Brooklyn Org awarded microgrants to 38 Brooklyn-based nonprofits this week, putting up to $10,000 into the hands of grassroots groups that have long been too small to qualify for traditional funding.
The new Brooklyn Org Microgrants program targets organizations with annual budgets under $100,000, filling a gap left by Brooklyn Org’s existing Strategic Grants program, which requires budgets exceeding $100,000. Smaller groups working at the neighborhood level have historically struggled to compete for the larger pools of philanthropic money that dominate the borough’s nonprofit funding landscape. This program changes that calculus directly.
Dr. Jocelynne Rainey, president and CEO of Brooklyn Org, said the case for investing in tiny organizations is straightforward. “Through our Microgrants program, we are proud to invest in these grassroots leaders who are building community power and delivering critical services across Brooklyn,” Rainey said. She added that the smallest organizations often carry the most powerful ideas and solutions for their communities’ needs.
The 38 recipients span a wide range of causes and communities. The full list includes afrolatin@ forum, Alfreda’s Picture Show, Arts & Democracy, Black Diaspora Liberty Initiative, Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival, Brooklyn Community Kitchen, Central Asian Foundation, Como un lugar, For The Better Inc., Good Co. Cares, Gowanus Mutual Aid, HealthJox Foundation, Heart Body & Soul, and Iglesia Cristiana Pentecostal Movimiento Las Maravillas del Éxodo. Also receiving grants are Imani’s Safehouse, It’s All Love Assisting Through Action, Loving You Into Freedom, Meals for Unity, Mindfulness & S.T.E.A.M. Lab, Muscle Inspires New Empowerment, Ñaños in Action, New Sanctuary Coalition, NYC Trans Archives, Parlé Endeavors, Passive House for Everyone, Perennial Muse, Pineapple Ride, Plaza Proletaria, Power Of We, Princess Chambers, Ready Set Grow to Glow, ReImagine Legacy, Rooted Theater Company, Rovaco Dance Company, Tea Arts & Culture, Uniquely Me Creative Arts, Woman Unsilenced, and Yadestiny Treasure Chest.
The list is striking for its breadth. Dance. Mutual aid. Housing. Archives. Children’s wellness. Youth theater. These aren’t satellite offices of larger institutions. They’re neighbor-built operations.
One recipient, Power Of We, runs a free weekly youth enrichment program out of Greenpoint. It’s open to children with developmental diagnoses including autism, ADHD, and Down syndrome, as well as neurotypical children, all in the same space. The program offers art, music, dance, soccer, and storytime. It also builds in calm-down spaces and sensory-friendly breaks for kids who need them, a design feature that sets it apart from most programs serving children in New York City.
Jesse Laymon, the organization’s executive director, told the Brooklyn Paper that the gap Power Of We fills is real and persistent. “In New York there are lots of great youth enrichment programs that are mostly tailored for neurotypical kids, but there’s not a lot out there that is inclusive and open and is accommodating for kids with and without diagnoses and with a wide range of different abilities,” Laymon said. He added that over time, children with developmental diagnoses grew more comfortable and confident through the program.
That kind of quiet, sustained impact is exactly what the Microgrants program is built to support. Brooklyn Org didn’t create this funding stream to reward organizations that have already figured out how to win grants. It created it for groups that haven’t had the chance.
The program sits alongside Brooklyn Org’s Donor Advised Fund grantmaking, which allows donors to direct funding toward causes they care about, giving the organization several distinct ways to channel money into the borough’s nonprofit sector. For groups running on shoestring budgets, a $10,000 award can cover a program coordinator’s salary for months, buy equipment that’s been on a wish list for years, or simply let a founder stop worrying about whether the lights stay on. It can’t buy everything. But for organizations operating at this scale, it doesn’t need to.
Brooklyn Org operates as a community foundation serving Brooklyn, and you can review its grant programs and funding priorities through its official website. Nonprofits interested in understanding eligibility for future rounds can also consult Candid’s resources on microgrant funding for broader context on how small grants fit into the philanthropic ecosystem.
Brooklyn Org has not announced a timeline for a second round of the Microgrants program, but the first cohort of 38 organizations already includes groups working in Caribbean literature, Central Asian community support, trans history preservation, and passive house housing advocacy, a range that signals the program intends to cast as wide a net as possible across Brooklyn’s neighborhoods and populations.