Our mission
Brooklyn Donates began in 2020 to meet the most pressing issue confronting our community: the COVID-19 pandemic. We provided grants directly to small businesses and their workers to help them survive a tenuous time.
That work has guided us to where we are now, it has shown us that Brooklyn's most vulnerable communities need resources and decision-making power in moments of crisis, not just after them. Our mission is to strengthen community resilience across our neighborhood, our borough, and our city, so that the people most affected by disruption, whether it be economic, environmental, or social, have the resources and a voice to weather it and shape what comes next.
We pursue this through:
Community Resilience: Building the local capacity — financial, social, organizational — that lets neighborhoods absorb shocks and recover on their own terms, rather than being reshaped by them.
Support for Vulnerable Communities: Directing resources to the people bearing the sharpest edge of financial crisis, displacement, and inequality
Environmental Justice & Sustainability: Recognizing that environmental health is inseparable from economic and social stability, and investing in local food sovereignty and clean neighborhood initiatives are not separate causes.
Today, some of our work involves supporting initiatives that empower members of our community, including providing economically disadvantaged youth soccer players with the gear they need to play with dignity.