Bronx River Alliance

Bronx River Alliance
2026 - $45,000 General Operating Support
2025 - $25,000 Cross Bronx Community Imagining
2024 - $25,000 Five Bridges Project

The Bronx River Alliance serves predominantly Hispanic and Black low-income communities along NYC’s only freshwater river. It engages, educates, and empowers local residents—especially those in under-resourced South Bronx neighborhoods— to restore the Bronx River corridor as a healthy ecological, recreational, educational, and community resource. In partnership with 100+ community organizations, 25+ schools, and public agencies, the Alliance delivers equitable, community-driven conservation and outdoor programs including paddling, habitat restoration, eznvironmental education, and cultural events. Each year, the Alliance connects 5,400 Bronx residents to nature, wellness, and stewardship, advancing environmental justice and equitable access to green space.

Widely regarded as a model for community-based waterfront development throughout the city and the nation, the Alliance pursues its goals through six interconnected program areas of Education, Ecology, Greenway, Recreation, Foodway, and Outreach.

The Greenway Program develops open spaces, restores existing parks, and integrates them into a series of continuous parks and trails along the river—the Bronx River Greenway. The Greenway program is also expanding its climate justice advocacy efforts, working with other local actors to promote climate resilience and improved infrastructure. For example, the Bronx River Alliance, working closely with a coalition of Bronx, city- and statewide allies is leading a campaign to halt a proposed highway expansion project along the Cross Bronx Expressway (CBE), and invest in the community’s vision instead.  The project, which goes by the moniker “5 Bridges”, is an unnecessary expansion that New York State has tied to a bridge repair project.  

The Education Program opens doors for youth from underrepresented communities who face disproportionate environmental health and safety hazards to authentically engage in science, environmental policy, education, and advocacy.

The Recreation Program helps the community discover an intimate experience with the river corridor. Operating hand-in-hand with other Bronx River Alliance programs, Recreation programs help visitors relax and connect with the river, and also integrate lessons, projects, and programs. Recreation staff take around 1,500 adults and children canoeing on the Bronx River each year, where they learn a fun, new skill while seeing the Bronx from a whole new perspective.

The Ecology Program protects, restores and manages the Bronx River through field work and policy leadership. Our Bronx River Conservation Crew has a full-time presence on the river, implementing and maintaining river and upland restoration projects.

The Foodway Program works to maintain and improve the Bronx River Foodway, an edible food forest located directly within Concrete Plant Park.

The Outreach Program works to connect the communities of the Bronx with the Bronx River through a wide range of public events designed to increase community knowledge and ownership of the river.

www.bronxriver.org

Open Plans

The Building Blocks program guides neighborhoods through the process of envisioning, and then implementing, community-minded changes to their streets

Open Plans summer interns work with a mentor to complete a concentrated project at the end of their internship, culminating in a presentation to staff, fellow advocates and city officials

Director of Advocacy and Organizing Jackson Chabot gives Curbside Climate Award at Open Plans' first-annual Public Space Awards

Awardees and attendees cheer for 34th Avenue Open Street in Queens at Open Plans' first-annual Public Space Awards

Co-Executive Director Sara Lind speaks at rally for safe streets legislature

Emily Chingay and Sabina Unni connect with community at family event

Family music event on Manhattan's Upper West Side

StreetopiaUWS leads neighborhood walk with City Council candidates and local residents during a recent election cycle

Community engagement on Open Streets offer New Yorkers a chance to think creatively about their neighborhood

Open Plans' Emily Chingay shares School Streets toolkit at community event

Co-Executive Director Sara Lind leads Rally to Plan for People, Not Parking

The Building Blocks program guides neighborhoods through the process of envisioning, and then implementing, community-minded changes to their streets

Open Plans
2026- $20,000 General Operating Support
2025- $20,000 General Operating / Filmmaking Support
2024- $20,000 Congestion Pricing
2024- $3,000 General Operating Support
2023- $15,000 General Operating Support

Founded in 1999 as a nonprofit organization dedicated to making New York City more livable, Open Plans works to foster a more connected relationship between New Yorkers, their streets, and their city government. In its early years, the organization focused on developing mapping tools as a way to analyze the issues that affect New Yorkers on a block-by-block basis. Using the information gathered, the organization began to not only map the issues but develop and propose solutions. Topics included public transportation; the use of streets as spaces for community gathering, neighborhood celebration, and events; public safety challenges caused by car dominance; lack of infrastructure for micromobility and pedestrians; and the desire for more equitable access to accessible, safe, public spaces.

