Grantmakers › New York

The New York Times Communities Fund

New York, NY · EIN 13-6066063. Reported 61 grants totalling $31.8M to 27 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

27organizations funded
$657,336median reported grant
$31.8Mgranted, 2021-2024
69%of grantees funded again the next year
10%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For The New York Times Communities Fund, the IRS classifies it as a public foundation -- a grantmaker that raises its money from many sources rather than from one donor (NTEE T300).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 27 distinct organizations, with 10% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 69% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 56% median for grantmaking charities -- lower than the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $657,336. Half of what it reported fell between $250,000 and $726,506; the smallest was $50,000 and the largest $931,042. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$50,000 - $100,000
5 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
10 grants
$250,000 Or More
46 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Brooklyn Bureau of Community ServiceBrooklyn, NY$3,093,958422022
United Jewish Appeal Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of Ny IncNew York, NY$3,049,893442024
Feeding AmericaChicago, IL$3,024,799442024
The Childrens Aid SocietyNew York, NY$2,978,572442024
First BookWashington, DC$2,971,299442024
Hispanic Federation IncNew York, NY$2,315,257442024
International Rescue Committee IncNew York, NY$2,287,440332023
Community Service Society of New YorkNew York, NY$1,683,105332023
Camfed U S a FoundationSan Francisco, CA$1,440,194222024
Catholic Charities Community Services Archdiocese of New YorkNew York, NY$1,440,194222024
OnegoalChicago, IL$1,440,194222024
Per Scholas IncBronx, NY$1,440,193222024
City Harvest IncNew York, NY$950,000442024
Citymeals-on-WheelsNew York, NY$950,000442024
World Central Kitchen IncorporatedWashington, DC$881,042112021
Reading PartnersOakland, CA$500,000112024
Literacy Partners IncNew York, NY$325,000332024
Latino U College AccessWhite Plains, NY$250,000112024
Young & HealthyPasadena, CA$250,000112024
Bct Brooklyn Childrens TheatreBrooklyn, NY$100,000112024
New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to ChildrenNew York, NY$100,000112022
Red Hook InitiativeBrooklyn, NY$100,000112024
Center for Safety & Change IncNew City, NY$50,000112023
H E L P USA IncNew York, NY$50,000112023
National Justice for Our NeighborsAnnandale, VA$50,000112023
Operation Warm IncGlen Mills, PA$50,000112022
Situation Project IncNew York, NY$50,000112024

15 of 27 (56%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

It also reported 4 groups of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 25 of 27 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Human Services
6 orgs
Education
4 orgs
Food & Nutrition
3 orgs
International Affairs
3 orgs
Community Improvement
2 orgs
Arts & Culture
2 orgs
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
1 org
Youth Development
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202113$8,784,472$881,042
202214$6,711,236$651,063
202316$7,936,880$713,688
202418$8,388,552$613,252

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

67% of its giving went to organizations in New York. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.

New York
$21.2M
Illinois
$4.5M
District of Columbia
$3.9M
California
$2.2M
Virginia
$50K
Pennsylvania
$50K

Down to the city

New York, NY
$16.2M
Chicago, IL
$4.5M
Washington, DC
$3.9M
Brooklyn, NY
$3.3M
San Francisco, CA
$1.4M
Bronx, NY
$1.4M

Foundations that fund only organizations they pick gave to this one

71 private foundations that told the IRS they contribute only to organizations they select themselves reported 153 grants totalling $1,862,407 to The New York Times Communities Fund. That is 59% of the 120 funders we can see giving to it. Those 71 foundations do not take unsolicited requests -- their own returns say so. The IRS classifies this organization as a grantmaking organization.

37 of them gave in more than one tax year, which is the only durability signal the filings carry.

What that does not mean. It does not mean an application here reaches that money. A grant from a closed foundation is often a designated gift or a donor-advised fund earmarked by whoever gave it, and has nothing to do with any open programme this organization runs. Neither tax return says which, so neither do we. The list below is who put money in. It is not a route to it.

FoundationStateReportedGrantsYearsLast
Mhk Foundation TrFlorida$425,000332025
N Y Times Neediest Cases Fd Tr B XXXXX6007Illinois$320,000222025
C Frank Reavis Foundation IncNew York$95,301552024
Cal Foundation IncNew York$90,000442024
Wilbur Tr N Y Times Neediest Cases 1New York$73,429442024
The David R and Patricia D AtkinsonNew Jersey$70,000112024
Head Family Charitable Foundation 5507-19-44Pennsylvania$55,000332023
John D and Catherine T MacarthurIllinois$50,000112023
The Nieman Charitable Foundation IncNew York$50,000112021
A Haas Et Al Tr - David Haas MemorialNew York$46,022552025

The 10 largest by reported dollars, of 71.

A linked name has a page of its own. We publish one for a foundation that takes no unsolicited requests only when a real share of its giving goes to organizations that make grants themselves, and that page opens by saying it does not take requests.

Every foundation in the table above files Form 990-PF, which reports every grant it made and asks outright whether it funds only organizations it picks. That answer is what puts it on this list; no other form asks the question. The grants this organization reports making are on Form 990 Schedule I, which only requires listing recipients paid more than $5,000. Two different populations, so the money in and the money out on this page are not two halves of one figure and must not be added or compared.

Both the count and the total are floors. A foundation appears here only where its return named this organization clearly enough for us to match the name to an EIN, which we manage for about two thirds of 990-PF grant rows. There are more; we cannot name them.

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Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund20 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc19 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program17 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc17 shared recipientsNational Philanthropic Trust15 shared recipientsMorgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc15 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $657,336 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in New York.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Related guides

Foundations funding human services in New YorkEvery funder in this groupFoundations funding education in New YorkEvery funder in this groupFoundations funding international affairs in New YorkEvery funder in this groupFoundations funding human services in IllinoisEvery funder in this group

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from The New York Times Communities Fund's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 18 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.

Address of record on the latest return: 620 8TH Avenue, New York, NY, 10018.

EIN 13-6066063 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.