• 9 min read
• October 25, 2024

Through the Neighborhood Grants program, The Starbucks Foundation invites Starbucks partners (employees) and Starbucks Alumni to nominate local grassroots, community-led nonprofit organizations in their community to receive small grants. Neighborhood Grants also help build sustained local impact and inspire partners to engage with nonprofits all year long.

In 2024, to celebrate the fifth year of the Neighborhood Grants program, The Starbucks Foundation is awarding $5 million to more than 2,800 local organizations across North America nominated by Starbucks partners.

By The Numbers

Our impact since 2019:

Our mission to nurture the limitless possibilities of human connection means working to strengthen the communities we serve, one conversation at a time. And because we know that it is our partners (employees) who know their neighborhoods best, our impact on local communities is most meaningful when it begins with them. Learn more below about some of the organizations receiving grants and Starbucks partners that work together to contribute positively to their communities.   

Since 2019, Starbucks partners and Starbucks Alumni have submitted more than 115,000 nominations, resulting in more than 13,000 Neighborhood Grants totaling more than $20 million to organizations across the U.S. and Canada.  

These grants will support organizations that are empowering youth, fighting hunger, uplifting families, advocating for LGBTQ+ causes, addressing homelessness and promoting environmental stewardship. See this year’s full list of grant recipients here.  

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Prism United – Mobile, Alabama 

MOBILE, Alabama – Adrian loves the beauty and rich history of his hometown – how the azaleas bloom every spring, how it celebrated the first Mardi Gras in the U.S. (not New Orleans), how six different flags have flown over this Gulf Coast port city since its founding. 

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But that doesn’t mean it’s always been easy to live here.  

“Being queer in the South has always been challenging, but with that comes opportunity to create community surrounding that challenge,” says Adrian, 20, a Starbucks barista and director of the same teen program at Prism United that helped him just a few years ago. Prism United is a nonprofit that supports LGBTQ+ youth and their families in the region. 

“It’s important to create that community of queer people because we don’t have it anywhere else.” 

Starbucks is proud to celebrate Prism United, a recipient of a Neighborhood Grant  from The Starbucks Foundation. The award will be used to help Prism expand its programming and fund the region’s first LGBTQ+ youth community center.  

Adrian, a trans man, was referred to Prism by a therapist during middle school, after experiencing severe depression and anxiety related to gender dysphoria.  

“I didn’t know how long I could make it,” Adrian remembers. “The support from Prism really gave me the ability to live as my true self.”  

Adrian started working at Starbucks four years ago, his first job. As he was going through his transition, the Starbucks healthcare advocacy team helped him with his questions about how the health insurance would work and how to find the right health care provider.  

At Prism, Adrian facilitates discussions for teens around mental health and the sociopolitical climate, creates educational curriculum around the LGBTQ+ experience and helps organize local LGBTQ+ events, including a recent prom attended by almost 100 youth.  

“I can’t help but think about all the people who used to sit by my side when I needed that help and support,” Adrian says. “I’m helping the next generation of queer youth to have a better lived experience. 

“Prism United receiving the Neighborhood Grant truly means the world to me. I know how much Prism has done not only for me, but for the broader community in Mobile. It’s truly impactful. It’s literally life changing for so many people.” 

Corey Harvard, the executive director of Prism, helped start the organization as a support group for high schoolers, the kind of space he wishes he had growing up. Instead of running away from the South, as he once dreamed, Harvard stayed home and turned Prism into a nonprofit.  

“The thing about LGBTQ efforts in the South is we really learn what it means to create community because it’s about survival,” Harvard says. “We have to come together and create places of belonging in order to exist.  

“What gives me hope about Prism, about where we’re at as an organization, about this broader LGBTQ community, about efforts like this Neighborhood Grant from The Starbucks Foundation, is that we are showing that we can have queer joy, that we can do incredible things together.”  

Covenant House – New York City  

In the 1990s, when she was a young single mother experiencing housing instability, Tambra found support, job training and a sense of safety from the mother-and-child program at Covenant House New York. “They said, ‘hold your head up, it’s going to be alright,’” remembers Tambra, who joined Starbucks as a barista in 2005. “It was bigger than a roof over my head. I always think of them, to this day.”  

