Brooklyn Community Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Brooklyn Community Foundation invests in youth, neighborhoods, nonprofit development, immigrants rights and the elderly.
IP TAKE: This community foundation works to empower Brooklyn’s underserved neighborhoods and prefers to work directly with community stakeholders. Youth, immigrants and the elderly are areas of focus. Funding opportunities are posted on the foundation’s website.
PROFILE: The Brooklyn Community Foundation was founded in 2009 and aims to “mobilize people, capital, and expertise for a fair and just Brooklyn.” Since its founding, it has awarded over $40 million in grants to more than 300 organizations in the diverse New York City borough. With a $60 million endowment, BCF operates through a community fund, a donor advised fund and several strategic initiatives. Its current initiatives are youth neighborhoods, nonprofit development, immigrants rights and the elderly. It also runs a Fair and Just Fellowship for community action and a COVID-19 response fund.
The foundation names youth funding its “cornerstone” initiative and funds programs in three separate areas: youth development and leadership, youth justice and immigrant youth and families. Grants support organizations and programs that work with young people between the ages of 16 and 24, with priority given to underserved communities of color and immigrant groups. Many recent grants have focused on “diverting young people from the criminal justice system and providing them with economic and educational opportunities.” The youth initiative overlaps with the foundation’s Immigrants’ Rights Fund, which was established in 2016 in response to broad changes in federal immigration policies and increasing hostility toward immigrants and refugees around the world. This program supporting legal defense and safety for the borough’s immigrants, who account for about 40% of its population.
The neighborhoods initiative focuses on areas of Brooklyn that maintain high rates of poverty in spite of the recent borough-wide trend of development and property appreciation. The program works directly with residents and grassroots organizations to solve problems in three steps: gathering stakeholders, examining challenges and opportunities and finding solutions. The neighborhood initiative works in tandem with the foundation’s nonprofit development program, Brooklyn Accelerator, which aims to bring a greater share of New York City’s philanthropic funding to the borough and to train and develop talent to lead community organizations.
Established in 2019, the foundation’s Elder’s Fund supports local organizations working in the areas of elder’s rights, access to benefits and services and programs help the elderly to age in place.
The Brooklyn Community Foundation is also running a COVID-19 response fund to support direct services and advocacy for vulnerable populations.
Grants range anywhere from a few thousand to over $200,000, but most grants are under $50,000 and support grassroots organizations in Brooklyn’s underserved neighborhoods. Past grantees include the Brownsville Community Justice Center, the Arab-American Family Support Center, Common Justice and the Audre Lorde Project. For more information about past grantees, see the foundation’s searchable grants database.
The Brooklyn Community Foundation posts current funding opportunities on its website. Grantseekers may also sign up for a funding newsletter. Contact staff members via email with inquiries.
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