In 2004, Open Plans launched Streetfilms, a project that produces and publishes short films highlighting best practices for transportation systems and public spaces around the world. These informative, playful, and inspiring films continue to fuel advocacy efforts today -- and garner huge wins the world over, including the launch and expansion of a robust protected bike lane network in New York City, bike access across the Queensboro and Brooklyn Bridges and complete redesigns of iconic areas such as the Meatpacking District in Lower Manhattan. 

In 2006, Open Plans launched Streetsblog, a daily news source providing deep dives and insider scoops, chronicling the transportation and livable streets scene in New York City and beyond. Inspiring offshoots in many of the major cities in the United States, Streetsblog has become a one-stop shop for all the news that’s fit to discuss regarding transportation, policy, planning, advocacy, budgets, and more. Its readership includes hobbyists, urbanism professionals, and city officials alike. From their annual Parking Madness awards to their recent coverage of the fight for safe and equitable public spaces for all, including the right to protest and the rights of delivery workers, Streetsblog is always on the cutting edge. 

In 2008 and 2009, Open Plans launched the New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign, in collaboration with Transportation Alternatives and Project for Public Spaces. This campaign challenged the auto-centric policies that create congested and unsafe, inhospitable streets. This work led to the first protected bike lanes in New York City, along 9th Avenue in Chelsea, along with years of streetscape changes on the Upper West Side. 

Between 2010 and 2015, Open Plans built on their success and merged their tech and advocacy foci, working with municipalities on tools for mapping and advocated for open source data tools for people to engage with their communities. The organization created maps allowing people to indicate issues in their neighborhoods, specifically around mobility and public space. Working with schools became a major focus; a new education and advocacy arm of the organization taught students how to identify safety issues on their commutes to school and empowered them to navigate their paths more safely. This work often led to students learning more about urban design and civics. Through drawings, petitions, and letters, students spoke at community boards and even engaging with elected officials, learning the power of civic engagement.

By late 2018, StreetopiaUWS was created to reinvest in Open Plans’ long-standing work in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan. Rooted in grassroots advocacy, Streetopia’s debut campaign was launched to educate people about public space management and start advocating for the city to care for public spaces, especially in residential areas. Today the place-based project works intimately with Upper West Side residents, decision makers, and other stakeholders to achieve safer bike routes and promote a people-centered mindset to placemaking and planning.

The Covid-19 pandemic created unprecedented challenges for New York City but ushered in a new era for Open Plans. As the city was forced to repurpose space for safe, outdoor public gatherings, many guiding principles of livability and people-centered space became commonplace. Suddenly, congested streets were transformed into car-free community space; curb lanes once relegated to parking were transformed into business-saving outdoor cafes. Open Plans seized on this spirit of innovation and gained momentum. The new Open Streets program offered a first-ever opportunity for communities to reprogram their streets for strolling, playing, dancing, and learning - and led to Open Plans’ campaign for a central Office of Public Space Management that would care for and invest in these burgeoning spaces as city services. The organization hired new policy expertise and pursued systemic change in city government while connecting directly with communities at the grassroots level.

