Why It Was Worth $49,000 to Become Brooklyn Org

The Brooklyn Community Foundation has rebranded with a new name and a new web address.

Good morning. It’s Tuesday. What’s in a name? We’ll find out about a Brooklyn nonprofit that rebranded itself after buying a model URL. We’ll also meet the cousins behind one of the state’s first licensed marijuana dispensaries.

The Brooklyn Community Foundation says it has channeled $12.2 million to other nonprofits in the borough this year, the most in its 15-year history. It has also changed its name after spending $49,000 on a new web address — Brooklyn.org.

“I definitely think that was money well spent,” said Jocelynne Rainey, the president and chief executive of the Brooklyn-centric group, now known as Brooklyn Org. “We decided to purchase Brooklyn.org because we believe we are so deeply Brooklyn that we wanted our URL to be Brooklyn.”

It’s a 21st-century answer to “What’s in a name?” Brooklyn.org is shorter and simpler than the group’s previous URL, brooklyncommunityfoundation.org. Brevity and zip count online, and Brooklyn Org is betting that the new address will find more eyeballs.

Rainey said that the changes were also about “removing that word ‘foundation,’ because of what people believe a foundation is,” which she said Brooklyn Org is not — and was not under its prior name.

“We are not a top-down philanthropy or foundation that makes decisions on what we believe Brooklynites need,” Rainey said. “We make decisions based on what Brooklynites tell us are the needs in their communities.”

That is a challenge, even though, Rainey said, “there is so much more wealth in Brooklyn” now compared with what there was a few years ago. Brooklyn Org raised $1 million at its gala on Oct. 12.

Rainey, who said that Brooklyn Org was “unapologetically Brooklyn,” has long maintained that Brooklyn nonprofits are too often overlooked in the larger picture of New York. Brooklyn is home to just under 30 percent of the nonprofits in the city, but receives only 7.6 percent of the charitable funding distributed annually. In January, Brooklyn Org gave $100,000 grants to five nonprofits as winners of its annual Spark Prize. The recipients included the Workers Justice Project, which had campaigned for higher wages and better conditions for delivery workers.

“What we’re trying to do is cast a wider net,” she said, reaching to communities like Bay Ridge and Cypress Hills that have both needs and potential donors. Brooklyn had the city’s second-highest poverty rate, at nearly 18 percent, according to a report by the state comptroller’s office in December 2022, behind the Bronx (almost 25 percent) and ahead of Manhattan (16 percent), Staten Island (nearly 11 percent) and Queens (10 percent).

The new name “is just us saying we are a Brooklyn organization,” Rainey said. “I don’t know that every Brooklyn resident saw the foundation as something they could get involved in.”

“If you walk out your door and you say, ‘Oh, my gosh, there’s an issue with sanitation,’ then you would think, ‘I’m going to call Brooklyn Org and see who in my community does that kind of work, and can I support and how can I support them,’” she said. “We want people to think of us as a resource.”

She said people could call 311, the city’s help line, “but we know nonprofits in Brooklyn. There are nonprofits in Brooklyn that are doing that work.”

She said that Brooklyn Org was looking to support nonprofits “that are not yet at a level where we can give them grants but what we can do is give them capacity-building support, help them to identify board members, support their events.”

Rainey said the group secured its new domain name after a colleague noticed that Brooklyn.org was available; a spokesman for Brooklyn Org said a domain broker had claimed the URL Brooklyn.org and wanted to sell it for $60,000. The foundation negotiated a reduction of $11,000.

WEATHER

In the morning, expect some sun, light wind and a high in the low 50s. Light showers may begin overnight, with accompanying clouds and a low temperature around 40 degrees.

ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING

In effect until Wednesday (All Saints’ Day).

Trump: The former president is scheduled to testify next week in a civil trial that threatens the business empire that is the foundation of his public persona.

Bankman-Fried: Asked during cross-examination about his public statements and how he ran his cryptocurrency empire, the FTX founder repeatedly said he couldn’t remember.

Menendez: An old friend of the New Jersey senator was in legal trouble. The government says Menendez went to great lengths to try to install a friendly prosecutor.

Matthew Perry: The day after the “Friends” actor’s death, at age 54, fans paid tribute in New York City at a storefront re-creation of the sitcom’s famous sets.

Keith Giffen: The celebrated illustrator and writer who brought sardonic wit to DC and Marvel characters died this month at 70.

Celebrity D.J.s like Funkmaster Flex played music while visitors were greeted by employees wearing shirts that said “Come Back With a Warrant.” That tag line was a nod to police raids that once would have led to their arrests for selling what they were that day.

So it went at the grand opening this month of ConBud, one of New York’s first licensed marijuana dispensaries.

“At 13, I was incarcerated for two nickel bags,” Coss Marte, the chief executive, said, referring to $5 bags of weed. “And today, we’re going to sell more than that.”

My colleague Ashley Southall writes that it was a celebration that almost didn’t happen. The owners of ConBud — Marte, Alfredo Angueira and Ramon Martinez — were among about 440 would-be pot retailers whose plans were thrown into uncertainty in August when a judge froze dispensary openings. A group of veterans had gone to court, claiming that they were illegally excluded from obtaining state-issued dispensary licenses. The judge granted ConBud an exemption, and it became a licensed marijuana retailer.

“We’re here to rewrite history,” said Martinez, who goes by Junior.

The opening was a reflection of New York’s change of course after decades of criminalizing marijuana. State officials decided to help an industry that is relatively new to being sanctioned and that is expected to generate billions in revenue. The licensing effort was intended to give people from communities that were targeted during the nation’s decades-long war on drugs a shot at the retail marijuana business from the beginning.

Under state rules, Marte’s conviction for a marijuana-related offense helped toward obtaining a license. The ConBud shop, at 85 Delancey Street on the Lower East Side, is three blocks from a park where he was once arrested. He eventually served six years in state prison for drug violations.

ConBud is downstairs from ConBody, the gym Marte started after he was released from prison 10 years ago. The store’s décor pays tribute to the past, with display cases that look like milk crates (Marte used to sell cannabis outside bodegas while sitting on them) and a green color scheme (like the color of the uniforms in state prison).

ConBud’s opening was a hopeful sign to Black and brown people wanting to enter the legal marijuana industry after decades of being disproportionately targeted for arrests, said Michael Blake, a former state assemblyman from the Bronx. “Now they can see ConBud and see you can have a chance,” he said.

But the three cousins still face an uncertain future in the business. A plan to open a second location has been held up by the court case. And they are competing with thousands of unlicensed shops.

METROPOLITAN DIARY

Dear Diary:

On a fall evening, I decided I needed a slice of Junior’s strawberry cheesecake right away.

At the time, I lived in an apartment in the St. George section of Staten Island with a view of the Statue of Liberty. I walked to the terminal and waited for the ferry.

Then came a lovely ferry ride to Manhattan with the city lit up in all its finery.

Then a walk to the subway station and a ride to DeKalb Avenue.

Then a walk to Junior’s, where I ordered a slice of cheesecake to go.

Then a walk back to the subway station and a ride back to Manhattan.

Then a walk back to the ferry terminal and more waiting for the ferry.

Then a ferry ride back to Staten Island and a walk home.

Hours after setting out, I finally sat down to enjoy that decadent slice of cheesecake, alone in my apartment, with the lights low and Sonny Stitt playing softly on the stereo.

Years later, making that trek remains one of the best decisions of my life.

— Vincent P. Barkley

Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.

Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B.

P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.

Stefano Montali, Bernard Mokam and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com.

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