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Facing Our Future was a landmark initiative looking at the systemic, long term fiscal challenges facing all levels of government in New Jersey. It grew out of a 2010 briefing CNJG held for members that outlined how a Governor’s budget is annually crafted. CNJG leadership worked with members to convene a group of enthusiastic former government leaders. Their collective experience crossed party lines, and many of them had served multiple New Jersey governors. This Leadership Group included 4 former Attorney Generals, 3, former Commissioners, 2 former State Treasurers, a former Director of the State Senate and a former Chief Justice of the NJ Supreme Court, in addition to leading New Jersey researchers.

Facing Our Future became an independent, bipartisan effort under the auspices of CNJG. It has produced 3 different reports that centered on the same theme.

CNJG hosts regular briefings where funders hear from government officials, disaster recovery and health experts, nonprofit leaders, funders, and other stakeholders dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The briefings provide an opportunity to share how colleagues are changing grantmaking practices for rapid response, learn about new policies and government actions, and connect with local leaders who work with people whose financial, physical, and mental health suffers due to COVID-19. Series I topics included food insecurity, mapping response funding, racial health disparities, federal and state policy, and updates from New Jersey response funds and Rapid Response Surveys, completed in partnership with the Center for Non-Profits in March, April, and July 2020.

Foundations Facilitate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Partnering with Community and Nonprofits, a new report by the OMG Center for Collaborative Learning, confirms that foundations can, in fact, facilitate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) through their grantmaking processes and their partnerships with nonprofits—and identifies eight specific practices for foundations to emulate.

The report takes a deep dive into the work of nine foundations that represent a diverse cross-section of types and sizes, and offers useful lessons about how foundations can better partner with nonprofits to be more effective in their work.

To answer the basic question of how many active family foundations are planning to spend down or exist in perpetuity (or have not yet made a decision), and to examine foundations’ motivations and decision-making, the Foundation Center, in collaboration with the Council on Foundations and with additional assistance from the Association of Small Foundations, launched a study of family foundations in 2008.  This report presents the full range of study findings, which are based on survey responses from 1,074 family foundations.