OVERVIEW: Brooklyn Org gives broadly to support the diverse communities of the New York City borough of Brooklyn.
IP TAKE: Brooklyn Org, previously the Brooklyn Community Foundation, is a 15-year-old community foundation that is re-imagining how philanthropy can engage with the communities it serves. “We listen, engage and partner with Brooklynites across the borough to ensure that we are informed on local issues and investing in community-backed change,” according to a statement on its Communities page. Giving spans 12 impact areas and is decidedly focused on equity and justice in one of the most diverse counties in the U.S. To boot, small and medium-sized organizations that are community led are well represented among its grantees.
This funder’s website does not offer clear instructions on how to apply for funding, but it indicates that it “will be launching a new, more inclusive racial justice grantmaking process in early 2024.” Reach out via phone or email with questions, or network with the organization’s staff members, whose bios are featured on its team page. Patience and persistence are recommended, however; one reviewer noted that they “received no response” after several attempts.
PROFILE: Brooklyn Org was founded in 2009 as the Brooklyn Community foundation. Its mission is to “to spark lasting social change, mobilizing people, capital and expertise for a fair and just Brooklyn.” Beyond its mission, the organization articulates “firm commitment to racial justice and participatory grantmaking.” Its two main goals are:
To “build the capacity and power of organizations that serve Brooklyn.”
To “activate and mobilize greater resources for community impact.”
Since its founding, Brooklyn Org has awarded over $100 million in grants to Brooklyn-based nonprofits. With a $60 million endowment, Brooklyn Org operates mainly through a community fund, but operates a range of donor-advised funds from which fees support the organization’s strategic grantmaking.
While Brooklyn Org’s giving centers on the New York City borough of Brooklyn, its giving is thematically broad; the organization’s named impact areas are Families, Youth, Immigrants, Older Adults, Civil Rights, Justice Reform, Civic Engagement, Environmental Justice, Housing, Health & Wellbeing, Jobs & Economic Opportunity and Arts & Culture. This funder focuses on “justice and equity” across all grantmaking and engagement areas.
Grants for Racial Justice and Indigenous Rights
A strong commitment to racial justice in the borough of Brooklyn is central to all of Brooklyn Org’s grantmaking and community engagement. Each of the organization’s 12 areas of impact names equity, fairness, access and “confronting our country’s history of inequality” as ideals that drive funding and resources.
The Civil Rights program, for example, supports organizations involved in “advocating for those who have been purposefully left without a seat at the table based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, or any other aspect of their identity.”
Similarly, Justice Reform grantmaking acknowledges that mass incarceration “disproportionately affects Black and brown individuals.”
And the Health & Wellbeing program notes a four-year “gap in life expectancy between Black New Yorkers and the citywide average.”
Some of Brooklyn Org’s grantees working toward racial justice in the borough include the Black Institute, the Youth Justice Network, the Red Hook Initiative and Drive Change, which supports formerly incarcerated people as they re-enter the workforce.
Grants for Public Health and Access
Brooklyn Org supports public health mainly via its Health & Wellbeing initiative, with some health grants also originating from its Families and Older Adults programs.
The Health & Wellbeing grantmaking area focuses on “the inequities that leave our neighbors without the care they need so that all Brooklynites can live long and prosperous lives.” The initiative gives broadly for health and access, giving “holistic support and resources” to health nonprofits across the borough. Reproductive health and substance abuse appear to be areas of primary interest.
Through the Families giving area, Brooklyn Org supports initiatives for maternal health and child and adolescent development.
The Older Adults program, meanwhile, names “holistic health” as an area of focus.
Public health grantees include the Caribbean Women’s Health Association, the Doula Program, New York Therapeutic Communities,the CABS Health Network and FentCheck, an organization that aims to prevent accidental overdose deaths.
Grants for Mental Health
Mental health is a main area of focus for Brooklyn Org’s Health & Wellbeing, Families and Older Adults programs. Across all three giving initiatives, the organization funds community-based organizations that support underserved groups and neighborhoods with culturally sensitive mental health services and interventions.
In addition to families and elderly residents, giving has prioritized LGBTQ individuals, immigrants and Brooklyn’s many racial and ethnic communities. Grants tend to provide general operating support to organizations that provide direct services to residents.
Grantees include Community Counseling and Mediation, the Family Center, the Hannah Legacy and Restore Forward.
Grants for Early Childhood, K-12 and Arts Education
Brooklyn Org’s Families and Youth programs support education initiatives that range from early childhood to high school, with an emphasis on arts education and youth expression.
The Families program emphasizes programs that involve parents in language development and kindergarten readiness.
Grants stemming from the Youth initiative target “organizations that help address gaps in educational outcomes and school climate for students of color.”
Education grantees include the Center for Urban Pedagogy, the Flambwayan Haitian Literacy Project, and ImmSchools, which works to “to ensure safe and inclusive schools for undocumented and mixed-status students and families.”
