Ed Sappin | Philanthropy & Community

Giving & Volunteering

10 New York Charities to Consider during the Holidays

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The holiday season is a time for giving and many people in the New York area are looking for ways to give back to their communities. There are many charities to choose from, but here are our top 10 picks for the holidays in the New York area.

  1. New York City Rescue Mission. This charity provides food, shelter, clothing, and other services to the homeless and hungry in New York City. They also offer job training, recovery programs, and other support to help people get back on their feet.
  2. City Harvest. This organization helps to feed the hungry in New York City by rescuing food that would otherwise go to waste and delivering it to food pantries and other organizations that serve the hungry.
  3. The Bowery Mission. This charity provides food, shelter, and other services to homeless and vulnerable individuals in New York City. They also offer programs to help people overcome addiction, find employment, and rebuild their lives.
  4. The Children’s Aid Society. This organization provides a range of services to children and families in need, including early education, mental health support, and after-school programs.
  5. Covenant House New York. This charity provides shelter, education, and other services to homeless and at-risk youth in New York City. They also offer programs to help young people transition to independence and self-sufficiency.
  6. The Food Bank For New York City. This organization helps to provide food to those in need in New York City through a network of food pantries and other organizations.
  7. Jewish Community Relations Council of New York. This charity works to promote social justice and interfaith understanding in New York City and beyond. They also provide support and assistance to local Jewish communities.
  8. New York Cares. This organization coordinates volunteer projects and activities to help people in need in New York City. They offer a range of opportunities for volunteers to make a difference in their communities.
  9. The Robin Hood Foundation. This charity fights poverty in New York City by providing financial support to organizations that help the most vulnerable members of the community.
  10. United Way of New York City. This organization focuses on improving education, income, and health in New York City. They provide funding and support to a range of organizations that help people in need.

These charities are all doing important work in the New York area, and they would all be grateful for your support this holiday season. Whether you choose to donate money, time, or other resources, you can make a difference in the lives of people in need.

 

 

This article was written with the help of an AI chatbot.

The Giving Season

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The holidays are over, 2017 is here and it is back to work time. I hope everyone had a good break if you had time off and time with your loved ones and families. As the weather in New York enters the heart of the winter my thoughts often turn to those who are truly left out in the cold. The giving season may be over, but those in need require our help now more than ever. Here are just a few options to give of your time and/or money and help those who are less fortunate during the toughest time of the year:

1. Bowery Residents Committee (BRC). A fabulous organization that works to shelter and train the homeless so they can move to stable housing and stable lives. BRC shelters more than 1,600 people every night and they have had more than 10,000 people go through their programs. I had the privilege of attending their annual fundraiser last year and was impressed with the impact and no nonsense attitude the management team has, and the lives they have touched for the better.

2. Coalition for the Homeless. One of the longest established and most effective community organizations serving the homeless, the Coalition spends $0.89 out of every dollar received on programs across food, youth, job training, and of course shelter. One of my favorite aspects of the Coalition is their Bound for Success program, which focuses on one on one tutoring for homeless children.

3. The Times Neediest Cases. Focused to “give direct assistance to troubled children, families and elders,” the New York Times effort works with charities around the city to have as direct an impact as possible ranging from young mothers, to struggling high school students to immigrants. The campaign works through local religious and lay charities and has raised over $280 million dollars since its founding by the Times Publisher Adolph S. Ochs in 1911. This year’s campaign wraps up on February 3rd so consider helping others now.

 

Great Philanthropic Events in New York This Summer

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There’s something to love about every season in the city, but summer is perhaps the best for events: it gets dark later, you can transition from day to night without a coat, and you’re finally free to take a vacation or two.

For the philanthropy-minded individual, summer events are an opportunity to enjoy summer days and nights in ways that also benefit important causes. If you want to enjoy yourself while contributing to a worthy organization, there are plenty of events that fit the bill.

The best way to find a philanthropic event is to subscribe to the causes and organizations you care about most and tune in to see when their fundraisers are. But for a taste of the diverse offering in New York alone, I found a few that look pretty great this summer:

Broadway in Bryant Park

Thursdays, July – August

For a sample of Broadway’s huge array of shows and talent, Broadway in Bryant Park is a recurring summer event in Midtown Manhattan right behind the New York Public Library. It’s free for guests to enjoy lunch-hour snippets from selected shows, but also benefits New York-Presbyterian for Kids and TKTS Discount Ticketing Booth.

TKTS is an affordable ticketing organization that helps sustain and share the arts and develop the audiences of the future.

Summer Camp on Fire Island

August 6, 2016

Pool parties are always a summer highlight, though for many New Yorkers they are few and far between. This annual pool party at Fire Island is presented by the Hetrick-Martin Institute, “the nation’s oldest and largest non-profit, multi-service agency dedicated to serving LGBTQ youth.”

The money raised will help ensure that youth members can return to school in September with all the supplies, clothes, and meals they need to get by.

The River Project 30th Anniversary Benefit

August 1, 2016

The River Project is a marine science field station that protects and teaches the wonders of the Hudson River ecosystem. The perfect summer event will commemorate its 30th anniversary: a river cruise and dinner party to on the Hudson River. Ticket funds will help the organization continue its important research.

Located at Pier 40 in Hudson River Park, you can also visit the River Project for interactive exhibits that show the public the wonders of the waterfront, both above and beneath.

