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The Ford Institute for Community Building, a program of The Ford Family Foundation, works to help community leaders learn how to implement local solutions based on principles of effective community building. This paper describes the development and work of the The Ford Institute for Community Building.
This report from the TCC Group finds that the flexibility, nimbleness, and willingness to collaborate demonstrated by the philanthropic sector over the past year in response to a rapidly changing policy environment could serve as a model for the sector going forward.
Based on interviews with nearly thirty leaders of philanthropy-serving organizations (PSOs), this report found that in the first year of the Trump administration, PSOs and funder collaboratives were called on to keep funders well informed of policy changes. To that end, PSOs have played a critical role in enabling funder learning, dialogue, and action, and have helped accelerate important funder conversations in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion; the need to think beyond issue silos; and the foundational benefits of creating space for dialogue across political and ideological divides through nonpartisan civic engagement.
The report also notes that while some funders have remained cautious, taking a "wait and see" approach to how national political changes might affect their grantmaking priorities, a greater number have been moved by rapidly changing policies to consider aligning their "institutional voice" with other grantmakers to maximize their impact.
The Disaster Philanthropy Playbook is the comprehensive resource of best practices and innovative approaches to guide the philanthropic community in responding to future disasters.
Designed as a multimedia, interactive online magazine, the Playbook compiles ideas and approaches from multiple organizations and is an “evergreen” resource designed for continued updates and knowledge-building. Community planning, civic rebuilding, legal services, housing, addressing the needs of vulnerable populations, working with local, state and federal government, mitigation and preparedness are some of the common issues faced by communities post disaster that are covered in detail in the Playbook.
The Playbook also allows organizations to prepare for all phases of a disaster. What can we do to plan and prepare our community? What about mitigation? How do we help build a resilient community? What should we think about in the months and years after a disaster as we undertake the arduous path of recovery?
The Disaster Philanthropy Playbook is a joint project of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy and Council of New Jersey Grantmakers in association with the United Philanthropy Forum (formerly the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers).
In the December issue of Governing magazine, a national trade publication, a featured article “But what did Cory Booker actually accomplish in Newark?” cites the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers and Jeremy Johnson, the Newark Philanthropic Liaison, in connection with the public-private partnership to establish the Newark Office of Reentry. Among the highlights, the article reports ‘Booker’s strategy for seeking help took many forms. It wasn’t just about selling the city to businesses. It also meant leveraging financial support from the philanthropic sector. To do so, the city hired a philanthropy liaison, Jeremy Johnson, whose position is paid for by an outside funder, the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers.
Newark is one of the only places in the country to designate someone on staff with the explicit role of engaging foundations for the funding of public projects. “You really need the leader of your city to believe that philanthropy can help and can work in tandem with government,” Johnson says.’ Newark Funders continue to be committed these goals, meeting with Newark mayoral candidates in December to discuss their ongoing efforts and the role of the Newark Philanthropic Liaison.
Hear Executive Director Keith Adams speak on how New Jersey VOAD members are responding to the current crisis during our first COVID-19 Funder Briefing.
New Jersey Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) is a coalition of organizations dedicated to developing and sustaining community resiliency in the face of disasters. In his presentation, Keith will share how NJ VOAD is working with their members, nonprofits, and state partners to coordinate efforts and help to avoid duplicative services. He will also share some of the long-term needs and where there may be gaps in services. NJ VOAD’s dedication to helping communities throughout the entire disaster cycle will provide insight into the continuous and comprehensive efforts that will be essential for improving outcomes for New Jerseyans, especially for our most vulnerable populations.
Following Keith Adam's presentation, CNJG will provide an update on our own work assisting with COVID-19 response and relief efforts.
Cost: Free for CNJG Members and Nonmember Grantmakers.
This program is open to Grantmakers only.