This dual focus, with Streetsblog and Streetfilms creating compelling media, is a hallmark of Open Plans’ unique approach. Today, Open Plans continues to grow its nimble and focused staff. With a focus on advocacy, journalism, and inspiring film, Open Plans is illuminating new possibilities and creating meaningful change for every resident of New York City.

openplans.org

Regional Plan Association

Regional Plan Association
2026 - $40,000 General Operating Support
2025 - $20,000 Cross Bronx Expansion Report
2025 - $10,000 General Operating Support
2024 - $15,000 General Operating Support
2024 - $20,000 Brooklyn Queens Expressway Report
2023 & 2024 - $20,000 Congestion Pricing

Regional Plan Association is a non-profit organization that conducts research, advocacy and planning to improve quality of life for all residents in the New York City metropolitan area. RPA conducts groundbreaking research on issues such as land use, transportation, the environment, and economic development. It also leads advocacy campaigns to foster a thriving, diverse, and climate friendly region and partners with local government to help them grow in an inclusive and sustainable way.

For over 100 years, Regional Plan Association has been an indispensable source of ideas for policy makers and opinion shapers across the New York City metropolitan region. Some of the NYC region’s most significant public works, economic development initiatives, and open space projects have their roots in RPA ideas and initiatives. 

A cornerstone of RPA's work is the development of long-range plans and policies to guide the region’s growth. Since the 1920s, RPA has produced four landmark plans for the region. The most recent was released in November 2017.

One of the ideas RPA has been advocating is a tolling program for Manhattan's Central Business District, otherwise known as congestion pricing. For decades, RPA has been saying that the program is vital to managing traffic, raising revenue for public transit, and helping reduce pollution. RPA has coordinated a number of efforts over the years to build support for congestion pricing, and after a few failed attempts, was finally successfully in receiving New York State's authorization for the program in 2019. 

The program started in January 2025 and has been successful at reducing traffic, boosting transit ridership, improving traffic safety, and raising revenue for transit projects.  RPA has released a series of more technical documents to track the program's success and monitor its effectiveness and has also supported lawsuits against the USDOT to keep the program in place. 

RPA currently co-leads the Congestion Pricing Now coalition with a few partner organizations. Congestion pricing is officially called the Central Business District Tolling Program and is being managed by the MTA. 

In addition to congestion pricing, RPA has been supporting a number of local coalitions fighting highway projects that will increase traffic and harm local communities. In particular, RPA has supported the No Cross Bronx coalition, Coalition for BQE Transformation and the Rethink Route 17 coalition with design, traffic modeling, communications and external affairs support.

rpa.org

Riders Alliance

Flatbush Bus Bash this summer celebrating the first phase of the project beginning as we continue to organize riders and build their power for the rest of the corridor

Riders Alliance members and coalition partners filled the halls of the Capitol in Albany during state budget season to demand reduced wait times for trains and buses.

Riders Alliance
2026 - $20,000 General Operating Support
2025 - $20,000 General Operating Support
2024 - $15,000 General Operating Support
2024 - $20,000 Congestion Pricing

Riders Alliance is a grassroots organization made up of, and dedicated to, New York bus and subway riders fighting for better public transit to make our city more equitable and just.

Riders Alliance is a grassroots organization made up of, and dedicated to, New York bus and subway riders fighting for better public transit to make our city more equitable--especially in Queens, the Bronx, and Brooklyn where transit is most delayed and disjointed.

Since its founding in 2012, Riders Alliance has organized thousands of riders to demand results from officials and to change the politics of New York transit. It has produced meaningful, tangible improvements that save riders time and money: half-priced MetroCards for low-income riders, the nation’s first congestion pricing program with revenues set to fund major accessibility and reliability improvements on the subway, and a first-in-a-generation increase to off-peak subway frequency, which particularly helps shift and service workers.

Riders Alliance’s theory of change is simple: elected officials and public agencies will prioritize transit riders’ needs only when riders are organized and prepared to hold our representatives accountable. Riders Alliance continually builds membership in the most impacted outer-borough neighborhoods, canvassing at bus stops and on subway platforms to engage riders in its work and identify new leaders to develop and support. It hosts regular trainings to equip members with skills to speak to the media, facilitate meetings, canvass, and lobby elected officials. Member-leaders organize in their communities to support fellow riders. Members are integral to campaign selection, strategy, and  implementation.

