Brooklyn Paper: The Borough’s ‘Backbone’: Brooklyn Org Awards More Than $1.5M to 15 Community Nonprofits

Published In: Brooklyn Paper

Brooklyn’s champion for nonprofits, Brooklyn Org, last week announced the 15 recipients of its 2026 Spring grants. Selected by a committee of fellow Brooklynites, the organizations will receive up to $45,000 annually for as many as three years, totaling more than $1.5 million.

The investments, which are also distributed in the fall, advance Brooklyn Org’s commitment to supporting community-led solutions that strengthen neighborhood stability, expand opportunity, and improve quality of life for Brooklynites. Last July, Brooklyn Org launched its “Brooklyn Backs Brooklyn” campaign to increase grantmaking in fiscal year 2026 by 25% in response to the growing impacts of federal policy changes.

Dr. Jocelynne Rainey, president and CEO of Brooklyn Org, said the organizations reflect the strength, creativity and resilience of Brooklyn communities and that the foundation is proud to support leaders advancing justice, care and opportunity across the borough.

“Brooklyn’s nonprofits continue to serve as the backbone of our borough,” Dr. Rainey said. “They meet urgent needs, build community power, and create pathways to opportunity even as many face rising demand and shrinking resources.”

The recipients work across a wide range of issue areas, including affordable housing, public health, immigrant justice, youth development, violence prevention, environmental justice, transportation equity, arts and culture, and support for older Brooklynites seeking to remain healthy, housed, connected and engaged in their communities. They are:

• Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health: Founded by professional tennis player Arthur Ashe two months before his death in 1993, the organization advances health equity in Brooklyn through community education, research and workforce training. Its initiatives include a barbershop and salon program that connects residents to trusted health information while building pathways into health care careers.
• Brooklyn Debate League: Expands access to speech and debate for New York City public school students by building school-based teams, offering training and tournaments, and preparing young people from underrepresented communities to shape conversations on public issues.
• Good Call: Provides immediate access to legal support through a 24/7 hotline connecting people with attorneys after arrest while building youth leadership and advancing policies aimed at disrupting cycles of incarceration.
• Ifetayo Cultural Arts Academy: Serves as a cultural hub for Central Brooklyn families through Africana-centered arts education, rites-of-passage programming and holistic youth development rooted in the traditions of the African diaspora.
• IMPACCT Brooklyn: Builds and preserves affordable housing in Central Brooklyn through community development and tenant organizing, including the creation of new housing units and support for resident-led associations that help long-term residents remain in their homes.
• Kings Against Violence Initiative (KAVI): Addresses violence as a public health issue through hospital-, school- and community-based programs focused on healing, restorative justice and youth leadership development.
• Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts NY Inc.: Builds community power through arts and culture by organizing artists, businesses and neighborhood leaders into neighborhood-based cultural councils, festivals and peer-learning exchanges that support local artists and strengthen neighborhood cultural ecosystems.
• Octavia Project: Equips girls and gender-expansive youth of color with opportunities to explore STEM, art and writing through programs rooted in Afrofuturism and creative expression.
• Recess: Supports youth impacted by the carceral system through paid arts, leadership and career development programs that combine creative expression with wraparound support services.
• The Resilience Education Training and Innovation Center (RETI Center): Advances community-led climate solutions through solar projects and workforce training programs that create pathways into the green economy.
• Riders Alliance: Organizes bus and subway riders to advocate for faster, more reliable and affordable public transit, including campaigns to improve service and expand reduced-fare access for low-income Brooklynites.
• Sakhi for South Asian Survivors: Supports South Asian and Indo-Caribbean survivors of gender-based violence with culturally responsive crisis intervention, legal advocacy, counseling, housing support and survivor-led services.
• South Brooklyn Sanctuary: Provides volunteer-led legal assistance and “Know Your Rights” support for immigrants navigating the legal system without representation.
• Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB): Builds tenant power in Brownsville and Eastern Brooklyn by organizing residents into tenant associations, supporting eviction defense, and advancing pathways to community homeownership that help tenants fight displacement and remain in their homes.
• Youth Justice Network — Provides advocacy, mentorship and wraparound support for young people impacted by the criminal legal system through reentry programs, court advocacy, family support and mobile outreach.