The fund, which raised an average of $29 million a year over the last decade, has raised just $18 million this fiscal year, which ends June 30, fund officials said. About half of that comes from two large multiyear grants that began under the Bloomberg administration.
In an interview, Iris Chen, who has been the fund’s executive director since August, acknowledged that donations were down from previous years, which she said she had anticipated given the changes both at City Hall and in the leadership of the fund.
There also appear to be deeper issues that could hamper the fund for years to come.
Mr. Bloomberg and his first schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein, were connected to a world of wealthy donors in a way that Mr. de Blasio and his chancellor, Carmen Fariña, are not. The fund, which was started in 1982, was little known until Mr. Klein recruited Caroline Kennedy, a friend of his wife’s, to oversee it. Ms. Kennedy attracted a high-powered board and persuaded some of New York City’s biggest corporations to lend their support.
