Press Room

SIOUX FALLS, S.D., November 15, 2024 —  The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust on Friday granted $15,000 to Reach Literacy to support the organization’s mission to empower adults and children through literacy. Staff from Helmsley’s Sioux Falls office volunteered at Reach Literacy on Friday, helping to stock the organization’s shelves with newly donated books. “The Helmsley Charitable…

NEW YORK, November 7, 2024 – The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust (“Helmsley”) announced Melissa Crutchfield has been hired as the Program Director for its Vulnerable Children in Sub-Saharan Africa (VCSSA) program.  Crutchfield joined the Trust on November 4, 2024. Crutchfield brings over 20 years of experience in global grantmaking, creating and scaling strategic programs, and establishing…

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND November 7, 2024 – Researchers at the University of Glasgow have secured more than $3m to study the role the gut microbiome plays in post-operative outcomes for patients with Crohn’s disease.  

NEW YORK, October 30, 2024 — The Helmsley Charitable Trust and Convergent Impact announced today the launch of a new initiative in New York City that will unite key players in housing and healthcare to expand services for New Yorkers with complex health and social needs who are experiencing homelessness or in crisis. Housing and health are inextricably linked, and…

NEW YORK, N.Y., September, 6, 2024 – The New Venture Fund (NVF), a public charity that works to achieve a healthier, more equitable world, has launched a request for proposals for the Type 1 Diabetes Camps Project: 2025-2027 Campership Initiative. This initiative seeks applications from diabetes camping organizations nationwide serving youth living with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and their families….

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A recently released study demonstrates the ECHO Model is an effective intervention for improving diabetes care in rural settings. The study examined whether rural health care providers, who participated in weekly ECHO telementoring sessions, could help people with diabetes achieve similar outcomes as patients seen by endocrinology specialists working in an academic medical center. The study found…

NEW YORK, September 3, 2024 – Today, The Trevor Project and The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust announced that they’re joining forces to support the mental health of LGBTQ+ young people across rural America. Through a $5 million grant from the Helmsley Charitable Trust, the two organizations will develop a targeted multimedia campaign to raise awareness of…

NEW YORK, August 15, 2024 – In a recent innovation for Crohn’s disease treatment, researchers from the Stenosis Therapy and Anti-Fibrotic Research (STAR) consortium have developed reliable methods to measure intestinal strictures using both MRI and CT imaging. This advancement, published in Radiology, marks a significant step toward effective medical therapies for Crohn’s disease-related intestinal strictures.  

LIHUE, August 2, 2024 – The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust has added Hawaii as the ninth state in its Rural Healthcare Program, announcing a $10.6 million grant to provide Wilcox Medical Center in Kauai with state-of-the-art diagnostic and radiology equipment. Walter Panzirer, a Trustee for the Helmsley Charitable Trust, said the funding will help Wilcox Medical…

SAIPAN, July 8, 2024 – Residents of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) will gain access to life-saving diagnostic technology thanks to more than $6.4 million in grant funding from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust that will provide the islands’ first magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine. Helmsley’s grant will allow the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation…

AMERICAN SAMOA, June 27, 2024 – The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust announced today $3.2 million in grants to provide an Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine, portable X-ray capabilities, and portable ultrasound equipment to Lyndon B. Johnson Tropical Medical Center (LBJTMC) and American Samoa Community Health Centers (ASCHC) in American Samoa, a remote United States territory in…

NEW YORK, June 26, 2024 — The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust announced today a $1.4 million grant, with a matching component, to support the growth of the Kyler Cares Foundation. Kyler Cares is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health outcomes for underserved youth living with type 1 diabetes (T1D) by sharing educational resources, increasing access to…

NEW YORK, June 25, 2024 — The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust announced today a $5 million grant to World Bank’s Health System Transformation and Resilience Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF), becoming the first philanthropy to contribute to the newly established technical assistance mechanism. Over three years, the MDTF will accelerate countries’ efforts to transform primary health care…

HONOLULU, June 8, 2024 — In celebration of World Oceans Day, The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust and global non-profit project The Ocean Cleanup are accelerating the scale-up of ocean cleaning efforts. A $15 million grant from Helmsley will support the cleanup of plastic pollution in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, reducing the negative effects of plastic debris,…

BILLINGS, April 25, 2024 — In states like Montana and Wyoming, where the distance between hospitals in rural communities and trauma centers can stretch hundreds of miles, the ability to deliver and coordinate complex care as quickly and effectively as possible closer to home can make all the difference. The critical time it takes to get a sick or injured person…