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The Silicon Valley Out-of-School-Time Collaborative invested in a cohort of regional nonprofit organizations to sustain and strengthen their ability to serve more students with stronger academic and social-emotional programming. Partners in the collaborative included three family foundations that together made an initial $1.6 million pooled investment over three years, and eight nonprofits that collectively served more than 7,000 low-income middle and high school students outside normal school hours. From the start of the partnership, funders and grantees held regular meetings focused on shared learning, trust building and dialogue. A midcourse evaluation of the collaborative showed that grantees were stronger, programs were better and are reaching more students, and funders had adopted new, collaborative grantmaking practices. The funders invested another $900,000 into a second phase of the work and committed to more flexibility –– letting grantees drive the group’s planning and learning efforts, and manage consultants, budgeting and group communications. Grantees also opted to redirect the focus of the collaborative from capacity building to program development and evaluation, with the added goal of sharing effective afterschool and summer program models with others, both inside and outside the region.
The Inclusive Growth ScoreTM provides local planners, governments and impact investors with a clear, simple view of social and economic indicators for any census tract in the United States.

Community Catalyst, Community Change, and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities have announced a $9 million commitment from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in support of an initiative focused on grassroots efforts to improve healthcare access, affordability, and dignity in care.
The Voices for Health Justice project will fund twenty-five state- and community-based organizations over two and a half years working to build grassroots power and effect policy change at the federal, state, and community levels. Grantees include local and statewide organizations working with Black and brown communities, immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, and low-income and rural communities to protect and expand access to Medicaid coverage, encourage states to provide comprehensive coverage regardless of immigration status, mobilize and engage alternative care providers in health policy reform, and narrow health inequities.
"The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is thrilled to launch this initiative with Community Catalyst, Community Change, and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities," said RWJF senior program officer Andrea Ducas. "We are excited to support community-led efforts to advance policies that promote equity in health and health care. Now is the time for foundations in the health justice movement to focus on providing deeper investments in state- and community-based advocacy to address the root causes of America's health inequities because everyone deserves the opportunity to be healthy and thrive."
The PSEG Foundation has announced $1 million in grant funding to three historically Black colleges and universities: Hampton University, Howard University and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. This funding will provide qualifying students an opportunity to attend prestigious universities and pursue their studies in STEM education.
Through these grants, the PSEG Foundation hopes to help diversify the STEM workforce by providing underrepresented students access to STEM education and generating a pipeline of competitive and capable talent for the future workforce, as well as the next generation of scientific and policy leaders in environmental science, sustainability and social justice.
“HBCUs have a long history of offering an exceptional educational experience while enriching the lives of Black students and families and providing the resources that empower students to succeed in various STEM careers,” said Calvin Ledford Jr., president of the PSEG Foundation. “At PSEG, we have dozens of employees and their families that have attended HBCUs, including many alumni of Hampton University and Howard University. This support is exemplary of our vision to build equitable and prosperous communities, amplifying the direction we have been heading by providing support to organizations including the United Negro College Fund and Thurgood Marshall College Fund, just to name a few.”
The Rippel Foundation, a national nonprofit operating foundation focused on health system transformation, is pleased to announce grants to nine organizations working to advance health and well-being in New Jersey and other local communities. Nominated by the Rippel Board and staff members, each organization has received $25,000 in unrestricted funds, which will be used toward general operating and programmatic support.
“As an operating foundation, Rippel is particularly delighted to be able to provide support to organizations that are advancing equitable, sustainable approaches to health and well-being in their communities. These organizations embody the principles and culture of stewardship that Rippel is dedicated to promoting—creating the conditions that all people need to thrive by focusing on vital conditions like access to care, stable housing, food security, a healthy environment, employment, and educational opportunity,” said Laura Landy, president and CEO of The Rippel Foundation. “Rippel has a 70-year history and strong roots in New Jersey, and our work has had a transformative impact on communities throughout the nation. It is gratifying to know that these funds will contribute to the well-being of our neighbors here in our own backyard as well as residents in other deserving local communities.”
During 2021 — the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic — 63 distinct charitable organizations in New Jersey and New York received donations totaling $706,325 from the KearnyBank Foundation. The funds were contributed across four specific categories: Education, Quality of Life, Housing and Community.
The five largest contributions were $65,000 to Junior Achievement of New Jersey; $50,000 to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newark; $50,000 to Chilton Medical Center Foundation; $50,000 to the Kip Center; and $30,000 to the African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey.
In the Fairfield-based financial institution’s four categories of giving, $227,525 was granted to organizations under the Quality of Life heading, with $197,300 going to Education, $177,500 to Housing and $104,000 to Community.
“Particularly given the pandemic experience of the past two years, we embrace every opportunity to provide grants through the KearnyBank Foundation,” Craig Montanaro, Kearny Bank’s CEO and president, stated. “We’re able to contribute to these deserving charities because of our company’s ongoing success, and we never take for granted how fortunate we are to be in this position.”
The New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal Fund has awarded nearly $600,000 in grants to nonprofits that will use the funds to help artists, teaching artists and history professionals recover from the financial devastation of the pandemic.
The grants, the third round of funding awarded by NJACRF, brings the grant total to more than $4.5 million in support to 172 nonprofits in the arts and culture sector. The fund, founded in 2020 as a way to help the arts during the pandemic, is hosted by the Princeton Area Community Foundation.
Jeremy Grunin, co-chair of the NJACRF and president of the Grunin Foundation, said the grants correspond to a name for the organization – which now views itself as a vehicle for renewal.
“Recovery to renewal signifies a shift from crisis support to an opportunity to change the actual system itself,” he said. “We always knew that smaller nonprofits most vulnerable to disruptions and those historically underfunded prior to the pandemic were going to need longer-term support.
“The New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal Fund will create an additional resource of fast and flexible funding that wasn’t previously available – helping to build a much stronger arts, cultural, and historical ecosystem in New Jersey.”
The grants announced today total $592,501 and will be awarded to nonprofits that will act as intermediaries, re-granting the funds to artists, teaching artists, and history professionals.
A year after kicking off an initiative to improve nutrition at schools in its hometown of Camden, Campbell Soup Co. is getting high marks. And over the next five years, the soup and snack giant plans to invest $5 million in Full Futures, a sweeping effort to make sure students are well nourished and ready to thrive — both in the classroom and outside of it.
Armed with research linking school meals and healthy diets to academic success, Campbell executives saw an opportunity to effect change by leveraging the expertise and resources of numerous partners to advance developments in nutrition programming and cafeteria infrastructure across a school district that serves 11,000 students.
Working in partnership with the Camden City School District, as well as several nonprofit and corporate entities, Campbell set out to improve how kids eat at school through cafeteria equipment upgrades, expanded meal programs, nutrition education, reformulated menus and equitable sourcing of local, fresh produce.
Campbell recently reported on its progress with Full Futures, as well as next steps planned to keep the momentum going during the next four years of the campaign.