Pushing the Boundaries of Photography: The New ICP Museum

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On Thursday, June 22, the relocated International Center of Photography opened at its new home in New York City at 250 Bowery. As a photographer, the opening of this museum has been on my radar for a while now, and from what I’ve heard it does not disappoint. That is, unless you’re expecting traditional photography. The first exhibit is decidedly much edgier than that.

Called “Public, Private, Secret,” the New York Times says that this exhibit shows how the ICP has been renovated for the so-called “selfie age.”  In its ultra-modern 11,000 square foot space, with an all-glass street-level facade (erasing any inside privacy) it would seem that the architecture matches the artwork in this respect.

Organized by Charlotte Cotton, the museum’s first curator in residence, “Public, Private, Secret” explores the way that public image collides with self identity. This, I think, is very fitting in an age where everyone with a smartphone has become a photographer and social branding expert in their own right. Rather than treating the everyday selfie as art, the work showcased is elevated and conceptual: cameras capture museumgoers and turn their images into a pixelated display, art is created out of found footage from social media, to name just two examples.

The ICP’s Bowery debut comes after a move from Midtown Manhattan, its home for many years. The museum has an interesting history: it was originally founded in 1974 by photographer Cornell Capa, who was concerned with upkeeping the legacy of what he called “concerned photography” — photography with a humanitarian impulse bent on having social impact on the world. Capa started ICP after leading the legendary Magnum Photos. Since ICP’s founding, it’s become one of the world’s leading institutions dedicated solely to photography and the visual arts.

The concerned photographer expresses “genuine human feeling predominates over commercial cynicism or disinterested formalism.” This opening exhibit is a portrayal of human feelings as they exist in a digital era, where the line between public and private is as thin as you want it to be, and sometimes erased altogether.  

But what I find especially great about ICP is that it’s more than just a museum. I took my first formal photography courses there when the museum was based on the Upper East Side. Throughout its history, ICP has engaged the surrounding community, including schools and public programs, and photography is brought to the forefront instead of treated as an afterthought as you sometimes see in art museums. I can’t wait to visit ICP in its new home, as it continues to break boundaries and impact visitors through careful curation, outreach, and innovation.

The Refugee Crisis as Seen from New York

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Ed Sappin, refugee article

Every week if not every day there is another story in the news on our global refugee crisis. A child dies trying to make it across the Aegean Sea to Greece. The EU negotiates with Turkey to repatriate illegal refugees while supposedly taking in an equal number of legitimate refugees. The Shengen agreement effectively goes up in flames as EU countries reinstitute border controls.

Meanwhile, we sit here in New York and worry about our ongoing presidential campaign, our rent or mortgages, if Mayor De Blasio can be effective, how the Mets and Yankees are going to do this year. Syria is far away and it is very easy to dismiss our current crisis (yes our) as Europe’s problem, or the Middle East’s problem.

I find this particularly hard to stomach. We have been and remain a country of immigrants, even if we are going through a period of income inequality and social unrest. Most of us are here because our ancestors were fleeing from something terrible: wars or political, economic or religious persecution. To be sure, not all Americans are here because they were leaving something bad behind. Many came to seek fortunes or change.

I do not expect us to open up our doors to massive waves of immigrants. But we need to do more to help others in need. Donating to charities is a great place to start and participating in a volunteer mission is even better. There are great organizations at work on both fronts, like Doctors without Borders, UNICEF, Save the Children and others. My personal recommendation is the International Rescue Committee.

Founded in 1933 with the help of Albert Einstein, IRC is notable for its focus on results – the most recent review of the charitys finances showed 93% of its donations going to actual programs and services. Currently led by David Milband, the former Secretary for Foreign Affairs on the UK, IRC is very active in the Syrian Crisis. It is providing resettlement support to the small number of Syrians being allowed into the US and healthcare and providing healthcare and other services in Syria, Iraq, Greece, Lebanon, and Jordan.

So take some time as we enjoy the blossoming of spring to remember that we are very fortunate to live in our beautiful city. Help those displaced by the Syrian crisis whether you donate your time or money and pay homage to the immigrants that have sought safety and a new life in this country for generations.

Spring is Here and the Art World is Blooming

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It is spring in New York and the museum and art worlds are busy with events, fundraisers and auctions. My wife Yanhua and I were fortunate to take part in The Rubin Museum’s annual spring series Brainwave. Emotion is the theme this year and we had an interesting afternoon with Bob Mankoff of the New Yorker and neuroscientist Scott Weems exploring laughter. What makes people laugh and how does the brain process it?

We also were able to attend several events around Asia Week New York at the Rubin and at Christie’s. The opening of the auction at Christie’s included a number of beautiful pieces. My favorite was the head of an unnamed bodhisattva from Indonesia (below),

Ed Sappin philanthropy

while my wife Yanhua preferred a statue of Guanyin, the Mahayana Buddhist bodhisattva. I guess we were both looking for guides on our path to enlightenment.

Ed Sappin philanthropy

I was sad to miss the Armory Show but one of my favorite events, the AIPAD show, is coming up in a few weeks. It is the pre-eminent photography show in New York and brings together some of the best galleries in the world. I am looking forward to seeing the new works from husband and wife duo Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison who are presented by the Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago.

On the volunteer front, I’ve been hard at work on a new civic venture to create family wage jobs for an underserved population in New York City. More to come on this in future blog posts.