Can private philanthropy bail out New York City?
Late last year, Mayor Adams pleaded with wealthy New Yorkers to help fill the gaps in the City’s budget.
“This is . . . an all-hands-on-deck moment,” Adams said at a Police Athletic League luncheon. “I’m going to need you more than ever to support many of these organizations like PAL, Robin Hood Foundation, and others.”
But the money is not flowing the way it once did, and the mayor and others who are hoping for private windfalls should understand why.
The nonprofit Mayor’s Fund, which works with philanthropists and community partners to supplement the budgets of city agencies, has suffered a drastic decline in giving, from $77 million in FY2020 to under $10 million in FY2022.
While neither Adams nor his predecessor Bill de Blasio could hope to match the philanthropic funds raised under and contributed by Mike Bloomberg, the decline in recent years is significant and may prove difficult to reverse.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the New York Post
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James Piereson is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Naomi Schaefer Riley is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of No Way to Treat a Child.
Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
