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The United Way of Passaic County (UWPC) has announced a $295,984 investment in emergency food and shelter providers in the community. The program, funded by FEMA and administered by the United Way of Passaic County, is especially critical given the high rate of inflation and the end of federal emergency SNAP benefits.
The funds will go to local organizations such as CUMAC, Oasis, St. Paul’s Community Development Corporation, Center for Family Resources, Catholic Charities, New Hope Ministries, Paterson Salvation Army, Passaic Salvation Army, Paterson Task Force and Eva’s Village.
"We partner with organizations in the community to provide needed and impactful services to the community. These organizations stepped up during COVID and are continuing to step up as residents face increased rates of food and housing insecurity," United Way of Passaic County CEO and President Mary Celis said. "We are grateful for the great work these agencies do in Passaic County, and we are so thankful for the thousands of United Way donors whose ongoing support makes our community impact work possible."
From Denver to D.C., cities across the country continue to welcome asylum seekers being bussed and flown in from Texas and Florida. Local governments, nonprofit providers, and philanthropic partners are all playing key roles in responding to urgent needs while building the infrastructure needed to receive these migrants and prepare for possible future arrivals.
Join Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR) for this peer-to-peer discussion session to learn about the challenges local leaders are encountering while addressing the needs of these newly arriving migrants. We will also explore the strategies currently being developed and refined for building strong response networks. It has become clear that - in addition to resources - communication, coordination, and adaptability are essential to a successful response. This session will provide an opportunity for participants to share their experiences and ask questions about strategies for welcoming and supporting new arrivals.
Cost: Free for CNJG Members and Non Member Grantmakers
This program is presented by Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees.
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
What are the chances that a third grader in a New Jersey public school has learned the reading skills they need to progress through school? Post-Covid, only 42% of students read at grade level statewide, less than 20% in at least five cities. New resources are available, and new legislation mandates have proven strategies at scale. Hear from multiple perspectives of expertise to understand how kids learn to read and how to connect them to what they need. The panel includes Dawn DeLorenzo Teacher and Leader Policy Fellow at New Jersey CAN; Sandra Montoyez Diodonet, Superintendent of Passaic Public Schools; Lisa Haberl Executive Director, NJDOE Division of Teaching and Learning Services; and Paula White, Executive Director of JerseyCAN & Legacy of Literacy Campaign. There will be time for Q & A.
Cost: Free for CNJG Members; $50 for Non Member Grantmakers
Webinar Video
The TD Charitable Foundation, the charitable arm of TD Bank, has announced grants totaling $7.2 million to 36 nonprofits in support of housing affordability and stability.
Awarded through the foundation’s annual Housing for Everyone program, grants of $200,000 each will boost solutions for low- to moderate-income (LMI) homeowners struggling to maintain homeownership. Recipients include Rebuilding Together Miami-Dade (Florida), Midcoast Habitat for Humanity (Rockport, Maine), Valley Community Development Corp. (Northampton, Massachusetts), Family Promise of Warren County (Phillipsburg, New Jersey), Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation (Brooklyn, New York), and Greenville Housing Fund (Greenville, South Carolina).
“Amid rising housing costs, these organizations play a vital role in supporting homeowners in communities across TD’s footprint to afford critical repairs, avoid foreclosure, correct tangled titles, and so much more,” said TD Charitable Foundation director Paige Carlson-Heim. “The efforts of the Housing for Everyone grantees are so appreciated, as their work is essential to protecting homeowners and providing long-term stability in our neighborhoods. By supporting these nonprofits, we hope to help mitigate the threat of home loss while ensuring homeowners have the resources and resilience they need to sustain long-term homeownership.”
Join our first Newark Funder Affinity Group meeting of the year as we discuss effective practices in wraparound support and advocacy for new immigrants to the area. The conditions at the border due to unrest in Central and South America and the busing of migrants from Texas to Northeastern cities mean that Newark is seeing an increased number of immigrants in need of immediate assistance. We will use this session to discuss ways that philanthropy can become engaged.
Speakers:
Priscilla Monico Marín, Executive Director, NJ Consortium for Immigrant Children
Amy Torres, NJ Alliance for Immigrant Justice
Chia-Chia Wang, Organizing and Advocacy Director, American Friends Service Committee
Cost: Free for CNJG Members; $50 for Non Member Grantmakers.
