Deutsche Bank Americas
/OVERVIEW: Deutsche Bank’s corporate responsibility program supports community development, education, work and opportunity, women and girls, criminal justice reform and the arts. It directs much of its funding towards organizations in New York City.
IPTAKE: This funder works mainly through existing partnerships with well-known organizations and signature programs. Deutsche Bank does not accept unsolicited proposals for funding. It’s a tough nut to crack unless they tap you since this is a crowded, bureaucratic space. It may be your best bet to network with local management.
PROFILE: The multinational financial giant Deutsche Bank conducts its philanthropy for North and South America through its New York City-based corporate responsibility program. The program “applies an asset-based approach that highlights communities’ strengths and supports stakeholder-led strategies for creating social and economic opportunity.” In addition to grantmaking, Deutsche Bank’s philanthropy includes loans and investments, creating a degree of overlap between its philanthropic and business endeavors. Grantmaking supports housing and community development, education, criminal justice reform, women and girls and arts and culture, with about half of its grantmaking directed toward projects in the New York City area.
Grants for Housing and Community Development
Deutsche Bank supports housing and community development via its U.S. Community Development and New York City homelessness initiatives. The community development program’s grants support local organizations that “initiate affordable housing and economic development projects in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods” and have gone mainly to organizations in New York City. Deutsche Bank issues RFPs for this competitive program once every three years and prioritizes organizations that aim to provide housing for homeless, recently homeless and special needs populations. Past grantees include the Corporation for Supportive Housing, the Fund for Public Housing and the National Low Income Housing Coalition and Low Income Housing Information Service. The program also makes loans and investments in low-income housing projects through partnerships with community development financial intermediaries and private equity funds.
Deutsche Bank addresses homelessness in New York City by focusing on four separate populations of homeless people: veterans, victims of domestic violence, LGBTQ youth and incarcerated or formerly incarcerated individuals and their families. Past grantees of this program include Enterprise Community Partners, Sanctuary for Families, the Ali Forney Center, which works with LGBTQ youth, and the Fortune Society, which provides services to formerly incarcerated men and women.
Grants for Education
Education grantmaking stems from Deutsche Bank’s Born to Be initiative, which supports a broad range of educational organizations and runs some signature programs. Funding is focused on K-12 education and underserved populations. The program’s aim is to “allow young people, especially those who are most marginalized and underserved, to make the most of their talents and achieve economic security.”
Grants for K-12 Education
The majority of Deutsche Bank’s education philanthropy targets K-12 education and broadly supports programs and research aimed at improving outcomes for at-risk students in the U.S., Mexico, Brazil and Chile. In New York City, Deutsche Bank runs Stable, Thriving and Healthy, a sub-initiative to support homeless students. The program has supported the Henry Street Settlement, Counseling in Schools, the Lower East Side Girls Clubs and the Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness, whose research guides the program’s grantmaking. In North Carolina, Deutsche Bank has partnered with the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville to create a visual arts education program for Title I elementary schools. In Brazil, Deutsche Bank has supported the Department of Education in Sao Paulo to improve academic and socio-emotional skills of middle schoolers, and in Mexico, it has supported Proeducacion, an organization that promotes literacy in rural elementary schools. Other past grantees include New York’s Raising a Reader, Girls and Boys Clubs and the Citizens Committee for Children of New York.
Grants for College Readiness
This funder has demonstrated a strong interest in college readiness programs in the U.S. Deutsche Bank’s funding in this area has supported programs that provide academic support for students as well as counseling and mentoring through the college application and selection process. One grantee is Strive for College, which pairs underserved students with expert mentors who help them find, apply to and arrange to pay for a “best-fit” college. Another grantee, New York City’s Fiver Children’s Foundation, works with cohorts of underserved students through out-of-school programs to improve their chances of attending and succeeding in post-secondary programs. Other grantees include the New York City organizations Prep for Prep and Harlem RBI, both of which provide students with out-of-school learning opportunities and counseling.
Grants for Work and Opportunity
Deutsche Bank supports work and opportunity through its Made for Good initiative, which supports innovative approaches to job creation and entrepreneurship. For example, Deutsche Bank has supported “creative institutions” like museums and performance venues as “economic drivers” for struggling communities. Another approach involves supporting organizations like Kiva US, which offers zero-interest loans of up to $5,000 to small businesses through community crowdfunding. In New York City, Deutsche Bank also supports Hot Bread Kitchen, which provides culinary training and business incubation for the food and dining industries.
Grants for Women and Girls
This funder has supported programs for women and girls across its funding initiatives but does not outline specific goals for its grantmaking in this area. In education, Deutsche Bank has partnered with the Sadie Nash Leadership Project, which helps low-income girls between the ages of 11 and 22 develop leadership skills and “resources to overcome obstacles and reach their college graduation day.” Deutsche Bank also supports New York’s Center for Women’s History. Housed at the New York Historical Society, the center used funding to support a new exhibition and education hub and to develop women’s history curricula for educators across the U.S.
Grants for Arts and Culture
Deutsche Bank supports arts and culture through its community arts grants, music initiatives and sponsorships of arts organizations. Limited to New York City, community arts grants support “a new generation of cultural institutions that are critical in the revitalization of transitional neighborhoods.” Past grantees of this program include the New York Botanical Garden, which is located in the Bronx, and the Brooklyn Museum. Music initiatives target young audiences and students of music and aim to provide a range of accessible musical experiences. Grantees and partners have included the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera. Sponsorships are not limited to New York City, and generally support premier visual arts organizations with the goal of bringing exhibitions to broader audiences. Past grantees include the Dallas Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of Art and Pinacoteca de São Paulo.
Grants for Criminal Justice Reform
Criminal justice reform is one of Deutsche Bank’s newer areas of interest. Through its Made for Good initiative, Deutsche Bank has recently supported the Equal Justice Initiative, an Alabama-based nonprofit that used funding to create curricula and supporting materials on the subject of mass incarceration and racial and economic justice.
COVID-19 Response
In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, Deutsche Bank has supported some of its existing partners with rapid grants to support vulnerable communities. These partners include City Harvest, Feeding Northeast Florida, the Henry Street Settlement, the New York Immigration Coalition and SaverLife and Neighborhood Trust.
Important Grant Details:
Deutsche Bank Americas gives away about $10 million a year, with grants ranging from $5,000 to $500,000. Its average grant size is about $25,000. About half of its grantmaking remains in New York City, where the philanthropy is headquartered. For additional information about past grantees, see the funder’s individual program pages.
The Deutsche Bank Americas foundation does not provide detailed information about its grantmaking or lending habits. The foundation makes Requests for Proposals for its New York City grants available to qualified organizations once every three years. This funder does not accept unsolicited proposals. Contact information is provided below.
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CONTACT:
Deutsche Bank
60 Wall Street
New York, NY, USA
(212) 250-2500
