Companies to Watch - December 2019

Five New York Nonprofits to Support

December 19, 2019 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

Five New York Nonprofits to Support

As Team Tech:NYC begins to look ahead to 2020, we’re also taking the time to look back. Reflecting on 2019, we have a lot of reason to celebrate. There were big wins for the tech sector — and just as many for the city. One doesn’t happen without the other, and we're proud to live and work in a place where so many organizations are working to foster community and invest in our city's future. To celebrate that, our regular Companies to Watch feature is doing something a little different this month. We asked each of our team members to pick a nonprofit organization that really stood out this year. And we’re turning the spotlight onto them. They’re all New York organizations working in all kinds of communities, across all kinds of neighborhoods, to make this the city we love.As you think about your end-of-year giving and how you can also support the city, here's five of our suggestions. Get a peek at their work below, and read more about them — and how you can get involved — here. 

Ali Forney CenterStaff pick: Tyler Bugg, Director of PartnershipsWhat does your organization do?The Ali Forney Center founder and executive director Carl Siciliano: The Ali Forney Center provides direct services to LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness. This includes medical and mental healthcare; substance abuse services; HIV and STD testing, counseling, and treatment services; and emergency shelter and transitional housing. We also offer young people educational and career support services designed to help them rebuild their lives. On average, AFC sees over 1,400 homeless LGBTQ a year, serving over 220,000 meals and providing over 30,000 services annually.What projects or plans you looking forward to in 2020?CS: Our key focus in 2020 is to continue to build our housing development plans to include buildings we can own outright. We currently operate our housing programs over 17 sites of which all but one are rented sites. Owning our own buildings is important to helping us become more self-sustaining. We are also looking to better develop our meals program. We currently serve over 220,000 meals a year which costs AFC over $475,000 in food expenses, not including an additional $200,000 in staff expenses, the costs of non consumable products (utensils, cooking supplies, etc), and other incidentals. These two key items are priorities for us in 2020. 

 

Educational AllianceStaff pick: Julie Samuels, Executive DirectorWhat does your organization do?Educational Alliance president and CEO Alan van Cappelle: Educational Alliance offers high-quality, transformational programs and services to all New Yorkers through our network of community centers on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and East Village. As we have for 130 years, we offer best-in-class programming — now across 15 sites — focusing on a mix of education, health and wellness, arts and culture, and civic engagement. Educational Alliance’s network of community centers includes the 14th Street Y, the Center for Recovery and Wellness, the Manny Cantor Center, the Sirovich Center, and Educational Alliance Community Schools.What projects or plans are you looking forward to in 2020?AVP: I am excited that we are about to embark on a plan to build a new downtown Jewish cultural center! We are reimagining our 14th Street Y community center — stay tuned for more to come! 

 

 

HIASStaff pick: Zachary Hecht, Policy DirectorWhat does your organization do?HIAS president & CEO Mark J. Hetfield: HIAS is the global Jewish non-profit that protects refugees. Founded in New York in 1881 to welcome Jews fleeing the pogroms of Eastern Europe, we’re the oldest refugee organization in the world. For much of our history, we were known as the “Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society” and assisted refugees because they were Jewish. Today, HIAS assists refugees because we are Jewish. We operate across the United States and in 15 countries and assist refugees regardless of their religion or nationality.What projects or plans are you looking forward to in 2020?MH: We are continuing to implement The Host Organization Model of Engagement (HOME model), a unique community-based approach to resettlement established by HIAS New York, where a local organization, usually a Jewish congregation or several Jewish congregations or an interfaith consortium, commit(s) to providing the human and financial resources to support a refugee or asylum-seeking family (or in some cases, an individual) without relatives or friends in the US, to build a new life in this country. 

 

KundimanStaff pick: Bryan Lozano, Director of External AffairsWhat does your organization do?Kundiman executive director Cathy Linh Che: Kundiman is dedicated to nurturing generations of writers and readers of Asian American literature. Our programs build community, nurture writers and readers, and ensure Asian American stories reach audiences across NYC. We do this through a Bronx-based summer retreat, readings, workshops, and mentorship.What plans are you looking forward to in 2020?CLC: We have a series of winter and spring workshops at the Ace Hotel New York. In January, a Food Writing Intensive with Mayukh Sen that explores the intersection of food, writing, and history, and in March and April, exploring Poetry & Protest as well as the intersection of Asian American literature and activist history. We will be hosting a Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon for Asian American literature in May. We will be hosting our 17th Creative Writing Retreat this summer, and our second Mentorship Lab in the fall.

 

RecessStaff pick: Sarah Brown, Chief of StaffWhat does your organization do?Recess founder and executive director Allison Freedman Weisberg: Recess partners with artists to build a more just and inclusive creative community. We offer open-studio artist residencies that address social issues; an artist-led alternative to incarceration program that offers participants aged 18-25 paid pathways to careers in the arts; a critical writing fellowship for emerging arts writers; and a suite of programs that collaborate with other cultural and socially engaged partners.What projects or plans are you looking forward to in 2020?AFW: We just began diverting felony charges in addition to misdemeanor charges. This means we’re in a position to invest in youth that much of society has written off. These young people have already shown themselves to be incredible artists and talented individuals, and we look forward to building deeper relationships with them in the new year.  We also have some amazing artists queued up for 2020, so join our mailing list and we’ll keep you posted! 

 

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