Equip ten East New York nonprofits with development capacity they cannot afford to staff alone.

East New York’s nonprofits do not miss funding because their programs lack merit. They miss it because development work competes with service delivery for the same limited staff time.

The executive director who runs programs, manages staff, and answers to the board is often also the person expected to research grants, protect deadlines, prepare applications, and handle reporting. Qualified opportunities lapse before anyone has the hours to act on them.

A nonprofit can have a strong program, a trusted board, and real standing in its community — and still miss a deadline because its executive director is writing the proposal at 11:30 at night, after everything else.

The East New York Capacity Initiative brings GABI — a managed grant-development function built by Matchup Labs — to as many as ten East New York nonprofits. LDCENY selects, vets, stewards, and safeguards the program on the community’s behalf; Matchup Labs implements each installation under contract to LDCENY. Every external submission requires a staff member’s approval.

GABI works alongside an organization’s existing staff — helping them identify qualified opportunities, rank them, protect deadlines, prepare drafts for review, track the pipeline, and produce board- and funder-ready reporting — without adding a full development payroll line. It does not replace mission staff, make funding decisions, or submit anything without human approval.

• A funding eligibility profile for the organization
• A ranked opportunity pipeline — by fit, dollars, and deadline
• A managed grant calendar with advance notice for every tracked deadline
• Draft applications prepared for a staff member’s approval
• Board- and funder-ready reporting

Each installation — approximately $25,000 — covers discovery, funding-profile development, configuration, opportunity setup, the deadline calendar, implementation, staff onboarding, governance controls, and acceptance testing.

The role, in human terms · illustrative

Director of Development & Institutional Giving

If an organization hired this capacity, the résumé would read like this — a profile most community nonprofits can never bring onto payroll.

CFRE · Certified Fund Raising Executive GPC · Grant Professional Certified MPA · Nonprofit Management 15 years · NYC community development

• Builds the development office from scratch — eligibility profile, ranked pipeline, protected deadline calendar
• Fluent in federal, state, and city grant mechanics, foundation relations, and compliance-ready documentation

• Drafts every application for staff review; prepares board- and funder-ready reporting
• Keeps institutional knowledge inside the organization — nothing lives in one person’s head alone

A hire with this profile commands $80,000–$120,000 a year in the New York market, before benefits and overhead — the payroll line most community nonprofits cannot carry.

This résumé is the standard the initiative is measured against. Each installation equips an organization with this role’s system of work — delivered through GABI as a managed function under LDCENY’s governance, for an approximately $25,000 installation rather than a recurring payroll line, with ongoing support terms disclosed before selection. A staff member still approves everything that leaves the building.
Understand the role in depth — why it matters, how organizations use it, and what GABI is →

Under the proposed structure, Harmony Housing would establish a drawdown pool of up to $250,000. The initiative begins with an initial cohort of three organizations; after their installation and a joint review, LDCENY may continue drawing for up to seven more — as many as ten in total. Approximately $25,000 is drawn only after each organization is selected, implemented, and accepted against documented standards. An installation counts as accepted only when its funding profile, opportunity pipeline, grant calendar, drafting-and-review process, staff onboarding, and data-export test are complete and the organization signs off.

This gives smaller organizations access to development capacity they often cannot justify hiring for on their own. For comparison, a full-time development hire can represent an $80,000–$120,000 annual payroll commitment, before benefits and overhead.