Our Mission
The Catalog for Giving is a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming the lives of New York City children by identifying and providing crucial funding and operational support to emerging innovative community-based organizations that assist underserved youth throughout the City.
Our Story
The Catalog was founded in 1994, inspired by the idea that thoughtful donors would like to support the best emerging youth-development programs throughout NYC—local organizations that are transforming young lives. Since that time, The Catalog has identified, funded and empowered more than 60 early-stage programs, which in turn have served thousands of young people with programming in arts, sports, academics, mentoring, technology and more.
Just like investors rely on expert assistance to select the best investments for a financial portfolio, we want investors to rely on our expertise in investing their charitable portfolio. That is why we scour The City to unearth small organizations that have the potential to grow and serve more children for years to come. We believe that providing support, both financial and operational, is key to encouraging expansion and sustainability.
We choose wisely, monitor carefully and guide thoughtfully, all with an aim to closing the opportunity gap for disadvantaged NYC children.
What We Do
Every three years The Catalog scours the City, and selects the “best of the best” small young programs from among dozens of applicants. The organizations are between two and ten years old and have budgets under one million dollars. We provide “second stage funding” for a three-year period to help our member organizations grow from early success to self-sufficiency and long range sustainability. Just like a careful financial advisor, we take our investment responsibilities very seriously. We put our organizations through a rigorous screening process involving detailed operational and financial reviews, as well as site visits by our staff and Board. So when you invest your philanthropic dollars with us, you can rest assured that the children you are helping will receive the maximum benefit from your donation.
Each of our member organizations uses unique methods to target youth: from coding and soccer to cycling and art; the organizations we support are not your everyday charities – they’re truly breaking new ground by exploring new and better ways of helping kids. What they have in common is a proven track record for providing kids with self-esteem, motivation, crucial life skills, and academic support to make sure they are better prepared to lead happy and productive lives. By providing multi-year unrestricted support, The Catalog allows member organizations to invest in the future by hiring staff, increasing program capacity, improving their facilities and developing donor support.
Our 2017 Audited Financial Statements
Our 2016 Audited Financial Statements
Our 2015 Audited Financial Statements