{"id":11454,"date":"2025-10-22T00:40:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T00:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/11454\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T00:40:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T00:40:11","slug":"opinion-funding-the-first-step-to-community-led-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/11454\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Funding The First Step to Community-Led Change\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn philanthropy, scale is often talked about in millions of dollars. But the reality is that some of the most transformative projects in New York City start with much less.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"foodLove Wins NYC, a food pantry that feeds thousands of hungry New Yorkers every month, is among CitizensNYC\u2019s grantees. (Citizens Committee for New York City)<\/p>\n

\"CityViews<\/a><\/p>\n

How do you change your neighborhood? Sometimes, all it takes is a few thousand dollars and someone who believes in you.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At CitizensNYC, we\u2019ve spent 50 years investing in that kind of possibility. As one of the country\u2019s first microgranting institutions, we\u2019ve funded thousands of local leaders\u2014New Yorkers who are deeply rooted in their communities and already working to solve the challenges right outside their front doors. <\/p>\n

With grants of up to $5,000 and capacity-building support, we don\u2019t just back ideas. We make long-term commitments to community leaders\u2014investing in their success through coaching, skill-building workshops, affinity groups, larger convenings, collaborative projects, and connections to other private and public funding opportunities. This multi-pronged approach leads to something powerful: sustainable, community-led change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In philanthropy, scale is often talked about in millions of dollars. But the reality is that some of the most transformative projects in New York City start with much less. Our grantee partners begin with limited infrastructure, small budgets, and big ideas. What they lack in resources, they more than make up for in vision and understanding of local needs. And when they succeed, which they do, time and time again, it\u2019s not just their communities that benefit. It\u2019s the entire city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two of our longtime partners, Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project<\/a> and Think!Chinatown<\/a>, offer a window into what this growth looks like.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Darnell Benoit founded Flanbwayan in 2004, she was a teacher trying to help newly arrived Haitian students navigate New York\u2019s public school system<\/a>. She had no formal nonprofit training\u2014just a deep understanding of what her students needed and a desire to build something better.<\/p>\n

With a $4,500 grant from CitizensNYC, Darnell got her start. \u201cI was just a teacher with an idea,\u201d she told us. \u201cAll of our firsts came from that first check. Our first space, hiring our first intern, buying our first computer.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, Flanbwayan is a cornerstone of Brooklyn\u2019s Haitian community, offering culturally responsive programming, advocacy, and support to immigrant youth and families. \u201cThat seed funding made all the difference. It allowed me to dream bigger.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Due to the size of her current operating budget, Darnell no longer qualifies for a CitizensNYC grant\u2014and that\u2019s a success story.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2017, we awarded a grant to Yin Kong to support a small art installation in Manhattan\u2019s Chinatown. That project became the seed for Think!Chinatown, an organization now recognized citywide for its work at the intersection of arts, culture, and community empowerment. <\/p>\n

Like many of our grantee partners, Yin didn\u2019t just use our funding to launch a project. She used our partnership to grow her capacity as a leader. We introduced her to experts in nonprofit finance. She recruited volunteers. The work grew. Today, Think!Chinatown is a community pillar. The organization has helped transform Manhattan\u2019s Chinatown into a more connected, culturally vibrant, and civically engaged neighborhood. <\/p>\n

From hosting community-wide events like the Chinatown Night Market and Storytelling Festival, to partnering on needs assessments that inform equitable planning, its work has built both visibility and power for longtime residents.\u00a0What began as a small, art-centered initiative has grown into a trusted hub for civic engagement\u2014mobilizing resources, preserving cultural heritage, and creating joyful public spaces that reflect the community\u2019s voice and vision.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stories like these aren\u2019t exceptions. Small organizations all over New York City are making a huge impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And many of the partners we fund don\u2019t stay small forever. They grow into anchor institutions, trusted neighborhood spaces where people find support, resources, and a sense of belonging. They win additional grants, build new coalitions, and shape policy. Other grantee partners have gone on to lead citywide climate resilience work and launch school-based health initiatives, for instance. And nearly all of them started with a single CitizensNYC microgrant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of them is Brooklyn Level Up, founded by Allyson Martinez. Over the course of three consecutive years, Allyson received CitizensNYC microgrants to support youth-led environmental justice projects, entrepreneurship training, and racial equity initiatives. Each grant helped her grow her vision\u2014scaling from one-time neighborhood events to a multi-service nonprofit advancing community-first development and local power. Today, Brooklyn Level Up is a model for what long-term, grassroots investment can achieve.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And Allyson\u2019s journey has come full circle. This year, she became one of our first CitizensNYC Elliott Fellows\u2014a new initiative honoring leaders who\u2019ve outgrown our grant eligibility but remain deeply tied to our mission. As a Fellow, Allyson now helps coach and advise emerging grantees, building a virtuous circle of community leadership: from seed funding, to sustained impact, to giving back.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This kind of grassroots pipeline is an overlooked but vital part of our city\u2019s nonprofit ecosystem. We invest early\u2014when others won\u2019t\u2014and stay connected long after a group has outgrown our grants. It\u2019s not just about impact, it\u2019s about strategy: microgrants aren\u2019t a stopgap, they\u2019re a smart investment. <\/p>\n

In a moment when public systems are strained, the highest return comes from funding proximate leaders who already know how to get things done. With a modest grant and the right support, our partners turn trust into action\u2014and action into lasting change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a phrase we hear often from grantee partners: \u201cYou were there at the beginning.\u201d At CitizensNYC, we take that role seriously. We just want to see our partners win.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And they do.<\/p>\n

Julie L. Shapiro is the CEO of Citizens Committee for New York City.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIn philanthropy, scale is often talked about in millions of dollars. But the reality is that some of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-11454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}