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CNJG is pleased to offer this program to family foundation members as part of NCFP's Fundamentals of Family Philanthropy 2024 webinar series, providing guidance on the core tenets of effective family philanthropy.
Intentional philanthropy requires ongoing reflection and planning. This interactive workshop will provide families with practical tools and proven strategies to clarify their philanthropic mission, effectively transition leadership, ensure lasting impact, and preserve their philanthropic values.
Cost: This event is free for CNJG Members who are family foundations.
Other types of foundations are ineligible to join this webinar.
This program is a CNJG membership benefit for family foundation members, including staff and trustees, in partnership with the National Center for Family Philanthropy.
The Newark Funders Affinity Group is convening an emergency meeting to discuss the impact that the Trump administration will have on the local New Jersey community, especially with its new migration immigration policy.
At this meeting you will have the opportunity to hear from local leaders of community-based organizations that are beginning to plan for the fallout from these new federal policies. They will share what they anticipate will happen, what is needed to best prepare, and how philanthropy can help.
This event is being held at the Victoria Foundation but attendance can also be via Zoom. Instructions are provided in the e-mail confirmation on how to obtain the Zoom meeting instructions.
Cost: Free for CNJG Members; $50 for Non Member Grantmakers
CNJG is pleased to offer this program to family foundation members as part of NCFP's Fundamentals of Family Philanthropy 2024 webinar series, providing guidance on the core tenets of effective family philanthropy.
This webinar will explore a comprehensive approach to reparations in family philanthropy efforts and will provide family philanthropies with a practical roadmap for addressing historical and systemic injustices. Join this session to learn how to foster a more equitable, just and inclusive society through your families’ giving.
Cost: This event is free for CNJG Members who are family foundations.
Other types of foundations are ineligible to join this webinar.
This program is a CNJG membership benefit for family foundation members, including staff and trustees, in partnership with the National Center for Family Philanthropy.
What philanthropic vehicles are available to family philanthropies? Which are best suited to support your mission and goals, and what is the value of employing multiple vehicles?
In this session we will discuss the benefits (and limitations), flexibility, and potential impact of each vehicle. Through examples from other funders, learn about how to align your philanthropic vehicle with your family’s values, strategic objectives, and desired outcomes, while being mindful of your capacity and size constraints. This session is ideal for families looking to make informed decisions about how to structure and maximize their philanthropic giving.
Cost: This event is free for CNJG Members who are family foundations.
Other types of foundations are ineligible to join this webinar.
This program is a CNJG membership benefit for family foundation members, including staff and trustees, in partnership with the National Center for Family Philanthropy.
In light of your philanthropic goals and values, what governance structures and legal implications should you consider? How can effective governance support and sustain effective, compliant, and mission-driven family philanthropies?
This session will go beyond regulatory requirements and equip you with the best practices in stewardship to ensure your principles, policies, and practices are aligned with your philanthropic goals. We will cover core governance topics including:
- board structures
- decision-making processes
- the role of family members in leadership
Cost: This event is free for CNJG Members who are family foundations.
Other types of foundations are ineligible to join this webinar.
This program is a CNJG membership benefit for family foundation members, including staff and trustees, in partnership with the National Center for Family Philanthropy.
The Bridging The Gap: Blacks in Philanthropy conference, is organized by the Smith Family Foundation.
Their mission for this conference is to promote philanthropy and drive social change in the community, and this event is a vital step toward achieving that goal. The conference is expected to draw over 300 attendees, including philanthropy professionals, non-profit executives, community leaders, and interested individuals. The agenda features keynote speeches, panel discussions, workshops on racial equity, diversity, and inclusion in philanthropy, and strategies for advancing social justice. This conference is a unique opportunity to engage in collaborative discussions, gain valuable insights, and build meaningful connections with like-minded individuals who share a passion for creating positive change. Together, we will explore innovative strategies, best practices, and impactful initiatives that empower and uplift black lives.
Cost: $100
Open to all Grantmakers
Which staffing models will work best for your family philanthropy? How can the right structure enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of your organization?
We will examine different approaches, including hiring dedicated philanthropic professionals and family members, and utilizing external advisors and consultants. You will learn how to align staffing strategieswith your philanthropic goals, create a collaborative work environment, and ensure that the right expertise is in place to drive impact.
Whether you’re looking to grow, professionalize, or prepare for transition, this session will offer practical guidance on building a structure that supports both mission and operational excellence.
Cost: This event is free for CNJG Members who are family foundations.
Other types of foundations are ineligible to join this webinar.
