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Adopted by the CNJG Board of Trustees October 20, 2023
Each principle begins with a common understanding followed by developmental steps for members beginning to look at these principles as well as the aspiration for each principle. These principles are intended to promote continuous learning, vulnerability, and reflection for how philanthropy can evolve from its historical roots to a more trusting, accountable, and equitable model.
The principles include:
1. Ethical Leadership
2. Stewardship
3. Values
4. Equity & Justice
5. Community Engagement
6. Public Voice
7. Continuous Learning
8. Transparency & Accountability
1. Ethical Leadership
Understand:
We believe that ethical leadership is required to build and maintain community trust in philanthropy. This is achieved through adherence to laws, good governance and community- informed decision-making.
Begin:
We serve our partners and communities in a way that engenders trust. We adhere to all applicable laws and take seriously our fiduciary duties. In order to maintain trust, we seek to continuously improve our governance, decision-making processes and organizational culture.
Aspire:
We actively engage the community in our governance and decision-making, balancing donor intent and community need. We strengthen community trust by including new and diverse voices on our governing bodies and decision-making teams.
2. Stewardship
Understand:
As philanthropic entities established for charitable purposes, we operate with a privileged tax status. We recognize that, in addition to money, foundation assets include investments, relationships, human resources, connections and networks, knowledge and expertise, and stature.
Begin:
We recognize our roles as funders, employers, economic entities and community members. Through each of these roles, we use the wide range of assets held by philanthropy to create positive benefits and impact with our communities.
Aspire:
We use all of our assets to build equity and strengthen communities, as defined by the communities, themselves. We use all available tools such as values-based investing, impact investing and giving beyond any minimum requirements, to generate community benefits.
3. Values
Understand:
Having clear and transparent goals, missions and values allows us to be purposeful in philanthropy and facilitates accountability with communities and stakeholders.
Begin:
Our missions and goals are clearly stated and are transparent to the community. We hold ourselves accountable to them. We periodically examine our missions and goals for relevance, impact and alignment to our values.
Aspire:
We seek to understand and incorporate the values of our stakeholders and the communities we serve into our missions, values and goals. The community participates in examining our mission, values and goals for relevance, and holds us accountable to them.
4. Equity & Justice
Understand:
We recognize two truths. Philanthropy is created to promote the welfare of others. Our commitment to equity requires us to dismantle disparities in access to power, money and resources. At the same time, philanthropy is a system that is built on historical structural inequities and systemic racism. These inequities create a resource gap and power differential between philanthropy and the community.
Begin:
We are in a unique position to promote equity and justice. We seek to understand how intersectional inequities and racism manifest in our philanthropy and our communities. We work to become anti-racist individuals and organizations. In order to advance equity and justice, we listen to the community, honor their story and rely on their lived experience to inform our grantmaking.
Aspire:
We acknowledge our privilege in resources and resulting power. We commit to increase power sharing with our community, especially with communities that have been historically marginalized. We believe in trust and shared power in decision-making, which increases community access to philanthropic resources. This increases equity and makes progress toward dismantling racism and eliminating systemic inequities.
5. Community Engagement
Understand:
Philanthropy works best when it builds long-term community relationships rather than focusing on short-term transactions. Positive impacts increase when we hold mutually respectful, direct relationships with the community. As a result of community engagement, philanthropic efforts become more relevant and donors/grantors more accountable to our community.
Begin:
We listen to the desires of the community and we interact with the community in culturally appropriate, meaningful and respectful ways. We engage in continual and reciprocal listening and learning, cultural curiosity and humility. In our relationships, we respect the community’s time and resources and strive to give more than we receive.
Aspire:
We take time to understand our relationships with the community, align our aspirations and actions, and adjust our work, as needed. We solicit community critique and feedback. We strengthen our grantmaking through power sharing, joint decision-making and funding of solutions defined and led by the community.
6. Public Voice
Understand:
Philanthropic organizations and individual donors enjoy power and influence that we must use responsibly, both individually and collectively, for the greater good. Our public voice augments our grantmaking to demonstrate partnership in communities and to advance our goals.
Begin:
We form our public voice by listening humbly to those with lived experience on issues we seek to influence. We use our collective voice to share knowledge, educate ourselves and others, and impact change on issues that advance equity and strengthen our community.
