Here Are 15 Brooklyn-Based Nonprofits to Support This Giving Tuesday

More than any year in recent history, 2020 has highlighted how vital community service and nonprofit organizations are to supporting our Brooklyn communities and those across the city, country and world.

In a time when COVID-19 has devastated families, income and housing security, and entire industries, Brooklyn nonprofits have been there for our residents when there has often been no other place to turn.

And on Giving Tuesday, Nov. 30, it is time to thank those nonprofits for what they do by making a donation -- and although corny, it's true: Every dollar counts.

Giving Tuesday is the global day of giving when individuals and organizations are called on to help to the nonprofit organizations serving as the backbone and strength of every community.

Started in 2012 by the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation, Giving Tuesday has become a response to commercialization and consumerism spurred by Black Friday and Cyber Monday and demonstrates how every act of generosity counts, especially in a year like the one we have been through.

Brooklyn Community Foundation is running the #BrooklynGives campaign, uniting donors and nonprofits across our borough in support of social change. Launched in 2016 to drive awareness and support for grassroots, community-led nonprofits dedicated to racial justice, #BrooklynGives encourages Brooklynites everywhere to "Give Where You Live," and this year the goal of the campaign is to raise $1 million for local nonprofits.

Here are 15 of the many amazing nonprofits working in Brooklyn you can support this Giving Tuesday (and find many more here):

1. Alex House Project
   • The Alex House Project is a peer-led social service and leadership development organization supporting pregnant and parenting young mothers in economically depressed neighborhoods. The team often works directly with young pregnant and or parenting women directly affected by poverty and racism, including homeless youth, LGBTQ youth, young people in new immigrant communities, and parenting youth in foster care. And by overwhelming request, they now provide services to young dads.
2. Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation
   • Restoration is the nation's first community development organization. It partners with residents and business to improve the quality of life in Central Brooklyn, relentlessly pursuing strategies to close gaps in family and community wealth to ensure all families in Central Brooklyn are prosperous and healthy.
3. Black Women's Blueprint
   • This nonprofit places Black women and girls' lives, as well as their particular struggles, squarely within the context of the larger racial justice concerns of Black communities. It is committed to building movements where gender matters in broader social justice organizing so that all members of our communities gain social, political and economic equity.
4. Cypress Hills Childcare Corporation
   • This nonprofit has served families in the Cypress Hills since 1990. The mission of CHCCC is to strengthen families in our community by increasing the availability of quality, affordable childcare for low-income families and creating entrepreneurship opportunities for low-income women.
5. Friends of the Island Academy
   • This nonprofit was founded in 1990 in a collaboration between education and social service staff on Rikers Island and community-based advocates who sought to address the recidivism rates, untapped potential and disproportionate confinement of youth of color who attend school on Rikers Island every year.
6. Friends of Marcy Houses
   • Friends of Marcy Houses is the first nonprofit dedicated to a single community within a NYCHA development, leveraging the strengths and untapped potential of its youth and families to make impactful social change collaboratively. Its mission is to transform the lives of Marcy Houses youth so that they may flourish in school, build resilience, learn to collaborate, and develop the skills needed to advocate, create better lives for themselves.
7. Haiti Cultural Exchange
   • This nonprofit was established to develop, present and promote the cultural expressions of the Haitian people. It raises awareness of social issues and fosters cultural understanding and appreciation through programs in the arts, education and public affairs.
8. KAVI
   • KAVI's work is grounded in the belief that young people are the greatest hope for a more just and peaceful world. KAVI partners with its communities to invest in youth, understanding their challenges and working to change the course of historical inequities, and tackling critical social issues such as different forms of violence.
9. Noel Pointer Foundation
   • Founded in 1995, this nonprofit enriches the lives of children by developing string music education programs for under-served communities in New York City. Through professional training, performance opportunities and college placement assistance, NPF enhances a student's cultural and academic experience, infusing them with a positive sense of who they are and a boundless sense of what they can become.
10. Power of Two
    • The mission at Power of Two is to nurture the inherent potential in every child and family — equipping them with the tools to transform their own lives and strengthen their communities.
11. Rooted Theater Company
    • Rooted Theater Company engages, challenges and inspires audiences through theatrical productions that range from the classics to new and emerging works with programming encouraging social consciousness.
12. Tech Kids Unlimited
    • Tech Kids Unlimited teaches computer science thinking and technology to kids who learn differently. Its mission is to open up the field of technology to students with disabilities, especially those with Autism Spectrum Disorders to help them become the techies of tomorrow.
13. The Campaign Against Hunger
    • Founded in 1998 as a small pantry operating out of a church basement in Bed-Stuy, this organization has expanded in many ways over the past 20 years. On top of the SuperPantry emporium is it today, it offers hundreds of nutrition education classes, workshops, and cooking demonstrations; The Green Teens internship program; and a suite of social services, including SNAP registration, health insurance enrollment, tax filing preparation and more.
14. Youth Design Center
    • Youth Design Center is a youth creative agency and innovation hub providing a gateway for young people to learn marketable hard skills in STEAM, access post-secondary education, achieve economic mobility and engage in place-based community revitalization.
15. Yemeni American Merchants Association
    • This nonprofit is a catalyst for positive change, empowering its community through outreach, education, and support, to build a brighter future for Yemeni Americans. It provides a peace of mind with the solutions to the issues and challenges Yemeni Americans face in their daily lives.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of the teams working for a brighter future in Brooklyn who need your support this Giving Tuesday and beyond. Check out the #BrooklynGives campaign to see more of the extremely important work being done right here on our doorsteps.