This program is a CNJG membership benefit for family foundation members, including staff and trustees, in partnership with the National Center for Family Philanthropy.
How can philanthropic efforts go beyond addressing isolated challenges to fund the interconnectedness of social, economic, racial, and environmental disparities?
This webinar will explore how family philanthropy can play a pivotal role in supporting systems change by addressing the intersectionality of multiple issues and identities. By recognizing how factors such as race, gender, disability, and socioeconomic status intersect, family philanthropies can create more holistic, impactful solutions.
You will learn strategies to identify and support initiatives that address root causes, build resilience, and create systemic shifts by centering those most impacted by injustices.
Cost: This event is free for CNJG Members who are family foundations.
Other types of foundations are ineligible to join this webinar.
This program is a CNJG membership benefit for family foundation members, including staff and trustees, in partnership with the National Center for Family Philanthropy.
Narratives shape policy, sway elections, and determine whose voices are heard or silenced. Media is not just a communication tool: it is civic infrastructure, as essential to democracy as roads and schools. Yet the systems that shape our shared understanding are collapsing, consolidating, or being strategically captured.
This four part Media Learning Series designed in partnership with Independence Public Media Foundation is for funders who recognize that the fight for justice, equity, and democracy is also a fight over the stories we tell, and who gets to tell them. Through four dynamic sessions, we’ll explore how media and narrative power underpin every funder’s work, regardless of sector. Participants will move from conceptual understanding to actionable strategies for funding community-driven media and narrative ecosystems that can endure and adapt over time.
Across the series, you will:
Understand how today’s media systems shape public imagination, democracy, and movement building and why current funding approaches often fall short.
See how community led narrative work fuels organizing, shifts policy, and builds long-term power.
Learn how to assess and invest in the media and information needs of the communities you serve.
Leave with concrete steps, peer connections, and tools to begin or deepen your media funding practice.
SESSION LISTINGS:
Session 1 – Wednesday, 10/8, 12-1 PM via Zoom
Who Tells the Story?: Media, Power, and Philanthropy’s Role in Shaping the Narrative
Session 2 – Wednesday, 10/22, 12-1 PM via Zoom
How Narrative Fuels Organizing, Movement-Building, and Policy Change
Session 3 – Wednesday, 11/5, 12-1 PM via Zoom
Building Community Information Power from the Ground Up
Session 4 – Wednesday, 11/19, 12-2 PM In-person (location TBD)
Taking Action, Learning, and Adjusting: Building a Media Funding Practice that Lasts
We encourage you to attend the entire series, as each series will build on the last. However, we welcome you however you can show up. Recordings and resources will be available after each meeting. The stakes are high and the moment to act is now. Funders who engage today can help ensure that tomorrow’s media landscape reflects the full diversity, truth, and resilience of our communities.
Presented by Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia
Times of mass mobilization like the uprisings for Black lives and global crises like the COVID pandemic broaden awareness of the work of organizations, collectives, and other groups of people working to transform harmful systems. Some of these groups turn to intermediaries—fiscal sponsors and donor intermediaries—to provide back-office support, grant funding, and other services to support their ongoing work and evolution.
This report explores the ways in which the ecosystem of funders and intermediaries can better support these groups—which we’re calling “constituent-led groups”—who do their work without formal 501c3 status and are often led by and supporting historically oppressed communities.
Today, many constituent-led groups, particularly those that are smaller and geographically isolated, struggle to find fiscal sponsors and other intermediaries that share their values and can provide services that are deeply rooted in racial equity. For a number of reasons, funders—who can’t otherwise support constituent-led groups—often prioritize partnering with intermediaries with a high capacity for scaling services and distributing resources and funds. Though equity values are important to funders in selecting intermediaries to partner with, many funders don’t know what equity-centered services look like or how to support intermediaries in deepening this work.
In this report, we share different ways fiscal sponsors and donor intermediaries have approached deepening equity in their work while meeting the volume of demand from constituent-led groups and funders. We also offer some pathways forward for funders seeking to strategically invest in intermediaries to strengthen their capacity in these areas so they might better serve constituent-led groups.
Donating money to modify public thinking and government policy has now taken its place next to service-centered giving as a constructive branch of philanthropy. Many donors now view public-policy reform as a necessary adjunct to their efforts to improve lives directly.
This is perhaps inevitable given the mushrooming presence of government in our lives. In 1930, just 12 percent of U.S. GDP was consumed by government; by 2012 that had tripled to 36 percent. Unless and until that expansion of the state reverses, it is unrealistic to expect the philanthropic sector to stop trying to have a say in public policies.
