Advocate
The Conservancy has been the leading Park advocate since the organization’s beginnings in 1987, having:
• Worked with elected officials and the community to deve
lop the guiding
principles for the creation of a self-
sustaining park and supported a two-
year master planning process for the
park resulting in the Brooklyn Bridge
Park Master Plan.
• Helped to secure the Memorandum
of Understanding (MOU) between
the State and the City committing
$150 million to design and construct the park and creating the Brooklyn
Bridge Park Development Corporation to implement the agreement.
• Worked with the City and the State since 2002 to maintain support for the
Park and communicate progress.
• Acted as a community liaison throughout the EIS and GPP process with
a series of open houses and town hall meetings attended by thousands
of community members.
• Held regular Neighborhood AdvisoryCommittee meetings with 40 active
members from 1999 to 2005 and has recently organized a Park Community
Committee to provide a constructive process for community participation in
detailed design and the RFP process.
Fundraising 
Since 1999, the Conservancy has developed a committed and growing donor base and raised more than $5.1 million dollars from a diverse array of corporations, foundations, individuals, and government to support its advocacy, programming, and outreach activities.
Programming
The Conservancy has attracted over 200,000 visitors to the beginnings of Brooklyn Bridge Park since 1999 to enjoy a wide range of cultural, education, and recreational 
activities. As the Park moved from vision to concept to a real, funded civic project in 2002, the Conservancy stepped up its work to develop, coordinate, and stage programming to help build a diverse constituency in support of this world-class waterfront park.
Since June 2004, the Conservancy has served as the official Event Coordinator for the Empire Fulton Ferry State Park pursuant to a permit issued by the New York State Office of Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation. With funding support for a large tent from the Borough President, the Conservancy has arranged private rentals of the tent for weddings, family and corporate activities and ticketed performance events. These private uses have generated over $325,000, half of which amount, has supported the Conservancy’s free public programs
Culture
Park programming was kicked off in 2000 with a community-run film series
Movies with a View, which has grown from 4 nights to 8 nights in 2006, now
attracting some 3,000 people each night. Audience surveys show visitors
from over 80 zip codes with 36% coming from outside Brooklyn, while 48% of
Brooklyn visitors were from beyond the Park’s adjacent neighborhoods. Other
cultural activities have included theatre, music, dance, fashion, spoken word,
photography, and special family events. (See chart for a complete
list of programming.)
Education
Since 1999, the Conservancy has hosted more than 2,700 children and
adults for educational programming including Harbor Camp, National
Estuaries Day programs, Park design seminars, ecology and urban planning
workshops, tours of Brooklyn Bridge Park’s native coastal habitats, and New
York City school workshops during various programming events such as Art &
Commerce’s Emerging Photographer’s Show.
The Conservancy is particularly interested in using both existing sections of
Brooklyn Bridge Park as a living classroom for visitors to learn about the
estuary’s ecology, do water testing, identify wildlife, bird watch, learn
horticultural techniques, and care for the restored native habitats. With a
focus on the interconnectivity of ecological systems of the Cove, the river and
the Harbor, these programs educate, plus help foster a sense of stewardship
and environmental awareness or our unique urban habitats.
Recreation
Organized recreation within the existing
portions of the Park has been impossible
because of the small size and terrain.
Nonetheless, the Conservancy has offered free
programs that can be accommodated,
like miniature golf in the Tobacco Warehouse,
regular yoga on the State Park’s boardwalk at
sunset, an annual family egg hunt that has
attracted 3,000-4,000 people, a Brooklyn pie
social, and a “pig fest,” introducing people to
the skills of renowned BBQ experts.
Stewardship/Volunteerism
The Conservancy works with both City Parks and State Parks to maintain the existing park sections, engaging hundreds of committed volunteers of all ages since April 2004 to donate over 4,300 stewardship hours to cleaning, planting, and restoration activities in the growin
g park. Our Green Leaders stewardship program, for example, planted in 2005a coastal community of native trees and shrubs, sand dune grasses and a bird and butterfly meadow. The stewardship program attracts a wide variety of participants –from Brooklyn residents to groups like NY Cares, to the Kellogg Capital Group who sponsored 75 employees to revitalize the stone dust park paths for wheelchair accessibility. In addition to annual participation in the citywide “It’s My Park!” Day celebration, the Conservancy’s stewardship program is also part of International Coastal Clean-Up Day, where volunteers remove thousands of pounds of debris and garbage from the shoreline and coves.
Communications
The Conservancy has developed and maintained relationships with 250 media contacts and has helped secure features on Brooklyn Bridge Park with leading television, radio, and print media outlets, including The New York Times, New York Post, New York Daily News, New York Observer, Fox News, WNBC, WCBS, NY1 News, NPR, Channel 12 News, Village Voice, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, and Courier Life.
Outreach
The Conservancy distributes newsletters to almost 20,000 households two to three times annually. The Conservancy’s website, brooklynbridgepark.org, receives 9,000 unique visitors per month. The Conservancy’s regular e-news updates currently reach almost 5,000 individual active emails.
