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Company Giving

BCL’s Annual Commitment to Charity and Social Investment

Dear Friends:

When we started Brooklyn Creative League, we set out to create a company that embodied our conviction that we’re all better off when we’re ALL better off. We’ve built an organization whose economic value is rooted in community, collaboration, and mutual benefit. As a part of this commitment, we allocate 5% of BCL’s profits to nonprofits and mission-driven investing. Here are the issues we focus on—and why we’ve chosen them:

LGBTQ Rights.

We believe that all people should have the right to love whomever they choose, and express their gender identity in ways that reflect who they are. Our giving focuses on legal advocacy and public policy, and also on organizations working to ensure that young people are safe from bullying and harassment because of their gender and sexual identity, or perceived gender and sexual identity.

Wealth Inequality & Racial Justice.

We believe that the growing gap between very rich and the rest of us threatens the foundations of American democracy and capitalism. As business owners, we want to build a company–and an economy–that generates growth and shared prosperity. In so doing, we must also address the structural inequality and institutional racism that pervades our economic, cultural, and political landscape.

Local Nonprofits.

We give to nonprofits that are working to improve our local community. We have a preference for service organizations (food pantries, women’s shelters), but also support educational, environmental, and arts organizations as well.

Social Investing.

We strongly believe that patient capital and social investing can be powerful levers of change. That’s why roughly a quarter of our “charitable” allocation targets for-profit social investments in micro-enterprise, small-business development, and entrepreneurship.

As a part of our giving, BCL matches the donations that our members make in these four areas, with a dollar-for-dollar match of up to $100 per member. Together, we’re working to make our community more collaborative, prosperous, and just. We hope you’ll join us.

Sincerely,
Neil Carlson & Erin Carney, Co-Founders