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September 14, 2020   |   By The New York Community Trust
Stand Up for a More Equitable New York. Your Contribution Can Help.

An artist paints the name Eric Garner at a Black Lives Matter mural in Brooklyn organized by a grantee, Billie Holiday Theatre. Garner died in 2014 when an NYPD officer put him in a prohibited chokehold while arresting him. Courtesy of Billie Holiday Theatre.

These organizations are working for racial and economic justice. Your contribution can help.

Amidst renewed calls for racial and economic justice, many in our community of donors have asked us how they can target their giving to build a more equitable and just New York. 

With so many ways to support grassroots organizing, it can be hard to know where to start, so we’ve put together a short list of funds and organizations leading the way in NYC. Any one of these would benefit from a grant of any size from your fund. 

You can give through a collaborative fund in The Trust…

The Mosaic Fund in The New York Community Trust
Fostering equity in the arts: Join other foundations and individuals in giving to this fund, which provides support to strengthen African, Latinx, Asian, Arab, and Native American arts organizations in New York City. It advocates for more equitable policies and practices for workers at these organizations and helps them build connections to philanthropic institutions.

Or to a number of effective nonprofits we’ve vetted and support…

Audre Lorde Project
Standing up for LGBT people of color: This community center supports lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and gender-nonconforming people of color. Through mobilization, education, and capacity building, it works for progressive social and economic justice. 

Black Women’s Blueprint
Focusing on women and girls in the fight for racial equity: This organization focuses on helping Black women and girls. It provides maternal health services, groceries and supplies, and crisis counseling, and conducts research, historical documentation, advocacy, and organizing. Recently, it has been gathering and delivering food and maternity and infant supplies. It has also been assisting with rent, temporary housing, crisis counseling, and emerging needs. It has mobilized doulas and midwives to provide free reproductive help to women, including survivors of domestic violence. 

BronxConnect
Helping court-involved young people: BronxConnect uses community programs to provide alternatives to incarceration and leadership, educational, and employment opportunities. The organization helps young people disengage from illegal behavior by connecting them with positive community resources and mentors. 

Communities United for Police Reform
Ending police brutality: Communities United for Police Reform works to end discriminatory policing in New York. It advances policies that protect the rights of all New Yorkers to create true community safety. It works through the court system to hold police accountable for violating New Yorkers’ constitutional rights and trains communities to know their rights and document police abuses.  

Girls for Gender Equity
Empowering young women: This organization is committed to the physical, psychological, social, and economic development of girls and women. Through education, organizing, and physical fitness, the group encourages communities to remove barriers and create opportunities for girls and women to live self-determined lives. Through advocacy and workshops, it creates awareness about practices and policies that perpetuate gender violence, and participants go on to advocate for systemic changes.

Make the Road NY
Curbing policing in schools: Make the Road works to end police brutality and the school-to-prison pipeline. It has led coalitions that have won victories affecting millions of New Yorkers, like the passage of the Community Safety Act, which reined in “stop and frisk” policing and served as a model for cities across the country.

VOCAL-NY
Building power in low-income communities: This statewide grassroots organization builds power among low-income people affected by HIV/AIDS, substance-use disorders, mass incarceration, and homelessness to foster healthy and just communities. It accomplishes this through community organizing, leadership development, advocacy, direct services, and research.

These are just some of the nonprofits and collaborative funds fighting for racial justice that have benefited from recent Trust grants. If you want advice on other agencies that are working in this, or any other, area of interest, contact Kerry McCarthy to start a discussion. If you want to learn more about starting a charitable fund with The New York Community Trust, contact Gay Young. If you want to address racial equity, or any other issue, in your estate plans, contact Marie D’Costa.

Press Contact Information

Peter Panapento
peter@turn-two.co
(202) 531-3886

 

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Statue of Liberty in Red
Press Contact Information

Peter Panapento
peter@turn-two.co
(202) 531-3886

 

>> Get our press kit <<

Statue of Liberty in Red