El Puente is a nonprofit organization based in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn that is heavily involved in left-of-center “environmental justice” initiatives. The organization is a beneficiary of climate change-related funding authorized by the Biden administration-backed Inflation Reduction Act, receiving a $3.1 million Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant award for climate change activism education programs. ^{1 2}

Background

El Puente was formed in 1982 by Luis Garden Acosta, his wife Frances Lucerna, and several of their associates in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood. The organization’s original purpose was to fight the epidemic of gang and drug-related violence in community driven by Puerto Rican and Dominican gangs. Acosta was a former member of the Young Lords, a communist street gang whose members had been arrested for illegal occupation of buildings and confrontations of local council members. He was also a member of the far-left Catholic Worker Movement. ^{3 4 5}

Lucerna founded the El Puente Academy for Peace in 1993, which partners with the New York City Department of Education. El Puente also co-founded the New York City Environmental Justice, the Latino Commission on AIDS, and the Latino Center for Art and Culture. ⁶

Luis and Frances were recipients of the Heinz Award in 1999 from the Heinz Family Foundation, a charitable organization that awards a cash prize of $250,000- $500,000 each year to award winners. ⁷

Executive director Marco Carrion served for seven years as commissioner of community affairs, appointed by then-New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio (D). ⁸ Carrion advocates for more equal pay for nonprofit workers, stating that these “essential workers” are living off of poverty wages. El Puente expanded its mission to modern left-leaning issues under his tenure, including “environmental justice” and critical race theory-derived notions of racial equity. ⁹

Activities

El Puente’s primary activities involve recruiting, training, and deploying activists and community organizers for various left-wing causes. The organization’s initiatives are focused on “environmental justice” causes, “restorative justice” police and prison elimination, and civic engagement activities. The civic engagement work is aimed at “combating the disenfranchisement of Black and Brown individuals in Williamsburg and Bushwick.” ^{10 11}

Training and Education

El Puente funds six leadership centers in Brooklyn that offer educational programs for youth in the area. They provide after-school programs, day camps, art showcases and special events. Classes range from ballet dancing to “transformative social action” courses. Many of these events encourage a focus on support of immigration and voter participation. ¹²

El Puente partners with Middle School 50, a small Brooklyn magnet school, to develop a curriculum that emphasizes getting children involved in left-leaning activist causes focused on “equity and justice.” The school emphasizes serving “asylum-seeking” non-citizen students resettled in the United States, and instituting programs focused on “climate justice” and the impacts of climate change on migration. ¹³

The organization spent $1.6 million in 2022 on programs aimed at making “leadership of Latinx youth and communities of color to understand systems of oppression, identify challenges, and design and advocate for their solutions at the intersection of the arts, education, environment, and health.” These programs include voter outreach efforts via the “People’s Money Participatory Budgeting” campaign and “restorative justice” initiatives aimed at reducing funding for police and prisons. ^{11 14}

Environmental Justice

El Puente coordinates various arts programs to promote left-wing environmental and social causes. The Green Light District initiative “seeks to flip the disempowerment of gentrification” through “citizen science initiatives to support advocacy for healthier air quality and access to green spaces and community gardens.” The organization also hosts poetry events and street festivals focused on the theme of “environmental justice,” spending $1.1 million on these activities in 2022. ¹¹

El Puente also operates a climate change-focused activism program called the “Latino Climate Action Network which deployed to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria to distribute food, solar lights, and “climate change awareness” booklets. ¹⁵

Immigration

El Puente advocates for non-citizens and immigrants, hosting “Immigrant Resource Fairs” in partnership with the New York City government and other nonprofits. These events connect immigrants to welfare services, employment and work authorization assistance, health care and education resources, and free English and financial classes. ¹⁶

Financials

El Puente receives funding from private contributors and government grants, reporting revenues of roughly $5 million per year in 2022 and 2023. ¹¹

In 2024, El Puente was awarded a $3.1 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to “facilitate the engagement of disadvantaged communities by promoting community leadership in environmental justice processes and projects.”  The grant to train “environmental justice” activists was part of the “Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grants” funding program authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act. ¹⁷

El Puente was also awarded a Department of Education grant in the amount of $472,888 for its Green Light District project titled “Our Air/Nuestro Aire.” ¹⁸

The federal National Endowment for the Arts awarded El Puente $150,000 in grants to support arts instruction for youth between 2020 and 2025. ¹⁹

El Puente lists several New York City and state government entities as donors, including the NYC Department of Education, the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development, the NYS Office of Children and Family Services, and the NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. ²

Between 2014 and 2016, El Puente received $1.5 million in subgrants from the NYS Department of Education for the purposes of “creating community learning centers” as part of the re-authorization of “21^st Century Community Learning Centers” programs by the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). ^{20 21 22}

El Puente also receives significant funding from other tax-exempt organizations. The Citi Foundation donated $500,000 to El Puente from 2021 to 2022 for the “Community Progress Makers” program. ^{23 24 25}

The Scherman Foundation donated $180,000 to the organization from 2019 to 2023 for “general operating support” and for the “Latino Climate Action Network.” ^{26 27 28}

