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The Camden Funders Affinity Group serves as a vehicle for funders to connect and share updates about their initiatives throughout the city. We heard from Group members an interest to better understand the current environment that these programs serve and to identify opportunities for future endeavors.

In this first in-person meeting of 2024, please join your fellow Camden Funders to hear from each other about our current work in the city, as well as to gain insight into the upcoming efforts we each intend to engage in. Information gathered at this meeting will be used to inform our next meeting, where we will hear directly from leaders working across the city to advance progress in Camden. Light refreshments will be served.

To help with planning, please email Chanika Svetvilas about Camden initiatives and updates you'd like to share with attendees during the meeting.

Cost: Free for CNJG Members; $50 for Non Member Grantmakers.

What comes after “strategic...?” If you said, “planning,” you’re not alone. And for many leaders of community foundations, especially small ones who don’t have the time or money for a big process, anxiety is the feeling that follows. If that’s the case, this guide is for you.

It invites you to test-drive some activities to bring your current program, operations and community leadership strategies into focus before you decide whether to create a plan or not. It helps you discover ongoing strategic practices and decide whether to keep them or not. If you already have done a strategic plan, and it is languishing on a shelf, this guide will help you refresh it.

PART A: Good Strategy Takes Practice (Not Just Planning)
PART B: Do Your Discovery
PART C: Jumpstart Your Strategy Narrative
PART D: Bring It Together
Looking To What’s Next

The Grunin Foundation, in partnership with CNJG, invites you to join the next Monmouth & Ocean County funder roundtable. Join Monmouth and Ocean County funders for a virtual session to discuss the planning of a 2024 Spring PEEP (Party to Enhance Equity in Philanthropy) event. PEEP will be in-person casual gathering where nonprofit and philanthropy leaders get together to hang out and break down some of the pervasive power dynamics in our sector.

COST: Free for members and non-members

Please note: You do not need to be a member of CNJG to attend this event. However, this gathering is geared towards those who fund in Monmouth & Ocean Counties.

CNJG is pleased to offer this series of webinars to our members, hosted by our partners at the Center for Disaster Philanthropy.

With COVID-19 there seem to be more questions than answers, particularly for funders who want to respond effectively and efficiently. This series of seven webinars will bring expert panelists together to address some of the most pressing issues, including getting money out the door quickly, supporting vulnerable populations and managing other disasters in the midst of the pandemic.

Join the Center for Disaster Philanthropy for one or multiple webinars to gain a better perspective on the role of philanthropy in COVID-19 response and recovery.

Cost: Free for CNJG members and Nonmember Grantmakers

CNJG thanks the Center for Disaster Philanthropy for hosting this series.

Past Webinars in this Series:
April 14: Making Effective Rapid Response Grants
April 28: Managing Multiple Disasters Amid the Pandemic
May 12: Place-based Grantmakers and Investing in Local Communities
May 26: How Philanthropy Can Stand Up for Vulnerable Populations
June 9: Grantmaking to Support Children and Older Adults
June 23: Managing a Global Response

Now More than Ever

Don’t miss the premier conference for New Jersey nonprofits and allies, packed with the great insights, tools, and the super-charged networking you’ve come to expect. This full day event will also include plenary speakers, and morning and afternoon breakout sessions.

Full conference information is available on the New Jersey Center for Nonprofits website.

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.

Newark’s 40th Mayor Ras J. Baraka (pictured, second from right) invited the Newark Funders Group to hear his vision for the city at special August meeting.  Just 30 days into his term, the Mayor called on the Newark Philanthropic Liaison Jeremy Johnson (far left) to organize a convening with the Newark group, co-chaired by Etta Denk of Bank America (second from left) and Barbara Reisman of the Schumann Fund for New Jersey (third from left).  Irene Cooper-Basch (far right), Chair of the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers and Executive Officer at the Victoria Foundation, introduced the Mayor to more than 50 grantmakers who attended the session at the PSEG headquarters in downtown Newark.   Rick Thigpen (not pictured), ‎Vice President, State Government Affairs at PSEG, welcomed the Mayor and Grantmakers to the company’s conference center.

Mayor Baraka talked about new interventions for youth at risk and targeting crime in hot spots in the city.  He said increased “literacy” would help get to the core of many of Newark’s problems.  During the questions and answer period, the Mayor elaborated on his proposed response to the budget, the arts, downtown development, prisoner reentry, early childhood education and the city’s relation to Newark Public Schools.  He thanked grantmakers for their contributions to “The Blueprint for a New Newark,” a document of transition recommendations.

The Newark Funders Group is an affinity group of CNJG and meets quarterly.  The group’s activities include an active Education Subcommittee, Early Learners Funders Group, and College Access and Success committee.