Community Fund Grants
Filter the grants using the options below:
| Organization | Year | Amount | Initiative |
Program |
Project Description | Neighborhoods |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DRUM | 2016 | $35,000 | Invest in Youth | Invest in Youth Grant Program | To organize South Asian youth, families, and immigrant workers to win campaigns focused on educational equity, economic justice, legalization, workplace rights, and an end to racial profiling and anti-immigrant enforcement. | Flatbush, Midwood |
| Green City Force | 2021 | $45,000 | Invest in Youth | Invest in Youth Grant Program | To support an environmental initiative that advances the city’s climate and equity goals, and connects high school graduates to employment opportunities and sectoral apprenticeships. | Boroughwide |
| ARTs East New York | 2019 | $45,000 | Invest in Youth | Invest in Youth Grant Program | To support the Public Art Apprenticeship Program and Young Artist Institute for young people interested in the arts as a tool for social change. | East New York |
| Girl Be Heard | 2018 | $35,000 | Invest in Youth | Invest in Youth Grant Program | For multidisciplinary arts opportunities designed to engage young women in social justice education and develop their leadership skills. | Boroughwide |
| Center for Community Alternatives | 2017 | $30,000 | Invest in Youth | Invest in Youth Grant Program | Boroughwide | |
| America on Tech | 2022 | $45,000 | Invest in Youth | Invest in Youth Grant Program | To support the East New York/Brownsville Summer Tech Camp, and the Youth Design Center, a gateway for young people to learn marketable hard skills in STEAM, access post-secondary education, achieve mobility, and engage in place-based community revitalization. | East New York, Brownsville |
| 596 Acres | 2017 | $20,000 | Neighborhood Strength | Crown Heights Grant Program | To support stewardship, preservation, and transformation of two neighborhood lots into community gardens. | Crown Heights |
| Bethany United Methodist Church | 2017 | $20,000 | Neighborhood Strength | Crown Heights Grant Program | To support services, workshops, and cultural programming that engage residents around issues in the community. | Crown Heights |
| Brooklyn Clergy Action Network | 2015 | $10,000 | Neighborhood Strength | Crown Heights Grant Program | The Brooklyn Clergy Action Network mobilizes faith leaders and the community to end gun violence in low and moderate-income communities in Brooklyn. Funds will be used to establish a mentorship program for 12 to 17-year-old males designed to reduce and prevent violence by training them in methods of communication as an alternative to violence. | Crown Heights |
| Haiti Cultural Exchange | 2017 | $10,000 | Neighborhood Strength | Crown Heights Grant Program | To support local Haitian artists who will facilitate arts activities and programming in Westbrook Memorial Garden to bring community concerns to light. | Crown Heights |
| Brooklyn Hi-Art! Machine | 2015 | $5,000 | Neighborhood Strength | Crown Heights Grant Program | Brooklyn Hi-Art! Machine is a collaborative public art project that explores art-making as a community-building tool. Funds will be used to create and distribute an accessible guide to tenants’ rights to assist long-time residents being pushed out of their homes. | Crown Heights |
| New York Communities for Change | 2017 | $30,000 | Neighborhood Strength | Crown Heights Grant Program | For supporting the inclusion of community voices to inform the development plan of the city-owned Bedford-Union Armory. | Crown Heights |
| Brooklyn Movement Center | 2015 | $15,000 | Neighborhood Strength | Crown Heights Grant Program | The Brooklyn Movement Center, a Black-led organizing nonprofit, trains and mobilizes Central Brooklynites to lead local and city-wide policy campaigns to end abusive policing. Funds will be used for police accountability organizing and legislative advocacy in Crown Heights that mobilizes local stakeholders, creates alternative community safety approaches, and conducts know-your-rights and leadership trainings. | Crown Heights |
| Repair the World NYC | 2017 | $20,000 | Neighborhood Strength | Crown Heights Grant Program | To support increased accessibility, programming and community partnerships that bring new and long-term residents together to meet community needs at its storefront space on Nostrand Avenue. | Crown Heights |