In 2024, Riders Alliance is focused on three areas of transit policy and service to improve the lives of everyday New Yorkers:

• Fairer fares for a fairer New York: In 2024, Riders Alliance’s priority for Fair Fares, New York City’s half-priced MetroCard program for low-income riders, is to increase the utilization and impact of the program by increasing eligibility to 200% of the Federal Poverty Line (or $29,160 for a one-person household). Riders have a chance to evolve this program to have the biggest impact and help the most New Yorkers.
• Congestion pricing’s premier year: In 2024, Riders Alliance’s priority for congestion pricing, the tolling program established for Manhattan’s Central Business District, is to keep leveraging rider power and strengthen the coalition to ensure the program successfully exits the political “valley of death” and goes live.
• Buses are the key to transit equity:  In 2024, Riders Alliance’s priority for better buses is to build unignorable bus rider power and test its case for an expanded theory of organizing and powerbuilding to finally deliver fast and reliable service to all of New York City. It will zero in on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn as a model of bus organizing and service for the future.

www.ridersalliance.org

Shared Use Mobility Center

Shared Use Mobility Center
2024 - 2026 - $20,000 General Operating Support

SUMC’s vision is that ALL people have access to equitable, safe, reliable, and affordable transportation options, even if they don’t own a car. (This is regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, sexual identity, education, national origin, or any other distinguishing characteristic or trait.)

SUMC’s mission is to connect and equip change leaders advancing people-centered shared mobility systems to fight climate change, advance equity, and strengthen communities.

Current transportation systems prioritize cars over people, creating systems that are unjust, unsafe, and unsustainable. Car-centric infrastructure contributes to 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions and causes nearly 1.2 million deaths worldwide each year — disproportionately affecting people of color, older adults, and youth.

Across the country, mobility change leaders are working to build safer, more inclusive, and climate-resilient communities. But to scale their work and shift entire systems, these leaders often lack the capacity, resources, and connections they need.

This is where the Shared-Use Mobility Center (SUMC) comes in.

Founded in 2014, SUMC is a 501(c)(3) public-interest nonprofit and international thought leader in equitable transportation. The organization connects and empowers changemakers building people-centered mobility systems that reduce emissions, advance equity, and strengthen communities.

Through applied research, SUMC deepens the field’s collective understanding of how shared mobility can advance equity and sustainability and maintains several high-impact dissemination platforms to ensure these insights reach the sector.

As a capacity builder, SUMC delivers tools, training, technical assistance, and consulting services to help practitioners implement people-first transportation solutions. Pilots and projects supported by SUMC include innovative approaches to paratransit challenges; first/last-mile solutions; jobs access pilots; mobility hubs in affordable housing; EV carsharing in disadvantaged communities; and more.

As a trusted convener, SUMC brings together leaders from the public, private, nonprofit, philanthropic, and academic sectors to drive innovation and systems change.

Since its founding, SUMC has helped secure over $90 million for mobility innovation and served as a technical advisor on nearly 150 pilot projects nationwide. The organization has supported both public agencies and community-based organizations in transforming transportation from the ground up. Its body of work includes over 1,500 publicly available resources and tools aimed at empowering the sector.

SUMC is a long-term partner of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and has worked with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Transportation Research Board (TRB), and many public, private, and nonprofit clients.

SUMC’s vision is a future where everyone has access to safe, sustainable, reliable, and affordable transportation — even without owning a car.

sharedusemobilitycenter.org

Spring Street Climate Fund

Spring Street Climate Fund
2026 - $20,000 General Opertating Support
2024 - $20,000 Clean Transportation
2023 - $15,000 Zero Emission School Buses

Spring Street Climate Fund runs strategic, effective campaigns to win transformative climate policy that helps people in concrete ways they experience directly. Using this approach, Spring Street acts as a force multiplier in the climate movement, bringing in new grassroots constituencies of New Yorkers with shared interest in Spring Street’s priority climate policies.