Webinar Video
The rise of ESG and the SEC's impending climate disclosure requirements has put increasing pressure from the investment community on companies to meet specific reporting requirements. In addition, employees, communities and customers are demanding that companies address their concerns on a wide range of social and environmental issues. The growing number of reporting standards and frameworks can make it difficult for CSR and Philanthropy professionals to determine the best approach to reporting on their company's efforts.
This session will provide concrete ideas and steps on how to create an effective impact report that balances competing demands from a range of stakeholders. Specifically, how do companies acknowledge the tension between the need to meet a particular reporting requirement and authentically reporting on the relationships with the community? Within these structures that they can’t change, what are their choice points for more equitable practices?
Cost: Free for CNJG Members; $150 for Non Member Grantmakers
This program is only open to staff and trustees from grantmaking organizations.
This program is presented by Philanthropy New York.
New Jersey grantmakers devote significant resources – both intellectual and financial – to many of the same focus areas as the Department of Community Affairs. Some of CNJG’s members invest almost exclusively in programs related to housing, neighborhood revitalization, and community development.
On June 10, join Commissioner Suárez of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs for a candid discussion focusing on current priority areas within NJDCA and possible opportunities for New Jersey’s philanthropic community to partner with state government on areas of mutual concern.
This is an excellent opportunity for funders to share knowledge, insights, and best practices that can help to inform the public sector's strategies for addressing key issues facing the state.
Cost: Free for CNJG Members, $95 for Non Member Grantmakers.
A light lunch will be served.
Commissioner Jacquelyn Suárez – Bio
About the Department of Community Affairs (DCA)
DCA 2024 Press Releases
The F. M. Kirby Foundation Board of Directors announced 103 grants totaling $10,669,250, were approved in the first half of 2024 to nonprofit organizations working to increase the strength and vitality of their communities.
In all, 58 grants included general operating support and 54 grants were made to organizations that have been partners of the Foundation for over 25 years, representing the Foundation’s grantmaking strategy of forming long-term, trusting relationships with grantees.
Grantmaking from January through June included a combined $6.8 million to organizations working in New Jersey and North Carolina, the Foundation’s primary geographic areas of interest.
Additional grants, totaling over $3.8 million, supported organizations in Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania, regions dear to Kirby family members, as well as national nonprofits largely based in Washington D.C., and New York City.
The Camden Funders Affinity Group serves as a vehicle for funders to connect, learn, and share updates about initiatives throughout the city. To help broaden the voices and perspectives in these conversations, we’re excited to begin dedicating a portion of each to hearing directly from leaders doing important work across Camden.
Join fellow CNJG members and the Camden Funders Affinity Group for a very special in-person and lively discussion with City of Camden Mayor, Victor Carstarphen. Serving the community long before becoming Mayor in 2021, Mayor Carstarphen looks forward to sharing his unique perspective on the tremendous progress taking place citywide, the opportunities that lie ahead, and to learn more about the impactful work you are leading throughout Camden.
In the first half of the meeting Mayor Carstarphen will share his insights on the city’s current priorities and opportunities, followed by a Q&A discussion with the Camden Funders. In the second half of the meeting, we’ll reflect on the mayor’s remarks, share updates on our current initiatives, and identify potential speakers & topics for future meetings. Light refreshments will be served.
Cost: Free for CNJG Members; $75 for Non Member Grantmakers
This program is only open to staff and trustees from grantmaking organizations.
The Council of New Jersey Grantmakers’ 2023 – 2027 Strategic Plan reimagines the future for CNJG. As a result of the extensive strategy development process, the plan includes a renewed vision, mission, core values, and goals. The work is informed by previous efforts, and current issues and trends impacting philanthropy and society.
The 2023 - 2027 Strategic Plan is a roadmap for the next five years, built upon CNJG's past strategic plans and learnings. We look forward to executing this plan, the additional learnings and opportunities it will bring, and delivering on these goals to move us into the future.