| Global Kids | 2015 | $10,000 | Neighborhood Strength | Crown Heights Grant Program | Global Kids’ mission is to educate and inspire underserved youth to become successful students, global citizens, and community leaders. Funds will be used for the Human Rights Activist Project in three Crown Heights public schools to empower youth to advocate for community and global issues through interactive workshops on community organizing, social action, digital and social media, policy, and root causes. | Crown Heights |
| NYC Coalition for Educational Justice | 2015 | $10,000 | Neighborhood Strength | Crown Heights Grant Program | NYC Coalition for Educational Justice is a parent-led movement that seeks to affect policy change and create a more equitable educational system. Funds will support local parent engagement around the Department of Education's Community Schools Initiative, which will bring over a million dollars in new resources to three Crown Heights schools. | Crown Heights |
| Progress Playbook | 2015 | $5,000 | Neighborhood Strength | Crown Heights Grant Program | Progress Playbook designs customized learning experiences for entrepreneurs so that they can accomplish their business goals. A $5,000 grant will provide 10 Crown Heights youth with a three-month entrepreneur training program, through which each will develop a comprehensive business plan. Three plans selected by community members will receive financial and technical assistance to launch or expand their business within Crown Heights. | Crown Heights |
| Simone Leigh | 2015 | $5,000 | Neighborhood Strength | Crown Heights Grant Program | Resident Simone Leigh is receiving a $5,000 grant to support an innovative series of drumming classes and workshops for black women and girls in Crown Heights, which seeks to build bridges across cultures and communities and provide a nurturing environment where participants can relax, learn new skills, exercise, and connect in a non-competitive way. | Crown Heights |
| UHAB | 2015 | $15,000 | Neighborhood Strength | Crown Heights Grant Program | UHAB organizes tenants to fight poor living conditions in buildings neglected or abandoned by landlords; in 2013, three UHAB-organized tenant associations formed the Crown Heights Tenants Union. A $15,000 grant will support their focus on ending bad living conditions, illegal displacement, and loss of rent-regulated housing in Crown Heights by bolstering tenant and neighborhood power. | Crown Heights |
| Weeksville Heritage Center | 2015 | $10,000 | Neighborhood Strength | Crown Heights Grant Program | Weeksville Heritage Center is an historic site museum and community cultural center that preserves the legacy of the original Weeksville community founded in 1838 – one of the first and most prolific free African American communities in the United States. Funds will support a performance project featuring new oral histories and collaborations with local performing artists and teens to mark the 25th anniversary of the 1991 Crown Heights Riots. Weeksville will also host a community dinner for residents of its immediate vicinity. | Crown Heights |
| Young Movement | 2015 | $5,000 | Neighborhood Strength | Crown Heights Grant Program | Young Movement provides research, advocacy, and partnerships on socio-economic issues like financial literacy and employment alternatives for young adults. Funds will support the Weeksville Entrepreneurship Project to train 10 young adults from the Weeksville section of Crown Heights in tools to find and create sustainable solutions to employment, financial, and health disparities in Weeksville. | Crown Heights |
| The Youth Farm | 2015 | $10,000 | Neighborhood Strength | Crown Heights Grant Program | The Youth Farm is a one-acre farm on the Wingate Campus that grows approximately 15,000 pounds of fresh, culturally relevant crops for the Crown Heights community each year. Funds will support a year-round youth program, an advanced organic farming training program for adults, and a paid summer youth employment program. | Crown Heights |
| Domestic Workers United | 2015 | $5,000 | Brooklyn Accelerator | Incubator Project | DWU is an organization of Caribbean, Latina and African caregivers and housekeepers—concentrated in Crown Heights and Flatbush—that organizes to end exploitation and oppression for all workers whose labor is based primarily in homes and is not protected by most labor laws in New York City. DWU has adopted a model that centers on the development of strong, low-income immigrant women of color leaders who have the drive, training, and sensitivity to lead a movement for social change. | Crown Heights, Flatbush |
