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“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.”
How do you change your neighborhood? Sometimes, all it takes is a few thousand dollars and someone who believes in you.
At CitizensNYC, we’ve spent 50 years investing in that kind of possibility. As one of the country’s first microgranting institutions, we’ve funded thousands of local leaders—New Yorkers who are deeply rooted in their communities and already working to solve the challenges right outside their front doors.
With grants of up to $5,000 and capacity-building support, we don’t just back ideas. We make long-term commitments to community leaders—investing 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.
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’s not just their communities that benefit. It’s the entire city.
Two of our longtime partners, Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project and Think!Chinatown, offer a window into what this growth looks like.
When Darnell Benoit founded Flanbwayan in 2004, she was a teacher trying to help newly arrived Haitian students navigate New York’s public school system. She had no formal nonprofit training—just a deep understanding of what her students needed and a desire to build something better.
With a $4,500 grant from CitizensNYC, Darnell got her start. “I was just a teacher with an idea,” she told us. “All of our firsts came from that first check. Our first space, hiring our first intern, buying our first computer.”
Today, Flanbwayan is a cornerstone of Brooklyn’s Haitian community, offering culturally responsive programming, advocacy, and support to immigrant youth and families. “That seed funding made all the difference. It allowed me to dream bigger.” Due to the size of her current operating budget, Darnell no longer qualifies for a CitizensNYC grant—and that’s a success story.
In 2017, we awarded a grant to Yin Kong to support a small art installation in Manhattan’s 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.
Like many of our grantee partners, Yin didn’t 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’s Chinatown into a more connected, culturally vibrant, and civically engaged neighborhood.
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. What began as a small, art-centered initiative has grown into a trusted hub for civic engagement—mobilizing resources, preserving cultural heritage, and creating joyful public spaces that reflect the community’s voice and vision.
Stories like these aren’t exceptions. Small organizations all over New York City are making a huge impact.
And many of the partners we fund don’t 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.
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—scaling 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.
And Allyson’s journey has come full circle. This year, she became one of our first CitizensNYC Elliott Fellows—a new initiative honoring leaders who’ve 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.
This kind of grassroots pipeline is an overlooked but vital part of our city’s nonprofit ecosystem. We invest early—when others won’t—and stay connected long after a group has outgrown our grants. It’s not just about impact, it’s about strategy: microgrants aren’t a stopgap, they’re a smart investment.
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—and action into lasting change.
There’s a phrase we hear often from grantee partners: “You were there at the beginning.” At CitizensNYC, we take that role seriously. We just want to see our partners win.
And they do.
Julie L. Shapiro is the CEO of Citizens Committee for New York City.
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