A Showing Hearts Foundation Program
Nonprofit Capacity Building Program
An incubator, not a one-off workshop.
Most capacity building ends when the session does. Ours puts a small group of Queens nonprofits under one roof and stays with them until the systems are built.
The Premise
A small cohort of Queens nonprofits in residence at The Hub.
Learning to build and fund their work, not just attend a session about it.
Coached over months, with the space, systems, and people to actually do the work.
Why It Exists
The gap isn’t passion. It’s infrastructure.
Queens is full of people already doing the work. They feed neighbors, mentor kids, and clean up blocks out of their own pockets, on nights and weekends. What stops them from growing is almost never commitment. It’s the back office: no bylaws a funder will accept, no budget they can hand to a grant officer, no record of the impact they know they’ve had.
We have been convening this community for years through our nonprofit networking mixers and workshops, hosted alongside local elected officials across Southeast Queens. The same thing happened every time: a room full of good organizations, a great evening, and no structure to carry the learning forward.
The Nonprofit Capacity Building Program is that structure. It is the third arm of the Showing Hearts Foundation’s work. After serving families directly and developing young people, we strengthen the organizations doing the same in their own corners of the borough.
What the Cohort Works On
Every organization arrives with different gaps. The curriculum covers the whole operating picture, and the coaching goes where you actually need it.
Governance & Compliance
Bylaws, board development, 501(c)(3) status, state registration, and the annual filings that keep an organization in good standing.
Funding & Grant Readiness
Building a case a funder can say yes to: prospect research, proposals, budgets, and the reporting that earns a second grant.
Financial Systems
Operating budgets, bookkeeping, tracking restricted funds, and keeping records clean enough to survive an audit or a funder's review.
Program Design & Impact
Shaping a program you can actually measure, then collecting the outcomes that prove it worked.
Story, Brand & Outreach
A website, a logo, a social presence, and a way to talk about the work that brings in volunteers, press, and donors.
Operations & Technology
The unglamorous middle: email, files, donor records, scheduling, and the tools that stop everything from living in one founder's head.
In Residence
The cohort lives at The Hub
The Hub is our nonprofit coworking community at 212-26 Jamaica Ave in Queens Village. Cohort organizations get desk space, meeting rooms, and access to the event space, plus the thing that turns a workspace into an incubator: other people solving the same problems in the next chair.
Learn more about The Hub
How It Works
Apply
Tell us about your organization, what you're trying to build, and where you're stuck. We review as a team.
Move In
Accepted organizations take up residence at The Hub in Queens Village, with workspace, meeting rooms, and event space included.
Do the Work
Cohort sessions plus one-on-one coaching, worked against your real bylaws, your real budget, and your real grant deadlines.
Stay Connected
You leave with working systems and a funding plan, and you stay in the network of organizations that came through with you.
Who It’s For
You do not need to be polished to apply. You need to be serious.
- Grassroots organizations serving Queens neighborhoods
- New nonprofits with 501(c)(3) status or working toward it
- Founders doing every job themselves
- Groups running real programs with no back office behind them
- Organizations that have never successfully landed a grant
- Teams ready to commit to a months-long cohort, not a single session
Interested in a Cohort Seat?
Tell us about your organization and we’ll be in touch about the next intake. If you want to support the program instead, funders, sponsors, and pro-bono professionals all have a place here.