Crown Heights: Help Decide How to Spend $100,000 in Community Grant Money

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — For the second year in a row, the Brooklyn Community Foundation (BCF) will be donating $100,000 to projects impacting Crown Heights — and it wants residents to pitch it ideas.

The Foundation, which supports philanthropic ventures throughout the borough, will host the first to two community visioning sessions this Sunday, Sep. 25 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. The gathering will take place at the Brooklyn Children's Museum, located at 145 Brooklyn Ave.

(You can RSVP for the event on this website, which is encouraged, or by calling 718-480-7500. The date and location of the second meeting hasn't been set yet, but will be announced on the organization's website.)

Last year, the Foundation funded 11 projects, including $15,000 for the Brooklyn Movement Center, a non-profit focused on ending abusive policing, $10,000 for The Youth Farm, which grows produce in Crown Heights; and $10,000 for the Weeksville Heritage Center, which works to preserve the legacy of its historic neighborhood.

BCF spokeswoman Liane Stegmaier said those projects were selected by an Advisory Council composed of community and business leaders from Crown Heights (defined as the neighborhoods represented by Community Board 8 and Community Board 9).

This year, she said, BCF wants to involve a larger segment of the neighborhood. Those attending the visioning session don't have to come with a grant proposal written. Instead, she said, attendees will participating in an interactive workshop where ideas will be discussed and developed.

The Foundation is open to a wide array of pitches, Stegmaier said, and could wind up funding a group of smaller projects, or one or two large ones.

After the visioning sessions on Sep. 25 and in October, the advisory council will pick a list of winners, and announce its decision toward the end of the year.

Top photo courtesy of 401(K) 2012/Flickr