| The Precedential Group | 2015 | $5,000 | Brooklyn Accelerator | Incubator Project | The Precedential Group, founded by Marlon Peterson in 2014, is an organization working to establish “Child Safe Zones” to reduce gun violence in Brooklyn neighborhoods by engaging young people, local police, schools, and residents. Marlon Peterson has led, advised, and supported several criminal justice reform organizations including Fortune Society, Crown Heights Mediation Center, and New Yorkers Against Gun Violence. Marlon recently received the Soros Fellowship Award from Open Society Foundation. For more information: marlonpeterson.com | Crown Heights, Brownsville, East New York |
| Be More | 2015 | $5,000 | Brooklyn Accelerator | Incubator Project | Be More aims to raise awareness about race-based disparities, train change agents with tools to reduce unconscious bias to eliminate racial inequities, and foster leadership to enable multiracial social change movements. In the coming year, Be More will launch its second #Vision2040 social media video campaign, organize community gatherings to heal from racism, and prototype a training to reduce unconscious bias using evidence-based techniques. | Boroughwide |
| Arab American Association of New York (AAANY) | 2022 | $100,000 | Spark Prize | Spark Prize | Arab American Association of New York (AAANY) was founded in 2001 by Arab immigrant and Arab American leaders in Bay Ridge to advocate for the community in the wake of the September 11th attacks. Today, AAANY serves Brooklyn’s Arab immigrant, refugee, and Muslim communities, helping over 6,000 beneficiaries annually through its women’s empowerment and adult literacy programs, immigration legal assistance, mental health and domestic violence support services, and youth programming. During the COVID-19 pandemic, AAANY has transitioned to virtual programming and has transformed its office into a direct relief hub, distributing 22,000+ food boxes and $450,000 in direct cash for clients in crisis, creating a laptop lending program, and working with community partners to provide relief to domestic violence survivors. | Boroughwide |
| Cypress Hills Child Care Corporation | 2018 | $100,000 | Spark Prize | Spark Prize | Serving families in the Cypress Hills neighborhood of northeast Brooklyn since 1990, Cypress Hills Child Care Corporation (CHCCC) aims to increase the availability of high-quality, affordable child care for low-income families while creating entrepreneurship opportunities for low-income women to capitalize on their child rearing skills. CHCCC serves over 500 families through year-round programming, and is in the process of opening a brand-new, state-of-the-art child care facility that will serve 88 low-income families in Cypress Hills, which is projected to experience significant population growth over the next few years. | Cypress Hills |
| STEM From Dance | 2023 | $100,000 | Brooklyn Accelerator | Spark Prize | STEM From Dance was founded in Brooklyn in 2012 to empower girls of color with the know-how, experience, and confidence to dream big in STEM—all through the power of dance. STEM from Dance offers programs for girls of color ages 10-18: afterschool residencies in partnership with NYC Title I schools, and Girls Rise Up, an intensive three-week summer program. Through both programs, girls learn the fundamentals of dance and technology and use technology to create unique, engaging choreographed dances. Participants learn how to use circuits to create outfits that light up with their dancing, code drones to dance alongside them, code a brand-new song to dance to, and more. | Boroughwide |
| Black Women's Blueprint | 2022 | $100,000 | Spark Prize | Spark Prize | Black Women's Blueprint was founded in Brooklyn in 2008, and is a lifeline for survivors of gender-based violence, and provides birth education and maternal health support. The organization’s Sexual Abuse to Maternal Mortality Pipeline report and institute has pioneered a campaign to desilo these movements and affirm the link between trauma healing and maternal health. Each year, it engages doulas, midwives, birth-workers, and sexual assault advocates to reach 5,000 survivors at 50 different locations through its Sistas Van mobile health unit, and trains 800 clinicians and medical personnel. In addition, it is building a Reconciliation Center in Upstate New York to offer Brooklyn women space to heal and give birth safely. | Boroughwide |