The New York Foundation donated $160,000 to El Puente from 2022 to 2023 to “hire a youth organizer who will strengthen Puente’s cultural organizing work and serve as a through-line for organizing across programmatic and issue areas including environmental justice, combating anti-black racism, and advocacy and training for young people.” ^{29 30}

The MacMillan Family Foundation donated $125,000 to El Puente in 2023 for general support. ³¹

The Open Society Foundation donated $125,000 to support El Puente’s weather-dependent energy initiatives from 2020 to 2022. ^{32 33 34}

1.   “Award Summary: ASST_NON_96273600_6800.” USAspending.gov. Accessed February 4, 2025. https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_96273600_6800/.
2. “El Puente.” El Puente. Accessed February 4, 2025. https://www.elpuente.org/.
3. Slotnik, Daniel E. “Luis Garden Acosta, 70, Dies; Inspired Change in His Brooklyn Neighborhood.” The New York Times. January 11, 2019. Accessed January 26, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/11/obituaries/luis-garden-acosta-dead.html.
4. Schubach, Alanna. “What Williamsburg Looked Like in the 1980s.” Brick Underground. Accessed January 26, 2025. https://www.brickunderground.com/live/Williamsburg-1980s-documentary.
5. Luis Garden Acosta, Brooklyn Community Advocate Who Founded El Puente, Dies at 73.” People. Accessed January 9, 2025. https://people.com/crime/luis-garden-acosta-el-puente-brooklyn-community-advocate/
6.  Conlon, Erin. “Women’s History Month: How Frances Lucerna & El Puente Have Empowered Williamsburg Youth for Decades.” Greenpointers. March 14, 2022. Accessed January 26, 2025. https://greenpointers.com/2022/03/14/womens-history-month-how-frances-lucerna-el-puente-have-empowered-williamsburg-youth-for-decades/.
7.  Heinz Awards, “Luis Garden Acosta & Frances Lucerna,” accessed January 14, 2025, https://www.heinzawards.org/pages/luis-garden-acosta-frances-lucerna
8. Durkin, Erin. “Marco Carrión Departs City Hall to Lead El Puente.” POLITICO. December 7, 2020. Accessed January 14, 2025. https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2020/12/07/marco-carrion-departs-city-hall-to-lead-el-puente-1341713
9. Carrion, Marco. “Non-Profits Deserve a Just and Equal Pay.” El Diario. June 28, 2023. Accessed January 14, 2025. https://eldiariony.com/2023/06/28/non-profits-deserve-a-just-and-equal-pay/
10. “Civic Engagement.” El Puente. Accessed January 27, 2025. https://www.elpuente.org/civic-engagement.
11. El Puente De Williamsburg Inc, Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990). 2023
12. El Puente. “Leadership Centers.” Accessed January 14, 2025. https://www.elpuente.org/leadership-centers
13. “Who We Are.” MS 50. Accessed January 27, 2025. https://ms50.org/whoweare.
14. “Public Safety.” El Puente. Accessed January 27, 2025. https://www.elpuente.org/public-safety.
15. Elizalde, Elizabeth. “New York City Groups Are Helping to Bring Puerto Rico Out of the Dark.” New York Daily News. Accessed February 4, 2025. https://www.nydailynews.com/2017/12/14/new-york-city-groups-are-helping-to-bring-puerto-rico-out-of-the-dark/.
16. “Immigrant Resource Fair.” Brooklyn Public Library. Accessed February 3, 2025. https://www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar/immigrant-resource-fair-central-library-20240622-1000am.
17. “Award Summary: ASST_NON_96273600_6800.” USAspending.gov. Accessed February 4, 2025. https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_96273600_6800/.
18. “Award Summary: ASST_NON_S215K220167_9100.” USAspending.gov. Accessed February 4, 2025. https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_S215K220167_9100/.
19. “Recipient Profile: El Puente de Williamsburg.” USAspending.gov. Accessed February 4, 2025. https://www.usaspending.gov/recipient/c5311310-5815-22ec-8ecc-00432d510ccd-R/latest.
20. “21st Century Community Learning Centers.” Afterschool Alliance. Accessed February 4, 2025. https://www.afterschoolalliance.org/policy21stcclc.cfm.
21.  “Award Summary: ASST_NON_S287C140032_9100.” USAspending.gov. Accessed February 4, 2025. https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_S287C140032_9100/.
22. “Award Summary: ASST_NON_S287C150032_9100.” USAspending.gov. Accessed February 4, 2025. https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_S287C150032_9100/.
23. Citi Foundation, Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990). 2021.
24. Citi Foundation, Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990). 2022.
25. Citi Foundation, “Citi Foundation Announces Recipients of Community Progress Makers Initiative in the United States,” press release, February 23, 2021, accessed January 14, 2025. https://www.citigroup.com/global/foundation/news/press-release/2021/citi-foundation-announces-recipients-of-community-progress-makers-initiative-in-the-united-states
26. The Scherman Foundation, Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990). 2019.
27. The Scherman Foundation, Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990). 2021.
28. The Scherman Foundation, Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990). 2023.
29. New York Foundation, Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990). 2022.
30. New York Foundation, Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990). 2023.
31. The MacMillan Foundation, Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990). 2023.
32. Foundation to Promote Open Societies, Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990). 2020.
33. Foundation to Promote Open Societies, Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990). 2021.
34. Foundation to Promote Open Societies, Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990). 2022.