Thanks to the Community Foundation of New Jersey, we have also opened an account for any foundations interested in pooling resources to support our immigrant community with legal and wraparound services. If you are interested in exploring this further with colleagues, please contact Kevin Callaghan, Newark Philanthropic Liaison.
The Summit Foundation is proud to announce the awarding of over $185,000 in scholarships to more than 60 students in the Summit, NJ area this year, empowering them to pursue higher education.
Every year, the Foundation partners with generous donors to provide financial support that helps students cover not only tuition but the many other costs of college life, such as books, dorm supplies, and living expenses. This support allows students to attend schools of their choice, to live on campus, and to take on fewer student loans.
“Before I even applied to colleges, I remember how afraid I was of not being able to afford an education after high school,” shared April Sanchez, a rising senior at Gettysburg College and recipient of the Elevating Summit Students Scholarship. “Never did I imagine how many resources there were for people like me. With pride, I say today that because of foundations like these, I have traded my fears for hope and gratitude... Not only am I a better friend, daughter, student, employee, and overall person, but I am also an even more hopeful and driven person than I was before.”
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 Office of the Newark Philanthropic Liaison (NPL) —an innovative collaboration between the city of Newark and the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers (CNJG) —is tasked with harnessing interest, fostering greater effectiveness, and attracting resources toward policy and programmatic areas that affect and improve the lives of Newark’s residents. Supported by a dedicated cohort of funders through CNJG, the office is non-partisan and based in the Mayor’s Office in Newark City Hall. The Liaison represents one of the nation's first formal partnerships between a city and the philanthropic community, and has become a national model for public-private alliances. At its core, the role has three main functions:
- Connect – Align citywide initiatives and bring together cross-sector partners for collective action.
- Convene – Foster strong partnerships with regional and national philanthropic leaders and support Newark and New Jersey funder collaboration through funder affinity groups.
- Leverage – Identify and maximize public and private resources for City priorities.
As Newark is at a pivotal time in its growth and development, the Office of Newark Philanthropic Liaison is focused on a number of big issues including equitable economic development in our neighborhoods, educational equity, employment, serving the needs of our immigrant and other vulnerable communities, housing for the homeless, and expanding broadband and health services. Now more than ever, we need collaboration and partnerships. These issues are too big for any one person or entity to solve alone.
The Newark Philanthropic Liaison project is supported by Bank of America, the Burke Foundation, the Community Foundation of New Jersey, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Maher Charitable Foundation, the MCJ Amelior Foundation, The Prudential Foundation, Schumann Fund for New Jersey, Turrell Fund, and the Victoria Foundation. While the Nicholson Foundation sunset in late 2021, we acknowledge and thank the foundation for its long-term support of the initiative.
We also acknowledge the City of Newark for its commitment to collaborating with the position and elevating the voice of philanthropy. A special thank you to the Community Foundation of New Jersey, which facilitates and manages grant funds for many of our partnerships.
Join your fellow CNJG members and CNJG staff, every first Friday of the month, for a 60-minute Zoom session. Much like the New Jersey Center for Nonprofits’ Member Mondays or “open office hours,” these sessions are a dedicated time for members to gather online to network, ask questions of each other or the CNJG staff on topics that could address:
- The latest issues facing New Jersey philanthropic organizations, resources and calls to action.
- How to use Trust-Based Philanthropy practices at your philanthropy.
- How can funders “Do Good Better?”
- Sincere discussions, sharing your questions, challenges, and success stories with your philanthropic colleagues.
- Opportunities for collaboration, programs you are offering for grantees, RFP announcements, and more.
Current members (grantmaking and associate) are invited to participate. No registration is required.
There won’t be an agenda, and we will not record the session, but we will take attendance.
To Join:
Use this link
or use
Zoom Meeting ID: 879 8405 2351
Passcode: 663599
Meeting Norms:
To make the experience comfortable and worthwhile to all, we respectfully ask the following.
- Please try to be on camera as much as possible.
- Please keep the conversation respectful and nonpartisan.
- While everyone is welcome to share resources during the session and to include helpful information in the chat, we ask that there be no direct soliciting for new clients/customers.
- Please allow everyone the opportunity to participate.
