POSITIVE CHANGE,
BLOCK BY BLOCK

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Dear Friend,What a year it has been! I am honored to be writing this message as we conclude ioby’s fifteenth anniversary year. During this time, ioby has supported hundreds of projects and transformed thousands of lives—including my own.While I am new to the CEO role, ioby has been in my life for more than a decade. During that time, I have witnessed firsthand how our organization supports change that might not otherwise be possible. I first worked with ioby as an organizer in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where I collaborated with neighbors on a community visioning process called The Hope Summit. There, residents came up with dozens of brilliant ideas, but continued to run into a huge funding barrier when implementing their vision. Enter ioby.The team guided our crowdfunding process from start to finish while trusting that Brownsville’s residents knew what was best for the place they loved. It was true solidarity in action. Since then, I’ve worked with the organization in almost every capacity, including as the funder of ioby’s first match grant program across New York State. I can’t wait to build on those experiences in this new role.One of my initial memories of the organization comes back to Erin Barnes, ioby’s former CEO. Erin and I met at the annual Hike the Heights event in New York City. I was immediately struck by her vision for an organization that centered local ideas as a vehicle for collective transformation. Erin carried forth that vision for fifteen years and provided leadership that was steadfast, strong, and curious. It is a privilege to carry forward that legacy into ioby’s next era.As we enter 2024, a critical year of transition and transformation, I am driven by several core questions: How can we help people raise and access funding as soon as possible? How do we remove barriers so that emergent leaders can step into their power? What does it look like to truly build an organization with and for ioby leaders?This is also a pivotal year for our country, and I believe ioby is uniquely poised to meet this moment. While political leaders exploit our differences to gain power, ioby illuminates our connections and provides a path forward. While these differences are exacerbated by social isolation, which the US Surgeon General calls the greatest public health issue of our time, ioby creates opportunities for shared purpose, deepening community bonds and combatting this crisis of disconnection.I hope that by sparking change block by block, we can connect neighborhoods around the country and, ultimately, improve the health of this nation as a whole. We must remember that despite the divisions that surround us, we are bound together in what Dr. Martin Luther King called “an inescapable network of mutuality.”The transition into the future of the organization will be different, but the core will stay the same. Thank you so much for helping us get to this place. Let’s take what we’ve learned and build the world we dream of—together.

In solidarity,
Nupur Chaudhury
CEO,
ioby

Local Leaders say ioby is good at...

ioby has supported 3,715 projects since its inception.

Each one tells a unique story of tenacity and hope. Here are a few highlights from the last fifteen years that demonstrate ioby’s wide-ranging impact, from solutions to climate catastrophe to creating safer streets. Taken as a whole, they are a snapshot of how far we have come, and a source of inspiration for the many ways we might move into the future together.

The Eagle Scout Environmental Awareness Fair

This was the very first project fundraised on ioby more than fifteen years ago! A seventeen-year-old Eagle Scout named Edward Maddelena reached out to raise money for an environmental fair he was hosting in his Bensonhurst, Brooklyn neighborhood. Maddelena raised $150 for reusable bags and pizza—and says the experience sparked his love for local volunteer work, which continues to this day.

Ride On! Bike Co-op

Ade Neff has been a long time project leader with ioby, fundraising for several active transportation projects that have created positive change in the famously car-centric city of Los Angeles. Neff’s work centers on mobility justice and transportation equity, the idea that everyone has a human right to get around safely. In 2015, he founded Ride On! Bike Co-op, which provides no-to-low-cost repairs and bike-riding classes to residents in South LA. Almost nine years later, the co-op is still going strong.

Sister Supply

“Period poverty” refers to inequitable access to menstruation products such as tampons and pads. To address this problem in Memphis, Tennessee, ioby leader Eli Cloud created Sister Supply. What started as a small fundraiser to distribute products to a handful of organizations in the city has transformed into a full-scale nonprofit that has impacted thousands of people: since their initial fundraiser in 2014, Sister Supply has donated over 600,000 products to menstruators across Memphis.

Hike the Heights

In New York City and other urban areas, public parks are often the backyards of a neighborhood—providing much-needed green space to gather, exercise, and build healthy communities. 20 years ago, Hike the Heights came together to celebrate that green space in two NYC neighborhoods: Harlem and Washington Heights. The event has developed into an annual tradition that combines physical activity with arts, crafts, and civic participation.

Kangaroo Birthing

According to the CDC, Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy related causes than white women. At a moment that should be rooted in celebration and care, Black women are too-often faced with a healthcare system that stigmatizes their experiences and denies their pain. In the face of these problems, Black doulas have rolled up their sleeves to save lives. Among these activists is Syreeta Gordon, who founded Kangaroo Birthing, which improves maternal health outcomes for Black women in Pittsburgh by training them to become doulas in their own communities. Gordon successfully fundraised for doula scholarships on ioby, and has expanded her work ever since.

East Brooklyn Mutual Aid

The COVID-19 pandemic was one of the greatest crises in recent memory, and required community leaders to respond in dynamic, urgent, and unprecedented ways. This included the founders and organizers of East Brooklyn Mutual Aid, who worked to provide high-quality food to their neighbors at the height of the pandemic. Since 2020, East Brooklyn Mutual Aid has fundraised more than $150,000 on ioby–which has gone to deepen the movement for food justice across their neighborhood. We’re proud of our ability to get funds out the door quickly and provide much-needed support for organizations who do not have 501c3 status.

We Run Brownsville

Women are often told to “practice self care” without being given the adequate time or resources to do so—or by encouraging the false premise that self-care requires you to leave your community. We Run Brownsville addresses this inequity through an 8-week walk-to-run program that trains women to compete in a 5k race and improve personal and collective wellbeing. The group also cultivates political power by encouraging women to invest in their agency, which has powerful implications on and off the track.

Durga Puja

This year, through a partnership with the Walton Family Foundation, ioby provided match grants to projects in two Northwest Arkansas counties that improve indoor and outdoor spaces. This included a successful fundraiser for Durga Puja, an annual Hindu festival that pays homage to the Hindu goddess Durga. Organized by members of SAMHATI, the “three-day extravaganza” included dancing, drawing, and singing. In total, SAMHATI raised $30,000 on ioby and accomplished their goal of passing down Bengali heritage, culture, and values to the next generation growing up in Arkansas.