Nonprofits grow thanks to unrestricted funding from Brooklyn Community Foundation

Two organizations land the $100,000 Spark Prize

 Two organizations land the $100,000 Spark Prize

Two organizations land the $100,000 Spark Prize Alan Schein Photography

Cypress Hills Child Care Corporation and the Center for Law and Social Justice won the $100,000 Spark Prize from the Brooklyn Community Foundation back in 2019, an unrestricted grant awarded to organizations that hope to spark change for a “fair and just Brooklyn”, as mentioned on the Brooklyn Community Foundation’s website, and have been able to grow exponentially since then.

Grant recipients must be based in Brooklyn, have a commitment to equity, be values-driven, and have a vision for the future. Twenty finalists are selected, and five nonprofits are then chosen by the Spark Prize Committee through a competitive application process. 

Smaller organizations often are led by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color executive directors. Once the coronavirus pandemic hit, nonprofits called for support through unrestricted grantmaking and funding, trusting organizations to use the money for their needs and getting rid of the arduous administrative work organizations often face when reporting their spending. The philanthropic community then created a movement towards unrestricted funding, with Brooklyn Community Foundation, among other foundations, helping to lead that change.  

“Unrestricted funds, allows a nonprofit to dream. It allows you to really look at the needs of the community that you're serving, and be able to create the programming that best suits that particular population.” said Jocelynne Rainey, president and CEO of Brooklyn Community Foundation. “So when you see that there is this new need and then you have unrestricted funds to be able to do that, then that's really giving you an opportunity to really be able to create a deep impact. I also think that unrestricted funds are hugely important because day-to-day operations of a nonprofit are extremely expensive, and there's a lot of resources that nonprofits require that are not always covered within a grant. So this gives them the opportunity to either pay staff or to increase wages. We know that the sector is historically underpaid, so It allows you to bring in staff in order to implement the work.”

Now, there is an upward trend of unrestricted giving, a trend that hasn’t always been there.

““Historically, most Black-led nonprofits attempt to move mountains with the funding capacity to mow lawns,” said Lurie Daniel Favors, Executive Director of CLSJ. “Traditional funding models for philanthropic organizations often don't consider the capital challenges of BIPOC community-based non-profits, funding individual initiatives rather than organizational capacity. They often fail to recognize that these organizations operate with severely limited funding, particularly for day-to-day operations.”

Since winning the 2019 Spark Prize, Cypress Hills and CLSJ have been able to successfully accomplish their goals of growth.

Cypress Hills Child Care Corporation’s executive director of over 20 years had announced their retirement and needed a smooth transition for their new succession plan and ​​a strategic plan to guide its growth. 

“The  Spark Prize recognized and validated our efforts and allowed us to better plan, enhance and grow our much needed programs and services.” said Maria Collier, Executive Director of Cypress Hills Child Care Corporation. “Most significant was the expansion of our bilingual parent curriculum that specifically promotes leadership and advocacy as well as parenting practices that foster children’s early learning and development in a culturally-relevant manner.”

The Center for Law and Social Justice, on the other hand, relied mostly on government grants since its founding in the 1980’s. The organization hoped to develop other streams of funding to ensure stability and growth, but was unable to hire development staff. Now, the organization has been able to get 40% of its funding from non-government sources.

“When CLSJ won the Spark prize grant from the Brooklyn Community Foundation, the infusion of unrestricted funding allowed us to think beyond the immediacy of the programs in one particular funding cycle and invest in vitally necessary infrastructure development. CLSJ was able to plant seeds to secure our mission and vision that are now bearing fruit. The Spark Prize model sets a high bar for the type of funding partnerships that effectively support the mountain moving needs in our communities. When funding is limited to programs - it grows immediate needs. However, when philanthropic partners invest in infrastructure and allow organizations to direct how to spend those resources, that is how organizations can grow greatness.” said Favors. 

Past Spark Prize winners include Girls for Gender Equity, Red Hook Community Justice Center and VOCAL-New York.

Correction: An earlier version of this story reported the wrong year for when Cypress Hills Child Care Corporation and the Center for Law and Social Justice won the $100,000 Spark Prize from the Brooklyn Community Foundation.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.