A CNJG corporate member asked for help with the scenario in which a corporate policy of not supporting religious organizations in their grantmaking, causes problems helping during a disaster in an urban or rural area, when the program that is delivering the disaster relief is based within a church. They want to work with those programs (a church serves as the program’s fiscal sponsor) who support efforts for hunger, homelessness, substance abuse recovery, racial equity, etc. as long as they do not discriminate and do no limit it to their own congregations. The request for policy samples to work around this religious organization hurdle as long as there is no discrimination or funding the actual church’s worship, was compelled by CNJG staff and is listed here.
Foundations Facilitate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Partnering with Community and Nonprofits, a new report by the OMG Center for Collaborative Learning, confirms that foundations can, in fact, facilitate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) through their grantmaking processes and their partnerships with nonprofits—and identifies eight specific practices for foundations to emulate.
The report takes a deep dive into the work of nine foundations that represent a diverse cross-section of types and sizes, and offers useful lessons about how foundations can better partner with nonprofits to be more effective in their work.
What comes after “strategic...?” If you said, “planning,” you’re not alone. And for many leaders of community foundations, especially small ones who don’t have the time or money for a big process, anxiety is the feeling that follows. If that’s the case, this guide is for you.
It invites you to test-drive some activities to bring your current program, operations and community leadership strategies into focus before you decide whether to create a plan or not. It helps you discover ongoing strategic practices and decide whether to keep them or not. If you already have done a strategic plan, and it is languishing on a shelf, this guide will help you refresh it.
PART A: Good Strategy Takes Practice (Not Just Planning)
PART B: Do Your Discovery
PART C: Jumpstart Your Strategy Narrative
PART D: Bring It Together
Looking To What’s Next
CNJG members are eligible for a 20% discount off the only peer-reviewed journal of philanthropy - The Foundation Review - a product of The Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership at Grand Valley State University. The journal, written by and for foundation staff and boards, provides rigorous research and writing, presented in an accessible style. It will share evaluation results, tools and knowledge about the philanthropic sector in order to improve the practice of grantmaking, yielding greater impact and innovation.
To receive the discount, use FORUM18 as your discount code.
Based sardonically on Masterpiece Theatre, Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers’s Structural Racism Theaterintroduces the viewer to concrete examples of structural racism and implicit bias. It’s edgy, dryly humorous, “shareable,” and an incredibly different direction for WRAG. The first episode, "The Pernicious Compromise," focuses on the timely topic of the Electoral College and its connection to the Three-Fifths Compromise.
Watch the video
Traditionally, funders have asked grantees to report on compliance with grant requirements. But these reports don't show the difference a grantee is making with a funder's money.
This report looks at how leading grantmakers are tackling the transition from compliance reporting to performance management. Representatives from the Blue Sky Funders Forum, James Irvine Foundation, Robin Hood Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and Tipping Point Community:
- identify barriers to data-driven funding;
- describe how their organizations are using technology to overcome these obstacles;
- and suggest how other funders can follow their lead.
The Council of New Jersey Grantmakers has joined with our colleagues at the Center for Nonprofits to support a new, national campaign from GuideStar, Charity Navigator and WiseGiving of the BBB. For too long, there has been a misconception that “less is more” when it comes to administrative and overhead expenses in the nonprofit community. The idea that the “best” organizations are those that spend the least amount possible – in actual dollars or as a percentage of their total budgets – has become so ingrained that it has formed the basis of public policies, rating systems and decision making for many donors. The consequences for charities and communities have been severe and far-reaching, translating into less effective organizations, starved of the strategic resources needed to do their work.
The United States Department of Labor, State of New Jersey, and City of Newark announced a $5 million grant to help provide jobs and support to hundreds of Newark residents returning home from prison over the next two years.
The grant includes $2 million in matching funds from the Bodman–Achelis Foundations, Joan Ganz Cooney, the Charles Edison Fund/Edison Innovation Foundation, the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers, the F.M. Kirby Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, the Nicholson Foundation, and the Victoria Foundation.
