Community-Based Anchor Organizations

Alongside The Starr Foundation’s sizable investments in citywide efforts are transformative grants to community-based organizations focused exclusively on their immediate neighborhoods.

One notable example was an increase in funding from $50,000 per year to $5 million per year during the Harlem Children’s Zone’s early growth phase to help it become the world-renowned organization it is today, even as it still limits its catchment area to a defined 97-block “zone” in Central Harlem. Remaining focused has allowed the Harlem Children’s Zone to tailor services and assure impact, a practice that has been a hallmark of other Starr-funded neighborhood “anchor” organizations like the Center for Family Life in Sunset Park in Brooklyn, Phipps Neighborhood/Phipps Houses and the Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDco) in the Bronx, and the Association to Benefit Children in East Harlem. In partnership with United Neighborhood Houses, The Starr Foundation also funded multiple settlement houses across the boroughs, including Church Avenue Merchants Block Association (CAMBA) in Brooklyn, Goddard Riverside Community Center in Manhattan, Sunnyside Community Services in Queens, and Citizens Advice Bureau in the Bronx, all closely aligned with the needs of the populations in their respective communities.