Working With Local Government Leaders Is the Right Path for Philanthropy

To the Editor:

Anil Hurkadli’s excellent opinion piece Philanthropy Should Join Forces With Mayors to Tackle the Nation’s Multiple Crises (February 9) points to a new and powerful direction for philanthropy. The return on such collaborations is enormous, as our foundation learned when it combined resources with business and government to support a $2.6 billion expansion of the Long Island Railroad to improve mass transit, stimulate the regional economy, and create jobs.

Philanthropy is primed to play two specific roles in such efforts: serving as a neutral hub that can convene key players and funding research that drives decisions and builds support for city and regional projects.

For the rail expansion project, our Long Island-based family foundation built relationships across different fields by meeting with civic, academic, labor, and business leaders to hear their concerns for the region. We then invested in research that addressed those concerns. We provided $10 million in grants to establish a research organization called the Long Island Index, which produced regional data on education, health, housing, employment, and other economic indicators. And we involved the leaders we’d listened to as advisers, bringing them together to discuss the findings.

Among other things, the Index revealed a critical reason for why the rail project was needed: work-eligible, 18- to 34-year-old residents were leaving the region at five times the national average.

With such research to back them up, government and business leaders were able to effectively explain how best to fill gaps in commuter transportation and persuade mayors along the railroad line to support the project. Today, the rail-line expansion is both on time and ahead of budget. And the Long Island Index research continues, rebranded as NextLI and now owned by regional news outlet Newsday.

Our current research investment involves working with mayors across the region to understand how best to revive town centers in the wake of the pandemic. Importantly, this includes towns along the Long Island Railroad stops and many of the region’s lower income communities.

Young and upcoming leaders like Hurkadli exhibit the creative thinking philanthropy will need in a post-Covid-19 world. Our experience at Rauch underscores the value of engaging in the kind of government collaboration he urges philanthropy to embrace.

Nancy Rauch Douzinas
President
Rauch Foundation