Aspire:
We amplify the voice of communities that have been historically marginalized. We use our collective voice to impact change in public policy and public opinion on issues important to our communities. We use our resources to amplify community voices and support grassroots organizing and advocacy.
7. Continuous Learning
Understand:
We have unprecedented access to information from local and global sources including science, research and community networks. Our communities offer rich information about the human impact of policies and resource distribution. We are obligated to use various information sources to actively learn and strengthen our practice and allow for vulnerability and openness to the evolution of our work.
Begin:
We are curious about our work and engage in activities that help us to consider new viewpoints and address individual biases. Through a range of learning activities including research, self-assessment, evaluation, professional development and community engagement processes we seek and use information that improves our grantmaking and expands our understanding of the community.
Aspire:
With the community, we engage in ongoing learning and jointly define funding priorities. We respect many cultural ways of learning and knowing and work to achieve individual and organizational cultural competency. We promote continuous learning with our teams and alongside our grantee partners. We improve our work by offering and using peer feedback and being open and vulnerable in the process.
8. Transparency & Accountability
Understand:
Transparency builds trust and strengthens our accountability to the community. By being transparent, we are accountable to our mission, values and goals.
Begin:
We exhibit transparency by being clear, consistent and timely in our communications, decisions and commitments. We share information publicly in order to meet regulatory requirements and uphold community expectations, in the context of our missions. We demonstrate accountability by learning from community feedback and critique.
Aspire:
We consider state and federal regulatory requirements to be the minimum standard of transparency. We excel at transparency and accountability by engaging the community in decision-making and external evaluation of our work
CECP’s Giving in Numbers™is the unrivaled leader in benchmarking on corporate social investments, in partnership with companies. It is the premier industry survey and research, providing standard-setting criteria in a go-to guide that has defined the field and advanced the movement. CECP has the largest and most historical data set on trends in the industry, shared by more than 585 multi-billion-dollar companies over nearly 19 years, representing more than $312 billion in corporate social investments over that time span. The report is embraced by professionals across all sectors globally to understand how corporations invest in society, with topics ranging from cash and in-kind/product, employee volunteerism and giving, and impact measurement.
Kessler Foundation approved approximately $2 million in grants in 2021 to support initiatives that promote the inclusion of people with disabilities in the workplace. The Foundation allocated funding for three categories: Foundation-Directed Grants, Community Employment Grants, and Special Initiative Grants. Since 2005, the Foundation's Center for Grantmaking has awarded more than $50 million to nonprofit programs that expand employment opportunities for people with disabilities striving to work, adding diversity to American workplaces, and boosting productivity.
Kessler grantmaking has lead to improved job skills and paid employment for thousands of individuals with disabilities.
The Foundation's contributions have led to improved job skills and paid employment for thousands of individuals with disabilities, according to Elaine E. Katz, MS, CCC-SLP, senior vice president for grants and communications at Kessler Foundation. "Our grants support inventive initiatives that open new pathways to increasing inclusion of people with disabilities in the workplace," she added.
What does the family philanthropy landscape look like? How has it changed across the last decade, and what do those changes mean for the field?
Join National Center for Family Philanthropy to discuss the findings of the Trends in Family Philanthropy 2025 report.
We will explore:
The changes in philanthropic focus for many family philanthropies
How grantmaking practices are evolving, and whether community needs are coming to the fore
How philanthropies are learning about new ideas and approaches
The changes in family dynamics, shifts in how the next generation are being engaged, and the factors that sustain and impede family engagement
Changes in the make-up of boards
What the findings suggest about future trends
Speakers include:
Miki Akimoto, Chief Impact Officer at the National Center for Family Philanthropy (NCFP) and Erin Hogan is a Managing Director and Philanthropic Market Executive for Bank of America’ Philanthropic Solutions
There will be time at the end of the session for Q&A.
About the Trends report
The Trends survey captures and tracks leading trends in the field of family philanthropy. Conducted every five years, this research identifies emerging issues, changes in funding priorities and governance practices, innovative approaches to giving and decision making, and anticipated future giving patterns and practices among US-based philanthropic families nationally. Ultimately, it aims to equip donors with data they can apply to their decision making.
Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR) presents an opportunity for funders to gain insights into their early thinking on potential movement strategies and needs post national elections.
