Thank You Brooklyn! 
16 Weeks. 1,600 Donors. $3.65 Million Raised. 

For the last 16 consecutive weeks since we launched the Brooklyn COVID-19 Response Fund, our team has answered hundreds of grant requests from organizations across Brooklyn responding to urgent and unprecedented needs. 

Each week, as requests grew, so did the generosity of Brooklynites, making the Brooklyn COVID-19 Response Fund the single largest community-funded effort in the Foundation’s 10 year history. Over 1,600 Brooklynites have united to donate nearly $3.7M, with $3.3M already distributed.

As the global epicenter of the pandemic this Spring, our borough—and especially our communities of color—endured unimaginable hardships. From the start, the Foundation’s commitment to racial justice ensured that your generous support reached communities hardest hit by vastly disproportionate social, health, and economic impacts. 

Today we are sharing the final cohort of grants from the first phase of the Brooklyn COVID-19 Response Fund. In total, 214 weekly Immediate Response grants have gone to organizations that have been lifelines to our communities, providing desperately needed food, PPE, direct cash assistance, mental health services, remote learning support, healthcare, small business loans, legal aid, safe housing, and so much more. 

We have also worked diligently to help nonprofits address operational challenges in the face of extreme volatility and financial uncertainty, by providing additional unsolicited general operating support to grantees across all of our portfolios, matching donations for online crowdfunding, and capacity building workshops to help with securing PPP loans, online fundraising, and more.

This new article details a few of the many ways your generosity has made a critical difference across Brooklyn. It features words of gratitude from our partners, like Lorena Kourousias, Executive Director of Mixteca, who received a grant to provide direct cash aid to undocumented immigrants in Sunset Park: 

“They were there when I needed them. I was really struggling with the finances of Mixteca, and I got the training from them on the Paycheck Protection Program, and it was so clear and so good that I applied, I did it and I got the money….They are kind, and lovely, and respectful and mindful of the cultural differences which we have.”  READ MORE

All of this has been possible because of the incredible outpouring of generosity from people across Brooklyn. THANK YOU — and we hope you will continue to play a part.

As we enter the next phase of the Brooklyn COVID-19 Response Fund this summer, we will be gathering ideas and insights from residents most impacted by the pandemic to inform our fight for a fair and just reimagining of what Brooklyn can be.

Please join us: support this critical work with a generous donation. 100% of every dollar raised will go to organizations fighting for justice in Brooklyn.  

Pictured Above: Brooklyn COVID-19 Response Fund grantee Pakistani American Youth Organization