Sometimes it’s not enough to build a house of worship; one must create policies that make it possible for people to practice their faith freely within society. Sometimes it’s not enough to pay for a scholarship; one must change laws so that high-quality schools exist for scholarship recipients to take advantage of.
Yet public-policy philanthropy has special ways of mystifying and frustrating practitioners. It requires understanding of governmental practice, interpretation of human nature, and some philosophical perspective. Public-policy philanthropists may encounter opponents operating from different principles who view them as outright enemies. Moreover, public-policy struggles never seem to end: victories one year become defeats the next, followed by comebacks, then setbacks, and on and on.
This book was written to help donors navigate all of those obstacles. It draws on deep history and rich interviews with the very best practitioners of public-policy philanthropy in America today. Whatever your aspirations for U.S. society and governance, this guide will help you find the best ways to make a difference.
The PSEG Foundation celebrated a decade of community impact through its Neighborhood Partners Program (NPP), hosting a special event to honor more than 400 nonprofit organizations that have received nearly $8 million in grants since the program’s inception. This year, the program set new records, with an 11% increase in applications and $1.2 million in total giving—a 20% rise from last year’s $1 million.
Representatives from more than 100 nonprofits that have benefited from the program attended the event, sharing testimonials about its impact on their communities. The NPP provides grant funding to eligible 501(c)(3) organizations that demonstrate effective programming aligned with the PSEG Foundation’s three strategic pillars: environmental sustainability, social justice, and equity and economic empowerment.
“In 10 years, the Neighborhood Partners Program has not only awarded millions in grants but has stood alongside hundreds of community-led organizations to create lasting change throughout New Jersey. NPP now serves as a role model for other funders who also seek to be catalysts for progress at the neighborhood level,” said Calvin Ledford Jr., president of the PSEG Foundation. “We are proud to support these transformative partnerships, which embody our unwavering commitment to empowering communities, tackling critical environmental and socio-economic challenges, and advancing equity—especially for those with the greatest need—so that all communities can thrive in a more sustainable and just New Jersey.”
We hope you had a wonderful summer, and found time for relaxation, rejuvenation, time with family and friends, and fun!
As we transition to autumn, this is the time of year when we seek nominations for the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers’ Board of Trustees. If you are interested in serving on the CNJG Board of Trustees, or know someone who would make a good trustee, we encourage you to complete the application form and send it, along with a brief biography, to Board Liaison and Office Manager, Dana Schwartz by Friday, September 12, 2025.
The ideal candidate for trustee has actively participated on a CNJG committee or task group, or served as co-chair of a Council affinity group, or helped plan a CNJG program or served as a speaker at a CNJG program, or attended Foundations on the Hills, or engaged in another activity that supports the Council. If that sounds like you or another colleague member, please consider completing the application.
The Governance Committee will review trustee nominations and applicants and submit our recommendations to the CNJG Board of Trustees at the October Trustees’ meeting.
The Board will present a slate of candidates to CNJG members at our Annual Meeting. Please mark your calendar for the CNJG Annual Meeting & Holiday Gathering on Wednesday, December 10, at The Heldrich Hotel in New Brunswick. Registration will be opening soon.
In the meantime, we hope to see you at an upcoming CNJG program.
Best,
Justin Kiczek and Kate Barrett
CNJG Governance Committee Co-Chairs
The Council of New Jersey Grantmakers invites members – and prospective members – from across the state to gather for an evening of connection and community. Rooted in CNJG’s mission of fostering shared learning, collaborative and trusting relationships, and network building, this event invites philanthropic peers to connect, converse, and cultivate meaningful connections in a welcoming and convivial setting.
The afternoon will include a brief welcome from CNJG leadership and our hosts followed by open time to mingle, share stories, and strengthen the trusted relationships that form the heart of our community. A tour of the arboretum grounds will be available for those interested.
Whether you are looking to reconnect with long-time colleagues, meet new peers from across the state, or cultivate new ideas that may spark future collaborations, this social offers the chance to deepen relationships that sustain and strengthen New Jersey’s philanthropic sector.
About the Arboretum: Once a country estate, Reeves-Reed Arboretum is now a 13.5 acre public garden listed on the National and State Registers of Historic Places. Its estate and gardens represent design trends by prominent late 19th and early 20th century landscape architects, including Calvert Vaux, a partner of Frederick Law Olmsted. More information can be found here.
This meeting is for grantmakers only.
There is no cost to attend this event.
Light refreshments will be provided.
CNJG thanks Investors Foundation and the Maher Charitable Foundation for underwriting the costs of the social