Our Programs
We help support a growing network of passionate problem solvers and scale important initiatives through our three grant programs: Amplify, Accelerate, and Renewable Grants.
Amplify
Amplify Your Impact™ is an initiative of Reisenbach Philanthropies that provides high-potential new programs in New York City with:
A one-year package of media consultations, workshops, and connections
A one-time cash award to be used for general operating activities during the prize year
This is a unique opportunity for exceptional new programs to encourage their growth by connecting with a wide range of partners, funders, beneficiaries, and supporters.
Context
Reisenbach Philanthropies is rooted in the media and advertising industries, so we are uniquely positioned to bring nonprofits, media, and advertising experts together.
Our board members include executives at companies like Facebook, DigitasLBI, BET, NBC, CBS, UniversalMcCann, and Penske Media.
Eligibility
All organizations applying to this program must be 501(c)(3)s or have a fiscal sponsor that is a 501(c)(3). Eligible programs must be in their first several years of operation. The nonprofit must have a CEO, Executive Director or commited staffer that can attend all workshops. Nonprofits applying must serve beneficiaries in the greater New York City area and mission must fit into one of the three Reisenbach Philanthropies pillars: Youth & Education, Housing & Community, Justice & Safety.
Amplify Cohorts
2026
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Supports Haitian newcomer youth in navigating and succeeding in the NYC public school system through education, advocacy, leadership development, and cultural programming rooted in language, identity, and community.
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Equips system-impacted Black and Brown young men in NYC with the skills, confidence, and community to define their futures, building digital fluency, advancing careers, and achieving personal and economic empowerment. Our flagship program, T.RAP (Technology, Rhythm, and Passion), provides digital literacy training, creative expression through music, and professional growth opportunities. Participants graduate with tech skills, a recorded album, mentorship, and wraparound support. With a 90% graduation rate and just 6% recidivism, EW is a launching pad for sustainable careers and leadership in tech and beyond.
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Helps refugee families build a community support network in New York City. Our core clothing partnership program matches each newly-arrived family to a local family who has older kids and can share ongoing kids hand-me-down clothes from season to season, along with other forms of resettlement support.
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A literacy-focused nonprofit dedicated to revitalizing underfunded and underutilized library spaces in NYC public schools. We transform these spaces into dynamic Literacy Hubs, offering culturally responsive books, author visits, and engaging programming. Our work primarily supports K–5 students, with an emphasis on multilingual learners and those with learning differences, fostering a lifelong passion for reading. This partnership will help us expand our Literacy Hub model, delivering impactful literacy experiences to the schools that need them the most.
2023-2024
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Addresses barriers to book ownership among low-income families and those living in underserved communities in Brooklyn. Everyday, BBB works to ensure book equity, access, and ownership for children across New York City. Throughout the year, we give free books to residents, strengthen and expand our partnerships with community based organizations to layer literacy into their work and missions, and reinforce the work of educators and literacy advocates.
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Provides Coney Island teenagers the neighborhood connection, life-skills support, and hope needed to become self-determining adults. Thompson Drive helps create a better and safer New York by providing hope, stability and support to teenagers growing up in a community that is plagued by poverty, underperforming schools, inadequate housing, rampant unemployment, and unacceptable rates of teenage crime and gang violence.
2021-2022
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The Black Feminist Project enriches the lives of, restores agency, justice, joy, and health to Black Womxn, girls, and non-men, often referred to as marginalized genders or MaGes and the children they care for - with an emphasis on mother-led families.
Using dynamic and engaging food and reproductive justice programming that explores not only the intersections of race, class, gender, and respectability politics but also empowers them to tap into their inherent leadership abilities and dare to put themselves at the center of their own universes.
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Working with existing community efforts, we provide meals to people in need through food rescue projects in North Brooklyn. Our mission is to offer nutritious meals that benefit the health of our guests while using food that would otherwise go to waste. We hope to connect neighbors through food and face to face interaction, boosting the ability of the community to thrive together using sustainable practices. In addition, since the pandemic we have packed care packages and acted responsively to the needs of unhoused neighbors.
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TechFIN seeks to address an alarming trend in America. Millions of low income families lack access to a computer in the home. This lack of access contributes to a growing digital divide where completing schoolwork, or college and job applications becomes increasingly difficult. Yet, in this environment, U.S. companies dispose of millions of functional computers every year, per their upgrade cycle. In a solution that is both sustainable and beneficial, TechFIN diverts some of these machines from the scrap heap to the living room.
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The W.O.W Project’s mission is to sustain ownership over Chinatown's future by growing, protecting and preserving Chinatown's creative culture through arts, culture and activism. The W.O.W. Project seeks to create a women, trans and non-binary-centered intergenerational space that cultivates relationships, fosters learning from past social movements pioneered by artists/activists in the community, and provides the next generation of women/nonbinary individuals with the necessary toolkit of leadership and community-organizing skills to take on the many challenges ahead.
2019-2020
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A community development organization whose mission is to break the cycle of violence, crime, and incarceration. Its Conflict Resolution & Strategies Program addresses the lack of conflict resolution skills that cause petty disagreements to erupt into violence in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
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Seeks to empower the next generation of female leaders using the platform of competitive cheer to enhance the lives of girls and young women in the communities of Harlem and the Bronx. The program addresses the need for girls to engage in physical activity in an environment that provides encouragement and nurture, but also demands hard work, leadership, and teamwork.
Accelerate
Accelerate Your Impact™ is a new program by Reisenbach Philanthropies that seeds high-potential pilot programs within successful nonprofits that tackle an identified and underserved need. The investment includes:
A one-time cash grant with 1:1 matching funds requirements
A one-year grant term of advanced communications, media, program planning and outcome measurement consulting 1:1 with field experts meant to guide the program from the pilot phase into a sustainable program.
