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Two different CNJG members queried the CEO listserve on how/when/how to return to the office following the COVID-19 pandemic. CNJG staff compiled the answers from the responding members removing identifying information of the respondents.
To answer the basic question of how many active family foundations are planning to spend down or exist in perpetuity (or have not yet made a decision), and to examine foundations’ motivations and decision-making, the Foundation Center, in collaboration with the Council on Foundations and with additional assistance from the Association of Small Foundations, launched a study of family foundations in 2008. This report presents the full range of study findings, which are based on survey responses from 1,074 family foundations.
Novartis benchmarked Employee Crisis Programs, and asked fellow corporate funders via the corporate funders listserve to answer the questions below.
- If you have an Employee Crisis Program, what is the name
- Do you manage the program internally or thru a 3rd party? If you use a 3rd party, can you share their name/website and any good/bad experiences.
- Do you only support disasters or other hardships as well?
- What is the average percentage of your employees that apply for aid?
- What is your minimum and maximum funding?
- What is the average amount of aid?
- Do you provide aid directly to the employee and/or vendors?
- Do you allow employees to donate to your fund? If so, how do you promote awareness and what is the employee donation participation rate? Do you match these donations?
- Where does the program reside (CSR, Foundation, HR)?
- Please share guidelines and applications, if possible.
- Please share any other insights.
In this briefing on housing and homeless, you will hear about the changes of federal policy on housing and their impact in New Jersey, you will hear from a panel who will discuss the potential effects of state policy changes on homelessness and housing, including the administration of housing choice vouchers. Potential funding cuts can lead to staffing reductions on housing and homeless services. The uncertainty faced by agencies regarding their funding and the need for legal support can create fear and confusion among agencies in New Jersey. Panelists will discuss what funding strategies and ways to support grantees. At the state and local levels, there is also a need for funders to support policy advocacy and legal assistance.
Cost: Free for CNJG Members; $75 for Non Member Grantmakers
This program is only open to staff and trustees from grantmaking organizations.
Adam Gordon, Executive Director, Fair Share Housing Center, coordinated strategy of organizing, litigation, and policy development to advance racial, economic, and social integration throughout New Jersey and the United States. Since joining the organization in 2006, he has worked to implement New Jersey’s Mount Laurel Doctrine, which has created over 70,000 affordable homes in historically exclusionary communities. He also litigated the largest federal fair housing case in U.S. history and has worked to make federal disaster recovery policy more equitable. Under Gordon’s leadership, FSHC secured passage of the first statewide Fair Chance in Housing Act to limit discriminatory tenant screening policies, a landmark $305 million fund to accelerate affordable housing development, and major legislation to strengthen enforcement of the Mount Laurel Doctrine. Gordon is a co-founder and former Board Chair of Next City.
Elisa Harrigan is the Policy Strategist for the Fund for Housing and Opportunity. She is a disrupter, change agent, and bridge-builder in the philanthropic space. She has an extensive track record centering impacted communities and applying an intersectional equity lens to her work. Elisa brings almost 20 years of experience and expertise to FHO as an influential voice for housing justice in governmental, philanthropic, and nonprofit arenas. The Fund for Housing and Opportunity is a nationwide collaborative working to protect renters and prevent homelessness. FHO brings funders together from across sectors and perspectives to support organizations on the frontlines of housing justice.
Taiisa Kelly, CEO, Monarch Housing Associates, has experience in housing development working with federal, state and local funding sources to secure financing for special needs housing projects. Mrs. Kelly is a dedicated advocate for social justice who has assisted Monarch in expanding services to include strategic planning, grant writing, system oversight, project monitoring, grant administration, innovative program development, and data analysis. Since becoming CEO in 2019, Ms. Kelly has worked to expand and innovate the housing development focus of the agency. Monarch is developing new partnerships to support the creation of housing for marginalized communities with an eye towards innovations in development. Under Ms. Kelly’s leadership Monarch is focused on integrating racial equity into all aspects of homeless planning and housing development with the intent of ending homelessness in New Jersey. Ms. Kelly was inducted into the NJ Housing and Economic Development Hall of Fame in 2023, and was named as one of the 2021 Best 50 Women in Business by NJBIZ Magazine. Mrs. Kelly serves on the Boards of Directors for Nourish.NJ and for the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey (HCDNNJ). She is a Member of United Black Agenda Committee and of the Enterprise Community Leadership Council and Enterprise Community Loan Fund Board, as well as a Commissioner on the Newark Commission on Homelessness. She additionally serves on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation JEGNA Council, the New Jersey State of Affordable Housing (NJSOARH) Advisory Committee.
