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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 Healthcare Foundation of NJ is pleased to announce that it has awarded $1,719,969 to sixteen nonprofit organizations in its first quarterly grant cycle of 2024. This quarter represents a strong focus on behavioral health, buoyed by responses to a Request for Proposals (RFP) for projects to strengthen behavioral health support for adolescents in the Jewish community of Greater MetroWest, New Jersey.
“In conversations with community partners throughout 2023, we heard again and again about the growing crisis in behavioral health, and our Request for Proposals issued at the end of 2023 was one way in which the Foundation is taking action to address the crisis in our area and among our community,” said Michael Schmidt, Executive Director and CEO of The Healthcare Foundation of NJ. “While the Foundation historically funded behavioral health services throughout our catchment area, the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and the overt and historic rise of antisemitism prompted us to make a concerted effort to address this pressing and critical need within the Jewish community.”
The PNC Foundation today announced it is allocating a $5.2 million grant pool across its markets to implement or enhance high-quality, nature-based outdoor play and learning environments. This grant pool celebrates the 20th anniversary of PNC Grow Up Great®, PNC's $500 million, bilingual, signature philanthropic initiative designed to help prepare children from birth through age 5 for success in school and life.
Recent PNC-funded research by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) showed that 49% of children ages 3-5 are playing outside less than once a day. A recent NIEER literature review also suggests that pre-K programs conducted in nature-based settings can promote better learning and development.
"PNC has been in the early childhood education space for 20 years, focused on supporting the high-quality early education that is the foundation of a bright future for young children," said Sally McCrady, president and chair, PNC Foundation. "For the milestone anniversary of PNC Grow Up Great, we're thrilled to help provide young children across our communities with outdoor spaces that can help spark their natural sense of wonder and curiosity."
The Disability & Philanthropy Forum invites you to register for the 2024 Disability & Philanthropy Webinar Series. All of our 2024 webinars will be open to the public. This collective learning journey will focus on why a disability lens is essential to addressing key social justice issues. Each webinar will engage philanthropic leaders in conversation with disability advocates about how we can move toward a more equitable, inclusive future for all.
Grantmaking for Disability: LGBTQIA+ Funding: May 9 - 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. ET
Disability Pride, Joy, and Visions for the Future: July 11 - 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. ET
Disability and the Care Economy: September 19 - 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. ET
Disability-Inclusive Hiring: October 10 - 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. ET
Disability in Indigenous Communities: November 14 - 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. ET
All webinars are open to the public, so feel free to share with anyone you know that's interested in learning about disability inclusion, rights, and justice.
CART will be provided. If you require another accommodation to fully participate in the webinar, please note it in your registration, or contact us at [email protected].
The New Jersey State Council on the Arts yesterday awarded more than $30 million in grants to support approximately 900 arts organizations, projects, and artists throughout the state. The grants were approved at the Council's 58th Annual Meeting in Trenton, which featured a special musical performance by Hector Morales, a 2024 Arts Council Heritage Fellow.
State funding for the Arts Council comes from the revenue generated through the State’s Hotel/Motel Occupancy Fee, and supports arts activity in all 21 counties. From the smallest neighborhoods to the largest cities, artists and arts organizations strengthen communities and offer solutions for complex issues we all care about – quality education, health and wellness, thriving economies, cross-cultural understanding, and more.
“The investment made in our state’s artists and organizations has a direct, positive impact on New Jersey residents, families, businesses, and communities,” said Acting Governor Tahesha Way, who oversees the Council in her role as Secretary of State. “It’s an honor to work closely with the Council to help our state’s creative industries thrive, and to ensure New Jersey’s diverse constituencies can access the many benefits of the arts.”
The Camden Funders Affinity Group serves as a vehicle for funders to connect and share updates about their initiatives throughout the city. At the May 30th gathering (our first of 2024), we heard loud and clear that group members didn't want to wait too long before meeting again.
As such, please join your fellow Camden Funders for another in-person meeting to not only share more about your current work in the city, but also dive deeper into discussing the capacity of Camden-based organizations (both those that you already work with and those that can potentially be funded in the future), and how funders might better support them in building it.
A dedicated a portion of this meeting will refine the goals of the Camden Funders Affinity Group, as well as identifying potential speakers and topics for future meetings.
Cost: Free for CNJG Members; $50 for Non Member Grantmakers.
Any and all staff and/or trustees from new CNJG members and any new staff or trustees of veteran CNJG members are invited to this in-person meeting prior to the Annual Meeting and Holiday Luncheon Pre-Meeting Workshop to meet fellow new members and a few CNJG staff, hear about each other’s funding strategies, and learn about the programs and services CNJG offers.
This is a great chance to meet fellow funders in a casual, yet professional setting, and build your personal network within the CNJG network. You’ll see these familiar faces throughout the rest of the day’s events.
