Several Brooklyn organizations received $1 million and more from Yield Giving, the charity foundation run by MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos.
Yield Giving said it will give $640 million to 361 nonprofits across the country, some of which are based in Brooklyn, according to a news release.
New Heights Youth, Inc., a Crown Heights organization that uses sports to help young people rise to their potential physically, emotionally, socially and academically, through a variety of after-school, weekend and summer programs, was awarded $1 million.
Children of Promise, a nonprofit dedicated to providing critical services and resources to children with incarcerated parents, received $2 million. The organization runs centers in Brooklyn and the Bronx, and has served more than 350 children and their families each year, over 1500 young people.
The Red Hook Initiative, which is dedicated to nurturing young people in the NYCHA Red Hook Houses to be inspired, resilient, and healthy and to envision themselves as co-creators of their lives and community, also received $1 million.
Neighbors Together, a group that runs a community center and soup kitchen in Ocean Hill, Brownsville and Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Beginning with Children, a group that provides educational programs, both received $1 million.
Brooklyn Perinatal Network and the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health both received $2 million each.
In March 2023, Yield Giving launched an Open Call for community-led, community-focused organizations whose explicit purpose is to enable individuals and families to achieve substantive improvement in their well-being through foundational resources.
The Open Call received 6,353 applications and initially planned for 250 awards of $1 million each. In the Fall of 2023, organizations top-rated by their peers advanced to a second round of review by an external Evaluation Panel recruited for experience relevant to this cause, and underwent a final round of due diligence. In light of the incredible work of these organizations, as judged by their peers and external panelists, the donor team decided to expand the awardee pool and the award amount.
