Ioby, the online micro-funding platform for community green projects, will work with Deutsche Bank to provide matching grants aimed at projects led by Community Development Corporations (CDC’s) in New York City.

Deutsche Bank is the first investment bank to support ioby.org by providing a matching grant to stimulate green projects at NYC CDC’s.

Erin Barnes, co-founder and executive director of ioby, describes the goal of the collaboration:

“Any New Yorker can post their project on ioby, but we have a special interest in supporting the ideas and initiatives of New Yorkers in neighborhoods that have a greater burden of environmental problems and fewer resources to address them. With Deutsche Bank’s match for CDC-led projects, we have a special opportunity to work with an existing infrastructure in neighborhoods like this.”

The first two CDC projects chosen are the featured on the grant program webpage, and include:

CDC Cypress Hills Verde seeks $5,940 for an urban farm in the East New York/Cypress Hills neighborhood of Brooklyn. The project – Pollos Del Pueblo – will transform an overgrown, City-owned vacant lot into a community resource with a chicken coop, a chicken run, storage shed and community compost station.

Living City Block Gowanus and the CDC Gowanus Community Development Corporation seek $4160 for the design of Living City Brooklyn Gowanus street signage in the Gowanus neighborhood. As both a utilitarian and public education project, the signs will direct pedestrians, cyclists and car traffic to bike racks, solar panels, bioswales and micro-wind turbines. The goal of the signage project is to “connect residents with creative, recreational and green resources while at the same time encouraging sustainable practices that will help clean up the canal and create a more livable community.”

Read more about the program here.