neighborhoodsfirstfund.nyc

New York City Arts in Education Roundtable

The Kornfeld Foundation has long supported arts education for public school children in New York City and has invested in the community and professional development of teaching artists for more than twenty years.

Together with other NYC-based arts education funders and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, we provided funding in 2022 to support the third cycle of the $1M Arts Educator Emergency Relief Fund. This relief fund provided one-time, unrestricted grants to arts educators many of whom faced serious financial hardship due to the COVID-19 crisis. Grants supported the loss of wages and earnings; medical and healthcare expenses; childcare and eldercare; rent and mortgage payments; food, utilities, and other living expenses. Priority was given to applicants from communities most impacted by COVID-19.

For more information, read our most recent Arts Educator Emergency Relief Fund Impact Report.

Youth Organizing and Culture Change Fund

Established in 2022, YOCCF brings together community and cultural leaders, artists, and funders with the goal of empowering young people to advance racial and social justice in their communities. With recommendations from its Grantmaking Guiding Circle, ten general operating grants were made to NYC-based, youth-led, and youth-serving organizations.

The Center for Cultural Power and Universal Partnership will provide a variety of training opportunities for grantees. This is a two-year pilot program and the YOCCF’s evaluation partner is Victoria Dougherty Consulting.

Together with the Ford Foundation, Kornfeld provided seed funding for YOCCF. The fund’s community of support now includes more than a dozen philanthropic partners and is hosted by the New York Foundation. If you might be interested in making an investment in YOCCF, please contact Nyoka Acevedo at nacevedo@yoccf.org.

For more information, visit: www.yoccf.org

Palliative Care and the National Palliative Care Research Center

The Kornfeld Foundation has a long history of funding palliative care and initially worked with other philanthropies to draw attention to and leverage support for this vital but under resourced field. This included the creation of the Collaboration to Advance Funding in Palliative Care (CAFPAC) in 2002, and funding for the Open Society Institute’s (OSI) Project on Death in America, in 2006.

In 2005, Kornfeld became the original funder of the National Palliative Care Research Center (NPCRC), Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY. Since then, our $8.2M series of multi-year grants have funded the Center, its research — the Kornfeld Scholars Program, and its convenings — the annual Kathleen Foley Palliative Care Retreat. Our support concludes in 2023 and the work of the NPCRC will be absorbed by other organizations in the field such as the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM).

For more information, visit: www.npcrc.org

ALS Research

The Kornfeld Foundation was the initial funder of the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, MD. After 20 years of grants totaling $6.37M the Foundation has concluded our support.

For more information, visit: www.alscenter.org