In June, the Brooklyn Community Foundation announced its first round of grants to support the critical work of more than 170 nonprofits in Brooklyn. The grant awards, which total nearly $3 million, will fund initiatives throughout the borough’s 70 neighborhoods in five fields of interest: Arts for All, Caring Neighbors, Community Development, Education and Youth Achievement, and Green Communities. Representing the Foundation’s first full grantmaking cycle since the Foundation’s formal launch in October 2009, the grants support both small local neighborhood projects and ambitious undertakings efforts by larger, long-established Brooklyn organizations. (Press Release Here)

The Brooklyn Community Foundation provides a range of opportunities for donors to participate in helping meet the needs of Brooklyn communities and their residents. Working to raise awareness of the vital work of local nonprofits, the Foundation also seeks out common ground to build lasting partnerships that effectively address Brooklyn’s issues -- all with no administrative costs to donors.

Learn more about our recent grants and search for your favorite nonprofit

Arts for All Fund

More than $500,000 from the Arts for All Fund to 47 organizations supporting organizations that make the arts accessible to all Brooklynites. Grants also provide scholarships and general operating support for programs providing serious, structured, pre-professional experiences in arts mastery and engagement, connecting youth to creative expertise of local artists; Recent Arts for All grants include:

• Reel Works Teen Filmmakers, for media arts education for high school students
• Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MOCADA), to expand the audiences for its often-provocative programs through use of public television, social media and new media
• Creative Outlet Dance Theater of Brooklyn for direct training and service activities for its Young Artists Program
• Groundswell Community Mural Project, for its work with teens and community nonprofit partners to create public art that reflects issues of local concern
• Brooklyn Youth Chorus to support the financial aid program which gives youth from all backgrounds access to a rigorous conservatory program
• New York Transit Museum to support permanent and temporary exhibitions, educational programs for school groups and new programming for older adults and youths with learning disabilities

Caring Neighbors Fund

More than $600,000 from the Caring Neighbors Fund to 36 organizations supporting Brooklyn’s most effective health and human service providers to respond to immediate needs and assist the borough’s most vulnerable people. At a time of high unemployment when half a million people in Brooklyn live below the poverty line, current support includes traditional social service nonprofits such as food pantries and homeless services as well as newer models for providing assistance to individuals and families in crisis; Recent Caring Neighbors grants include:

• Flatbush Development Corporation, to expand outreach for its counseling and case management services
• Neighbors Together to meet the rising demand for emergency food and holistic services in Ocean Hill, one of Brooklyn’s lowest income communities
• Arab-American Family Support Center, the leading provider of social services to the city’s Arab American community
• Selfhelp Community Services, which provides “chore” services to allow low-income elderly residents to age in place
• Bed-Stuy Campaign Against Hunger, to support its emergency food pantry and human services work

In February the Brooklyn Community Foundation launched the NYC Haitian Community Hope & Healing Fund in partnership with the United Way of New York City to provide financial support and resources to local nonprofit organizations helping the vast number of Brooklyn’s Haitian residents deal with the consequences of January’s devastating earthquake. The first 12 grants totaling $250,000 were awarded in April and were distributed from the Caring Neighbors Fund.  

Community Development Fund

More than $500,000 from the Community Development Fund to 23 organizations supporting workforce development as well as efforts to provide affordable housing and neighborhood stability. With Brooklyn’s vast public housing and rising unemployment and foreclosure levels, grants focus on job training and economic development as well as community-based advocacy such as tenant leadership in public housing developments; Recent Community Development grants include:

• Pratt Area Community Council, to support a coalition of six nonprofits that work boroughwide to preserve affordable housing, rehabilitate distressed HUD-assisted housing and combat predatory equity in Brooklyn
• Food Bank for New York City to support the Tax Assistance program for low income New Yorkers
• Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, for its affordable housing development work, including 82 units under construction and 200 more in the pipeline
• Make the Road New York to provide individual and group civics, organization skill training, ESOL, computer training and college preparation skills
• Brooklyn Workforce Innovations, for its workforce development programs that help unemployed central Brooklyn residents gain skills, training, certification and job placement
• Hope Program, a boroughwide program that provides poverty-level clients with work readiness training, internships and job opportunities as well as social serivces
• Common Ground, for its work to stabilize and improve neighborhoods surrounding public housing developments in Brownsville
• Community Voices Heard, assistance to continue growth of tenant leadership in public housing developments in Brooklyn, with focus on Kingsborough, Red Hook and East New York Houses.

Education and Youth Achievement Fund

More than $900,000 from the Education and Youth Achievement Fund to 59 organizations promoting access to quality education and programs to help young people make smart life choices and nurture their social and emotional well-being. With 30 percent of Brooklyn third graders and 43 percent of ninth graders unable to read at grade level, reading intervention and programs to improve literacy are high priorities for BCF funding. Current grants focus on academic and afterschool programming, positive youth development for girls, mentoring and reading intervention programs, creation of school libraries and initiatives to empower young people so that they are more likely to graduate and/or be career-ready;  Recent Education and Youth grants include:

• Groundwork, for children and youth services at its East New York/Canarsie campus and to expand services for children attending PS 260
• Beginning with Children and Community Partnership Charter Schools to create research libraries for their middle school students
• Red Hook’s P.S. 15 for an early childhood afterschool program to help expand the capacity of the school
• Girls for Gender Equality, for its Urban Leaders Academy and Sisters in Strength program, where high school youth mentor middle school students
• Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, for a summer music camp and year-round youth leadership and music education programming, including launch of the Willie Mae Music Lab
• Kingsborough Community College to support the Under Represented Male Student Initiative promoting access to higher education, academic success and community engagement among Black and Latino men in Brooklyn
• 826NYC to support free one-on-one after school tutoring sites in Williamsburg and Park Slope to help students earn better grades, boost their confidence and become engaged learners

Green Communities Fund

More than $200,000 from the Green Communities Fund to 17 organizations supporting community gardens, urban farms and environmental education for school children of all ages. Grants also focus on projects which promote access to open space and wider availability of healthy food in low-income communities. With the largest number of community gardeners, lowest percentage of land devoted to park and the second-highest number of residents per acre of parkland specific, recent grants include:

• United Community Centers, for its East New York Farms youth environmental program, a ten-year old internship program that provides leadership development for teens as they operate urban gardens and farmers markets;
• Added Value, support for the Youth Empowerment program of this Red Hook-based environmental group to promote new generation of youth leaders;
• Brooklyn Greenway Initiative to continue its bold initiative to create a dedicated bicycle and pedestrian path along the Brooklyn waterfront;
• Just Food, support for group’s City Farm and Fresh Food for All project that provides fresh produce and educates residents about healthy cooking habits; and
• Nature Conservancy of New York, a grant to expand internships for students at environmentally-themed high schools in Brooklyn.
• Transportation Alternatives for its Biking Rules educational campaign.

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Click here for more details about our recent grants
Letters of Inquiry for the next cycle of BCF funding for the current year are due July 31, 2010. The Foundation also has a Micro Grant Program for requests of $500 or less which are accepted at any time of the year and may be made by a Letter of Inquiry. Decisions are usually made within four weeks.  Learn more about the our grant timeline

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