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A CNJG corporate member asked for help with the scenario in which a corporate policy of not supporting religious organizations in their grantmaking, causes problems helping during a disaster in an urban or rural area, when the program that is delivering the disaster relief is based within a church. They want to work with those programs (a church serves as the program’s fiscal sponsor) who support efforts for hunger, homelessness, substance abuse recovery, racial equity, etc. as long as they do not discriminate and do no limit it to their own congregations. The request for policy samples to work around this religious organization hurdle as long as there is no discrimination or funding the actual church’s worship, was compelled by CNJG staff and is listed here.

Directors & Officers liability insurance provides financial protection for a foundation and its directors, officers, employees, and volunteers in the event of a lawsuit.  CNJG offers its members the D&O liability insurance program provided through Aon Association Services, underwritten by The Hartford and endorsed by the United Philanthropy Forum. A discount is available to foundations with current membership with CNJG.

Fiduciary Liability and other coverage is also available to members at a discounted rate. Coverage is available in all states. Brokers can access the Forum’s D&O program through Aon Association Services.

Learn more using the documents below, on the Aon website or by contacting Jason Tharpe, program administrator at Aon Affinity, at 202-429-8561. To obtain the discount, foundations should let Aon know they are a member of CNJG, a member of the United Philanthropy Forum. 

These articles are curated from news sources, philanthropic-focused publications, philanthropy serving organizations, and other places found on the internet. We encourage philanthropic organizations to read, share, and use the strategies suggested in these articles for your own diversity, equity, and inclusion learning journey. If there are others that you feel we should include, please contact us.

Chronicle of Philanthropy: Philanthropy Pours More Money Into Advancing Economic Wealth of Latinos (10/13/2022)

ABC News: Two New Jersey towns illustrate the race gap in the COVID pandemic (5/13/2022)

Chronicle of Philanthropy: General Operating Support Is Vital to Advancing Equity, Strengthening Nonprofits, Say Leaders (4/18/2022)

MacArthur Foundation: Movement to End Philanthropy’s Complicity in Anti-Blackness (4/18/2022)

Chronicle of Philanthropy: Nearly 500 Foundation Leaders Unite to Push for More Support of Asian Americans (3/26/2021)

Chronicle of Philanthropy: As Violence Against Asian Americans Intensifies, the Moment for Philanthropy to Act Is Now (3/17/2021)

Chronicle of Philanthropy: How One Family Foundation is Evolving to Refocus on Racial Equity (3/16/2021)

HealthDay.com: Many Adults Do Not See Link Between Racism, Poorer Health (1/27/2021)

Stanford Social Innovation Review: How to Begin Considering a Gender Lens Investing Strategy (12/10/2020)

Nonprofit Quarterly: How to Welcome Native Leaders to the Philanthropic Sector (12/3/20)

Chronicle of Philanthropy: Opinion Piece: Diversity Mandates from Foundations Maki It Harder for Nonprofits to Do Their Jobs Well (12/2/2020)

Chronicle of Philanthropy: Invest in and Strengthen People of Color: A Corporate Grant Maker Explains How (11/17/2020)

Nonprofit Quarterly: White House Declares Ban on Federal Racial Equity Trainings (9/14/20)

Nonprofit Quarterly: White Supremacy: Call It By Name (9/14/2020)

Denver Post: How Donors Can Advance Racial Equity (9/14/2020)

ROI-NJ: NJ to recognize Juneteenth as official state holiday (9/11/2020)

Chronicle of Philanthropy: The 'Warping Effects' of Philanthropy (8/25/2020)

Chronicle of Philanthropy: Companies Lead Philanthropic Response to Calls for Racial Justice, but Will It Last? (8/25/2020)

Exponent Philanthropy: Moving Towards Racial Equity in Philanthropy: Introducing an Anti-Racist Intersectional Frame (8/25/2020)

Medium.com: Your 3-Step, Uncomplicated Formula for a More Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Workplace (7/30/2020)

Inside Philanthropy: “A Moment of Reckoning.” How Can Funders Support an Equitable and Inclusive Arts Sector? (7/16/2020)

Generocity: Uprising in Philadelphia: A to-do list for the next six months (7/9/2020)

Boston Globe: The Problem is White Supremacy (6/29/2020)

Inside Philanthropy: Amid Demands for Change, Here’s How Philanthropy Can Back Underfunded Black-Led Group (6/18/2020)

Nonprofit Quarterly: This Moment Shows Us Why Philanthropy Should Reinvent Itself by Gislaine Ngounou, of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation (6/17/2020)

Chronicle of Philanthropy: Who Holds Philanthropy Accountable for Racial Justice? by Lisa Pilar Cowan, vice president of Robert Sterling Clark Foundation (6/16/2020)

Creative New Jersey: Summary and resources from their statewide conversation on Racial Justice  (6/10/2020)

Chronicle of Philanthropy: 64 Black Foundation Leaders Tell Philanthropy to Go Big in Response to Pandemic and Police Killings  (6/10/2020)

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Mass Decarceration, COVID-19, and Justice in America by Deanna Van Buren co-founder of Designing Justice + Designing Spaces and F. Javier Torres-Campos, Thriving Cultures Program Director at Surdna Foundation (6/9/2020)

Communications Network: Crowdsourced Anti-Racism Resources and Tools

NonprofitAF.com: Privilege, power, and personal conflicts: The forces preventing change in nonprofit and philanthropy by Vu Le (6/8/2020)

Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia: Articles and Resources from the webinar: The Crisis of White Supremacy in America: What’s Philanthropy’s Role (6/4/2020)

Chronicle of Philanthropy: Dismantling Racism Might Require Philanthropy to Dismantle Itself by Lisa Pilar Cowan, vice president of the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation (6/2/2020)

Chronicle of Philanthropy: Why All Grantmakers Should Seek to Fix Democracy by Suzette Brooks Masters, senior strategist at the Center for Inclusion and Belonging at the American Immigration Council (6/2/2020)

Southern Poverty Law Center: Authoritarian State or Inclusive Democracy? 21 Things We Can Do Right Now by Eric K. Ward, Senior Fellow (6/1/2020)

Nonprofit Quarterly: Dear Philanthropy: These Are the Fires of Anti-Black Racism by Will Cordery of Leverage Philanthropic Partners LLC & Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice (6/1/2020)

NonprofitAF.com: Have nonprofit and philanthropy become the "white moderate" that Dr. King warned us about? by Vu Le (6/1/2020)

Library Journal: Books on Anti-Racism (5/31/2020)

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Overcoming the Racial Bias in Philanthropic Funding by Cheryl Dorsey, Peter Kim, Cora Daniels, Lyell Sakaue, & Britt Savage (5/4/2020)

Stanford Social Innovation Review: For a More Equitable America, Understand Race and Racism as Actions We Do and Can Undo by MarYam Hamedani, Hazel Rose Markus & Jeanne Tsai (5/1/2020)

Jacobin Magazine: The Perils of Liberal Philanthropy by Karen Ferguson (11/2018)

Smithsonian Magazine: The 1968 Kerner Commisssion Got It Right, But Nobody Listened by Alice George (3/1/2018)

Continuum Chart on Becoming an Anti-Racist Multicultural Organization by Crossroads Ministry (2013)

The Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture  from Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change Groups (2001)

Resource Generation: Guidance for Giving to Black-led Organizations for Black Liberation (undated)

Prison Policy Initiative: Prison Gerrymandering Project how the Census Bureau counts people in prison (undated)

Community foundations are beginning to deepen and shift how they work, adopting an anchor mission that seeks to fully deploy all resources to build community wealth. Moving into territory relatively uncharted for community foundations, they are taking up impact investing and economic development — some in advanced ways, others with small steps. This report offers an overview of how 30 representative community foundations — including The Seattle Foundation, the Vermont Community Foundation, and the Greater Cincinnati Foundation — are working toward adopting this new anchor mission.

This Democracy Collaborative report was written by Marjorie Kelly, Senior Fellow and Director of Special Projects and Violeta Duncan, Community Development Associate.

Novartis benchmarked Employee Crisis Programs, and asked fellow corporate funders via the corporate funders listserve to answer the questions below.

1. If you have an Employee Crisis Program, what is the name
2. Do you manage the program internally or thru a 3rd party?  If you use a 3rd party, can you share their name/website and any good/bad experiences.
3. Do you only support disasters or other hardships as well?
4. What is the average percentage of your employees that apply for aid?
5. What is your minimum and maximum funding?
6. What is the average amount of aid?
7. Do you provide aid directly to the employee and/or vendors?
8. Do you allow employees to donate to your fund?  If so, how do you promote awareness and what is the employee donation participation rate?  Do you match these donations?
9. Where does the program reside (CSR, Foundation, HR)?
10. Please share guidelines and applications, if possible.
11. Please share any other insights.

Join us at the second NJ Corporate Philanthropy Network meeting of the year which will focus on what specific information you should zero in on when searching for any red flags in non-profit 990’s and financial statements. Seasoned Accountants, Sherise D, Ritter and Lovepreet Buttar, from The Mercadien Group will guide us. We’ll also touch on vetting sponsorship requests and hold our traditional round robin where meeting participants can share their burning questions/issues and lessons learned.

Lovepreet Buttar, Managing Director with Mercadien’s Nonprofit and Human Services Group, has extensive experience performing and overseeing audit engagements for various nonprofit organizations, including associations, schools, private foundations, and health and human services organizations. She is passionate about helping these organizations support their constituents and achieve their mission. She is also head of the firm’s Audit and Assurance practice and is responsible for both firm-wide and engagement-specific quality control matters and overseeing training for various for-profit, not-forprofit and government/public entities. In this role, she helps ensure the firm is using best practices that are compliant with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

Sherise (Sherry) Ritter is Managing Director and Co-Chair of the The Mercadien Group’s Nonprofit and Human Services Group, as well as the Advisory Services Group. Serving as a trusted advisor, she meets with all of her clients at least once a year to advise them on topics such as tax planning and preparation, identifying risk areas and formulating solutions, strategy to meet growth goals, and multi-state and unrelated business income taxation and filing exposures. Additionally, she helps her clients with strategic planning, process efficiency and improvement studies, and mergers and acquisitions. She also specializes in the areas of cash flow management, accounting systems design, and board governance training.

Cost: Free for CNJG Members; $50 for Non Member Grantmakers
This program is only open to staff and trustees from grantmaking organizations.

Webinar Video

Resources
Blank 990 Form
990 Forms and their Schedules
The Overhead Myth: Crash Course to Fundraising Transparency
Charity Navigator's Assessment of Finances