Support Tiers + Benefits

Supporters at this level will receive:

• Patron-level recognition across Van Alen’s special event series convening collaborators in equitable urban design at 303 Bond Street, including:
  • The annual Bond Street Bash cocktail party with 200+ community leaders, designers, municipal agents, and other advocates for a more just city
  • The Block Party in Gowanus, Brooklyn, an annual all-day celebration of community and public space with 1,000+ of Van Alen’s friends and neighbors
  • A new Design Speed Dating workshop that creates the space for designers and community leaders to connect and collaborate on public space improvements
• Opportunity to host an intimate gathering at Van Alen’s light-filled, industrial office at 303 Bond Street in Gowanus, Brooklyn
• Curated special access walking tour and dinner with field leaders exploring how community-led collaborative design is transforming NYC’s public realm for up to five guests
• Private tour of Bednark Studio, the fabrication design studio for Van Alen’s Public Realm R+D installations, for up to five guests
• Invitations to all Van Alen special events and other engagements, including closed-door program briefings with Executive Director and invited speakers
• Prominent recognition of Patron-level support in all Van Alen network communications and Annual Impact Report publication
• Year-round recognition of Patron-level support on vanalen.org

Your support could help dedicated project teams of interdisciplinary professionals give form to community vision. Across New York City, we’ve connected 11 community partners with 200+ interdisciplinary professionals — resulting in 10,000+ hours of community-led design and $1M regranted directly to communities to build capacity and implement project ideas. 

Supporters at this level will receive:

• Visionary-level recognition across Van Alen’s special event series convening collaborators in equitable urban design at 303 Bond Street, including:
  • The annual Bond Street Bash cocktail party with 200+ community leaders, designers, municipal agents, and other advocates for a more just city
  • The Block Party in Gowanus, Brooklyn, an annual all-day celebration of community and public space with 1,000+ of Van Alen’s friends and neighbors
  • A new Design Speed Dating workshop that creates the space for designers and community leaders to connect and collaborate on public space improvements
  • Other special events held in our storefront office, such as recordings of the nationally syndicated podcast Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen
• Curated special access walking tour and dinner with field leaders exploring how community-led collaborative design is transforming NYC’s public realm for up to two guests
• Private tour of Bednark Studio, the fabrication design studio for Van Alen’s Public Realm R+D installations, for up to three guests
• Invitations to all Van Alen special events and other engagements, including closed-door program briefings with Executive Director and invited speakers
• Prominent recognition of Visionary-level support in all Van Alen network communications and Annual Impact Report publication
• Year-round recognition of Visionary-level support on vanalen.org

Your support could provide community partners with data collection and evaluation tools, giving them the opportunity to secure additional investment in their neighborhoods. “We have so much power with this information,” says Dale Charles, Executive Director, Bed-Stuy BID, who used the data collected at the BID’s Winter Wonderland holiday market to secure new funding for 2023.

Supporters at this level will receive:

• Champion-level recognition across Van Alen’s special event series convening collaborators in equitable urban design at 303 Bond Street, including:
  • The annual Bond Street Bash cocktail party with 200+ community leaders, designers, municipal agents, and other advocates for a more just city
  • The Block Party in Gowanus, Brooklyn, an annual all-day celebration of community and public space with 1,000+ of Van Alen’s friends and neighbors
  • A new Design Speed Dating workshop that creates the space for designers and community leaders to connect and collaborate on public space improvements
  • Other special events held in our storefront office, such as recordings of the nationally syndicated podcast Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen
• Private tour of Bednark Studio, the fabrication design studio for Van Alen’s Public Realm R+D installations, for up to two guests
• Invitations to all Van Alen special events and other engagements, including closed-door program briefings with Executive Director and invited speakers
• Prominent recognition of Champion-level support in all Van Alen network communications and Annual Impact Report publication
• Year-round recognition of Champion-level support on vanalen.org

Your support could facilitate local stories that authentically highlight a community – these videos bring spaces to life and provide community partners with effective tools for communication with all their stakeholders.

Supporters at this level will receive:

• Advocate-level recognition across Van Alen’s special event series convening collaborators in equitable urban design at 303 Bond Street, including:
  • The annual Bond Street Bash cocktail party with 200+ community leaders, designers, municipal agents, and other advocates for a more just city
  • The Block Party in Gowanus, Brooklyn, an annual all-day celebration of community and public space with 1,000+ of Van Alen’s friends and neighbors
  • A new Design Speed Dating workshop that creates the space for designers and community leaders to connect and collaborate on public space improvements
  • Other special events held in our storefront office, such as recordings of the nationally syndicated podcast Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen
• Invitations to all Van Alen special events and other engagements, including closed-door program briefings with Executive Director and invited speakers
• Prominent recognition of Advocate-level support in all Van Alen network communications and Annual Impact Report publication
• Year-round recognition of Advocate-level support on vanalen.org

Your support could promote community-building in our own backyard of Gowanus, Brooklyn. Through a partnership with the NYCHA Gowanus Houses Tenants Association, we’ve co-created photography and oral history projects to illustrate the importance of the complex’s Community Center to residents. “Community means a form of living where the people who live amongst one another know one another, look out for one another,” says resident Evonne Cummings.

Supporters at this level will receive:

• Sustainer-level recognition across Van Alen’s special event series convening collaborators in equitable urban design at 303 Bond Street, including:
  • The annual Bond Street Bash cocktail party with 200+ community leaders, designers, municipal agents, and other advocates for a more just city
  • The Block Party in Gowanus, Brooklyn, an annual all-day celebration of community and public space with 1,000+ of Van Alen’s friends and neighbors
  • A new Design Speed Dating workshop that creates the space for designers and community leaders to connect and collaborate on public space improvements
• Invitations to all Van Alen special events and other engagements, including closed-door program briefings with Executive Director and invited speakers
• Prominent recognition of Sustainer-level support in Annual Impact Report publication
• Year-round recognition of Sustainer-level support on vanalen.org

Your support could enable community engagement in projects like Lucid: Albany, where over 200 residents gave feedback on a local alleyway park redesign. For Van Alen, engagement itself is an important outcome, because relationships amongst community-based collaborators are critical to the long-term sustainability of any initiative. 

• Supporter-level recognition across Van Alen’s special event series convening collaborators in equitable urban design at 303 Bond Street, including:
  • The annual Bond Street Bash cocktail party with 200+ community leaders, designers, municipal agents, and other advocates for a more just city
  • The Block Party in Gowanus, Brooklyn, an annual all-day celebration of community and public space with 1,000+ of Van Alen’s friends and neighbors
• Invitations to all Van Alen special events and other engagements, including closed-door program briefings with Executive Director and invited speakers
• Prominent recognition of Supporter-level support in Annual Impact Report publication
• Year-round recognition of Supporter-level support on vanalen.org

Your support could help community collaborators build capacity for self-advocacy to attract neighborhood scale investment that achieves their long term visions. “Without this program, I don’t think I would’ve had the courage to put forth a community vision for public space. I do feel transformed,” said Ryan Gilliam, Executive Director of FABnyc and Neighborhoods Now partner.