Elections are an essential expression of our democracy, and movement organizations play a crucial role in that democratic exercise by mobilizing their communities to have their voices heard at the ballot box. For funders, the All by April campaign was a clear call to action, highlighting the necessity of early and flexible support to allow these frontline organizations to kick their operations into high gear. However, the work for philanthropy is not over. In addition to resourcing civic engagement efforts in the run-up to elections, fudners must also stand ready to strategically deploy resources in response to what comes once the elections are over.
From the risk of increasingly harsh enforcement policies at the federal level to openings to push for more inclusive policies at the state and local levels, immigrant justice groups have been carefully considering the threats and opportunities associated with a variety of congressional and presidential election outcome scenarios. In this webinar, funders will gain insights into their early thinking on potential movement strategies and needs.
This session represents one of several spaces GCIR and our allies will be holding for philanthropy to prepare and respond to the upcoming elections, with additional opportunities and post-election strategy sessions.
SPEAKERS
· Jeremy Robbins, Executive Director, American Immigration Council
· Tessa Petit, Executive Director, Florida Immigrant Coalition
· Raha Wala, VP of Strategic Partnerships and Advocacy, National Immigration Law Center
· Murad Awawdeh, President and CEO, New York Immigration Coalition
MODERATOR
· Ivy O. Suriyopas, Vice President of Programs, Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees
· Veronika Geronimo, Director of Immigrant Justice, Four Freedoms Fund, NEO Philanthropy
Cost: Free for Funders
Strategic asset allocation is arguably one of the most important, yet least advanced, aspects of investing. The Investment Strategy Group (ISG) in the Goldman Sachs Investment Management Division has developed a new approach to strategic asset allocation, which leverages the idea that long-term investment returns derive from multiple distinct sources called “return-generating factors.” This multi-factor approach is designed to help investors better understand the key sources of long-term return across asset classes and to increase the precision of long-term risk and return estimates. It also provides investors with a new way to think about portfolio diversification, allowing them to focus not only on diversification across asset classes but also
on diversification across the underlying sources of return.
The Grunin Foundation, in partnership with the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers, invites you to the next Monmouth-Ocean Roundtable of Funders (MORF) meeting. Join your fellow funders for a convening centered around Sharing, Learning & Action!
Lunch will be provided.
Cost: Free for CNJG Members and Non-Member Grantmakers
This program is open to grantmakers only and is geared towards those who fund in Monmouth & Ocean Counties.
The Grunin Foundation, in partnership with the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers, invites you to the next Monmouth & Ocean Roundtable of Funders (MORF) meeting. Join your fellow funders for a convening centered around Sharing, Learning & Action!
Lunch will be provided.
Cost: Free for CNJG Members and Non-Member Grantmakers
This program is open to grantmakers only and is geared towards those who fund in Monmouth & Ocean Counties.
CNJG is pleased to offer this program to family foundation members as part of NCFP's Fundamentals of Family Philanthropy 2024 webinar series, providing guidance on the core tenets of effective family philanthropy.
What responsibilities do family philanthropies have to steward their funds as a public good? Through engaging discussions and real-world case studies, we’ll navigate the complexities of wealth creation and stewardship and ensuring equitable distribution of resources.
Cost: This event is free for CNJG Members who are family foundations.
Other types of foundations are ineligible to join this webinar.
This program is a CNJG membership benefit for family foundation members, including staff and trustees, in partnership with the National Center for Family Philanthropy.
CNJG is pleased to offer this program to family foundation members as part of NCFP's Fundamentals of Family Philanthropy 2024 webinar series, providing guidance on the core tenets of effective family philanthropy.
Intentional philanthropy requires ongoing reflection and planning. This interactive workshop will provide families with practical tools and proven strategies to clarify their philanthropic mission, effectively transition leadership, ensure lasting impact, and preserve their philanthropic values.
Cost: This event is free for CNJG Members who are family foundations.
Other types of foundations are ineligible to join this webinar.
This program is a CNJG membership benefit for family foundation members, including staff and trustees, in partnership with the National Center for Family Philanthropy.
CNJG is pleased to offer this program to family foundation members as part of NCFP's Fundamentals of Family Philanthropy 2024 webinar series, providing guidance on the core tenets of effective family philanthropy.
This webinar will explore a comprehensive approach to reparations in family philanthropy efforts and will provide family philanthropies with a practical roadmap for addressing historical and systemic injustices. Join this session to learn how to foster a more equitable, just and inclusive society through your families’ giving.
Cost: This event is free for CNJG Members who are family foundations.
