Helmsley Charitable Trust

OVERVIEW: The Helmsley Charitable Trust names type 1 diabetes, Crohn’s disease and public health in New York City and the Upper Midwest as priorities. It also makes grants for Israel and vulnerable children in Sub-Sarahan Africa.

IP TAKE: The Helmsley Charitable Trust is a health-focused funder with a penchant for investing in “projects and programs that others cannot or will not fund.” This funder is not shy about naming specific diseases and other areas of interest, so if your organization is a match for Helmsley, it may be worthwhile to reach out via email. Otherwise, this funder only accepts proposals by invitation, making it hard to get on their radar.

PROFILE: The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Trust began its grantmaking in 2008, after the “Queen of Mean” real estate mogul Leona Helmsley passed away, leaving most of her estate to the trust. The Helmsley Trust is committed to taking a “rigorous and results-oriented approach” to “make a meaningful impact in our focus areas.” It awards grants for Crohn’s Disease, Israel, New York City, Rural Health Care, Type 1 Diabetes and Vulnerable Children in Sub-Saharan Africa

Grants for Diseases and Science Research

The Helmsley Trust names Type 1 Diabetes and Crohn’s Disease as priorities for its disease grantmaking.

  • Grants for Type 1 Diabetes are “dedicated to helping the global T1D community live safer, better, and more fulfilling lives today while funding advancements in research and technology for a better tomorrow.” The trust prioritizes “high-risk efforts” with the “potential for significant impact” in three “pillars” of focus.

    • Living with T1D in the U.S. makes grants in the overlapping areas of modernizing care and unlocking better health outcomes. Specific areas of interest concern telemedicine, broadening access to specialty care and research on best practices and new solutions for diabetes management.

    • Transforming the Trajectory of T1D supports research to “[i]dentify prevention therapies” and “uncover new biomarkers of disease susceptibility.” Areas of focus for this subprogram include risk identification and monitoring, stalling the autoimmune reactions that lead to diabetes and the development of “new drugs that can halt or delay progression of T1D, before insulin is needed.”

    • Expanding Global Access aims to “to create a sustainable, global movement that improves policies, supply chains, and health systems for the most vulnerable T1D populations” in low- and middle-income nations around the world. Grants focus on strengthening the ability of health systems to treat T1D patients, improving insulin access globally and stabilizing food systems in areas and communities where food insecurity is prevalent.

  • The Crohn’s Disease program is “committed to addressing the unmet needs of people living with the disease, investing in research and technologies that will improve care and treatment for patients, and finding a cure.” This program names five pillars of focus.

    • Grantmaking for the prevention of Crohn’s supports research on causes, geographical trends and the roles of diet and microbiome in the disease.

    • The diagnostics focus area invests in “the identification, development, and validation of diagnostic tools to improve the lives of people living with Crohn’s disease.” Giving emphasizes “non-invasive, point-of-care and cost-effective diagnostic tools and technologies” in the areas of diagnosis, prognosis, monitoring and prediction.

    • Grants for Crohn’s therapeutics focus on “discovering new interventions and optimizing current therapies to induce and maintain long-term remission through a precision medicine approach -- getting the right drug to the right person at the right time.”

    • The disease management focus area makes grants that aim to increase patients’ access to high-quality care and to provide patients with tools and resources that improve care and quality of life. Areas of interest include Crohn’s-focused professional development for medical professionals and funding for “innovative monitoring devices and technologies that help Crohn’s disease patients offset traditional gaps in their health care.”

    • Disease biology refers to the trust’s grantmaking for “research to unravel the molecular and cellular processes that contribute to Crohn’s disease.” The trust’s stated interests are “environmental influences of gene expression,” research on the intestinal barrier and studies of environmental triggers of the immune system.

Grants for Public Health and Mental Health

The Helmsley Charitable Trust supports public health in the United States through its Rural Health Care and New York City programs.

