Nonprofit leaders will gather today at the City University of New York to release a new study on a cutting-edge issue of philanthropy among minority communities in the city.

The organization that conducted the study, the Coalition for New Philanthropy, has embargoed the results until noon today. But experts familiar with the study told The New York Sun it’s a wake-up call for local nonprofits to start taking minority donors seriously.

“Many institutions don’t ‘make the ask’…They figure, black people don’t have the money. They don’t go there. They’re really missing the opportunity,” said the director of donor relations at the New York Community Trust, Gay Young.

The study is based on interviews with 166 Asian-American, African-American, and Latino donors in the New York metropolitan region. These minorities comprise 40% of the population in the region, and 60% of the population in New York City.

“The study gives the non-profit field in general a sense of an untapped market,” said Jessica Chao of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. “It shows what motivates and inspires [minority donors], what are they looking for.”

Organizations focused on health and education will likely do well in appealing to minority donors, said Ms. Chao.

The executive director of the Twenty-first Century Foundation, Erica Hunt, explained why: “Education is valued because it was such a critical part of individual donors success: what were their ladders of opportunity? It wasn’t chance and inheritance. It was educational attainment.”

The study shows minorities lack information on institutional forms of philanthropy, such as donor-advised funds, said the executive director of the Asian American Federation of New York, Cao K. O.

One of the study’s recommendations is to reach out to professional advisors, such as lawyers and accountants, who work with affluent minorities.

The authors of the study, “Pathways for Change,” are Felinda Mottino and Eugene Miller of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at the City University of New York.

The center is a member of the Coalition for New Philanthropy, which also includes the Twenty-First Century Foundation, the Asian American Federation of New York, the Hispanic Federation, and the New York Association of Regional Grantmakers.

The Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers funded the study.