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Join Deborah Cornavaca, Deputy Chief of Staff of Outreach to Governor Murphy for a general information session on the vaccine rollout in New Jersey, and to provide you with comprehensive updates and answer questions. The rollout is in constant motion, but Ms. Cornavaca and her team will provide the most up-to-date information, as well as hear your suggestions and thoughts.

The timely knowledge and resources shared during this briefing will be essential as foundations support nonprofit, community, and government partners in making sure all New Jerseyans are informed about the vaccine, how and where to get vaccinated, and where to go for questions or concerns. For additional information visit the New Jersey COVID-19 Information Hub.

Register today to learn about the state’s plan to get vaccines to New Jersey communities, and what role philanthropy can play in ongoing efforts.

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

Beginning in October 2023, a group of funders got together and commissioned the Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) to facilitate a series of dialogues with Newark’s nonprofit community to learn how foundations can be supportive of their capacity strengthening needs. The meetings made separate space for the funding community and nonprofit leaders to meet amongst themselves for learning, sharing, and action, and then brought all of us together in May for an honest discussion about the path forward.

We are utilizing our fall Newark Funder Affinity Group meetings to discuss a collective funder response to the needs of Newark’s nonprofit sector. Please join us for our second meeting on this critical topic in follow-up to the Newark Funder Affinity Group Meeting on September 19th. All are welcome to join us, whether you were able to make our September meeting or not. We will ensure that all attendees are updated so that we are all beginning from the same place.

Cost: Free for CNJG Members; $50 for Non Member Grantmakers
Lunch will be served.
 

Across the country, communities are facing waves of federal immigration enforcement actions featuring unprecedented new tactics, including the deployment of military personnel and other operations that heighten fear, surveillance, and instability. In this moment, philanthropy has a critical role to play, not only by moving quickly to fund rapid response efforts, but also by sustaining community power and safety through legal support and narrative strategies that affirm justice and belonging.

Join us for our upcoming network huddle as we bring together funders who are actively coordinating response strategies in various cities. Speakers will share what they are seeing on the ground, how their institutions are adapting, and what they are learning about how best to support communities in real time while building the long-term infrastructure needed to resist attacks and prevent harm.

Please note that this discussion is intended for our philanthropic colleagues. Participants should come to this session prepared to learn and share details about their work. This session will not be recorded, though transcription will be available after the call.

Cost:  Free

Who may attend:  Staff and board members of foundations, corporate-giving programs, philanthropic consultancies, affinity groups, and invited governmental grantmaking agencies.

Adopted by CNJG”s Board of Trustees in October 2023, these eight Principles offer philanthropy a source of direction for their own equity journey. Each principle begins with a common understanding followed by developmental steps, and the aspiration for each principle. These principles are intended to promote continuous learning, vulnerability, and reflection for how philanthropy can evolve from its historical roots to a more trusting, accountable, and equitable model.

In this arts briefing, Nadia Elokdah, Vice President and Program Director for Grantmakers in the Arts, will discuss the unique opportunity for arts grantmakers to support advocacy and influence policy through their funding decisions and why the arts should be included in decision-making processes. She will also cover the importance of arts funding in building narrative power and driving cultural change. Vanessa Ramalho, Director of External Relations of ArtPride New Jersey, will highlight the challenges faced by arts and cultural organizations in New Jersey and their intersections with community issues relating to the ongoing changes in federal policy. She will also share how ArtPride New Jersey is leveraging its statewide reach to develop collaborative advocacy strategies to influence and help shape policies informed by the needs and voices of the arts sector and the communities they serve. Vanessa will explore ways that funders might shift their focus and priorities to better meet the needs of organizations that are navigating increasing financial uncertainty as a result of federal policy changes.

Nadia Elokdah is an urbanist and design strategist with more than a decade working at the intersection of public systems and cultural practice. She currently serves as Vice President & Director of Programs at GIA. Most recently she served as special projects manager with the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs coordinating the City’s monuments commission. Prior, she served as coordinator in the development of the City’s first cultural plan, CreateNYC, in which she coordinated and led hundreds of engagements with a broad cross-section of the public, as well collaborating in the writing and production of the plan. She is devoted to civic engagement through culturally responsible, inclusive, and equitable design practice, exemplified in collaborations with the International Design Clinic, in.site collaborative, and Monuments Lab. Nadia is a trained architect and designer, researcher, professor, and published author, including Identity Crisis, a cultural exploration of urban planning through the hammam. She currently serves as steering committee member of the Women of Color in the Arts (WOCA) Non-Black POC Solidarity! into Action Committee, National Coalition for Arts Preparedness & Emergency Response (NCAPER) Programming Working Group, and an advisory board member for Unsettled.

Vanessa Ramalho, Director of External Relations, supports ArtPride’s advocacy and government affairs work, leading efforts to move forward legislative priorities that support the sustainability of the arts in New Jersey. Vanessa also builds relationships with constituents throughout the state — from community members to arts organizations, and local and state representatives — to support the cultivation of a thriving arts ecosystem. With nearly 20 years of experience in the nonprofit arts & cultural sector, Vanessa has led community education, fundraising, and grassroots advocacy projects across a range of organizations, including the Sadie Nash Leadership Project, the Asian Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS (APICHA), Project KISS of New York Presbyterian Hospital, The Princeton Ballet School, the Asian Arts Initiative, and the Center for Babaylan Studies.

Cost: Free for CNJG Members; $75 for Non Member Grantmakers
This program is only open to staff and trustees from grantmaking organizations.

Programs in this Series:
March 13: Making Sense of Federal Policy: Understanding What it Means for NJ: Immigration
March 20: Making Sense of Federal Policy: Understanding What it Means for NJ: Health
March 27: Making Sense of Federal Policy: Understanding What it Means for NJ: Environment
April 3: Making Sense of Federal Policy: Understanding What it Means for NJ: Education
April 10: Making Sense of Federal Policy: Understanding What it Means for NJ: Housing
April 17: Making Sense of Federal Policy: Understanding What it Means for NJ: Media & Journalism
April 24: Making Sense of Federal Policy: Understanding What it Means for NJ: Arts

Webinar Video

Strengthening nonprofit organizations is not just a nice-to-have but an essential part of our work as grantmakers to ensure that nonprofits have the resources they need to address today’s most pressing social concerns. Indeed, the vast majority of staffed foundations — 86 percent — do just that, invest in organizational strengthening in areas such as leadership, fundraising, evaluation, communications and technology.

While capacity building is a critical part of our work, traditional models of capacity building tend not to account for culture, systems and power in their design, too often “rendering them inadequate for communities of color.” The limitations of models that do not consider dynamics of power and issues of equity have never been more apparent than they are now. At the time of this writing, we are navigating a deadly global pandemic and bearing witness to massive protests for racial justice, both of which are bringing renewed attention to the deep and persistent racial inequities that exist in society writ large, including within philanthropic institutions.

In the midst of these seismic societal shifts, our field is taking stock of how we as individuals and institutions are participating in systems that perpetuate inequity, engaging in deep dialogue and reflection on how we can do better, and adopting more equitable and transformative philanthropic practices. And although we must make changes across the breadth of our institutions to become more equitable, capacity building is a particularly powerful case study of how racial inequities show up in our practices and how we can take intentional steps to mitigate those inequities.