Allinbklyn Celebrates 10 Years Of Giving

$2.5 Million Granted To 65+ Brooklyn Nonprofits From 2014-2024

Allinbklyn, a women’s giving circle committed to strengthening Brooklyn nonprofits, marks its 10th year of grantmaking this month. Over the past decade, the group has granted more than $2.5 million to over 65 nonprofits, many of them small, early-stage organizations.

Last month, Allinbklyn announced its 2024 cohort: The Brave House, CHiPS, Documented NY, Emma’s Torch, Meals for Good, and Ruth’s Refuge. Each will receive three years of funding, beginning with $20,000 in the first year.

Eliza Winans Rossman founded Allinbklyn in 2014 because she sensed there was a void in local philanthropy.

“I knew there were organizations in my own backyard that I didn’t have the opportunity to support. And I knew if I couldn’t access them, they couldn’t access me, either.” she said. “I had friends who felt the same way. Their dollars were going to the usual places or to where their friends suggested, but their knowledge of Brooklyn organizations was limited. I knew that, together, we could make a meaningful difference.”

The group started with seven women and has grown into a community of 60 that grants more than $300,000 each year. Members nominate and evaluate Brooklyn nonprofits and often become volunteers, board members, and individual supporters.

“Receiving a grant from Allinbklyn is like getting the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval,” said Julie Stein Brockway, Co-Executive Director of The Center for Family Life in Sunset Park, a 2022 grantee. “It acknowledges that you are doing the best work possible to meet the needs of the people of Brooklyn.”

In a giving circle, a group pools individual donations—as well as ideas and research—to make a much larger impact. There are over 4,000 giving circles in the U.S., and women-led giving circles are one of the fastest growing forms of philanthropy.

Allinbklyn engages in trust-based philanthropy, an approach that shifts the dynamic between donors, nonprofits, and communities to more of a trusted partnership. As such, the group’s grants are three-year, unrestricted awards. Grantee partners may use the funds for operating expenses, often prohibited by government and corporate funders.

The 2022 and 2023 cohorts, each receiving $13,000 this year, are: AMPHS (now RaisingHealth Partners), BCS Fatherhood Program, Center for Family Life in Sunset Park, The Family Center’s Leekong Institute, Flatbush Tenants Association, Mixteca, People in Need, Power of Two, Read718, Red Hook Initiative, St. John’s Bread & Life, and Thompson Drive. Brooklyn Org will receive $10,000.

Allinbklyn responds to crisis situations in the borough, as well, raising money for The Brooklyn Hospital at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and, most recently, for the food assistance organization CHiPS to boost their work supporting newly arrived immigrants.

New and continuing Allinblyn grantees will be celebrated over breakfast on May 7th. Allinbklyn does not accept unsolicited grant proposals. Learn more about Allinbklyn here: Allinbklyn.org

Allinbklyn is a Giving Circle whose funds are managed through Brooklyn Org.