Brooklyn Backs Brooklyn

Brooklyn is a place of opportunity, compassion, and welcome—where neighbors support neighbors, and equity and justice are not only aspirations, but shared commitments.

We are asking you to stand with us in showing what is possible when Brooklyn Backs Brooklyn.

The sweeping federal law signed last Friday includes an unprecedented dismantling of our social safety net. Among its many failures, it significantly cuts SNAP, which helps low-income households afford groceries, and Medicaid, while growing ICE to be the largest federal law enforcement agency in our history. The result will cause upwards of 3.2 million children and older adults to lose food assistance and more than 11.8 million Americans to lose health insurance over the coming years, while adding 100,000 immigration detention beds and hiring 10,000 ICE officers.

These changes come at an increasingly unmanageable time for our communities and the nonprofits they rely on. 

Today, Brooklyn Org is publicly launching our Brooklyn Backs Brooklyn campaign, to raise $5 million for our borough over the next year.

Since January, millions of dollars of federal investments designated to our communities have been revoked. Emergency food providers are being decimated. Organizations working for racial and economic justice have been blacklisted. Neighborhood cultural institutions and parks are being stripped of grants that sustain vital local infrastructure. All of this as communities are targeted by ICE raids and disappearing lawful residents.

We are aiming to increase our grantmaking by 25% over the next year, working at every level to back our communities. We are partnering with donors across Brooklyn to make this possible and we are grateful that so many of our neighbors have already pledged their support. But Brooklyn needs all of us to step up.

Together, we will stand in the gap to support one another and our essential local nonprofits. Focusing on our local communities has never been more essential. When national solutions dissipate, local action becomes our most powerful tool for change.

RECEIVE UPDATES ON OUR RESPONSE

Join us Tuesday, July 29th at 12pm EST for a webinar briefing to learn more about the growing crisis and our response for Brooklyn.

Sign up here to receive a formal invitation as well as future updates from our team on emerging needs and how BKO and our stakeholders are meeting the moment.