Other types of foundations are ineligible to join this webinar.
This program is a CNJG membership benefit for family foundation members, including staff and trustees, in partnership with the National Center for Family Philanthropy.
Funding nonprofit endowments can be a tool to ensure the stability of an organization, as well as to advance equity and shift power to frontline organizations. However, according to new, forthcoming CEP research, endowment giving represents only a small slice of foundation funding.
The webinar will explore the how and why of endowment funding from both funder and nonprofit perspectives, including U.S. foundation practices in endowment giving, how funding endowments can foster nonprofit sustainability and advance equitable social change, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s approach to endowment funding as a tool to advance equity.
The panel includes:
Maisha E. Simmons, Assistant Vice President, Equity and Culture, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (moderator)
Darren Isom, Partner, The Bridgespan Group
Elisha Smith Arrillaga, Vice President of Research, Center for Effective Philanthropy
John Jackson, President and CEO, Schott Foundation for Public Education
COST: Free for CNJG Members and Non Member Grantmakers
All registrants will receive a recording of the webinar after the event.
This program is presented by CEP and The Bridgespan Group and co-hosted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
A CNJG member queried our listserves for sample questions (not included in the grant application) you might ask grantees or potential grantees during site visits. CNJG compiled these responses, and other documents members use.
Dear CNJG Community,
I am writing to let you know that last week Council of New Jersey Grantmakers’ President and CEO Nina Stack, notified the Council’s Board of Trustees that she will be stepping down in June to become the Executive Director of The Champlin Foundation, the largest private foundation in the state of Rhode Island.
This is certainly bittersweet news. While we will miss her tremendous leadership, enthusiasm, and good spirit she has brought to our state’s philanthropic community these past thirteen years, anyone who knows Nina knows that Rhode Island is also near and dear to her heart.
Yesterday, I convened a meeting of our Executive Committee, which includes Bill Engel/Hyde & Watson Foundation, Annmarie Puleio/Fred C. Rummel Foundation, Cynthia Evans/Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and Bill Leavens/Leavens Family Foundation to consider how the Council will address this transition phase and search process.
In addition, the full Board of Trustees will be meeting later this month to build on these initial conversations. We are developing a thorough, thoughtful, and deliberate transition plan and search process. I will be back in touch with all of you, the members of CNJG and colleagues, in the coming weeks to share those details.
The good news is that under Nina’s extraordinary leadership over these many years, the Council is in an excellent position. Our finances are very strong, our membership continues to grow, our members are more engaged, our programming is exceptional, our partnerships are robust, our staff is talented, and our influence with policymakers, business leaders, and others across the state deepens.
In the meantime, Nina will remain on staff until June 1. We look forward to seeing many of you at the Spring Colloquium – Breaking Through in the New Media Paradigm – on May 24.
Please join us for what will be Nina’s last program as President and CEO of the Council, I encourage you to register as soon as possible. Seating is limited, and I have no doubt it will sell out very soon.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Pearson
Chair, Council of New Jersey Grantmakers
Related Articles
Providence Business Journal: Stack to head Champlin Foundation come June
Funders want to be the best versions of themselves. A critical step on that journey is getting feedback from grantees. However, not every foundation has the time or capacity to collect grantee feedback.
Exponent Philanthropy helps lean funders collect feedback from their communities through the Grantee and Applicant Perception Survey. Over the past 2 years, they’ve worked with six foundations to survey more than 400 nonprofits to learn what lean funders do well and where they can improve..
In this publication, they’ve compiled feedback from those surveys to try and help lean funders understand what nonprofits want them to learn. We’ve organized that feedback into two main sections:.
1. How nonprofits think funders should increase their impact
2. How nonprofits think funders should improve their processes.
Throughout this publication, you’ll find data from our surveys and direct quotes from nonprofit leaders. We provide additional context and data from the 2023 Foundation Operations and Management Report (FOMR) and links to additional resources to learn more about these topics.
Why are so many nonprofits having trouble filling jobs? Why are so many employees leaving the sector? Because too many nonprofit jobs are burnout jobs!
Funders and nonprofit managers can prevent burnout and create sustainable jobs that allow employees to not just support their families and enjoy work-life balance, but truly flourish.
