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Multi-year Grants
Affirmation: Multi-year funds provided both reliability and breathing room for nonprofits.
Making fundamental and long-lasting change comes with the promise of reliable investments. Longer grant terms create an environment where collaborative partnerships can flourish, and trust and transparency break down power dynamics. The result is that nonprofits have the “breathing room” and financial stability to focus activities where they are most needed.
Although many funders award grants to the same nonprofits year after year, they often require submission of annual applications that request information they already have and are complex and needlessly lengthy. These processes can heighten mutual distrust. From a practical standpoint, multi-year awards reduce paperwork for both funder and nonprofit and open communication channels promoting shared goals, mutual trust, and increased overall impact.
Activities
• For funders that historically award repeat annual grants to the same nonprofit partners, shift from an annual grant/proposal cycle to a long-term, multi-year commitment with an annual outcomes/progress report in lieu of a full application.
• Tailor grant terms to suit grantee timelines and needs (negotiated outcomes and milestones).
• If data collection is required solely to meet a funder’s compliance requirements, the funder should assume this responsibility or provide sufficient funding and/or capacity for the nonprofit to meet the requirement.
Short-term Outcomes
• The number of funders making multi-year grants increases by 50% over the previous years.
Long-term Outcomes
• More funders convert an annual application process for repeat grantee partners to a multi-year commitment with an annual outcomes report at the most, instead of full proposals each year.
• Funders assume responsibility for data collection or provide sufficient funding and/or capacity for the nonprofit to meet the requirement.
• Grant terms are suited to grantee timelines and needs (negotiated outcomes and milestones).
How to Begin Doing Good Better on Reliability
Learning opportunities
• What barriers keep funders from making long-term commitments to repeat grantee partners? Are any of these barriers legal?
• What are the minimum data requirements for funders to collect from repeat grantee partners?
Pre-Work
• Address the barriers to awarding multi-year grants through tested tools.
• Learn about how multi-year grants strengthen grantee partners and improve philanthropic, nonprofit, and community impact.
• Research mechanisms funders can use to meet legal compliance requirements while gaining trust in their grantee partners.
Philanthropic organizations of all shapes and sizes are well positioned to support Communities for a Lifetime (CfaL). This issue brief explores four roles for philanthropy in advancing CfaL work.
Culture Workers often face inconsistent income and undervaluation of their work. Traditional budgeting models leave many without (or lack adequate support of) fair compensation using the belief that mission-motivation and passion for the work replaces the need for competitive salaries. The Solidarity Economy is an innovative and inclusive economic framework that prioritizes social justice, environmental sustainability, and community well-being. Join us for a compelling conversation about funding practices that use a solidarity-based approach and find out what New Jersey funders are learning about local compensation trends from the ArtsPay NJ report. Together we will explore ways to advocate and take action around worker pay equity and beyond.
Panelists:
John McEwen, Executive Director – New Jersey Theatre Alliance
Erica Nagel, Deputy Director – New Jersey Theatre Alliance
Eddie Torres, President & CEO – Grantmakers in the Arts
Moderator:
Diane Felcyn, Program Officer – New Jersey State Council on the Arts
Webinar Video
Resources
Solidarity Not Charity: Arts & Culture Grantmaking in the Solidarity Economy - Grantmakers in the Arts
Solidarity Economy Resources - Grantmakers in the Arts
Grants to Worker Cooperatives & Small Businesses — The Reader - Grantmakers in the Arts
Grantmakers’ Changes in Practice 2023 — The Reader - Grantmakers in the Arts
Support for Individual Artists’ Committee - Grantmakers in the Arts
ArtsPay NJ - New Jersey Theatre Alliance
ArtsPay NJ - Information, Reports, and Dashboard
ArtsPay NJ - Interactive Dashboard
ArtsPay NJ - Full Report
ArtsPay NJ - Summary Report
Webinars
Upcoming: Wednesday, October 23
Move the Money: Nuts & Bolts: Making Grants to Cooperatively Owned Small Businesses
Previous
Move the Money: Grantmakers in the Arts & Art.Coop Solidarity Economy Discussion Series
Move the Money Series: Guaranteed Income
Move the Money: The Richness of Southern Soils: Supporting Black Farming and Food
In 2004, a group of foundations came together to create a funder collaborative in support of Freedom to Marry’s state-by-state strategy to win marriage equality. Over the following 11 years, this unique collaborative and its funding partners invested a total of $153 million to support a wide range of activities across the country to change hearts and minds on a massive scale — and ultimately to deliver a historic win for equality and love.
