Grantee: Farm School NYC
Every day, but especially in moments of crisis, our guiding principle is to champion grassroots movements of resistance. We are committed to organizers who are reimagining and re-shaping the social contract to meet the needs of communities of color and low-income communities.
Our initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic was to support current grantees immediately by pushing the boundaries of what our foundation could provide. We provided automatic renewals and additional emergency support for all of our existing grantees. As with emergencies and disasters of the past, we knew grassroots organizations would be called to provide life-saving relief to community members while also demanding that elected officials respond to their needs.
Additionally, out of respect for organizers and the demands of the moment, we delayed our spring grantmaking process. Our volunteer grantmakers—known collectively as our Community Funding Committees (CFCs)—are organizers and activists from the communities where we fund. So in March 2020, we knew we couldn’t ask them to divert attention from this crisis to consider new applicants.
But many funders delayed their processes and closed opportunities to non-grantees as well, which is why we believed in the importance of re-opening our doors to new applicants. As we, too, hit pause to see how the pandemic would unfold, we gave new applicants a small gift until we were ready to (figuratively) re-open. We received resounding feedback about how this practice provided a meaningful lifeline to new organizations.
A core group of leaders from our CFCs came together in June to welcome eight new grantees based on our community organizing criteria. Many of these organizations are less than six years old.
We believe the organizing ecosystem is strongest when startups are supported to grow, and our foundation is doing our part to tackle white supremacy in philanthropy by creating new pathways for BIPOC leaders to enter.
Amidst a pandemic and an uprising, we are proud of maintaining a participatory grantmaking process, albeit modified. Just as we envision a transformation of the city and state, philanthropy, too, must shift power.
Our Organizing Grants support grassroots organizing led by low-income communities and communities of color building power across the five boroughs and the Hudson Valley. This includes neighborhood-based organizing, but our grantees are also engaging New Yorkers in faith communities, workplaces, urban farms, prisons, jails and immigrant detention centers, VA hospitals, public schools, and, of course, on Zoom.
These grants support leaders that include Black and brown farmers, high school students, immigrants, formerly incarcerated women and veterans. We’re proud to support these leaders in organizing communities to transform the institutions and policies that make our city and region what it is.
NYC Organizing Grants
Farm School NYC – $10,000
A center for farmers and food justice advocates addressing the dismal underrepresentation of Black communities in farming and the policies that keep these inequities in place.
Queer Detainee Empowerment Project – $10,000
A leadership development project seeking an end to state violence, deportation and detention, led by and for LGBTQIA+ immigrants released from detention.
Teens Take Charge – $10,000
A group of dozens of students from 30 high schools across the five boroughs developing policy proposals to change discriminatory admissions practices to New York City elite public schools.
Veterans Organizing Institute – $10,000
A training hub cultivating the leadership of military veterans to stop the privatization of Veterans Health Administration, the largest government funded, single-payer healthcare system in the U.S.
Women’s Community Justice Association – $10,000
A grassroots organization centering the voices and experiences of formerly incarcerated women to demand a re-imagining of our jail system and a re-investment in community safety.
Hudson Valley Organizing Grants
Proyecto Faro – $10,000
An exciting startup in Rockland County organizing immigrants and allies to provide critical direct support—including to people detained by ICE—while building grassroots power.
Community Resource Center – $10,000
An established social services agency in Westchester organizing immigrant domestic workers to demand their rights and advance implementation of the paid sick leave law.
Sustainable Port Chester Alliance – $10,000
Immigrant residents, young people and small business owners coming together to ensure a Port Chester rezoning plan brings good jobs, truly affordable housing and an improved quality of life.