Press & Events


Press 2008

People Magazine | December 22, 2008

Women's Wear Daily | December 11, 2008

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  • Marriage is a Beautiful Thing
  • Baby Buggy Announces Three New Board Members
  • People
  • Carnegie Corporation Press Release


    • Baby Buggy Announces Three Additions to its Board of Directors

    Erica Reid, Kelly Rutherford and Ari Shalam to help forward organization’s mission

    New York, NY, October 29, 2008 — Baby Buggy, the New York-based charitable organization that provides essential products, clothing and gear to infants and children in need, announced today the appointment of three new members to its Board of Directors: Erica Reid, Kelly Rutherford and Ari Shalam.

    "Baby Buggy is thrilled to welcome Erica, Kelly and Ari to its Board of Directors," says Baby Buggy founder Jessica Seinfeld. "With the downturn in the economy and growing food security issues, this is going to be a particularly difficult year for New York’s most vulnerable families. We’re extremely lucky to have the support of such a smart and dedicated Board at this critical point in the organization’s history."

    A graduate of Clark Atlanta University with a degree in Public Relations, Erica Reid is a full-time mother to Arianna and Addison and the wife of three-time Grammy winning music mogul and Island Def Jam Chair, Antonio "LA" Reid. An active supporter and financial donor to Baby Buggy for several years, she and her husband were instrumental in securing musician Robin Thicke as a performer at the upcoming Baby Buggy benefit on December 8th. Ms. Reid and her husband also lend their support to children worldwide through Chris & Malaak Rock’s Angel Projects and the Liya Kebede Foundation.

    Although she originally hails from Kentucky, Kelly Rutherford has had a connection to New York since she moved to Manhattan in the 1980s to pursue a career in acting. Ms. Rutherford’s career took off when she landed the role of ’Sam Whitmore’ on the hit soap opera "Generations." She then starred as the cunning ’Megan Mancini’ on one of the hottest show of the 1990’s, "Melrose Place." She currently stars as ’Lily van der Woodsen,’ mother to heroine Blake Lively’s ’Serena’ on the very popular CW show, "Gossip Girl." Ms. Rutherford and her husband, financier Daniel Giersch, are the proud parents of two-year-old Hermes.

    Ari Shalam is a partner and Senior VP at the Manhattan-based real estate investment company Taconic Investment Partners LLC, where he has overseen more than $1.2 billion of new investment activity. Mr. Shalam earned a B.S. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. A David Rockefeller Fellow with the Partnership for New York City in 2006/7, Mr. Shalam is also an active member of PENCIL. Mr. Shalam and his wife, Rebecca, are their parents of four children. As the brother-in-law of Baby Buggy Founder Jessica Seinfeld, Mr. Shalam has been a donor and informal advisor to the organization since its inception.

    Founded in 2001, Baby Buggy is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing New York City families in need with essential equipment, clothing and products for their infants and young children. With an extensive network of community based organizations in the five boroughs, Baby Buggy has donated nearly 3 million items to thousands of children in need. Corporate product donors to Baby Buggy include The Children’s Place, Haddad Apparel Group, Johnson & Johnson, Delta, and Babies "R" Us. Baby Buggy is currently planning its 2008 Benefit, ’An Evening with Jerry Seinfeld,’ to be held on December 8. Visit www.babybuggy.org to see a complete listing of Baby Buggy’s programs, events and Board of Directors.

    People Magazine | August 8, 2008

    New York City Arts And Social Service Organizations Awarded Grants Totaling More Than $60 Million Over Next Two Years Through Anonymous Donation

    Grants Being Made for the Seventh Consecutive Year Now Total More Than $175 Million Grant Awardees Will Also Receive Technical and Capacity-Building Assistance Valued at Over $2.5 Million

    New York, New York, June 12, 2008 -- Carnegie Corporation of New York today announced 542 two-year grants totaling more than $60 million to support arts and social service organizations located in each of the city's five boroughs. The grants are being made for the seventh consecutive year through the generosity of an anonymous donor who, with the inclusion of the latest gift, will have provided more than $175 million to Carnegie in critical support of New York’s nonprofit community since 2002.

    Carnegie Corporation is pleased to announce that organizations receiving awards this year will get an additional dimension of support—technical assistance in the form of a voluntary, comprehensive capacity strengthening program, including workshops and one-on-one consulting. Services for arts grantees will be administered by Michael M. Kaiser, President of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, who has worked with national and international arts organizations on strategic planning, marketing and other development issues. Social service organizations will be provided similar assistance from Community Resource Exchange, a New York-based consulting firm that works with NYC nonprofits on program measurement, board development, and fundraising, among other services. This administrative support, valued at over $2.5 million, is being provided at the donor’ s request to enhance the value of the grant funds and further each organization’ s long term goals.

    For the first time in the program’ s history, grantees have been given a two-year commitment, which coupled with the technical assistance program, is designed to help each of the awardees build their organizational capacity and achieve long-term development goals. More than $30 million is being awarded for this grant term. The second installments of the grants, also totaling $30 million, will be awarded in Spring 2009.

    As has been the practice in the past, grantees are broadly representative, geographically and in mission, of the city’ s neighborhood-based arts, cultural and social service organizations. Among the arts grantees are organizations like St. Ann's Warehouse, a live performance space in DUMBO, St. George’ s Theater, a performing arts venue in Staten Island and Bronx-based The Point, which fosters cultural revitalization in Hunts Point. In the social service arena, grantees include Sunnyside Community Services, serving residents from children to seniors in western Queens communities, and Manhattan-based Nontraditional Employment for Women, which prepares women for jobs in the construction industry. There are 542 grantees.

    “We are honored and gratified by the trust this single donor has placed in Carnegie Corporation of New York and in our record of philanthropy during the past seven years,” Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation, said in a prepared statement announcing the grants. “Since 2002, in conformity with the donor’ s wishes, we have selected small and medium-sized New York City-based and registered organizations that serve the public through the arts and social services. At the donor’ s request, we are also thrilled that support is being provided for capacity-building skills to equip these organizations for years of continued growth and service to the city.”

    Gregorian continued, ”The work that these organizations have done— and will continue to do— and the sense of community they foster, demonstrate the vibrant, dynamic nature of the city. All New Yorkers owe a great debt of gratitude to the anonymous donor for assisting the missions of the myriad social service and arts organizations. Once again, this donor has given generosity a good name.”

    Carnegie Corporation of New York was founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to promote ”the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding.”

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