A new case study and video tell the untold, behind-the-scenes story of this funder collaborative — how its members worked with movement leaders to develop a strategy for winning, how they persevered in their support despite enormous setbacks, and how they invested in the opinion research, state-by-state grassroots action and litigation that pushed marriage over the finish line from coast to coast. As the Civil Marriage Collaborative closes its doors in 2015, the case study and video also draw lessons from this historic victory for foundations supporting other social justice causes.
Date: Tuesday, May 23
Time: 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Location
The Palace at Somerset Park
333 Davidson Ave, Somerset, NJ
The Council of New Jersey Grantmakers is pleased to present our 2023 Conference for the Social Sector on May 23, 2023. The conference theme will focus on our initiative: Doing Good Better, a partnership between the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers and the New Jersey Center for Nonprofits. This long-term initiative aims to shift the culture of the New Jersey philanthropic and nonprofit ecosystem by encouraging funders, nonprofits, and government to create shared power rooted in collaboration, mutual trust, and respect.
The 2023 Spring Conference for the Social Sector: Doing Good Better will explore how funders and nonprofits can address philanthropy’s power imbalances, rethink traditional grantmaking practices to better serve New Jersey communities, and position equity as a driving force. For many years, but particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, and the heightened outcry for racial equity and social justice, funders have been urged to embrace more flexibility and transparency in their grantmaking. Practices such as general operating support, simplified application and reporting procedures, multi-year funding and others have been shown to level the power imbalance, advance greater equity, strengthen partnerships between funders and their nonprofit partners, and thereby improve community impact. The conference will present strategies and tools including trust-based philanthropy, participatory grantmaking, power redistribution, and others that we can all employ to inform and realign processes, systems, and culture in the social sector. Join foundation, philanthropic, government, and nonprofit colleagues to learn about and leverage these tools. Together, we will discover and strategize how we collectively can "do good better”.
| Agenda | |
| 8:00 - 9:00 am | Registration/Breakfast/Networking/Resource Marketplace |
| 9:00 10:00 am | Opening Plenary |
| 10:00 - 10:15 am | Networking & Resource Marketplace |
| 10:15 - 11:30 am | Breakout Sessions |
| 11:30 - 11:45 am | Networking & Resource Marketplace |
| 11:45 - 1:00 pm | Luncheon Plenary |
| 1:00 - 1:30 pm | Table Discussions |
| 1:30 - 1:45 pm | Networking & Resource Marketplace |
| 1:45 - 3:00 pm | Breakout Sessions |
| 3:00 - 4:00 pm | Ice Cream reception/Networking/Resource Marketplace |
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, through its philanthropic arm, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, issued $555,000 in grants to 15 non-profit organizations for health, cultural programs and disaster relief throughout New Jersey during the third quarter of 2021.
The Foundation’s mission is to support organizations that make New Jersey healthier.
A total of $50,000 in disaster relief grants was awarded to the following organizations to support designated FEMA disaster areas and fill the gaps in the response effort:
- $25,000 to Community FoodBank of New Jersey
- $25,000 to ReNew Jersey: Ida Relief
Other grants issued in the third quarter include:
AtlantiCare Foundation, through the Community Foundation of New Jersey, in Morristown, received a $50,000 grant to support the Atlantic City Patient Transportation project, which provides free, easily accessible and reliable transportation for low-income patients in Atlantic City, using the health system’s services.
Diabetes Foundation, in Hackensack, received a $30,000 grant to support Improving Health Outcomes through Education and Guidance, a prevention and education program provided in English and Spanish, for patients with pre-diabetes and diabetes.
Food Bank of South Jersey, in Pennsauken, received a $25,000 grant to support Prevent T2, an evidence-based intervention for seniors designed to delay and/or prevent the onset of Type 2 diabetes.
