New York City Good Neighbor Committee

The New York City Good Neighbor Committee seeks to strengthen the Ford Foundation’s ties and support for local organizations working on issues related to the foundation’s mission. It is also an opportunity to provide Ford staff who are not grantmakers to experience the core work of the foundation. As part of this work, we seek to employ the Ford Foundation’s values and approaches to effective grantmaking practices, including by supporting our grantees through flexible support, approaching relationships with transparency and trust, and striving to keep burdens light.

Two Black youth work on computers and music equipment. One wears headphones and taps their hand on a piano keyboard.Photo credit: ©Alexis Maryon/PYMCA

Funding Opportunities

Every year, the Good Neighbor Committee provides unrestricted funding to a small group of organizations based and working locally in New York City, within three focus areas:

  • Arts and Culture prioritizes funding for organizations devoted to the artistic and cultural life of the city.
  • Education prioritizes funding for organizations and educational initiatives that provide individuals with the access and opportunity to improve their socioeconomic circumstances and reduce barriers of inequality.
  • Human services prioritizes funding for organizations, initiatives or projects that seek to improve the overall quality of life and well-being of marginalized individuals and/or their collective communities.

Selection criteria

Due to our extremely limited budget and scope, the New York City Good Neighbor Committee can only consider funding for between 10-15 organizations every year. Grants vary between $30k-100k, typically last one year, and are generally unrestricted in nature.

To be eligible for funding, applicant organizations must:

  • Be based in New York City and primarily support local work within the five boroughs
  • Have 501(c)3 status or work with a fiscal sponsor who does
  • Work in one of the three priority thematic areas of the GNC
  • Not be a current grantee of other Ford Foundation programs
  • Be led, informed by, and accountable to the communities they support

Organizations that do not fulfill these minimum criteria will not be considered for funding.

How to Apply

Applications for our 2025 grants cycle will be open from July 1st, 2024 – September 30th, 2024. You can preview the questions we will ask in our submission form on this document. Once the process is open, you will be able to submit your application through a google form that will be linked on this page.

We will not read applications on a rolling basis. Rather, we will consider all the applications together once the application form is closed on September 30th. We will begin to reach out to prospective grantees between December 2024 and January 2025.

Regional Committees

Over the years, other Ford Foundation regional offices in Asia, Africa, and Latin America have formed their own versions of the Good Neighbor Committee. These regional committees address the unique needs of neighbors in their communities. To learn more, contact each regional office directly.

If your organization is interested in starting its own Good Neighbor Committee, review Building Community Inside and Out with a Good Neighbor Committee, a GrantCraft publication.