The Brooklyn Community Foundation is accepting applications for its 2024 Spark Prize to celebrate organizations that demonstrate a commitment to equity and racial justice, creativity and impact, strong institutional values, and a dynamic vision for the future of their work in Brooklyn and beyond.
Donor Name: Brooklyn Community Foundation
State: New York
Borough: Brooklyn
Type of Grant: Prize
Deadline: 06/28/2023
Size of the Grant: $100,000
Details:
The Spark Prize provides over $600,000 total each year to organizations with a strong track record of addressing critical challenges and opportunities in Brooklyn.
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 their #BrooklynGives on Giving Tuesday campaign—celebrated each year on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving—to encourage local donors to support to their work.
Organizations are asked to address three primary criteria in their applications:
- Born in Brooklyn: Organizations that have a deep history in Brooklyn and a continued commitment to serving the borough.
- Commitment to Equity: Organizations that address systemic challenges and advance racial and social justice for all Brooklynites.
- Vision for Future: Organizations that have a strong vision for the future of their work in Brooklyn and beyond.
Funding Criteria and Priority Considerations
In reviewing applications, they 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.
Eligible 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.)
- They 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 they do not fund the following:
- Individuals
- Capital campaigns,
- Schools (public, private, or charter).
For more information, visit BCF.
