The Brooklyn Community Foundation is seeking applications for its Invest in Youth Grant Program to support Brooklyn-serving organizations working to ensure that young people in its borough have the opportunity and agency to achieve social and economic success for themselves and their communities.
Donor Name: Brooklyn Community Foundation
State: New York
Borough: Brooklyn
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 04/29/2022
Size of the Grant: $45,000
Details:
Focus Areas
They fund organizations in the following three areas of focus:
- Youth Development & Leadership: They support community-based organizations that offer transformational programming to youth. These programs position youth as long-term leaders in their communities and give them the tools to challenge institutional barriers that limit opportunities and potential.
- Youth Justice: They support both advocacy and direct-service organizations that address the far-reaching effects of young people’s encounters with the criminal legal system. They focus on investing in school discipline reforms, alternatives to arrest, and educational and workforce programs for court-involved youth.
- Immigrant Youth: They support organizations that help immigrant youth in Brooklyn build their capacity to be bold leaders to advocate for themselves and organize for change in their communities. They focus on investing in political education and coalition building, legal and language services, and institutional and legislative change.
Priority Considerations
The Foundation seeks to fund a range of organizations that expand access and opportunity with and for Brooklyn youth− groups of different sizes, approaches (e.g., direct service, community organizing, policy/advocacy), histories and levels of visibility, and serving different parts of the borough.
In reviewing proposals, they will give preference to organizations that:
- Use a racial justice lens in their work. Organizations consider inequities based on race and their 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 people with whom they work.
- Work on the frontlines of issues. Organizations that are grassroots and doing work at the community level.
- Have budgets under $2,000,000 (in one of the past two fiscal years) that meet the funding criteria.
- They will also consider organizations with budgets of over $2,000,000 (in the last fiscal year) if your work includes efforts that push forward policy and systems-level change that significantly shifts one or more elements of a system (e.g., criminal justice, education, immigration, etc.). This may include but is not limited to:
- Legislative and institutional advocacy to address unjust policies that disproportionately impact young people from historically/currently disenfranchised and under-resourced communities. This may look like advocating for new bills at the state level and/or change to existing policies within city agencies
- Base building and coalition building increase power through organizing campaigns and building a broad and diverse base of stakeholders and partners. Your organization is part of a coalition or alliance with strategic objectives to achieve short-term and long-term goals.
- They will also consider organizations with budgets of over $2,000,000 (in the last fiscal year) if your work includes efforts that push forward policy and systems-level change that significantly shifts one or more elements of a system (e.g., criminal justice, education, immigration, etc.). This may include but is not limited to:
Funding Information
The Invest in Youth Initiative provides multi-year, general operating support of up to $45,000 per year for up to three years to groups working with youth in Brooklyn that are aligned with their values and eligibility criteria.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible to apply, an organization must:
- Be incorporated as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization or be working under the auspices of an authorized fiscal sponsor.
- Have a minimum annual budget of $100,000 or submit an application to work in partnership with an organization that does. Grant awards will not exceed 20% of the applying organization’s annual budget.
- Have an office or a regular physical presence in Brooklyn, and serve the people of Brooklyn
- Address one or more of the Invest In Youth initiative’s three areas of focus in their mission and primary activities.
For more information, visit Invest in Youth Grant Program.