One of Spring Street’s priority campaigns is its work with New Yorkers for Transportation Equity: a powerful coalition of advocates, policy experts and grassroots partners that has come together to demand that elected leaders prioritize public transit, biking and walking and deprioritize cars and highways so that the state can meet its climate goals – and help people all over the state secure access to jobs, services and all of their daily needs.

In 2024, NYFTE launched its first coordinated campaign, the Get Around New York Act: a bold new framework to reduce car use and invest in clean, equitable mobility options for all. The coalition’s policy agenda will:

• Reduce Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT): The coalition’s proposed bill sets a statewide goal to reduce VMT by 20% by 2050, a crucial step to meeting New York’s climate targets and improving air quality.

• Invest in Transit, Walking, and Biking: The NYFTE coalition is also working to require New York State to protect public investment in sustainable transportation at a pivotal moment for climate, access and mobility. 

Taken together, the Get Around New York Act will not only reduce the number of vehicle miles traveled in New York - it will also create an ambitious new roadmap for addressing one of the nation’s leading sources of climate-harming emissions, pioneer a model for state investment in sustainable modes of transportation, and accelerate the pace of climate progress around the country.

www.springstreetclimate.org

Transportation Alternatives

Transportation Alternatives
2026 - $40,000 General Operating Support
2025 - $20,000 Biking is Not a Crime
2024 - $20,000 Congestion Pricing
2023 - $20,000 20x20 Project
2022, 2024 & 2025 - $10,000 General Operating Support
2011 - $5,000 General Operating Support

Transportation Alternatives (TA) works to reclaim New York City’s streets from the automobile and to advocate for better walking, biking, and public transit for all New Yorkers. Through grassroots organizing and strategic communication campaigns, TA advances infrastructure and policy improvements that prioritize people, create safer streets, and ultimately realize a more accessible, sustainable, and equitable city. TA engages thousands of stakeholders each year through its advocacy work, including community residents, peer nonprofit organizations, civic coalitions, business leaders, elected local and state officials, and government agencies. Their campaigns reshape streetscapes into safe places where people can walk, bike, meet, play, and participate in the variety of activities that make urban living healthy, vibrant, and dynamic.

In the past five decades, TA has made remarkable progress. Today, bike lanes ribbon up and down Manhattan avenues. Hundreds of thousands more ride a bike to work every day. The city is equipped with dedicated bus lanes, public bike share, and car-free park spaces that did not exist five decades ago. In just the last two decades, TA advocacy was responsible for the introduction of America’s first protected bike lanes and the world’s largest speed camera program.  TA lowered the citywide speed limit for the first time in 50 years, and introduced Vision Zero to New York City, an idea which then spread across the U.S. The same story is true of the federal Safe Routes to Schools and Safe Routes for Seniors programs.

The few who founded Transportation Alternatives recruited and multiplied, and now TA’s tent of supporters is packed with New Yorkers who regularly take action, make the case to public officials, and testify to the importance of TA’s mission. Each week, TA organizes local meetings, protests, rallies, petition drives, community gatherings and on-street actions to amplify voices. By the power of these people and a track record of transformative change, TA demands New York City’s most influential decision makers pay attention.

In that time, a remarkable subset of the organization was also born. Families for Safe Streets (FSS) is a coalition of people injured in traffic crashes, and the children, spouses, siblings, and parents whose loved ones have been killed. What began in 2014 as a small group of families in mourning has grown to a citywide force for change, and a national inspiration, with chapter organizations in 14 cities. Together, this powerful group of survivors tell their stories as an unignorable testament to the need for safe streets and refuse to give an inch in defense of the status quo.

From the creation of grand public spaces, like the pedestrianization of Times Square, to the construction of protected bike lanes and pedestrian plazas in all five boroughs, TA and FSS have paved the way for remarkable changes in New York City’s transportation infrastructure and transformed New Yorkers’ understanding of bicycling, walking and public transit.

transalt.org