There's No Better Place to Give

December 16, 2011

$4.5 Million. With the announcement of our final round of 2011 grants this week, that is the total amount the Brooklyn Community Foundation has given to support the best ideas and programs serving our communities this year.

Brooklyn Borough Hall (above) | Image by j_bary [1]

There's No Better Place to Give

Final Round of 2011 Grants Totals $668,000 to 37 Brooklyn-serving Nonprofits

$4.5 Million. With the announcement of our final round of 2011 grants [2] this week, that is the total amount the Brooklyn Community Foundation has given to support the best ideas and programs serving our communities this year.

It represents nearly 150 competitive grants, dozens of microgrants, ongoing support for multi-year initiatives like Brooklyn Greens and Central Brooklyn STEM, renewed aid to the NYC Haitian Community Hope and Healing Fund, and backing for the information-generating work of The Brooklyn Bureau and the Center for the Study of Brooklyn.

If you had $4.5 million to give away, where would you give it?

As a contributor to the Brooklyn Community Foundation, you are part of this $4.5 million fund for your community, to make it stronger, to make the lives of your neighbors better, and to make the future brighter for everyone who calls Brooklyn home.

This week, we made the last of our grants for 2011: [2] $668,000 to 37 nonprofit organizations whose work is changing lives and creating opportunity.

These new grants were awarded through our five community impact funds. Here are a few highlights:

Education and Youth Achievement Fund [3]: 13 grants at $267,500 for afterschool, college readiness, literacy, and youth development programs, including $50,000 to the Brooklyn Movement Center to support the development of a turnaround plan to improve academic achievement levels in Community School District 16, the lowest performing school district in Brooklyn, which includes parts of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, and Brownsville.
Community Development Fund [4]: 4 grants at $130,000 for housing and workforce development programs, including $30,000 to Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation to support three green community development projects including new affordable housing for seniors in Cypress Hills/East New York.
Caring Neighbors Fund [5]: 7 grants at $108,000 for food access, health, senior independence, and homeless services, including $25,000 to Brooklyn Community Housing and Services for a nationally recognized supportive housing initiative to prevent homelessness among Brooklyn’s most at-risk populations, including formerly homeless seniors, many of whom struggle with mental illness and substance abuse issues.
Green Communities Fund [6]: 5 grants at $95,000 for environmental advocacy, education, and job training programs, including $35,000 to Added Value to support a unique “green collar jobs” training program for young adult residents of Red Hook on a community farm located on NYCHA property.
Arts for All Fund [7]: 8 grants at $67,500 for community engagement and youth arts programs, including $5,000 to PS 217 in Flatbush to sustain visual arts, theater, music, dance, and writing programs for 1400 students originally made possible through a Federal Magnet grant, which ended in September.

View the complete list here. [8]