There is no cost to attend for CNJG members. A light breakfast, and coffee, tea, beverages will be available.
If you have any questions about who can or should attend, please contact Craig Weinrich, Director of Member Services at 609-414-7110 x802.
Provident Bank recently awarded a total of $50,000 in grants to 11 small businesses and 4 nonprofit organizations as part of the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York (FHLBNY) Small Business Recovery Grant (SBRG) Program.
The SBRG program provides funds to benefit FHLBNY members’ small businesses, including farms and non-profit customers. Through the SBRG Program, members can provide grants of up to $10,000 to qualifying small businesses that have faced economic challenges due to the rate environment, inflation, supply-chain constraints, and/or rising energy costs.
“Provident Bank is proud to partner with the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York to support these worthy organizations through the Small Business Recovery Grant Program,” Mary Brown, senior vice president, chief compliance officer, said. “These grants are essential to the financial well-being of these establishments and their ability to serve their customers,” Brown added.
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.”
Two of the grants – a $153,500 grant to Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy and a $40,650 award to Greater MetroWest Day School Initiative Mental Health Partnership – are second-year renewal grants stemming from the Foundation’s 2024 initiative to strengthen the behavioral health supports available to adolescents in the Jewish community of Greater MetroWest, NJ. Under this campaign, organizations which serve children and teens in the local Jewish community were invited to apply for support. Between the initial first-year grants and second-year renewal grants, a total of $1,073,439 has now been awarded through this special initiative over two years.
“We are proud that our initiative to strengthen behavioral health of Jewish adolescents, which stemmed from conversations with the community in 2023, continues to provide critical support at this fragile moment in our community’s history” said Michael Schmidt, Executive Director and CEO of The Healthcare Foundation of NJ. “Our grants this quarter demonstrate that when HFNJ sees an important need, it remains committed with ongoing funding and support.”
Any and all staff and/or trustees from new CNJG members and any new staff or trustees of veteran CNJG members are invited to this in-person meeting prior to the Annual Meeting and Holiday Luncheon Pre-Meeting Workshop to meet fellow new members and a few CNJG staff, hear about each other’s funding strategies, and learn about the programs and services CNJG offers.
This is a great chance to meet fellow funders in a casual, yet professional setting, and build your personal network within the CNJG network. You’ll see these familiar faces throughout the rest of the day’s events..
There is no cost to attend for CNJG members. A light breakfast, and coffee, tea, beverages will be available..
If you have any questions about who can or should attend, please contact Craig Weinrich, Director of Member Services at 609-414-7110 x802.
“It was so great to meet everyone at the New Members Orientation. Thank you for creating the space; I learned a lot more about NJ funders, the amazing work they're doing, and all the impactful programs CNJG has to offer and how to stay involved.” -Verinda Sood; Rippel
You may have seen an email or two about this, read an online article, or clicked on a social media post. Perhaps you’ve even seen a demo already! But, later this month, you will actually get to experience it for yourself!
No, it’s not the latest Labubu. I’m talking about the New Jersey Philanthropy Hub – powered by Impala.
Theresa and I, (yes, this is Craig W. writing this) have been working with our friends and colleagues at the New Jersey Center for Nonprofits to bring the Impala platform to EVERY nonprofit and EVERY funder in New Jersey for free for 36 months!
The Center and CNJG are launching the New Jersey Philanthropy Hub, powered by Impala, on two different dates:
- For nonprofits and their fundraising activities: Thursday, October 23 at noon
- For grantmakers and their staff and board: Friday, October 24 at noon
Both events will be a Zoom webinar.
CNJG will soon provide our members with language you can use to email your nonprofit partners about the nonprofit launch on October 23. Over 400 nonprofit professionals have already registered for the launch!
We thank CNJG member The Tepper Foundation, who through the Jewish Funders Network, introduced us to the platform. After seeing a demo, we were intrigued, and through a former PIO (Philanthropy Infrastructure Organization) colleague who now works at Impala, we started the process of understanding what this platform could do for the social sector here in New Jersey.
One small example relates to Goal #1 from our Doing Good Better initiative, which calls to center equity. We at CNJG asked: How can funders find marginalized, underfunded, and impactful organizations? How can we help give better access to funders for those same organizations? Especially with the massive cuts in government funding, we were determined to give free access to this tool for EVERY nonprofit and EVERY grantmaker in the state to help find more opportunities within New Jersey and from funders outside New Jersey.
We thank our members that have funded this three-year initiative: The Campbell’s Company, the Community Foundation of New Jersey, F.M. Kirby Foundation, Grunin Foundation, Princeton Area Community Foundation, PSEG Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This initiative is not inexpensive, yet it should be highly impactful – positively affecting every nonprofit in the state, even if they are not in your funding area! There is always room for more financial support, and we would welcome a conversation with you to also support this initiative. If you want to learn more, please call or email me.