- Feel free to continue discussions offline with anyone that shares their contact information with you. Contact information for our members can be found through our online member directory.
Join your fellow CNJG members and CNJG staff, every first Friday of the month, for a 60-minute Zoom session. Much like the New Jersey Center for Nonprofits’ Member Mondays or “open office hours,” these sessions are a dedicated time for members to gather online to network, ask questions of each other or the CNJG staff on topics that could address:
- The latest issues facing New Jersey philanthropic organizations, resources and calls to action.
- How to use Trust-Based Philanthropy practices at your philanthropy.
- How can funders “Do Good Better?”
- Sincere discussions, sharing your questions, challenges, and success stories with your philanthropic colleagues.
- Opportunities for collaboration, programs you are offering for grantees, RFP announcements, and more.
Current members (grantmaking and associate) are invited to participate. No registration is required.
There won’t be an agenda, and we will not record the session, but we will take attendance.
To Join:
Use this link
or use
Zoom Meeting ID: 879 8405 2351
Passcode: 663599
Meeting Norms:
To make the experience comfortable and worthwhile to all, we respectfully ask the following.
- Please try to be on camera as much as possible.
- Please keep the conversation respectful and nonpartisan.
- While everyone is welcome to share resources during the session and to include helpful information in the chat, we ask that there be no direct soliciting for new clients/customers.
- Please allow everyone the opportunity to participate.
- Feel free to continue discussions offline with anyone that shares their contact information with you. Contact information for our members can be found through our online member directory.
This self-assessment/reflection tool is intended for foundations and funders committed to or interested in Doing Good Better. Doing Good Better is inspired by, and builds on, years of nonprofit and community advocacy, the principles of “Trust Based Philanthropy,” and numerous other resources. We hope this tool will open up the opportunity for dialogue and reflection with your board, staff and funded agencies. Your response can serve as a baseline for future measurement of your organization’s progress towards Doing Good Better, stronger philanthropic/nonprofit partnerships, and heightened community impact.
This assessment is intended as a self-reflection tool, rather than a recommendation for any specific policy within a particular funding institution. It has four sections, one for each Doing Good Better goal. For most funders, a single individual in grantmaking or senior leadership will be able to complete the full assessment; others may need additional support from other departments to respond. While filling out the assessment, we encourage you to consider how self-reporting bias may show up in your answers. Also, notice where a question challenges you and get curious about why.
To make the most of this tool, we recommend that you first review and consider the Doing Good Better goals before starting this assessment. We also encourage your board and staff to go through the goals as you reflect on your responses.
• Goal 1: Center Equity
• Goal 2: Provide Flexible Funding
• Goal 3: Provide Reliable Funding
• Goal 4: Reduce Paperwork Burden
DOWNLOAD THE SELF-ASSESSMENT TOOL
Join your fellow CNJG members and CNJG staff, every first Friday of the month, for a 60-minute Zoom session. Much like the New Jersey Center for Nonprofits’ Member Mondays or “open office hours,” these sessions are a dedicated time for members to gather online to network, ask questions of each other or the CNJG staff on topics that could address:
- The latest issues facing New Jersey philanthropic organizations, resources and calls to action.
- How to use Trust-Based Philanthropy practices at your philanthropy.
- How can funders “Do Good Better?”
- Sincere discussions, sharing your questions, challenges, and success stories with your philanthropic colleagues.
- Opportunities for collaboration, programs you are offering for grantees, RFP announcements, and more.
Current members (grantmaking and associate) are invited to participate. No registration is required.
There won’t be an agenda, and we will not record the session, but we will take attendance.
To Join:
Use this link
or use
Zoom Meeting ID: 879 8405 2351
Passcode: 663599
Meeting Norms:
To make the experience comfortable and worthwhile to all, we respectfully ask the following.
- Please try to be on camera as much as possible.
- Please keep the conversation respectful and nonpartisan.
- While everyone is welcome to share resources during the session and to include helpful information in the chat, we ask that there be no direct soliciting for new clients/customers.
- Please allow everyone the opportunity to participate.
- Feel free to continue discussions offline with anyone that shares their contact information with you. Contact information for our members can be found through our online member directory.