This interactive workshop--led by by Staffing the Mission facilitators Betsy Leondar-Wright and Mariah Casias--will present practical strategies for philanthropic and nonprofit organizations to enhance job quality, based on recommendations from three sections of the Sustainable Jobs Toolkit:
Work/Life Balance
Grantmaker/Grantee Communication
Sustainable Compensation Policies
Participants will share their understandings of burnout conditions to avoid, and will leave with concrete next steps for improving employee experience at their own nonprofit organization or for their grantees.
Payment is sliding scale
Hurricane Helene was a monster storm, one of the biggest on record to hit the U.S. It made landfall as a Category 4 storm near Perry, Florida on Sept. 26, bringing devastating, widespread impacts across Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and beyond.
While Helene’s full impacts won’t be known for days, CDP recognizes that the storm hit communities affected by other hurricanes, as recently as Hurricane Debby last month. When communities get hit repeatedly, they can’t fully recover before the next blow. This diminishes resilience and increases the need for funders to enhance available resources.
By the end of this webinar, donors will:
Understand the most urgent and ongoing needs in affected communities.
Learn how chronic and repetitive disasters create additional needs.
Be aware of ways they can invest funds to support community needs.
Free for all funders
The vast majority of people would prefer to stay in their home countries instead of undertaking uncertain and often perilous journeys. However, by the end of last year, conflict, violence, persecution, natural disasters, and the impacts of climate change had forcibly displaced nearly 110 million people.
People from all over the world have sought refuge in the United States since before its inception, and the U.S. government recently opened new pathways for refugees to enter the country through community sponsorship and private sponsorship.
Join GCIR in a dialogue with leaders who operate in both the traditional refugee resettlement space and with the new community sponsorship program. Learn how philanthropy can better mobilize resources to protect those seeking safety and refuge in the United States.
SPEAKERS
Basma Alawee, Deputy Executive Director, Community Sponsorship Hub
Robin Mencher, CEO, Jewish Family & Community Services-East Bay
Dauda Sesay, Founding Member and President, Louisiana Organization for Refugees and Immigrants
MODERATOR
John Slocum, Executive Director, Refugee Council USA
COST: Free for members and nonmembers
CNJG invites members to attend this webinar to learn about the DAPP survey and report from CHANGE Philanthropy. This webinar is for United Philanthropy Forum members and its members’ members, meaning CNJG and its members are all eligible and invited to attend.
Now entering its 4th iteration, the Diversity Among Philanthropic Professionals (DAPP) Survey and Report aims to help the philanthropic community better understand its workforce and leadership. In addition to featuring one of the most comprehensive demographic sections in the sector, the DAPP has several features designed to help institutions better understand the experiences of distinct communities and provide real data to participants on the state of diversity, equity, and inclusion in their home institutions. In this exciting session, representatives from CHANGE Philanthropy will present an in-depth overview of the DAPP, with emphasis on its history, core features, and examples of how PSOs can apply the DAPP data to their own knowledge building efforts. Our hope is that this session helps attendees think about how to use the DAPP to make changes in their own institutions.
Learning Outcomes:
• Explore possible ways of utilizing DAPP data to effect change in support of greater inclusion.
• Understand the features of the DAPP report and how to participate in future surveys.
• Connect with CHANGE partners for further resources to support diverse teams.
Process Questions:
• What is the DAPP?
• What special incentives exist to encourage participation?
• How have others used the DAPP to address workplace culture?
• How can CHANGE partners help you in promoting inclusive workplaces?
Presenters:
Tenaja Jordan, Research & Communications Director at CHANGE Philanthropy
Deborah Aubert Thomas, CEO, Philanthropy Ohio, and Forum Racial Equity Committee Chair
COST: Free for CNJG Members
(You will need to create an account on United Philanthropy Forum’s website in order to register for the program).
The Provident Bank Foundation (PBF) on May 11 announced Major Grant recipients for its first cycle of 2021.
The Foundation awarded $400,000 of total funding – its largest Major Grant cycle to date – to 26 nonprofit organizations within the Foundation’s three priority areas: Community Enrichment, Education and Health, and Youth & Families.
Grants provide funding between $5,000 and $25,000 to organizations across the New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania communities served by Provident Bank.
“The Provident Bank Foundation remains focused on funding valuable programs, projects, and initiatives that address immediate needs, create meaningful impact, and lead to sustainable community enhancement,” said the foundation’s executive director, Samantha Plotino. “We are committed to supporting organizations that are helping our communities remain vibrant, healthy and safe.”