Impala can help your grantmaking efforts by:
- Building sector-specific reports to see disparities in funding.
- Reducing the paperwork burden for your nonprofit partners (Doing Good Better Goal #4!) by using the data already here.
- Streamlining your due diligence efforts with an easy-to-digest and visually engaging interface, making it easy for trustees and/or grant reviewers to review finances of potential grantees.
- Finding other national funders with whom you can partner.
At our Annual Meeting of Members and Holiday Gathering on December 10, the workshop will focus on the Impala platform. [Registration opens very soon!] Bring your laptop, so you can follow along, and tweak your organization’s profile! The New Jersey Center for Nonprofits will also have an Impala demo at their conference on December 3.
We hope that you can join us for the launch event for grantmakers on the 24th, and please invite your nonprofit partners to the launch event on the 23rd.
With thanks,
Craig Weinrich
Senior Director, Member Experience
& Senior Executive during the remainder of Theresa’s sabbatical through mid-October
"The most populous city in New Jersey has launched a pilot program to give guaranteed income to some residents, as the pandemic has exacerbated the racial wealth gap and exposed the economic vulnerabilities millions of Americans face.
Experts say success in Newark, New Jersey, a neighbor of New York City, could set a precedent for other communities around the country to follow suit as the nation seeks to equitably recover from the economic devastation wrought by COVID-19.
“We must emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic with new purpose, new vision and new ideas to transform our community and truly improve the quality of life of our residents,” Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat, said in a statement earlier this week. “Here, we have an opportunity to directly empower and strengthen hundreds of lives immediately, while also demonstrating how to do so to the entire nation.”
The Newark Movement for Economic Equity, launched by Baraka on Monday, is a two-year research study that will give unconditional cash payments to economically vulnerable residents. The pilot program is starting with just 30 residents, but is set to expand to 400 residents in the fall. To qualify, participants must be Newark residents who are at least 18 and have income levels at or below 200% of the federal poverty threshold.
To start, participants will receive $6,000 per year — with half receiving payments on a bi-weekly basis and half receiving payments twice yearly.
Some $2.2 million to date in private funds from local philanthropic groups and beyond have been raised to support the pilot program, and a statement from the mayor’s office said they are continuing to seek donors for the initiative.
If it is successful, the group has said on its website it anticipates it will be funded through state or federal money."
Related article: Free Money In Newark: City Experiments With 'Guaranteed Income'
Related article: Some Newarkers will get $500 a month - no strings attached - in pilot income program
ValuesAdvisor, a nonprofit online platform, helps you find the financial expertise needed to implement a mission-aligned investment strategy. Access to ValuesAdvisor is provided at no cost as a benefit of your membership in CNJG.
ValuesAdvisor offers a searchable database of values-oriented investment advisors, who have been suggested by other trusted affinity groups and philanthropy-supporting organizations. The platform offers a simple and dynamic interface that allows you to filter advisor information on data points such as minimum account size, amount of values-aligned AUM, impact themes, service offerings, asset classes, diversity, and other key information. Note: the platform does not collect user data and is committed to preserving the anonymity of the asset owners who use the platform.
To join, visit the ValuesAdvisor website and enter 'CNJG' at checkout to claim your free access.
To Get Started/Questions:
Kate Simpson, Head of Outreach, ValuesAdvisor
Email: [email protected]
If you have an advisor you’ve worked with who has helped your foundation align your investments with your mission, and believe your peers would benefit from working with, you can suggest them for the ValuesAdvisor platform in their short, “Suggest an Advisor Form.”
For more information, please watch this video or download the infographic below.
The 2023 New Jersey Philanthropy Benefits & Salary Summary Report provides a valuable benchmarking resource for CNJG members on the benefits offered to employees and trustees and salaries for employees. Developed and compiled exclusively for CNJG members, the report presents comprehensive benefits data specific to New Jersey's grantmaking community, alongside data from the Council on Foundations' annual salary survey. Produced every three years, this benchmarking report is a highly anticipated and valued benefit of your CNJG membership.
The first section, 2023 CNJG Benefits Summary Report, includes benefits data for the 2023 calendar year and covers employment numbers, leave benefits, insurance benefits, and more. Within this section, we are pleased to also present demographic data on the board and staff of those that responded. Thank you to the members that completed our benefits survey earlier this year enabling us to produce this report.
The second section, 2023 Grantmaker Salary Tables: National, Mid-Atlantic and New Jersey provides data on compensation across a wide range of positions and grantmaking entities. Thank you to the CNJG members that completed the Council on Foundations’ annual survey on salaries that enabled us to produce this section of the report. Thank you to the Council on Foundations for compiling and sharing this data with us for free to use our report.