This post opens with an introduction by Anita Nager, Trustee with the Jenifer Altman Foundation:
“It was great to see HEFN Steering Committee member Pat Jenny honored with the Nick Bollman Award by the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities. Those of us who have worked with Pat over the years have first-hand appreciation of Pat’s creativity, steady leadership and commitment to harnessing philanthropy to solve the tough challenges at the intersection of community development, sustainability and health. Congratulations, Pat.”
The Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities is pleased to announce that Patricia Jenny, Vice President for Grants at The New York Community Trust, is the recipient of the 2014 Nicholas P. Bollman Award. Established in 2008 in honor of the late Mr. Bollman, the award recognizes leaders who share the commitment he embodied to improving conditions for future generations, without expectation of reward.
Lauded for working creatively and expansively to solve problems, Jenny was the driving force behind the Local Sustainability Matching Fund and an early supporter of the then-fledgling Funders’ Network. Jenny’s work occurs at “the nexus of community development and the environment where all the thorny issues of the real world play out,” and her interdisciplinary thinking and focus on collaboration are a hallmark of her grantmaking principles.
Jenny joined The New York Community Trust in 1983 and has managed the national and New York City environmental grantmaking program and the local workforce development grants program. She developed two funding collaboratives: New York City Workforce Funders, which is a partner with the city on innovative employment projects, and the One Region Funders’ Group, a New York-New Jersey-Connecticut funders group focused on sustainable communities and transportation issues.
She serves on the boards of the Environmental Grantmakers Association and Health & Environmental Funders Network and formerly served on the board of Cause Effective. She worked with Nick Bollman when they co-chaired the Neighborhood Funders Group in its early all-volunteer days. Later, she championed and supported the Funders’ Network, serving on its board from 2002-2008.
Jenny holds a Masters in Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a B.A. from Brown University.
Jenny accepted the award on March 18th at the 15th Annual Funders’ Network Conference in Boston.
Read more about Pat Jenny’s 30-year career in philanthropy in the The Power and Art of Grantmaking.
This post originally ran on the Funders’ Network blog in February 2013. It is reprinted with permission.
