Tsais' Social Justice Fund's "Revitalize Brooklyn" offers $50K to help nine Brooklyn businesses grow. Coffee, donuts, fashion.

Eater on Jan. 29 reported, as part of a longer roundup, New grant fund gives $50,000 a piece to several Brooklyn food businesses:

A new grant program backed by the co-owner of basketball teams the Brooklyn Nets and the New York Liberty Liberty, along with Brooklyn arena Barclays Center announced the awardees of its funds this week. Revitalize Brooklyn — from co-owner of the Nets, Clara Wu Tsai’s Social Justice Fund — selected nine businesses based in the borough. These include Williamsburg cafe Buddies Coffee, Bed-Stuy bakery Fan Fan Doughnuts, Williamsburg butcher shop Meat Hook, frozen dumpling business Mimi Cheng’s, Greenpoint bakery and coffee roaster Paloma, and packaged overnight oats company Spoonful. Each business will get $50,000.

The other recipients, unmentioned, are in the fashion sector, cited below.

Note that the Social Justice Fund of the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation is referred to as Clara Wu Tsai's project. That takes the focus off her husband, more controversial because of his chairmanship of the Chinese multinational Alibaba and his unstinting defense of the Chinese regime.

Also note that the Tsais are referred to as the owners of the arena, rather than the operating company.

For whatever reason, the Social Justice Fund has not yet promoted this on its Twitter/X or Instagram accounts. Nor have I seen a press release posted yet.

The background

This $450,000 spend is part of an announced--but not quite delineated--$5 million a year commitment for ten years announced in the wake of protests following the police killing, in 2020, of George Floyd in Minneapolis. 

"Centering Economic Mobility and Racial Justice for BIPOC populations in Brooklyn," the Social Justice Fund says on Twitter/X, while the parent Foundation adds #BackBlackBK.

Surely those gifts are appreciated, but keep in mind that philanthropy by press release is not the same as paying your fair share. Remember, the arena, thanks to the fig leaf of public ownership, is tax-exempt, thus saving the arena company an annual tax bill that would exceed $110 million, plus enabling tax-exempt financing.

The broad umbrella of social justice

It's also worth noting that "social justice" is a broad and malleable category, as, for example, the SJF has funded the revitalization of playgrounds in Brooklyn.

It's also a branding opportunity, as the SJF has put Nets logos on those playgrounds.

In this case, while it's helping small businesses, which may well have been struggling (see this article about the designer Elena Velez), may also be consonant with Brooklyns' gentrification, such as the donut shop selling $4+ donuts (which are tasty!) across the street from a housing project.

From the website

The SJF's Revitalize Brooklyn page cites "Scaling Early-Stage Businesses in Brooklyn’s Creative Economy," with a composite photo, below, of the recipients.

The website states:

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Brooklyn “creative economy” – any industry that results in artistic, creative, or cultural output – had the greatest growth in jobs and concentration of workers in the city, according to a study done by NYC Comptroller’s Office. But since the pandemic, Brooklyn’s creative economy has struggled to regain that growth. Through Revitalize Brooklyn, the Social Justice Fund aims to fill that gap in the market and meet the capital needs of established and growing creative businesses in Brooklyn.

In 2024, the Social Justice Fund launched Revitalize Brooklyn, a competitive grant program designed to identify and support innovative Brooklyn-based businesses by providing growth capital to help them reach the next level. The program aims to cultivate a strong pipeline of 30-40 qualified applicants, ultimately selecting 9 businesses with the greatest potential for success and growth. In its inaugural year, the selection committee awarded grants of up to $50,000 to help recipients overcome challenges, seize new opportunities, and realize their full potential.

The list

Below is the list of winners, to which I've appended the location:

• Buddies Coffee - Williamsburg cafe that develops and sells coffee blends and offers wholesale coffee
• Elena Velez - Fashion designer and entrepreneur whose work is known for its non-traditional synthesis of metalwork and high fashion. [Greenpoint]
• Fan Fan Doughnuts - Artisanal handmade donut bakery [Bedford-Stuyvesant]
• Luar - A luxury fashion brand specializing in ready-to-wear, accessories, and lifestyle goods for all gender identities [Williamsburg]
• Meat Hook - Animal butcher shop, sourcing regeneratively raised meat from the Hudson Valley [Williamsburg, Carroll Gardens, Hudson]
• Mimi Cheng's - Wholesale premium frozen dumplings showcasing family recipes and specialty flavors [Wholesale/retail]
• Paloma Bakery - Specialty coffee roaster and bakery based in Greenpoint
• Savant Studios - BedStuy-based design studio, clothing store, and creative hub
• Spoonful - Offering eco-friendly grab-n-go overnight oats [Wholesale/retail]

Social justice may be in the eye of the beholder. Consider: Paloma offers impressive pastries, but its latest location, at 163 Nassau Ave., occupies a space occupied by Jaslowiczanka Bakery, a Polish bakery that had operated there for more than 30 years.

The judges

According to the SJF, "The businesses were selected through a competitive application process, which leveraged Brooklyn’s community leaders and other stakeholders as judges, including:"

• Barnett Zitron - CEO and Founder, TENFOUR
• Billy Durney - Owner, Red Hook Tavern
• Byron Lars - Fashion Designer
• Danny Meyer - Restaurateur and Founder/Executive Chairman, Union Square Hospitality Group
• Everette Taylor - CEO, Kickstarter
• Kwame Onwuachi - Restaurateur
• Sean Feeney - Co-Founder, Grovehouse Hospitality Group
• Wen Zhou - President and CEO, 3.1 Phillip Lim