New York is a city of extraordinary diversity. According to the 2000 census, African Americans and Latinos each compose 25 percent of the city's population, while Asian Americans make up another 10 percent. Each of these groups is far from homogeneous. Across the city there are communities of Haitians, Jamaicans, Nigerians, Liberians, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Mexicans, Colombians, Ecuadorians, Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Filipinos, Indians, Bangladeshis, and Pakistanis, among others. Moreover, 36 percent of the city's residents are foreign-born, making New York City home to the second largest immigrant population in the United States, after Los Angeles, California.

            The needs and challenges facing these populations are varied, and nonprofit organizations are vital to these communities' health and vibrancy. Nonprofits provide the space for artistic expression and recreation, they offer family counseling, educational tutoring, and advocate for the most vulnerable. Nonprofits assist immigrants in adapting to their new environment while helping them to maintain their ethnic identity.

            We have seen firsthand the importance of philanthropy and voluntarism.   Over $1.1 billion was given in response to the devastation caused by the December 2004 tsunami, and citizens from around the world traveled to South and Southeast Asia to assist in the relief effort. Closer to home, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the generosity of donors and tens of thousands of volunteers helped mitigate the worst of the disaster.

            Clearly, one of the most direct ways we strengthen our communities is through voluntarism. This guide offers many opportunities to roll up your sleeves to help nonprofits serving the racial and ethnic communities of New York. Consider the impact you can make by volunteering. Whether by donating time to mentor students, serving the poor at a soup kitchen, reading to children, translating documents or answering phones, voluntarism offers the opportunity to give back to the community.

            The arts in New York City have never been more vibrant. There are hundreds of arts organizations that provide outlets for creativity, training, education, advocacy, and personal and political expression. Arts organizations come in all sizes, ranging from the symphonies and museums to the smaller community and ethnically-based institutions.

            This volume focuses a welcome and needed spotlight on the smaller arts organizations. Funding for these nonprofits is fragile and susceptible to the pulls that economic dislocation and disasters exert on funding. For these reasons, the value of volunteers is high and the need for them is great. Volunteers undertake outreach to communities, help coordinate events and programs, and engage in hands-on production assistance.

            Volunteering in any of these organizations helps them to fulfill their mission, advance education, provide enjoyment, and impart meaning and identity. In short, nonprofits add to the quality of life and help define the cultural milieu of this great city. So pick up a paintbrush, answer some phones or join in a fundraising campaign. The city is yours!

The Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society

            The Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (CPCS) was founded in September 1986 to provide an ongoing national forum for research, discussion, and public education on philanthropic trends. Located at The Graduate Center of The City University of New York, CPCS is an integral part of the largest urban public university in the United States.

            In the spring of 1995, under the leadership of its director Kathleen D. McCarthy, CPCS developed a set of undergraduate, graduate, and extension-course curriculum guides, television programming, lectures, and publications for its Multicultural Philanthropy Project. The project, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, developed courses and related resource materials on: women, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, African Americans, Latinos, Northern Europeans, Southern and Eastern Europeans, Middle Easterners, South and Southeast Asians, East Asians, and Native Americans. Within this framework, the project focused on the political, social, and economic roles that philanthropy (i.e. the giving of time, money, and other valuables) has played in enabling each of these groups to broaden opportunities within their communities. The underlying idea was that philanthropy holds the key to understanding the workings of democratic participation and civil society.

            During the development of the multicultural studies, CPCS realized that in addition to the provision of services, community nonprofits play a vital role in strengthening the source of democracy: civic responsibility. The idea behind the volunteer guides was to promote the practice of voluntarism, especially among youth of color. In 1998 and 1999, CPCS published a set of three ethnically specific guides. These guides were updated and expanded in 2003 and again, in 2006.

            In addition to its role in the university, as a member of the Coalition for New Philanthropy, CPCS joins efforts with The Twenty-First Century Foundation, the Asian American Federation of New York, the Hispanic Federation and the New York Regional Association of Grantmakers to empower donors of color and to strengthen community nonprofit organizations throughout metropolitan New York.

About This Guide

            The aim of this publication is to assist and encourage the growth of stronger communities across the city.   This volume includes the revised and expanded versions of the African American, Latino, and Asian American Volunteer!!! guides, and a new directory of small cultural and arts nonprofit organizations. Together the four directories identify over 300 organizations that demonstrated interest and commitment to increasing volunteer outreach. Nonprofits listed in this guide were included because they met at least one of the following criteria: they are based or were founded in the African American, Latino or Asian American communities; they work predominantly in and for any of these communities; or they work in a field that strongly impacts these populations. Our new cultural guide includes more than 60 nonprofits. These organizations were included because they actively encourage art and artistic expression within and for New York City's ethnic minorities; or because they promote the folklore and culture of a particular ethnic or national group.

            This publication is designed to provide potential volunteers with easy access to information about the nonprofits included here. Each of the first three directories (African American, Latino, and Asian American) is divided into four sections corresponding to the activities, purposes, and services offered by nonprofits. These sections are: Arts, Culture, and Education; Community Development and Housing; Health and Family; and Politics and Advocacy.   The fourth directory in this volume is a new guide to small cultural organizations serving minority communities in New York City.

            In order to familiarize volunteers with the organizations, our listings provide the history and mission of the organization, information about the volunteering positions available, as well as needed skills. There are two indices at the end of this volume: one is an alphabetical index of nonprofits, the other is a geographic index listing nonprofits by borough.  

            This guide is being distributed through The City University of New York and other metropolitan colleges and universities, libraries, the New York City Board of Education's school districts, and primary and secondary schools throughout the region.

            The Volunteer!!! guides are also available on the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society's website at www.philanthropy.org. Users of the online guides, which are fully searchable, will find links to the listed organizations. Every effort has been made to provide accurate information to help prospective volunteers select an organization that meets their interests and can benefit from their talents.

            If you have any suggestions that will help us to make this guide a more efficient resource, please let us know by sending your comments to cpcs@gc.cuny.edu.

            We hope that volunteers will find their experience with these organizations interesting, rewarding, and educational.

            Good luck, good work, and have fun!

Search the Volunteer Guide

Acknowledgements

            The Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society would like to thank all the people who contributed to this guide: Héctor Cordero-Guzmán and Victoria Quiróz at the Department of Black and Hispanic Studies at Baruch College, The City University of New York; Sokunthary Svay for writing the introduction to these guides; Amal Muhammad, Barbara Leopold, and Peter Waldvogel, who readily assisted in the development of this new and revised edition of the guides; and the Center's director, Kathleen D. McCarthy, for her oversight and guidance. Finally, we would like to thank the MetLife Foundation, whose generous support made this project possible.