Lucy Vandenberg is the Executive Director of the Schumann Fund for New Jersey. She leads the Fund’s mission to empower low-income children and families of color to thrive. Lucy ensures that Schumann Fund’s investments positively impact opportunities for affordable homes and healthy communities, early childhood and education, and child welfare and youth justice in Essex County and statewide. From 2013 through 2021, Lucy served as Senior Program Officer for The Fund for New Jersey and managed a $3 million grant portfolio that included lead poisoning prevention, public education, public media, racial justice, immigration, and the environment. Previously, Lucy served as Executive Director of the New Jersey State Council on Affordable Housing. She worked with municipalities to provide their fair share of affordable housing resulting from New Jersey’s landmark Mt. Laurel Supreme Court decisions. Earlier in her career, Lucy served as Senior Policy Advisor for Housing and Urban Revitalization in Governor James E. McGreevey’s administration, and as the Associate Director of the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey.
Janel Winter, Assistant Commissioner leads the Division of Housing and Community Affairs, which includes the State’s public housing authority serving more than 40,000 households annually; home energy assistance programs serving more than 200,000 families annually; affordable housing production programs; the Office of Homelessness Prevention; the Office of Eviction Prevention; weatherization and lead remediation and abatement programs; neighborhood revitalization programs; and a variety of other community of other community development initiatives. She has managed the distribution of $2 Billion in federal Covid-related funds to address rental and utility arrears and community revitalization and development throughout the State. Prior to joining DCA, Janel led the Office of Housing at the NJ Department of Human Services and served as Associate Director at the Corporation for Supportive Housing/CSH. Before returning to her home state of NJ, Janel worked at various direct service homelessness and housing agencies in Chicago.
Webinar Video
Programs in this Series:
March 13: Making Sense of Federal Policy: Understanding What it Means for NJ: Immigration
March 20: Making Sense of Federal Policy: Understanding What it Means for NJ: Health
March 27: Making Sense of Federal Policy: Understanding What it Means for NJ: Environment
April 3: Making Sense of Federal Policy: Understanding What it Means for NJ: Education
April 10: Making Sense of Federal Policy: Understanding What it Means for NJ: Housing
April 17: Making Sense of Federal Policy: Understanding What it Means for NJ: Media & Journalism
April 24: Making Sense of Federal Policy: Understanding What it Means for NJ: Arts
In this arts briefing, Nadia Elokdah, Vice President and Program Director for Grantmakers in the Arts, will discuss the unique opportunity for arts grantmakers to support advocacy and influence policy through their funding decisions and why the arts should be included in decision-making processes. She will also cover the importance of arts funding in building narrative power and driving cultural change. Vanessa Ramalho, Director of External Relations of ArtPride New Jersey, will highlight the challenges faced by arts and cultural organizations in New Jersey and their intersections with community issues relating to the ongoing changes in federal policy. She will also share how ArtPride New Jersey is leveraging its statewide reach to develop collaborative advocacy strategies to influence and help shape policies informed by the needs and voices of the arts sector and the communities they serve. Vanessa will explore ways that funders might shift their focus and priorities to better meet the needs of organizations that are navigating increasing financial uncertainty as a result of federal policy changes.
Nadia Elokdah is an urbanist and design strategist with more than a decade working at the intersection of public systems and cultural practice. She currently serves as Vice President & Director of Programs at GIA. Most recently she served as special projects manager with the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs coordinating the City’s monuments commission. Prior, she served as coordinator in the development of the City’s first cultural plan, CreateNYC, in which she coordinated and led hundreds of engagements with a broad cross-section of the public, as well collaborating in the writing and production of the plan. She is devoted to civic engagement through culturally responsible, inclusive, and equitable design practice, exemplified in collaborations with the International Design Clinic, in.site collaborative, and Monuments Lab. Nadia is a trained architect and designer, researcher, professor, and published author, including Identity Crisis, a cultural exploration of urban planning through the hammam. She currently serves as steering committee member of the Women of Color in the Arts (WOCA) Non-Black POC Solidarity! into Action Committee, National Coalition for Arts Preparedness & Emergency Response (NCAPER) Programming Working Group, and an advisory board member for Unsettled.
