How to Apply

Brooklyn Community Foundation Spark

Spark Prize 2023-2024 Timeline

Monday, April 24, 2023: Spark Prize Grant Applications Released
Tuesday, June 6, 2023 at 11AM: Application Clinic - Webinar RSVP Here
Wednesday, June 28, 2023 at 5PM: Applications Due
October 2023: Finalists Announced
October-November 2023: Finalists Interviews
November 28, 2023: #BrooklynGives on Giving Tuesday
January 2024: Five $100,000 Spark Prize Winners Announced
March 2024: Spark Breakfast

Application Clinic Webinar

Tuesday, June 6, 2023 at 11AM

Join our Programs team for a webinar reviewing the application process for the Spark Prize. The webinar will be conducted over Zoom.

Grant Awards

Brooklyn Community Foundation believes in providing long-term investment and support to organizations that are doing transformative work in Brooklyn, particularly groups that have been under-resourced by traditional channels of philanthropy.

Each year, five nonprofits are selected to receive the $100,000 prize by the Spark Prize Committee of distinguished Brooklynites through a competitive application process. Twenty finalists for the Spark Prize each receive up to $5,000 in matching funds through our #BrooklynGives on Giving Tuesday campaign—celebrated each year on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving—to encourage local donors to support to their work.

Funding Criteria and Priority Considerations

In reviewing applications, we will give preference to organizations that:

Use a racial justice lens in their work. Organizations consider race and its impact in designing programs, looking for solutions and defining success;
Acknowledge intersecting oppressions. Organizations understand how multiple oppressions impact one another and the lives of the communities with whom they work;
Prioritize the most marginalized. Organizations that work with communities who have interacted with the criminal justice system, homelessness, are LGBTQ+ or non-binary, identify as women, have a disability, represent communities of color or immigrant communities; and
Work on the frontlines of issues. Organizations that are grassroots and doing work on the ground and at the community level.

Eligibile Organizations

To be eligible, organizations must meet each of the following requirements:

Serve people and communities of Brooklyn
Be in operation for longer than five years
Can show a minimum organizational budget of $200,000 for most recent fiscal year
Have a 501c3 letter or a memorandum of understanding (MOU) from a fiscal sponsor
Have an active governing body (i.e., Board of Trustees, Advisory Board, etc.)

We encourage organizations that are not current Brooklyn Community Foundation grantees to apply, including those that applied for the Spark Prize in previous years (including finalists). Current Foundation grantees are also eligible to apply. Former winners are not eligible to apply.

Please note that we do not fund the following:

Individuals
Capital campaigns,
Schools (public, private, or charter)

Partnership with Our Grantees

In addition to general operating support, the Foundation provides capacity building support in the following areas: racial justice, fundraising, strategic communications, board development, executive transition, financial management, advocacy, direct action, community organization, and leadership development.