| Workers Justice Project | 2023 | $100,000 | Brooklyn Accelerator | Spark Prize | Workers Justice Project (WJP) is a New York City workers’ rights hub that has been spearheading new ways of labor organizing and empowering workers to gain a voice in the workplace since 2010. WJP is building a diverse membership base and developing the skills of worker leaders who understand the connection between the barriers they face and systemic racism, while providing Spanish-language services, training and organizing. WJP has created over 5,000 construction and house cleaning jobs in the past five years that have resulted in $4.9 million in salaries. Additional achievements include securing six landmark policies to “Deliver Justice'' for 65,000 app-based delivery workers in 2021, and distributing $2.5 million in cash relief to essential workers and excluded workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. | Williamsburg, Bushwick, Sunset Park |
| Brooklyn Movement Center (BMC) | 2022 | $100,000 | Spark Prize | Spark Prize | Brooklyn Movement Center (BMC) is a Black-led, membership-based organization of primarily low-to-moderate income Central Brooklyn residents founded in 2011. BMC builds power and self-determination in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights’ Black communities by nurturing local leadership, waging campaigns, and winning concrete improvements in people’s lives. Through intersectional organizing, BMC addresses a range of issues that define a whole community, including police accountability and community safety, food sovereignty, environmental justice, anti-gentrification media production, electoral justice, and tenant organizing. | Boroughwide |
| Red Hook Community Justice Center | 2022 | $100,000 | Spark Prize | Spark Prize | Launched in 2000, the Red Hook Community Justice Center works to strengthen Red Hook and surrounding areas by reducing crime and the use of incarceration, improving public trust in justice, and collaborating with the community to solve local problems. At the Justice Center, a single judge hears cases that ordinarily would go to three different courts: civil, family, and criminal. Whenever possible, cases are resolved through a restorative, problem-solving approach that seeks to repair harm and address the underlying issues that bring individuals into the justice system. The Justice Center also serves as a hub for an array of unconventional programs that are available to litigants as a means of resolving their cases, as well as to the community at large. | Red Hook |
| Audre Lorde Project | 2017 | $100,000 | Spark Prize | Spark Prize | An inter-generational organizing center for LGBT people of color that promotes community wellness and progressive social and economic justice in New York City. Founded in Brooklyn in 1996, ALP works with over 8,000 members on issues including creating safety models against police brutality and hate crimes, as well as training small businesses, community organizations, and neighborhood leaders on de-escalation and safety strategies. | Boroughwide |
| Groundswell Community Mural Project | 2022 | $100,000 | Spark Prize | Spark Prize | Groundswell Community Mural Project was founded in 1996 to bring together artists, youth, and community organizations to use art as a tool for social change. Its projects beautify neighborhoods, engage youth in societal and personal transformation, and give expression to ideas and perspectives that are underrepresented in the public dialogue. Each year, Groundswell engages over 450 youth, led by trained teaching artists, and in partnership with community partner organizations and city agencies, in the presentation of afterschool, summer, school-based, and community commissioned programs. In addition, Groundswell hosts free, often youth-led, events and programs for the general public. | Boroughwide |
| VOCAL-NY | 2018 | $100,000 | Spark Prize | Spark Prize | Voices of Community Activists & Leaders (VOCAL-NY) is a Brooklyn-based, statewide network building a movement led by low-income people of color to end the AIDS epidemic, the war on drugs, mass incarceration, and homelessness. Founded in 1999 as a progressive AIDS housing network at a time when the epidemic was increasingly concentrated in low-income communities of color, VOCAL-NY was formed to shift attention toward root causes, like homelessness and incarceration. Today, VOCAL-NY operates a syringe exchange that distributes over 50,000 clean syringes annually, provides overdose prevention training and other services to hundreds of New Yorkers, and has worked to pass 15 pieces of legislation since 2013. | Boroughwide |