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Community Investment Strategies, Inc. (CIS), a women-owned leader in affordable housing, has announced a strategic partnership with the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation to preserve and rehabilitate affordable housing in Elizabeth.
The first phase of this collaboration will support the renovation of Portside II, a 169-unit affordable housing community for low-income families. Originally completed in 2006 as part of the HOPE VI redevelopment, Portside II has been recognized for its contributions to the city’s revitalization.
CIS, founded by President and CEO Christiana Foglio, is dedicated to ensuring long-term housing stability through innovative funding strategies, policy advocacy, and community engagement. The Dodge Foundation’s predevelopment financial support will help maintain affordability, enhance accessibility, and improve living conditions for residents.
“This partnership enables us to expand our reach and secure critical funding early in the process,” said Foglio. “Our investment in Portside II will preserve safe, sustainable, and affordable housing for generations to come.”
The FirstEnergy Foundation has donated $25,000 to the American Red Cross to support its efforts to offer disaster assistance to families living in communities served by FirstEnergy Corp. electric company Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L).
The donation comes after the Red Cross provided aid to some of the 5,000 residents who evacuated due to the Jones Road wildfire, which burned through more than 15,000 acres in parts of JCP&L’s Ocean County territory after starting on April 22 at the Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area.
“When our crews respond to disasters, both in our territory or as part of mutual aid, it is the American Red Cross that is routinely there, providing the support that sustains communities in the immediate aftermath,” said Doug Mokoid, FirstEnergy’s president, New Jersey. “Last month’s wildfire burned close to home for many of our customers and employees, and once again, the Red Cross stepped up when people needed them most.”
The NextGen Giving Circle of the Princeton Area Community Foundation awarded $27,500 in grants to three local nonprofits for a children’s school day breakfast initiative, a workforce program for high school boys, and job training for teens and adults.
At Every Child Valued’s breakfast program, the grant will be used in part to help offset the cost of groceries. At the Father Center, the grant will help pay for field trips and test fees for boys enrolled in an employment and credentialing program. At RISE, the grant will help fund workforce training for its thrift store staff.
“I founded NextGen with the goal of inspiring and developing the next generation of philanthropic leaders in our community,” said Jeremy Perlman, who created the fund in 2017. “The giving circle brings together like-minded young professionals to learn how nonprofits are addressing key issues facing individuals and families in the greater Trenton area, and to make a bigger impact than any one of us could on our own.”
The administration’s current attempt to exclude and expel people through sweeping executive overreach in defiance of the rule of law is separating families and striking fear in communities, and is part of a broader attempt to criminalize and invisibilize historically marginalized populations, starting with noncitizens.
Join Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrant And Refugees to learn how advocates are addressing the closure of the border and the resulting denial of access to safety while others are defending people who have made the United States their home.
SPEAKERS
Lillian Aponte, Executive Director, Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project
Erika Pinheiro, Executive Director, Al Otro Lado
Fatima Saidi, Director, We Are All America
MODERATORS
Basma Alawee, Deputy Executive Director, Community Sponsorship Hub
Zenobia Lai, Executive Director, Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative
REGISTRATION
There is no cost for this webinar.
You will need to log in or create an account on GCIR's website to register for this program.
Please register for this program by 5pm PT on Friday, April 25th.
For decades, aging and HIV/AIDS and their medical, governmental, community, and philanthropic structures and services were worlds apart. This made sense at first, when the majority of the first generation of people affected by HIV were young gay men, many of whom got their care in HIV-specific or infectious disease settings. The odds of living a long life with HIV/AIDS were small, and even survivors did not seek traditional aging services.
Those circumstances have now changed. Thanks to advances in treatment, the ability to live for decades with HIV has become a remarkable success story. Add to this the reality of older people who are acquiring the infection in their 50s or 60s, and HIV/AIDS must now be included as an aging issue. Of the 1.1 million people in the United States who are living with HIV/AIDS, half are 50 or older (50+). By 2030, it is anticipated that three out of four people who are living with HIV will be 50+.
The whole-person outlook and community-based approach of aging services has the potential to bring comfort to this resilient but overlooked group of people. This report will raise the voices and examine the needs of older people living with HIV, while exploring opportunities for philanthropies to create meaningful impact in public and personal health and wellbeing.
Philanthropy can be defined in many ways. The word comes from the Greek, meaning "love for humanity." Modern definitions include the concept of voluntary giving by an individual or group to promote the common good and improve the quality of life.