Vanessa Ramalho, Director of External Relations, supports ArtPride’s advocacy and government affairs work, leading efforts to move forward legislative priorities that support the sustainability of the arts in New Jersey. Vanessa also builds relationships with constituents throughout the state — from community members to arts organizations, and local and state representatives — to support the cultivation of a thriving arts ecosystem. With nearly 20 years of experience in the nonprofit arts & cultural sector, Vanessa has led community education, fundraising, and grassroots advocacy projects across a range of organizations, including the Sadie Nash Leadership Project, the Asian Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS (APICHA), Project KISS of New York Presbyterian Hospital, The Princeton Ballet School, the Asian Arts Initiative, and the Center for Babaylan Studies.
Cost: Free for CNJG Members; $75 for Non Member Grantmakers
This program is only open to staff and trustees from grantmaking organizations.
Programs in this Series:
March 13: Making Sense of Federal Policy: Understanding What it Means for NJ: Immigration
March 20: Making Sense of Federal Policy: Understanding What it Means for NJ: Health
March 27: Making Sense of Federal Policy: Understanding What it Means for NJ: Environment
April 3: Making Sense of Federal Policy: Understanding What it Means for NJ: Education
April 10: Making Sense of Federal Policy: Understanding What it Means for NJ: Housing
April 17: Making Sense of Federal Policy: Understanding What it Means for NJ: Media & Journalism
April 24: Making Sense of Federal Policy: Understanding What it Means for NJ: Arts
Webinar Video
This guide was designed to help the state’s philanthropic community understand their ethical, legal, and fiduciary requirements and obligations.
This report highlights three philanthropic efforts to build the capacity of local communities in the West - The Ford Family Foundation’s Ford Institute Leadership Program, the Northwest Area Foundation’s Horizons Program, and the Orton Family Foundation’s Heart and Soul Community Planning Program.
Philanthropic organizations of all shapes and sizes are well positioned to support Communities for a Lifetime (CfaL). This issue brief explores four roles for philanthropy in advancing CfaL work.
CNJG's President's Reports
A working glossary of terms to help shape a common language for work in Community Capacity. This glossary is intended to help promote philanthropy's roles in building community capacity by defining core concepts and closely related terms.
CNJG's 2018 Annual Meeting & Holiday Luncheon pre-meeting workshop with Michelle Greanias from PEAK Grantmaking focused on how foundation CEO’s, program officers, staff, and trustees could engage internally to put values-based grantmaking into practice.
Walk the Talk Video
Sample board committee descriptions, including roles and responsibilities of committee members
Sample bylaws for Community Foundations.
This weekly funder briefing webinar series welcomed New Jersey-based grantmakers along with national funders and provided an opportunity for grantmakers to hear from a wide range of nonprofit experts. This series started on March 13, 2025, less than a month after the first executive order was issued and continued through April 24, 2025. The written summaries of each recording are listed below.
Despite a field replete with research, analysis, recommended policies and practices — not to mention an abundance of educational programs and frameworks for grantmaking to diverse communities — philanthropic leaders have been slow to advance these values in their foundations. Philanthropy Northwest (PNW) wondered: what is getting in the way? Why are good intentions, buttressed with theory and practical advice, not achieving better results on measures of diversity, equity and inclusion?
With the support of the D5 Coalition, PNW began a year-long study to explore these questions. The study was divided into two parts. They began with personal interviews of 23 philanthropic leaders in the Pacific Northwest. In order to better understand how these organizations incorporated diversity, equity, and inclusion into their work and workplaces, they collected baseline information about their staff composition, leadership styles, and organizational practices/policies.
This report details their findings. It includes an in-depth look at the peer cohort model, in which ten foundation leaders met regularly to discuss these issues and support each other in advancing their own leadership. It also includes practical lessons about shifting organizational cultures towards greater diversity, equity and inclusion — lessons drawn directly from the experiences of peer cohort leaders.
PNW presented this work in a webinar hosted by the D5 Coalition. The webinar recording and slides are below.
The Newark Philanthropic Liaison is a unique partnership between the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers and the City of Newark, supported by several foundations. Read more about the Liaison’s work In these reports. Due to several transitions, there were no written reports between 2015 and 2022.