  • Established over a decade ago, the Rural Health Care giving area focuses exclusively on improving access to high-quality health care in “the vibrant, tightly-knit communities of the rural, upper Midwest.” This program names three pillars.

    • Through its grantmaking, the trust aims to expand the use of telemedicine for health, mental health and pharmacy services, especially in rural areas where in-person services require long distance travel.

    • Rural health care grants also work to expand access to behavioral health services. Areas of interest for this grantmaking include training for psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, telemedicine and teletherapy, and an initiative that “help[s] law enforcement connect people with mental health professionals during an emergency.”

    • The trust also invests in modern equipment and technology related to health, safety and mental health services in communities of the Upper Midwest. Work in this area has focused on supplying community health and emergency service providers with up-to-date defibrillators, CPR devices and radiology equipment.

  • Helmsley’s New York City funding program prioritizes “finding and fixing the roadblocks standing between vulnerable people and the path to a healthier life.”

    • The subprogram for health stability focuses on services that are “holistic,” “patient-centered” and “consistent.” Grants also support advocacy for increased access to behavioral health and health-related housing services throughout New York City.

    • Grants for care coordination focus on continuous health care for “high-needs patients,” with a strong focus on collaborative groups that coordinate support and “bring stakeholders together.”

    • The New York City initiative also makes grants to increase access to green space for health. This work focuses on underserved areas of the five boroughs of New York City.

Grants for Global Development

Helmsley supports global development and health through its funding programs for Vulnerable Children in Sub-Saharan Africa and Israel.

  • Grants stemming from the Vulnerable Children in Sub-Saharan Africa program target “remote communities in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Zambia where it is difficult to access healthcare and clean drinking water, children are malnourished, and there are few, if any, options for school.” Overarching goals of this work include support for collaborative work that will "advance long-term success” and build healthy, sustainable and resilient communities. This program names two pillars.

    • Grants to Increase Access to Quality Healthcare focus on the improvement of maternal and infant care and work to “to prevent the spread of communicable diseases and decrease the rates of non-communicable diseases.”

    • Grantmaking also works broadly to Support the Whole Person Through Community Strengthening. These grants respond to the needs of individual communities and have supported initiatives related to WASH, food security, financial services, education and career development.

  • The trust’s grantmaking for Israel also names pillars of focus related to global development and health.

    • Improving Healthcare Services and Preparedness makes grants for “the development of healthcare facilities in major cities and underserved areas of Israel.” Funding has also gone to emergency services and the improvement of health care in Israel’s “periphery communities.”

    • With a somewhat misleading name, the Advancing Basic Scientific Research program supports programs at Israeli universities for “medicine, biology, energy, technology, and agriculture.” It also supports health and STEM education programs.

    • Israeli health and development grantees include the Sheba Fund for Health Services, ALYN Hospital’s Rehabilitation Center for Children and Youth, Maccabi Healthcare Services, Trustees and Friends of Agricultural Research at the Volcani Center and the Academic College at Tel-Hai.

Grants for Jewish Causes

A pillar of Helmsley’s grantmaking program for Israel focuses on Strengthening the Global Understanding of Israel, although this is a smaller area of giving. Priorities of this work include helping Israel “communicate its challenges and the realities of its position in the Middle East region” and supporting programs “facilitating firsthand experiences of Israeli life and culture for key audiences.”

Grantees of this subprogram include the Middle East Media and Research Institute and Fuente Latina, which received support for its media fellowships in Israel.

Important Grant Details:

The Helmsley Trust’s range from $15,000 to $18 million, but most grants stay in the $100,000 to $1 million range.

  • Health is the trust’s largest concern, with grants supporting causes in the U.S., Israel and Sub-Saharan Africa.

  • This funder does not accept unsolicited proposals but occasionally posts RFPs on its website.

  • Helmsley’s grants database offers a closer look at the types of organization it funds.

General inquiries may be submitted via email or telephone at (212) 679-3600.

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