Garden State Equality Education Fund, in Asbury Park, received a $25,000 grant to support the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Self-Healing Community Model, which addresses the impact of trauma and ACEs on mental and physical health among LGBTQ+ and other marginalized communities in Camden.
George Street Playhouse, in New Brunswick, received a $75,000 grant to support the production of Anytown, a musical drama for students in grades 7-12, focusing on the challenges and consequences of opioid abuse and its impact on teens and families.
Greater Newark Health Care Coalition, in West Orange, received a $50,000 grant to support the Greater Newark Community Health Worker (CHW) Learning Collaborative, a project that promotes the growth, leadership and interconnections of CHWs in the Greater Newark region through monthly meetings, resource sharing and training.
Hopeworks ‘N Camden, in Camden, received a $20,000 grant to support Returning Stronger, which is focused on the development of a youth-built, youth-focused, easy-to-access website, to help young people find relevant mental health resources.
Mercer Council on Alcoholism & Drug Addiction, in Trenton, received a $20,000 grant to support the Community Oriented Recovery Effort (CORE), a pilot project to create and promote a larger, more inclusive space for those in the recovery community in Trenton and the surrounding area.
Millhill Child and Family Development Corporation, in Trenton, received a $20,000 grant to support Eat Right, Keep Moving, an obesity education and prevention program that aims to build a Culture of Health within the communities that Millhill serves.
Newark Boys Chorus School, in Newark, received a $40,000 grant to support the school’s music and concert touring programs, as well as academic initiatives.
The Newark Museum of Art, in Newark, received a $100,000 grant to support The Horizon Foundation Community Days, which occur once a month and provide free diverse programming for all ages.
Saint Vincent Academy, in Newark, received a $25,000 grant to support the Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey Leadership Promise Scholarship, which provides one four-year scholarship to a Greater Newark-area student.
St. Benedict’s Preparatory School, in Newark, received a $25,000 grant to support the Steven Grossman Student Counseling Center, which provides students with mental health education, resources and services.
In September 2022, Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, Center for Guaranteed Income Research, and Stanford Basic Income Lab officially announced the launch of a dashboard that displays early data from guaranteed income pilots across the country. Newark, NJ, a founding member of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, is implementing a pilot of its own through a landmark public-private partnership led by the Office of Newark Philanthropic Liaison. Kevin Callaghan joined the WBGO Newark Today "Ask the Mayor" show to discuss what we are learning and how this pilot can inform state and federal public policy.
ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership's landmark study and publication 7 Measures of Success identified the ability to build effective alliances or partnerships that advance the mission as one of the hallmarks of a remarkable association. But getting a partnership right is an involved undertaking. That's what The Power of Partnership, itself the result of a strategic research collaboration of ASAE & The Center and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is all about. The book takes a no-nonsense look at the intricacies of establishing successful partnerships between nonprofit organizations, between nonprofits and for-profit companies, and between nonprofit organizations and governmental entities.
We are pleased to share Strengthening Philanthropy in Newark - Report to the Field 2015 from the Office of the Newark Philanthropic Liaison. First established in 2007, the Liaison office represents one of the nation’s first formal partnerships between a city and the philanthropic community. The initiative began as a partnership between the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers in collaboration with then Mayor Cory A. Booker. We are proud this unique partnership continues with Mayor Ras Baraka and his new administration.
This report provides a brief summary of some of the substantial activities and impact the Office of the Newark Philanthropic Liaison facilitated throughout 2015. The strategy of collective impact is thriving throughout Newark thanks in large part to the work of the Liaison, and the funding community’s support of and robust engagement with the Office of the Mayor and anchor institutions across the city continue to reap positive outcomes. The Office of the Newark Philanthropic Liaison is supported by: Bank of America, The Foundation for Newark’s Future, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, The MCJ Amelior Foundation, The Nicholson Foundation, Panasonic Corporation of North America, The Prudential Foundation, Schumann Foundation for New Jersey, Turrell Fund, Victoria Foundation, and PSEG Foundation providing in-kind support and meeting space.