As he leads a visitor on a tour of the busy Harlem intersection where the organization he co-founded has made a home for the past 25 years, Khary Lazarre-White explains with pride how Brotherhood/Sister Sol transformed a cluster of mostly vacant and rundown bodegas into classrooms and a temporary headquarters.
A few steps later, he pauses at a community garden — an oasis of green amid rows of brownstones and gray tenements — run with help from the young people who participate in the group’s programs. Finally, he heads two lots over to an empty hole in the ground, which will soon be the site of the nonprofit’s new headquarters.
Lazarre-White and the organization’s other founder, Jason Warwin, see the planned 20,000-square-foot space not only as an opportunity for the group to expand its services but also as a validation of the methods they use to mold young people of color from underserved New York neighborhoods into well-educated citizen-activists.
<p>The building, slated to open early next year, represents something else: the group’s fundraising resilience. Bro/Sis — as staffers and participants call it — has often taken political stances that clash with people in power. This independence has cost the group notable financial support and forced the organization, which runs on an annual budget of around $6 million, to adapt continually since its threadbare early years to the Great Recession and beyond.
“We talk about structural issues and how they relate to poverty in ways that are uncomfortable for some people,” says Lazarre-White. “If you say you’re an organization that works toward systemic change, it means you might struggle to get grants for the long term.”
Organizations that work toward sweeping societal change are already at a disadvantage when it comes to receiving grants, he adds: “We work on social and economic justice, which remains one of the least-funded areas for grant makers.”
What’s more, for groups like Bro/Sis that are led by black or brown people (Lazarre-White and Warwin are African Americans), private foundation support can be hard to find. Only 10 percent of grants are earmarked for people of color, according to the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity.
Bro/Sis has sometimes courted controversy. Many donors bristled as it encouraged teens to fight against policies such as New York City’s stop-and-frisk procedures. The policy often resulted in a half million or more police encounters annually for young black and brown people. The overwhelming majority of those frisked — as many as 88 percent, according to one study — had no police record. The group argued that it was making a strong statement against racial profiling, but several individuals withheld sizable gifts nonetheless.
Bro/Sis says it has felt the wrath of government officials, too. The office of then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, which approved the expansion of stop-and-frisk procedures, once rescinded a $50,000 grant that the city had approved for Bro/Sis to conduct computer training. The organization’s leaders believe the money was denied because of the group’s work against police profiling. (“Officially, they told us we were being discriminatory because we only served black and brown people,” adds Lazarre-White.)
Relations with grant makers also have been fractious. Some foundations have shied away from offering support or continuing their relationships with the group because of its advocacy work targeting racial and economic inequities, the co-founders say.
To continue growing and to pay for a new headquarters, the organization’s leaders knew they needed to win over new types of supporters, attract more recurring gifts, and win some large capital grants.
The new five-story building has been in the works for 14 years. During that time, Lazarre-White and Warwin developed a strategic plan focused on enhancing marketing efforts and reducing dependency on foundation dollars.
The group has doubled its revenue in five years. What’s more, by widening its base of support, it is now less vulnerable to the budget pain that can come from cuts made by a single source.
Bro/Sis still relies on longstanding relationships it has built with national and New York-based grant makers. But it has flipped its old revenue model. By regularly holding well-publicized fundraising events, stocking its board with people who have both wealth and an abiding interest in the group’s work, and advocating with government officials, the organization now relies on foundations for less than half of its budget.
The group has doubled its revenue in five years. What’s more, by widening its base of support, it is now less vulnerable to the budget pain that can come from cuts made by a single source.
Bro/Sis’s leaders advise groups looking to move beyond institutional donors and diversify their fundraising portfolios to take the following steps:
Create a strong identity. Bro/Sis works with youths of all genders in many areas, with an eye toward giving them the knowledge and confidence to succeed in a world that is often unforgiving to young people of color. It educates them about history and encourages every person to develop a clear understanding of the principles they stand for. It also prepares them for college and offers arts programs. This well-rounded approach can make it hard for donors to understand what the group does or for a grant maker to see where it might fit.
“Identity development is really important,” says Warwin. “We know we can’t do just one thing with young people to be effective at this. So we’re finding ways to show that.”
Emphasizing its holistic approach to helping young people, and showing the results, has helped Bro/Sis diversify its support. It pays to explain to donors why your method — such as a holistic program for youth development — yields better results, he adds.
Show your results. The group markets its multifaceted approach in part by regularly rolling out metrics showing that Bro/Sis participants are much more likely than typical New York youths to graduate from high school or college, and less likely to become pregnant.
Use supporters to connect you with high-profile supporters, if possible. Board members and family members have connected Bro/Sis to several celebrities, including Harry Belafonte, Rosario Dawson, and Esperanza Spaulding, who have supported the group and also been honored at its annual gala. Other stars have independently lauded the group’s work, including Oprah Winfrey, who interviewed Bro/Sis’s founders on her TV show and donated $100,000 to the group. Such connections have helped raise its profile nationally.
Hold major fundraising events regularly. Since its founding, Bro/Sis has been holding gatherings for its supporters. Early on, small events were designed to raise a few thousand dollars to help the group get over a budget hump. In 2004, Bro/Sis began hosting “Voices,” now a large annual gala in which Bro/Sis youths share their art, poetry, and videos as donors dine and participate in a silent auction. The 2019 gala drew 600 people and raised $1.4 million from the auction, ticket sales, and cash donations — around a quarter of the nonprofit’s annual budget.
Develop strong ties with government officials. Bro/Sis took an unusual step for a social-justice group by hiring a government-relations firm to improve its standing with public officials. The group wanted to make sure officeholders and bureaucrats understood how much its work had improved the lives and prospects of local youths. It worked. Ultimately, city and state officials provided the bulk of the $18 million needed for the new headquarters, tossing in a total of $11 million.
Rebuild your board. If your board isn’t pulling its weight, or if your viewpoints turn trustees off, seek out loyal people who love the work you do and the way you do it. After developing relationships with some large donors early, Bro/Sis asked some to become trustees. The trustees then connected other like-minded people to the organization.
Eventually, the group stitched together a strong network of individual givers. It helps if those people have means and care enough about your mission to make it one of the top causes they support. “We’re the only organization that many of our board members give to,” says Lazarre-White.
Tap into your networks. Both Lazarre-White and Warwin graduated from Brown University. They know a fair number of Brown alumni who have become stockbrokers or are successful in other professions, and they tap them for support. Bro/Sis also relies on its board members to use their connections to the grant-making world. “It’s important to build concentric circles of donors,” Lazarre-White says.
Deepen relations with grant makers that admire your work. Despite losing the support of some foundations over the years, several grant makers have increased their commitments to the group. The Charles Hayden Foundation has made a total of $2.6 million in grants, starting with a $25,000 grant in 1998. From the beginning, Bro/Sis hasn’t been shy about asking its donors to help the group do more — sometimes with strong results. “Foundations that have been supporting them know the value of what Bro/Sis does and will speak up on the group’s behalf,” adds Sunni Holland, senior program officer at Hayden. “We’ve seen the sense in helping them do more as they’ve grown.”