Join your fellow CNJG members and CNJG staff, every first Friday of the month, for a 60-minute Zoom session. Much like the New Jersey Center for Nonprofits’ Member Mondays or “open office hours,” these sessions are a dedicated time for members to gather online to network, ask questions of each other or the CNJG staff on topics that could address:
- The latest issues facing New Jersey philanthropic organizations, resources and calls to action.
- How to use Trust-Based Philanthropy practices at your philanthropy.
- How can funders “Do Good Better?”
- Sincere discussions, sharing your questions, challenges, and success stories with your philanthropic colleagues.
- Opportunities for collaboration, programs you are offering for grantees, RFP announcements, and more.
Current members (grantmaking and associate) are invited to participate. No registration is required.
There won’t be an agenda, and we will not record the session, but we will take attendance.
To Join:
Use this link
or use
Zoom Meeting ID: 879 8405 2351
Passcode: 663599
Meeting Norms:
To make the experience comfortable and worthwhile to all, we respectfully ask the following.
- Please try to be on camera as much as possible.
- Please keep the conversation respectful and nonpartisan.
- While everyone is welcome to share resources during the session and to include helpful information in the chat, we ask that there be no direct soliciting for new clients/customers.
- Please allow everyone the opportunity to participate.
- Feel free to continue discussions offline with anyone that shares their contact information with you. Contact information for our members can be found through our online member directory.
CNJG's Storify content from their Signature Events.
As we move beyond the election season and look to 2025, New Jersey’s philanthropic and nonprofit sectors will continue to engage in conversations and partnerships that inspire change and support an inclusive future for all. Ensuring that we are fully prepared for the work ahead demands curiosity, an openness to ongoing learning, a commitment to listening, and building relationships with a range of partners. These are key characteristics and traits of a true leader.
To help you navigate what’s next in a new administration and new Congress, several national partners are offering post-election analysis:
- The National Council of Nonprofits is hosting Impact of the Elections on Nonprofitson Tuesday, November 12 at 4 pm.
- The Council on Foundations is hosting Looking to 2025: Making Sense of the Elections on Thursday, November 14 at 2 pm.
- United Philanthropy Forum is hosting Decision '24 Post-Election Briefing: Debrief + Sector Outlook on Wednesday, November 20 at 12:00 pm.
Leaders are committed to exploring new ideas, building connections, and finding common ground, and ways to come together. The New Jersey Center for Nonprofits’ annual conference, The Road Ahead on Wednesday, December 4 will bring together social sector leaders from across the state for just these purposes. I encourage you to register as soon as possible if you plan on attending. Space is filling up quickly.
Leaders come from all walks of life, and we’re especially fortunate in the philanthropic sector to have an abundance of talented, thoughtful, and caring leaders. After connecting with social sector leaders, and building on your leadership acumen at the Center’s conference, we’re looking forward to seeing you at the CNJG Annual Meeting & Holiday Gathering on December 11. Our theme, Inspiring Change through Leadership: Maximizing Philanthropic Impact, could not be more timely.
As a leader, you know that in these complex times, philanthropic investment and commitment matter more than ever. Each of us, and our individual organizations, bring unique and deeply informed expertise, perspectives, influence, and skills that enrich our collective effort. Together, New Jersey’s philanthropic community will continue to build a space where all voices are heard, and collaboration is valued, so we can move forward to address critical issues in meaningful ways.
Underwriting or sponsoring convenings is another strategy to engage in leadership activities. I hope you will consider supporting the annual meeting of the CNJG membership with a sponsorship or special donation. This event is the one time per year when a significant number of Council members come together in one space, often sowing the very first seeds of collaboration. Learn more about sponsorship opportunities.
A big thank you to our sponsors to date - we couldn't do this without you! Special thanks to Signature Sponsor – Prudential; Contributing Sponsors – Devils Youth Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Victoria Foundation; Supporting Sponsor – Grunin Foundation, Pincus Family Foundation, and WSFS Bank; and Colleague Sponsor – Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.
Wishing us all a safe, restful, and restorative Thanksgiving later this month when the campaign of 2024 becomes a distant memory, but our resolve to champion the causes that matter most to our communities remains steadfast. That’s what leaders do.
Warmly,
Theresa Jacks, President and CEO
Council of New Jersey Grantmakers
CNJG Member survey ranking which issues are most important to them.