2022 in Review: Striving for Grace and Generosity

2022 was a year of ongoing—and new—challenges: from stubborn systemic issues of racism, homelessness, and incarceration, to responding to immediate needs such as the arrival of asylum seekers in New York City.

Once again, we are humbled by Trinity's ability to respond with and in awe of all our grantees and their work. As the infographic below shows, this includes $57 million in grant awards to 206 grantees. We strive to approach our engagement with our grantees from a posture of grace and generosity.

Trinity's 2022 Grantmaking by the numbers

We try to manifest grace by walking alongside our grantees. We understand this as a way to be in relationship with our grantees, playing to our respective strengths and competencies, and—as a funder—to be more than a check-writer. This has included financial capacity building for thirty grantees, partnering with the Nonprofit Finance Fund, as well as advertising and marketing support by partnering with FY Eye.

For me, a particular manifestation of grace in 2022 was opening the doors of the Trinity Retreat Center to more than 20 staff from grantee organizations, giving folks on the front lines of social services and social justice work the opportunity to disconnect and decompress for three days. We plan to host this retreat again in 2023.

A group of staff and grantees at the Trinity Retreat Center — Trinity Church Wall Street Philanthropies staff and grantees gather at the Trinity Retreat Center for the 2022 Rest and Restore retreat.

I’ve been overseeing relations with our funding partners for more than 7 years…and I can say that this was the kindest gift and recognition we ever received from a partner organization.
Grantee retreat participant

For us, an attitude of generosity means stepping up when a need arises and being willing to go above and beyond. For example in 2022, Trinity Church Wall Street Philanthropies awarded nearly $2 million in grants to support asylum seekers arriving in New York City. The funds support over 20 organizations and more than 5000 asylum seekers.

Another urgent need to which Trinity has been called to respond is the youth mental health crisis in New York City. Additional funding from Trinity in 2022 will be deployed to grantees including Children’s Aid, the Wellness Classroom, and Eye to Eye for comprehensive support services, mental health outreach to homeless LGBTQ+ youth, and equipping school environments to better support the learning and social needs of students with learning disabilities.

Masked young people are laughing in conversation while walking down a staircase. The young Black woman at left has pink hair and wears glasses and a sweatshirt that reads "The Door." The two young Black men wear casual clothes (jeans, sneakers, and sweatshirts). All three wear white sneakers. — Housing & Homelessness initiative grantee The Door provides supportive services—such as mental health counseling—for youth experiencing housing instability, including LGBTQ+ youth.

Generosity also manifests in seeking to use all of Trinity’s resources towards the greater good. In 2022, we launched a new mission investing fund; early investments focus on affordable housing, including the New York City Acquisition Fund and MSquared. With these investments we will be able to further increase the number of affordable housing in New York City which Trinity has helped to fund with our grantmaking: currently 4,500 and counting.

Internationally, we launched a new revolving loan fund with the Church Commissioners of Kenya. We expect the $2.3 million Trinity investment to be leveraged five times, generating income for the mission for dioceses across Kenya. And in 2022, we welcomed the first class of Trinity Leadership Fellows, with participants from the US and across the globe.

As we move forward in 2023, let us together recognize the humanity of everyone, communities that are healthy and thriving, full of grace and generosity for each other.

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