“The City can’t do this alone. It takes strategic alliances with federal and state officials, community and faith-based organizations, and the leveraging arm of the philanthropic institutions,” said Mayor Cory Booker. “We established the office of the philanthropic liaison, underwritten by the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers, to help create stronger connections with funders. The matching grants from the private sector show that these efforts are working.”
“The foundation community is delighted to partner with strong government leadership and the city’s philanthropic liaison in addressing the challenges faced by the growing numbers of men and women re-entering society,” said William H. Byrnes, Jr., program officer with the F.M. Kirby Foundation and trustee of the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers.
Over the past three years, the United States Department of Labor has been the lead agency for implementing the federal government’s Prisoner Reentry Initiative. “This grant will enable Newark to build on the success of the President’s Prisoner Reentry Initiative and provide over 1,200 ex-offenders with basic job skills and other assistance to help them succeed in developing new career paths,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor, Eliane L. Chao.
The combined $5 million award will enable the City to strengthen and expand services via a network of partners working through a one-stop center, Opportunity Reconnect, at Essex County College.
The goal of the grant is keep people working, help employers find workers, and keep families safe by successfully integrating ex-prisoners back into their communities through a comprehensive system of services including case management, mentoring, skills assessment, and referrals to health care providers.
State and local agencies will be coordinated to strengthen the city’s network and avoid duplication of efforts.
“We’ve managed to make funders more aware of the barriers that prevent ex-prisoners from being successful," said Jeremy Johnson, Newark’s philanthropic liaison. "Grantmakers have become increasingly involved as a result.”
To dig deeper into causes of, and responses to, structural racism within philanthropy in New Jersey, the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers established a Racial Equity Task Force made up of leaders at CNJG member organizations.
The task force’s mandate is to develop goals and objectives to create a roadmap for action to eliminate the structural racism that for too long has denied opportunity.
“This is a defining time in the history of our state and our nation,” said Maria Vizcarrondo, president and CEO of CNJG. “We are at a crossroads where we have to expose truth and take action for racial equity. Every institution and organization needs to look inward and discover whether it might be contributing to racism, even unknowingly. Our task force will be a forum for thought and a vehicle for action as we figure out how best to leave the middle ground and do the hard work to support systemic change. Philanthropy must invest resources towards advocacy to affect policy, and take that big leap away.”
Annette Strickland, executive director of the Schumann Fund for New Jersey and a CNJG Board member, will chair the task force. “The current health and racial crisis has brought into focus the impacts of structural racism on American society, she said. “Now is the time for us to explicitly examine the role that we as individuals and philanthropy as a professional practice contribute to those structures. To quote Martin Luther King, ‘Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.’”
Joining her on the task force are: Craig Drinkard, deputy director of the Victoria Foundation, CNJG Board member; Jeffrey Vega, president and CEO, Princeton Area Community Foundation and CNJG Board member; Jeremy Grunin, president, the Grunin Foundation and CNJG Board member; Kiki Jamieson, president, The Fund for New Jersey and former CNJG Board member; Melissa Litwin, program director, The Henry and Marilyn Taub Foundation, CNJG Board member; and Sharnita Johnson arts program director, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.
The Council of New Jersey Grantmakers is a nonprofit organization that exists to strengthen and promote effective philanthropy throughout the state. It supports independent, corporate, family and community foundations, as well as public grantmakers, in addressing society’s most difficult problems and providing leadership on statewide issues. About 2,300 grantmaking entities make up New Jersey’s philanthropic sector. They award more than $42 billion in grants annually.
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2020, we hope, is a year like no other for philanthropy. The hope and promise of the new year, quickly pivoted to dealing with coronavirus, changing how we work, striving for racial justice, keeping the Census secure, and more.
While much has changed this year, some things have not. Our shared commitment to one another and to CNJG's partners remains constant, remains strong, remains steadfast. We’re grateful to be in community with you, and grateful to be on this journey with you.
As we reflect on our collective activity this year, we thank you for all you do to support the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers - and all of New Jersey's communities.