Accelerate Cohorts
2026
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Carnegie East House near East 95th Street is housing for older adults. It offers enhanced services to those needing help with daily living. Carnegie East is an 80/20 building and has 20% of the units that are set aside for low- and moderate-income older adults age 55 and over. We are dedicated to keeping our residents safe and spending their older years in a safe and well cared for community.
Together with Reisenbach Philanthropies, Carnegie East House will create an online tutorial to help future low-income older adult residents apply for below market rate apartments. The pilot program is designed specifically to help the 20% of residents who apply for subsidized apartments with all services at Carnegie East House.
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Kingsbridge Heights Community Center’s Changing Futures Program (CFP) is launching a new pilot to strengthen trauma care in the Bronx. As the borough’s only NYS Department of Health Certified Rape Crisis Program, CFP provides free, long-term, trauma-informed therapy to survivors and their families. Through this pilot, advocates, therapists, and interns will receive advanced training in EMDR and Critical Incident Desensitization (CID)—powerful tools proven to help survivors heal after trauma. With mentorship, monthly coaching, and real-time intervention training, the team will be even better equipped to respond in acute crises and support long-term recovery.
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Not Another Child (NAC) is a survivor-led organization founded by Oresa Napper-Williams after the tragic murder of her son, Andrell, to gun violence. Since 2006, NAC has provided trauma-informed, community-based support to families and youth impacted by violence. Through healing services, individualized survivor services, peer mentorship, school based workshops, and youth centered initiatives, NAC addresses the deep layers of trauma while promoting healing, resilience, and long term transformation. Every program is shaped by the voices of survivors, educators, and community members, ensuring meaningful, culturally responsive support.
Reisenbach Philanthropies will support East Harlem Leadership Academy (EHLA), NAC’s flagship violence prevention program. This initiative engages young people in twice-weekly workshops, mentorship, cultural field trips, and service learning to promote leadership, emotional well-being, conflict resolution and personal transformation initiatives. Participants explore topics such as financial literacy, decision-making, restorative justice, and healthy living, while creating and working toward an individualized Success Plan (ISP). Survivors of gun violence also share their stories through EHLA’s, “Survivor Experience,” connecting youth directly with lived perspectives. Former participants often return as mentors, building a cycle of peer support and lasting community impact. -
Since launching in 2021, Safety Saints has trained thousands of New Yorkers and built a citywide network to deliver lifesaving skills where they are needed most. CPR and first aid training are essential because emergencies unfold in minutes. Prepared bystanders can recognize problems early, call 911, start chest compressions, control bleeding, and stabilize someone until EMS arrives, improving outcomes when every second counts.
Safety Saints, in partnership with Reisenbach Philanthropies, will expand free and low-cost CPR and first aid training with New York City settlement houses, community centers, and nonprofit partners. This next stage of growth will bring borough-wide programs online and reach more youth, nonprofit teams, and community workers.
2023-2024
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The only private, independent day school in New York City for academically talented, economically less advantaged students in grades six through eight.
Pilot Program: Seventh and Eighth Grade Support Groups
Groups will focus on specific topics for 8-12 weeks at a time, and are largely in response to the needs of the groups. They will be available during after-school so the students have yet another option for engagement for support. The two areas of greatest need: “facing and understanding trauma” and “building healthy relationships with others.”
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The Educational Mentoring Program (EMP) at OHFF increases access to higher education and provides support throughout the college journey for youth in foster care. This support helps to improve the educational, health and life outcomes for this extremely vulnerable population, and ultimately strengthens and diversifies the city’s workforce.
Pilot Program: Mental Health Support
The EMP will begin to create the infrastructure needed to address our students’ immediate mental health needs. This means EMP students who experience mental health emergencies can bypass waiting lists and bureaucracy and get immediate access to high quality care.
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Operates over 70 NYC public schools a year joining together demanding and engaging learning, community, and character in ways that lead to high achievement for all.
Pilot Program: Youth Crew Leadership Program
A new student-led and student-designed program connected to Crew, the proven advisory structure used in our partner schools. Through Crew, groups of 12-15 students meet regularly with an adult Crew Advisor to build a sense of community and belonging at their schools, focusing on building essential academic and social-emotional skills through a combination of team building, student-centered academic support, conflict resolution, and self-reflection. Youth Crew Leadership will incorporate more student voice and agency to this structure, giving students an opportunity to lead parts of the Crew experience for peers at their schools.
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A program that effectively empowers and aids young people who are arrested to self-reflect, learn, and advocate for themselves, with the outcome of a quick exit out of the system.
Pilot Program: R.A.R.E. at Queens
A trauma-informed diversion program which empowers NYC youth with art and leadership skill-building which results in youth-led advocacy forums, public art exhibitions (in MoMA PS1, The Swiss Institute and public buildings), and other events in which we create dialogue between youth and criminal justice professionals and leaders.
Our 2023 Amplify Your Impact and Accelerate Your Impact volunteer mentors, facilitators, and Advisory Council:
Allison Arden, The Elements of Us
Blake Babbitt, 383 Productions
Molly Barreca, N27 Productions
Charon Darris, The Reading Team
Cathy Frankel, Law Offices of Cathy J. Frankel
Jesse Fundtleyder
Kacey Koeppel, Copper Penny Strategic Events
Charlotte Lipman, DIRECTV
Danielle Nemeth, J.P. Morgan Corporate & Investment Bank
Debra Scher, Manny Cantor Center
Renewable Grants
Renewable grants help sustain mission-aligned programs that are not currently in a scaling phase. Organizations that have successfully completed either the Amplify or Accelerate curriculum are eligible to apply for renewable grants. On rare occasions, we will invite an especially mission-aligned organization to apply for a renewable grant without completing either Amplify or Accelerate.