GrantmakersNew York

Voices of Community Activists & Leaders

Brooklyn, NY · EIN 13-4094385. Reported 43 grants totalling $1,976,144 to 23 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

23organizations funded
$35,000median reported grant
$1,976,144granted, 2020-2024
46%of grantees funded again the next year
12%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Voices of Community Activists & Leaders, the IRS classifies it under health care rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE E60) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 23 distinct organizations, with 12% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 46% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $35,000. Half of what it reported fell between $25,000 and $66,960; the smallest was $7,000 and the largest $181,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
3 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
6 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
20 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
12 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
2 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Community Voices Heard IncNew York, NY$234,409442024
Community Service Society of New YorkNew York, NY$201,960332024
Public Policy and Education Fund of New York IncAlbany, NY$183,350222024
Hester Street Collaborative IncNew York, NY$181,000112021
Neighbors Together CorpBrooklyn, NY$135,000442024
New York Communities Organizing Fund IncBrooklyn, NY$133,350222024
Legal Aid SocietyNew York, NY$116,960222024
Appalshop IncJenkins, KY$100,000222024
Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition IncBronx, NY$100,000332022
Vocal-Ny Action Fund IncBrooklyn, NY$100,000112024
New York Communities for Change IncBrooklyn, NY$95,000112024
St Josephs House of Hospitality of Rochester N Y Federal StationRochester, NY$70,000222024
Tides CenterSan Francisco, CA$55,000222024
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy IncBerea, KY$50,000222024
Metro Louisville Harm Reduction Task ForceLouisville, KY$50,000222024
People United for Sustainable Housing IncorporatedBuffalo, NY$44,000222021
Make the Road New YorkBrooklyn, NY$40,041222024
Woodside on the Move IncWoodside, NY$30,000112020
Metropolitan New York Coordinating Council on Jewish PovertyNew York, NY$18,000112023
New Yorkers Defending DemocracyBrooklyn, NY$14,000112024
New York UniversityNew York, NY$10,000112024
Met Council Research & Educational Fund IncBrooklyn, NY$7,074112020
Fund for the City of New York IncNew York, NY$7,000112020

14 of 23 (61%) received money in more than one year over the 5 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 19 of 23 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Human Services
4 orgs
Community Improvement
3 orgs
Public & Societal Benefit
2 orgs
Crime & Legal
2 orgs
Education
2 orgs
Housing & Shelter
2 orgs
Employment
1 org
Arts & Culture
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20207$129,133$16,059
20214$286,000$35,000
20226$195,000$35,000
202310$533,000$47,500
202416$833,011$42,500

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

87% of its giving went to organizations in New York. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.

New York
$1.7M
Kentucky
$200K
California
$55K

Down to the city

New York, NY
$769K
Brooklyn, NY
$524K
Albany, NY
$183K
Jenkins, KY
$100K
Bronx, NY
$100K
Rochester, NY
$70K

Find more funders like Voices of Community Activists & Leaders

We read newly filed IRS returns and email you the grantmakers whose giving matches your state and cause, as they are published. Free.

No spam, unsubscribe in one click. We never sell or share your address.

Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund10 shared recipientsAmalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc9 shared recipientsNational Philanthropic Trust9 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program9 shared recipientsThe Ford Foundation8 shared recipientsNorth Star Fund Inc8 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $35,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in New York.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Related guides

Foundations funding human services in New YorkEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Voices of Community Activists & Leaders's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 14 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 2 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.

Address of record on the latest return: 300 Douglass Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11217.

EIN 13-4094385 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.