Brooklyn COVID-19 Response Fund

Thanks to the generosity of our community, we're closing in on our goal of raising $50,000 to fuel grassroots support for refugees—if you would like to partner with us, you can donate online or contact us directly to explore other ways to give.

With your support, we distributed a landmark $15.6 million to nonprofits through our Community Fund and Donor Advised Fund programs last year—surpassing our previous grantmaking record for Brooklyn Community Foundation and bringing our total grantmaking since our founding in 2009 to over $90 million! As we usher in a new year of community-led change, we are proud to share some of the many highlights of the past twelve months.

Muslim Community Network (MCN) aims to shape public understanding of Muslim identity while supporting members of New York’s Muslim community through civic education and leadership development.

Through our Community-led Social Change grants, we’re partnering with the Center for Law and Social Justice over five years as they dismantle and reimagine policies and systems that have prevented Black, Indigenous and other communities of color from thriving both prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re excited to share a look at some of their recent work, and the impact of our partnership.

2021 continued the extraordinary generosity we have seen since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This enabled us to distribute over $13 million to nonprofits from our Community Fund and Donor Advised Fund programs last year—a new grantmaking record for Brooklyn Community Foundation!
 

There are deep-seated reasons why the vaccination numbers are much lower in certain neighborhoods, and those reasons explain why the broader, well-funded effort to increase vaccination rates — including ad blitzes and cash and cash-equivalent giveaways — has failed in pockets across the city.

From the start of the pandemic, we have focused on Black communities and communities of color across Brooklyn who have suffered immense economic hardships while enduring higher case rates and fatalities. And we have heard their urgent call to invest in long-term change.

We are taking aim at the root causes of the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on Black communities and communities of color across our borough with an unprecedented five-year commitment for advocacy and social change. Your support makes this work possible.