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The City of Newark and Newark Philanthropic Liaison are working closely with several consortia of nonprofits to address some of the City’s most critical challenges. Grantmakers with an interest in Newark are connecting with these groups to better understand issues, interact with organizational leaders, and find ways to leverage philanthropy across a range of needs.
The coalitions often have ambitious agendas that focus on reviewing and changing policy on local, statewide and national levels. They offer a platform to share information and create strong cases for increased investment from both public and private sources. Below is an overview of just three of these groups. Through their convenings, they provide a powerful opportunity for Newark-related nonprofits and grantmakers to mobilize to improve the fortunes of the State’s largest City.
Opportunity Reconnect
Mayor Cory Booker has made public safety the leading priority of his administration. Success will come only through lowered recidivism, better management, and increased job opportunities and support for persons returning from prison. The Opportunity Reconnect (OR) consortia meets weekly at Essex County College, the site of OR’s comprehensive one-stop center that offers ex-prisoners an array of services from dozens of organizations and agencies.
OR’s strength lies in its ability to create partnerships and memorandums of understanding among for-profit government contractors, community-based groups and government agencies. The shared protocols are having a profound effect on the City’s ability to provide efficient and effective services for thousands of returning inmates each month. The agreements are enabling the City to respond to RFPs from both private and federal sources to strengthen the capacity of OR and its effect on public safety. The City welcomes participation of grantmakers to further leverage the strength of these proposals and maximize OR’s continued growth.
Interagency Collaboration for Addiction Treatment
This informal collaborative of nonprofits, faith-based groups, government agencies, and funding partners meets regularly at Integrity House, a long-term residential and outpatient treatment program. Integrity House is the lead agency for the United Way’s Bridge to Recovery, a consortium effort of over 200 agencies dedicated to helping those with addiction problems.
Among ICAT’s goals is the creation of a central Newark facility to handle all intake, referral and screening of individuals in need of detox. The group is also seeking to link and combine databases among agencies for better support of clients, who often include the homeless and ex-prisoners. A number of legislative barriers prevent some persons from receiving aid to cover costs of addiction treatment. These persons often end up in hospital emergency rooms or under the jurisdiction of law enforcement. ICAT is looking at ways to advocate for policy changes that would provide the additional preventive-care funding to remedy these situations.
Green Future Summit Working Groups
Mayor Booker has called for the City to become a leader in urban sustainability by implementing economic and environmental strategies that will make Newark a safer, wealthier, and healthier place for its children and families. Under the auspices of Apollo Alliance, a national organization, a team of allies is developing an agenda and recruiting participants for the “Green Future Summit” in Newark on September 11-12. Pre-summit planning sessions have involved a coalition of businesses, government leaders, environmental groups, community-based organizations and grantmakers.
The coalition has divided into working groups focused on three areas: green buildings, green space, and green economic development/jobs. The working groups are now drafting roadmaps and defining concrete, measurable goals and strategies for each issue area (e.g. "retrofit 100 homes"). They are also securing commitments from stakeholders on how they will work to meet these goals.
The groups communicate through listservs and periodic check-in calls as they shape the Summit agenda, recruit speakers, and build the relationships necessary to carry their work forward to develop a roadmap for the City. Members of the CNJG are playing an active role in the Summit and additional partners are welcome.
CNJG members can gather a wealth of information by tapping into the resources of Newark’s collaborative groups. Additional consortia have been formed to address the foreclosure crisis, homelessness, newly-formed Family Success Centers, and other areas.
In the December issue of Governing magazine, a national trade publication, a featured article “But what did Cory Booker actually accomplish in Newark?” cites the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers and Jeremy Johnson, the Newark Philanthropic Liaison, in connection with the public-private partnership to establish the Newark Office of Reentry. Among the highlights, the article reports ‘Booker’s strategy for seeking help took many forms. It wasn’t just about selling the city to businesses. It also meant leveraging financial support from the philanthropic sector. To do so, the city hired a philanthropy liaison, Jeremy Johnson, whose position is paid for by an outside funder, the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers.
Newark is one of the only places in the country to designate someone on staff with the explicit role of engaging foundations for the funding of public projects. “You really need the leader of your city to believe that philanthropy can help and can work in tandem with government,” Johnson says.’ Newark Funders continue to be committed these goals, meeting with Newark mayoral candidates in December to discuss their ongoing efforts and the role of the Newark Philanthropic Liaison.
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.
The New Jersey Cultural Trust Board approved a total of $1,040,935 in grants to 29 nonprofit arts organizations in 14 counties during an open public meeting held virtually on Jan. 15. With the Fiscal Year 2025 grant awards, the Cultural Trust has awarded over $11.4 million in funding for financial stabilization and historic preservation projects across New Jersey since Fiscal Year 2004.
The IFS Arts grants were recommended to the Cultural Trust by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. The more than $1 million in awards represents the largest total dollar amount the Board has approved in grant awards in a single fiscal year in the Trust’s history.
“These grants are a historic investment in New Jersey’s cultural community that will resonate for years to come,” Lieutenant Governor Tahesha Way said. “The Cultural Trust’s unique grant programs support projects that strengthen the foundations of our state’s cultural organizations — organizations that in turn anchor local economies, improve the health and vitality of our communities, and contribute immeasurably to New Jerseyans’ wellbeing and quality of life.”