Grants for Work and Opportunity
Grantmaking for work and opportunity stems mainly from Brooklyn Org’s Jobs & Economic Opportunity grantmaking area, but the organization’s initiative for Youth also names work and career development as areas of grantmaking interest.
The Jobs & Economic Opportunity program aims to “contribute to a future where everyone, from every background, is free to pursue their passions, earn what they need to live comfortably, and provide for the next generation.” It supports “nonprofits who are closing the racial wealth gap through job training opportunities, the creation of career pathways, and the empowerment of worker cooperatives.”
Grantmaking from the Youth program, meanwhile, focuses on supporting career development and career-related educational opportunities for young people.
Through these grantmaking programs, Brooklyn org has supported JobsFirst NYC, America on Tech, the Street Vendor Project, Teens Take Charge and the Workers’ Justice Project.
Grants for Housing, Homelessness and Urban Development
Brooklyn Org’s Housing initiative “is dedicated to uplifting community-based organizations and coalitions that provide resources to our unhoused neighbors, advocate for tenant rights, and help homeowners stay in their homes.” A few grants for housing also stem from the organization’s Older Adults program.
Grants supporting shelters and temporary housing for the homeless of Brooklyn have gone to Lantern Community Services, the Ali Forney Center, which serves LGBTQ youth, and HousingPlus, which works with homeless and vulnerable women.
Grantees working for tenants’ rights and to increase affordable housing in the borough include Churches United for Fair Housing, the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, Breaking Ground and the Brooklyn Movement Center, which aims to increase work, health and housing opportunities for underserved Brooklynites.
Grants for Criminal Justice Reform
The Justice grantmaking program works broadly to bring about change to the criminal justice landscape of Brooklyn. Areas of interest include but are not limited to advocacy, policy development, police reform, support for re-entry and work and educational opportunities for “court-involved Brooklynites” of all ages.
Grantees of this program include the Center for Community Alternatives, the Center for Law and Social Justice, Release Aging People in Prison and the Urban Youth Collaborative.
Grants for Immigrants and Refugees
According to Brooklyn Org’s website, immigrants account for 35% of Brooklyn’s population, over 18% of whom live in poverty. To address the challenges faced by immigrants in the borough, Brooklyn Org’s Immigrants program “supports immigrant-led organizations working to ensure that their communities have the tools they need to thrive and receive culturally appropriate holistic support in their native languages.” Areas of interest include education, work, health, mental health, legal services and “other avenues that create a true sense of belonging and connectedness for Brooklyn’s diverse immigrant populations.”
Grantees of the Immigrants initiative include the Arab American Family Support Center, Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees, the Mexican Coalition, the New York Immigration Coalition and the Worker’s Justice Project, among others.
Grants for Civic Engagement and Democracy
Brooklyn Org’s grantmaking for Civic Engagement supports “nonprofits that mobilize all Brooklynites to create our borough’s bright future together as a community.” Giving focuses on “voter registration, organizing for policy reform, and local leadership initiatives,” often overlapping with giving from the organization’s Civil rights, Justice Reform and other giving areas.
Recipients of civic engagement grants include the Asian American Federation, the Council of People’s Organization, YVote and UPROSE, a women-of-color-led organization that “promotes sustainability and resiliency through community organizing, education, leadership development and cultural/artistic expression.”
Grants for Climate Change and Clean Energy
One of Brooklyn Org’s newer areas of giving, the Environmental Justice initiative, “prioritizes community-led organizations who are investing in green solutions that increase our neighborhoods’ resilience and self-sustainable living.” Early grantmaking in this area has gone to Green City Force, Green Guerillas and the Red Hook Initiative, which runs Red Hook Farms, “a youth-centered urban agriculture and food justice program.”
Grants for Arts and Culture
Brooklyn Org’s Arts and Culture grantmaking works broadly throughout the borough of Brooklyn to support “nonprofits that reflect our borough’s diversity through arts and culture programming grounded in community.” Grants appear to prioritize organizations with accessible programs and high levels of community involvement and/or outreach.
Arts and culture grantees include the Groundswell Community Mural Project, the FlexDance Program, the Fort Greene Park Conservancy, Theatre of the Oppressed NYC and the Youth Design Center, among others.
Important Grant Details:
Brooklyn Org’s grants mostly range from $5,000 to $100,000.
Grants are limited to organizations based in and/or serving Brooklyn communities.
This funder demonstrates a strong commitment to racial justice and equity.
Brooklyn Org prioritizes community-led organizations that work with underserved populations in the borough.
Organizations of all sizes have received support, but small to medium-sized organizations are well represented among the Brooklyn Org’s grantees.
The organization does not currently accept applications for funding but “will be launching a new, more inclusive racial justice grantmaking process in early 2024.”
Sign up for for email updates at the bottom of the page for future funding opportunities.
Brooklyn Org can be reached by telephone at (718) 480-7500 or by email at info@brooklyn.org.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
LINKS:
