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The New Jersey Council for the Humanities (NJCH) recently awarded $199,637 in Incubation and Action Grant funding to sixteen organizations. Incubation Grants help organizations plan, research, develop, and prototype public humanities projects and events. Action Grants help organizations implement a wide array of humanities-based projects, including public programs, exhibitions, installations, tours, and discussion groups.<BR><BR>
Public humanities programming allows individuals to engage in lifelong learning and share in the exploration of history, values, cultures, and beliefs. NJCH supports and acts as a resource for cultural and service-oriented nonprofit partners as they bring the public humanities to the residents of New Jersey, harnessing the power of the humanities to strengthen communities.
In Q2 2021, our foundation awarded 29 grants totaling over 12 million dollars. Of these, 9 grants were new, while 20 were renewals. Our Q2 grantmaking aligns with our updated funding model, which focuses our work on identifying and fueling the scale of cost-effective programs and solutions that accelerate improvement in key academic and socioemotional outcomes for all children. Inspired by venture philanthropy, the model puts an emphasis on grantmaking and strategic support that unlock innovation, evidence, and growth.
The New Jersey Arts and Culture Recovery Fund has awarded $1.3 million in grants to 68 nonprofits across the state in an effort to help them recover from the devastating effects of the pandemic.
This is the second round of grants awarded by NJACRF, which is hosted by the Princeton Area Community Foundation. Earlier this year, the fund provided $2.6 million in grants to more than 100 other arts, culture and historical nonprofits statewide.
COVID-19 shuttered venues and forced furloughs and layoffs of more than half of the state’s creative workforce. The state’s nonprofit arts industry reported pandemic-related losses of more than $100 million as of December.
In response to the needs of the arts community, NJACRF was established last year with a gift from the Grunin Foundation, based in Toms River. A coalition of funders quickly followed with their support, to ensure the recovery of the industry.
The Trustees of The Fund for New Jersey awarded $1,250,000 in grants to 18 non-profit organizations at their June 2021 quarterly Board meeting. Grants were awarded to organizations in the areas of climate change and clean energy, environmental protection, voting rights, education, criminal justice reform, social justice and workers’ rights, and transportation.
Kiki Jamieson, President of The Fund for New Jersey, stated, “We at The Fund are pleased to invest in these policy organizations working to offer solutions that address the growing climate crisis, protect the state’s natural resources, improve public transportation, expand voting rights, and promote racial and economic justice in New Jersey. These investments are critical in making New Jersey a better place to live, with access to opportunities for all residents and newcomers.”
Jamieson continued, "We are proud to highlight the work of the NJ Domestic Workers Coalition, consisting of six different grassroots organizations advocating for the rights of domestic workers, such as housekeepers, nannies, and home care workers in New Jersey. Many of these workers are typically excluded from overtime pay, federal labor laws, minimum wage, and other labor protections that we often take for granted. In New Jersey, 97% of domestic workers are women, 60% women of color, and 52% are immigrants. Too many of these workers are denied lunch breaks, owed money, or at risk on the job due to the lack of safety precautions. Eliminating the inequalities that domestic workers face is a critical task that we must overcome to give them a real opportunity to succeed and to treat them with dignity and respect.”
The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) today announced the New Jersey Community Stage Relief Grant Program. The $17.5 million program will provide grants of up to $300,000 to eligible for-profit establishments that host at least two regularly occurring live performances or events per week.
“From Count Basie and Springsteen to Sinatra and Queen Latifah, New Jersey has a long and rich history of supporting performing artists and the venues where they connect with their fans. The COVID-19 pandemic hit performing arts businesses particularly hard, and now that we are able to begin safely reopening it is critical that we help them get back on their feet,” said NJEDA Chief Executive Officer Tim Sullivan. “The New Jersey Community Stage Relief Grant Program, along with the New Jersey Council on the Arts program for nonprofit establishments, will provide much-needed funding to help performing arts venues recover from the impact of COVID-19 and get back to hosting the shows that help make New Jersey such a vibrant, exciting place to live.”
Strengthening its ongoing commitment to addressing the financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic while advancing its core mission to raise awareness of the state’s unique and diverse historical legacy, the New Jersey Historical Commission (NJHC) has approved approximately $4.9 million in Fiscal Year 2022 (FY 22) grant funding to over 100 historical organizations, museums, historic sites, archives, libraries, individuals, and county re-grant agencies across the state.
The $4.9 million in FY 22 funding will support the New Jersey Historical Commission’s General Operating Support (GOS) program, which covers an array of operational expenses for qualified history organizations; Projects and Co-Sponsored Projects, which includes New Jersey-based historical research, exhibits, programs, and archival work; and the County History Partnership Program (CHPP), which provides all 21 counties with funding for local history groups statewide. FY 22 funding will also be dedicated to planning, coordinating, and implementing initiatives to promote best practices in diversity, equity, and inclusion ahead of the NJHC’s new, three-year funding cycle in FY 2023.
“This marks another chapter in the Department of State’s continuing efforts to aid New Jersey’s history community in navigating the unprecedented financial challenges brought about by the pandemic,” noted Secretary of State Tahesha Way. “Funding for history organizations has increased considerably over the past two years, support that will not only secure the future of essential jobs, civics education, and programming across diverse disciplines, but serve to maximize the sector’s growth in the years to come.”
The New Jersey State Council on the Arts awarded more than $35.6 million in grants to support more than 700 arts organizations, projects, and artists throughout the state. The grants were approved at the Arts Council's 55th Annual Meeting, held virtually. The awards announced today were part of the largest state appropriation the Council has ever received in its 55-year history – $31.9 million as part of the state budget approved by Governor Murphy last month. Today’s grant awards also included $7.5 million in Coronavirus Relief Funds, which were signed into law by Governor Murphy earlier this year as part of a multi-bill package aimed at economic recovery.
Secretary of State Tahesha Way addressed attendees at the meeting, commending their creativity and resiliency during the pandemic. "The innovation New Jersey’s arts community has shown over these last 16 months is absolutely awe-inspiring,” said Secretary Way. “The arts have been a crucial source of healing and connection throughout the pandemic, and I am proud to work closely with the State Arts Council as they lead the field with responsive grants and services so people can continue to enjoy and engage with New Jersey arts.”
According to a collaborative study of the arts sector, led by ArtPride NJ, New Jersey nonprofit arts organizations have lost more than $100 million and counting due to pandemic-related closures, cancellations, and lost contributed and earned revenue. When the arts sector is open and thriving, it generates more than $660 million in economic activity statewide, employs nearly 22,000 workers, and engages more than 8.3 million people who stay in hotels, and eat and shop locally. For more on the important role the arts play in recovery, visit KeepJerseyArtsAlive.org.
“We are grateful to Governor Murphy and the legislature for this monumental increase in funding and for recognizing the need for robust public support of the arts right now,” said Council Chair Elizabeth Mattson. “This funding is not only vital to ensuring the arts can continue to move forward and innovate, but will support important work to foster a more equitable and inclusive arts community. We know there is still much work to be done, and we look forward to working alongside our partners and colleagues in the field as we embark on a new chapter together.”
The Trenton Arts Fund at the Princeton Area Community Foundation has awarded a total of $25,000 in grants to eight nonprofits working to make the arts more accessible to the community.
The Trenton Arts Fund was created in 2018 by John Hatch and his husband, David Henderson, to support arts, culture and history organizations because they believe that when the arts thrive, cities thrive. A seven-person grants committee, whose members live locally and have a background in the arts, reviewed and evaluated all applications and recommended funding eight finalists.
“Our goal was to support emerging and established arts, culture and history organizations in Trenton as they reopen and emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Hatch. “We also wanted to support and recognize those organizations that focus on our young people in the city. The Trenton Arts Fund received many excellent applications, and we are thrilled to support these eight organizations that are doing extraordinary work in Trenton, bringing the arts to all corners of the city.”
Philanthropists are increasingly willing to support direct cash assistance. Foundations and individual donors have supported a range of emergency cash relief for various crises throughout the years, and the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the greater Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia region has been no exception. Private philanthropy is also working with the current wave of government-sponsored cash assistance pilots. This virtual convening highlighted Urban’s findings on philanthropic support and gathered speakers including Kevin Callaghan, our Newark Philanthropic Liaison, to reflect on the implications and future of philanthropic efforts aimed at transferring cash directly to individuals.
Welcome Remarks
Sarah Rosen Wartell, President, Urban Institute @swartell
Research Presentations
Benjamin Soskis, Senior Research Associate, Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, Urban Institute @BenSoskis
Sonia Torres Rodríguez, Research Assistant, Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center, Urban Institute @urbaninstitute
Fay Walker, Research Analyst, Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center, Urban Institute @faycwalker
Panelists
Mary Bogle, Principal Research Associate, Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center, Urban Institute @MaryMBogle
Kevin Callaghan, Newark Philanthropic Liaison, Council of New Jersey Grantmakers and Office of Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka @CNJG
Nisha G. Patel, Creative Catalyst, Powered by Shakti @heynisha
Paula Sammons, Program Officer, W.K. Kellogg Foundation @WK_Kellogg_Fdn
Tonia Wellons, Chief Executive Officer, Greater Washington Community Foundation @ToniaWellons
Shena Ashley, Vice President, Nonprofits and Philanthropy, Urban Institute (moderator) @shenarashley
The Overdeck Family Foundation has announced third-quarter grants totaling $13.5 million.
Six new grants and twenty-seven renewal grants were awarded in support of cost-effective programs with the potential to accelerate improvement in key academic and socioemotional outcomes for all children. Recipients include Future City, a four-month-long afterschool STEM program for grades six through eight, which was awarded $200,000 to increase the number of under-resourced students served, diversify revenue streams, and refine data tracking and reporting practices; Teaching Lab, which will receive $200,000 to pilot a virtual, adaptive, and competency-based delivery model; and Public Impact, which was awarded $700,000 in support of efforts to restructure Pre-K–12 schools to extend the reach of excellent teachers, principals, and their teams to more students, for more pay, within recurring school budgets.
The Princeton Area Community Foundation has awarded a $275,000 grant to fund a program to teach school staff throughout Mercer County how to identify students exposed to stressful or traumatic experiences and how to engage all students in a way that promotes healing from the mental health effects of the pandemic.
The Foundation for Educational Administration’s Healing Centered Engagement initiative will be funded with a $137,500 grant from the Community Foundation’s COVID-19 Relief & Recovery Fund and an additional $137,500 from a Community Foundation fund-holder who wishes to remain anonymous.
“We want to thank the generous donors whose support made it possible for the Community Foundation to create the COVID-19 Relief & Recovery Fund, as well as the anonymous fundholder, who is providing significant funding for this much-needed program that will help so many of our schoolchildren,” said Sonia Delgado, Community Foundation trustee and chair of the Committee on Impact.
The Provident Bank Foundation (PBF) today named its Major Grant recipients for its second cycle of 2021. The Foundation awarded nearly $450,000 of total funding to 27 nonprofit organizations within the Foundation’s three priority areas of Community Enrichment, Education and Health, Youth & Families.
Grants provide funding between $5,000 and $25,000 to organizations across the New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania communities served by Provident Bank.
“We are thrilled to offer funding opportunities to some of the outstanding nonprofits that are continually raising up our community,” said Samantha Plotino, Executive Director of The Provident Bank Foundation. “From medical services to educational programs to food banks, these organizations are very valuable to residents across New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Additional funding will allow their various programs to continue to thrive and make an impact.”
The Fund for Women and Girls of the Princeton Area Community Foundation has awarded a record $325,000 in grants to local nonprofit organizations.
This funding is the largest amount awarded in any cycle of the Fund’s more than 20-year history and includes a first-time award for the Liz Gray Erickson Memorial Grant, a 3-year grant given in memory of the Princeton resident who served as the chair of the Fund from 2012 to 2014.
“Thanks to the generosity and commitment of our Fund for Women and Girls members, we’ve awarded more than $1 million in grants to more than three dozen nonprofits in the last five years,” said Jenifer Morack, Fund Co-Chair.
Fund members pool their donations, then recommend grants to be awarded annually to local nonprofits. Isabel Zisk, Fund Co-Chair, said making a gift to the Fund is incredibly effective. Individual donations create a leveraged pool of funding that greatly benefits nonprofits working to impact the well-being of women, girls and communities in our region.
“We do what no individual donor has the expertise, time or access to do,” she said, explaining that the Fund’s Grants Committee members read dozens of applications and conduct site visits with nonprofits. “Because of some very generous gifts, this year, we have the honor of awarding the Liz Gray Erickson Memorial Grant. With her visionary leadership, Liz planted the seeds of our grantmaking focus.”
In Q4 2021, our foundation awarded 17 grants totaling over $6.4 million dollars. Of these, three grants were new, while nine were renewals.
Our Q4 grantmaking aligns with our updated funding model, which focuses our work on identifying and fueling the scale of cost-effective programs and solutions that accelerate improvement in key academic and socioemotional outcomes for all children. Inspired by venture philanthropy, the model puts an emphasis on grantmaking and strategic support that unlock innovation, evidence, and growth.
Below we highlight just some of the many direct impact and ecosystem organizations we’re proud to support this quarter as we conclude our 2021 grantmaking.
Looking to help drive economic opportunity and upward mobility, Bank of America announced Tuesday that it will be making more than $4.2 million in grants to 75 New Jersey nonprofits.
The grants, announced during “Giving Tuesday,” will be used by groups that focus on basic needs, affordable housing, workforce development and small business and economic revitalization, Bank of America New Jersey President Alberto Garofalo said.
“As part of our commitment to sustainable growth, helping local organizations address immediate short- and long-term needs has been key on our path of economic recovery,” he said. “By supporting New Jersey’s incredible network of nonprofits, Bank of America is providing philanthropic capital to help advance economic and social progress, establishing pathways to success and stability for our community.”
The New Jersey Bankers Association’s Charitable Foundation recently announced it will donate $50,000 to the veterans’ programs at four New Jersey colleges: Fairleigh Dickinson University, Monmouth University, Rider University and Rutgers University.
The donations will be awarded in January.
“The New Jersey banking industry has always made giving back, and supporting our local institutions, a priority,” NJBankers CEO John McWeeney said. “Our ongoing support of these valuable programs allows us to recognize those men and women who have volunteered to protect our country in the armed forces.”
The Montclair Foundation has awarded $63,000 in grants to 15 nonprofits, including Montclair Local Nonprofit News, as part of its fall 2021 grant cycle.
Grants were awarded to support programs in human services, arts, youth education and senior services.
“We are proud to play our part in the community. Knowing how much need exists in our area, decision-making continues to be difficult,” Peggy Murphy Deehan, grants chair and Montclair Foundation trustee, said in an announcement from the group.
“We are dedicated to supporting worthy causes and know there will be additional opportunities in the future, starting with our next grant cycle in the Spring.”
The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey is pleased to announce that it has awarded $2,764,267 to 17 New Jersey non-profit organizations in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Consistent with its mission to improve the health and well-being of vulnerable populations in the greater Newark and Jewish MetroWest communities, the grant projects take a variety of innovative approaches to improving health. Grant projects range in size from $25,000 to $1,000,000, and cover a range of issues and approaches, including addressing vaccine hesitancy; ensuring healthy food distribution; improving mental health education for children; and the construction of a new 12-bed hospital facility to address complex behavioral health issues in those with dual psychiatric and physical disorders.
The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey operates on a quarterly grant-making cycle. The foundation received a record number of proposals for the quarter.
The Philadelphia 76ers announced today that they will be making a $50,000 donation to benefit the Sickle Cell Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) on behalf of the Sixers Youth Foundation.
This donation will be presented to CHOP by Marjorie Harris, Sixers Youth Foundation chairwoman, and Elton Brand, 76ers General Manager and Sixers Youth Foundation board member, during tomorrow’s 76ers game against the Miami Heat.
“At the Sixers Youth Foundation, we’re passionate about partnering with organizations who share our commitment to bettering children’s lives,” said Marjorie Harris, Chair of the Sixers Youth Foundation. “We’re honored to support CHOP in their mission of finding a curative therapy for sickle cell disease, something that impacts thousands of children in Philadelphia and around the world. With this donation, we hope to accelerate the amazing work that CHOP is doing, which will undoubtedly improve outcomes for children and enable them to lead happier, healthier lives.”
More than 20 years ago, the Garden State’s philanthropic community began meeting informally to discuss issues of importance to grantmakers. In the late 1980s, fueled by the observation that philanthropy is more effective when grantmakers have a forum to communicate, exchange information, and take part in continuing education, CNJG was born.
By 1998, CNJG was an independent 501(c)(3) organization with a full-time executive director and approximately 80 members. In the years since, membership has grown to include more than 130 foundations, corporate giving programs, government and other public grantmaking organizations. Informal gatherings of likeminded individuals and organizations have been replaced by robust, highly valued seminars, convenings, workshops and conferences.
Extending Philanthropy's Contribution
Over the years, CNJG also actively engaged in a number of landmark initiatives including commissioning the first study of giving in the Garden State, NJ Gives, the first study of nonprofit health insurance provider conversions to for profit corporations, New Jersey Together (a major funder collaborative centered on youth development), a landmark effort looking at the systemic, long term fiscal challenges facing all levels of government in New Jersey entitled Facing Our Future, the creation of the Community Foundation of South Jersey, and creation of the Newark Philanthropic Liaison position within our state’s largest city administration.
View our CNJG Through the Years pictorial.