Here in the United States, the term "philanthropy" is also used to describe the granting of money to nonprofit organizations by foundations and corporations. This type of giving is often called organized philanthropy or grantmaking.
This popular, fast-paced video offers a realistic — and often humorous — glimpse of how the public views philanthropy, using a series of "people in the street" interviews shot in the Twin Cities plus interviews with local donors. Discover the true, and often not so true, meaning of philanthropy.
Co-produced by the Minnesota Council on Foundations, The Minneapolis Foundation and the Minnesota Community Foundation and The Saint Paul Foundation.
The New Jersey State Council on the Arts held its first public meeting of 2021 today, where nearly $1 million was awarded to 129 New Jersey artists through two grant programs.
The Individual Artist Fellowships are competitive awards to New Jersey artists in 12 rotating disciplines granted solely on independent peer panel assessment of work samples. The anonymous process is focused on artistic quality, and awards may be used to help artists produce new work and advance their careers. New Jersey artists applied for awards this year in the categories of crafts, interdisciplinary performance and interdisciplinary visual art, photography, and playwriting and screenwriting. This program is carried out in partnership with the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.
"In this unprecedented time, people across the world have turned to the arts," said Secretary of State Tahesha Way. "It is the passion and creativity of artists like the ones honored today who have gotten us through some of our most difficult times. New Jersey is home to a wonderfully diverse and extremely talented artist community, and I’m proud to work with the Arts Council to ensure ongoing support for our state’s individual artists."
The Trustees of The Fund for New Jersey awarded $823,000 in grants to eleven nonprofit organizations at their March 2021 quarterly Board meeting. Grants were awarded to organizations in the areas of environmental justice, immigration, housing, and public media.
Kiki Jamieson, President of The Fund for New Jersey, stated, “The Fund for New Jersey is pleased to support organizations working to increase affordable housing, advance worker rights, defend immigrant rights, and support high-quality journalism in New Jersey.”
“The Fund is particularly proud to support a cohort of immigrant organizations working to make New Jersey a place that welcomes immigrants and supports their opportunities for economic mobility and social inclusion. Too often, undocumented immigrants are marginalized or forgotten. Undocumented immigrants have largely been excluded from receipt of government relief assistance throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, yet they continue to be essential frontline workers, working in farms, food factories, grocery stores, and more. The immigrant rights organizations that The Fund supports advocate every day to correct these injustices.”
The New Jersey State Council on the Arts held a public meeting on December 13th, during which 22 New Jersey organizations received grants through the Council’s new Creative Aging Initiative grant program. Senior centers, libraries, and arts organizations will provide customized arts experiences for people aged 55 and older, helping to enhance overall wellness, build community, and diminish issues of isolation.
With a focus on lifelong learning in the arts, the Creative Aging Initiative grants will provide $10,000 to a variety of New Jersey nonprofits engaging in creative aging work. Each of this year’s grant recipients will provide two (2) eight-day residencies for New Jersey seniors – at no cost to the participants. This new program was built upon the success of a Creative Aging pilot project the Council concluded earlier this year.
Speaking on the importance of this new grant program, the Council’s Program Officer for Arts Education & Lifelong Learning, Samantha Clarke, said: “Arts education and lifelong learning have been longstanding priorities at the State Arts Council. We look forward to providing new opportunities to reach older adults through the Creative Aging Initiative grant, and we’re especially excited to be working with both arts organizations and community-based organizations in this important work.”
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka on Tuesday announced the recipients of the 2022 Creative Catalyst Fund awards. A total of 114 grants will be awarded to individual artists and artists’ collectives, with an average award of $3,200; and 34 grants will be awarded to small and midsized arts organizations with an average award of $10,100.
Baraka created the fund in January 2020 as a multiyear initiative providing the local community of artists and small and midsized arts organizations up to $1 million annually for at least three years. The fund has awarded a total of $2.35 million in grants in its first three years. Grantees use the funds to help pay for operating costs, space rentals, staff, programming costs, supplies and equipment, and COVID-related expenses.
“Newark has a long history as a center of the arts, and our administration has supported the arts in word and deed, creating great works like the second-longest public mural on the East Coast. We are proud, privileged and humbled to write a new chapter by supporting this year’s grantees. Their works will define the voice and talent of a new generation of Newark artists for our present and future,” Baraka said.
The New Jersey State Council on the Arts held its first public meeting of 2023 on February 28, where nearly $2 million was awarded to 140 New Jersey artists through the Council’s Individual Artist Fellowship program.
The Fellowships are competitive awards to New Jersey artists in 12 rotating disciplines granted solely on independent peer panel assessment of work samples. The anonymous process is focused on artistic quality, and awards may be used to help artists produce new work and advance their careers. New Jersey artists applied for awards this year in the categories of choreography, crafts, music composition, photography, playwriting/screenwriting, poetry, and sculpture. This program is carried out in partnership with Mid Atlantic Arts.
At the Council’s Annual Meeting last July, the Council voted to authorize an unprecedented investment of $2 million in the Individual Artist Fellowship program. Through that commitment of funding, this year’s Fellowship cohort is the largest one the Council has added to its distinguished list of Fellows in over 30 years. In order to further support the increased number of artists applying to the program, the Council developed a new level of awards in addition to the Fellowship Award. For the first time, the Council announced Finalist Awards. The Finalists Awards are given to those applicants who scored highly, but just below the cutoff to receive a Fellowship.
The New Jersey State Council on the Arts held a public meeting on December 19, 2023, during which 30 New Jersey organizations received grants through the Council's Creative Aging Initiative grant program. This investment is the key component of the Council's focus on lifelong learning, providing $10,000 grants to arts organizations, libraries, veterans homes, and senior and community centers to cover costs for artist-led residencies for New Jersey adults aged 55 and over.
Speaking on the importance of this program, Lieutenant Governor Tahesha Way said, “Abundant evidence shows that artmaking and arts participation improves a number of health and well-being factors as we age. I’m honored to work closely with the Council to help ensure New Jerseyans of all ages have opportunities to have a better, overall quality of life.”
Reflecting on the impact of the grant, Council Chair Elizabeth Mattson said, “Supporting quality arts experiences for people of all ages has long been a priority for the Council. I was fortunate to see firsthand the impact of this program earlier this year during a visit to a Creative Aging Initiative session at an adult day center. Hearing the participants speak to the importance and value of being able to express themselves and share their life experiences in new and engaging ways is a powerful reminder of why the Council invests in this work.”
Advancing its ongoing commitment to ensuring a stable and healthy cultural industry, the New Jersey Cultural Trust Board approved a total of $798,395 in grants supporting capital projects at 21 nonprofit cultural organizations during an open public meeting held virtually Dec. 15. The nearly $800,000 in awards represents the largest total dollar amount the board has approved in grant awards in a single fiscal year since 2011.
With the FY2024 grant awards, the Cultural Trust has now awarded over $10.4 million in funding for historic preservation and financial stabilization projects across New Jersey to date.
“These grants are investments in the sustainability and longevity of sites significant to our state’s rich and diverse history,” Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way, who oversees the Cultural Trust in her capacity as secretary of state, said. “New Jersey’s historic places are essential to our state’s identity and culture, and the Cultural Trust’s Capital Historic Preservation program helps safeguard them for future generations.”
The New Jersey State Council on the Arts held its first public meeting of 2024 on February 20th, where just over $1.7 million was awarded to 161 New Jersey artists through the Council's Individual Artist Fellowship program. In 2022, the Council voted to authorize an unprecedented investment of $2 million in the Fellowship program. Through this continued commitment of funding, this year's Fellowship cohort is the largest one the Council has added to its distinguished list of Fellows in over 30 years.
The Fellowships are competitive awards to New Jersey artists in 12 rotating disciplines granted solely on independent peer panel assessment of work samples. The anonymous process is focused on artistic quality, and awards may be used to help artists produce new work and advance their careers. New Jersey artists applied for awards this year in the categories of digital/electronic, film/video, interdisciplinary, painting, printmaking/drawing/book arts, and prose. This program is carried out in partnership with Mid Atlantic Arts.
The New Jersey Cultural Trust Board approved a total of $1,040,935 in grants to 29 nonprofit arts organizations in 14 counties during an open public meeting held virtually on Jan. 15. With the Fiscal Year 2025 grant awards, the Cultural Trust has awarded over $11.4 million in funding for financial stabilization and historic preservation projects across New Jersey since Fiscal Year 2004.
The IFS Arts grants were recommended to the Cultural Trust by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. The more than $1 million in awards represents the largest total dollar amount the Board has approved in grant awards in a single fiscal year in the Trust’s history.
“These grants are a historic investment in New Jersey’s cultural community that will resonate for years to come,” Lieutenant Governor Tahesha Way said. “The Cultural Trust’s unique grant programs support projects that strengthen the foundations of our state’s cultural organizations — organizations that in turn anchor local economies, improve the health and vitality of our communities, and contribute immeasurably to New Jerseyans’ wellbeing and quality of life.”