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Almost 300 partners in New York City, including Tambra, nominated Covenant House for a Neighborhood Grant. Covenant House works to end youth homelessness, with chapters across the U.S., Canada and Latin America. Across North America, since 2019, 30 Neighborhood Grants totaling $64,000 have been awarded to 10 different Covenant House locations. 

There are numerous touch points between the organizations, from Adam, Starbucks regional vice president in New York, who slept outside at Times Square during the annual Sleep Out event to raise awareness, to Abegail, a store manager, who resonates so much the Covenant House mission, she brings Starbucks food and drinks donations to its monthly resident council meetings. 

Abegail immigrated from Guyana, started working at Starbucks as a 17-year-old to help her family pay the bills and nine years later, became a store manager in Manhattan. 

Starbucks also recently worked with Covenant House New York’s CovWorks workforce development program to host a job fair and hire five young people. 

Renata Alexis, senior vice president of residential services at Covenant House New York, says, “Covenant House’s mission is basically to serve the suffering children of the streets, with unconditional love and respect. And we take that very, very seriously. We do good work, but it wouldn’t work if we didn’t have a village, and Starbucks represents part of that village that’s helping us to actualize the dreams and goals of our young people.”

Edible Hope – Seattle, Washington  

For more than 30 years, Edible Hope has been serving hot breakfasts to anyone who needs it out of a church basement in Seattle. Karla, a 26-year partner and shift supervisor, has volunteered almost every Monday for the past nine years, cooking impromptu meals with whatever supplies have been donated that week. “The need is there. People want a safe place to come in and have a warm meal and feel safe for an hour or two. It might be their only hot warm meal of the day. You can’t solve the whole problem yourself, but I can go in for a couple hours a week and make sure people eat a hot meal on Monday.”  

She works alongside Emilie Han, Edible Hope’s kitchen manager, who says the Neighborhood Grant will help fund the organization’s move into a new space that requires a remodeled kitchen. “Working with Karla is such a joy. She is funny, cares a lot about what she does and is an awesome cook, so creative in the kitchen which is important when your food supply is unpredictable. Our guests have come back and told me that Edible Hope saved their lives. That alone makes the job worth it to me. But also, I love the people. There is nowhere else that I could get to know so many wonderful people.”  

My Good Brain – Fremont, California  

My Good Brain aims to show children how to take care of their mental health using art and play. Tiffany, a district manager, nominated the nonprofit because, “This is a grass-roots nonprofit run by two special people. They have had limited resources, few volunteers and work tirelessly to serve the community.” Tiffany says she’s proud of Starbucks partners across the Bay Area, especially those from the Northern California chapter of the Starbucks Disability Advocacy Network, who have assembled art therapy kits for young people, donated supplies and amplified My Good Brain’s mission on their social channels.   

“This grant will secure funding for an entire upcoming academic year for our East Bay community school partners,” says Dr. Danessa Mayo, a licensed clinical psychologist and My Good Brain’s founder. “With this funding, we can also focus on developing new programs for teens, such as our Teen Creative Arts workshops and the My Good Mind student podcast, without the constant worry about resources. The Starbucks partnership has been a game-changer for My Good Brain! The volunteerism from Starbucks partners is unmatched and has given new meaning to our community-oriented work.” 

Rainbow Resource Centre – Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Justin, a store manager and 2SLGBTQ+ community member, is passionate about vital support service charities like Rainbow Resource Centre, which provides counseling, educational services and programming for people of all ages. Rainbow Resource Centre began as a University of Manitoba student group in the 1970s and is considered one of the longest continuously running 2SLGBTQ+ resource centres in North America. 

Having previously fundraised for Rainbow Resource Centre, Justin seized the opportunity to connect his personal interest in this organization to his Starbucks role through Neighborhood Grants. “Rainbow Resource Centre is integral to many within the 2SLGBTQ+ community in Manitoba and needs ongoing support to continue offering essential services.”