Council of New Jersey Grantmakers

Programming and servicesthroughout the year, cnjg programs bring together all types and sizes of Grantmakers with leaders from government, business, academia, and New Jersey's nonprofit community. In 2022, we provided over 80 programs, including funder briefings, newark-focused briefings, affinity group meetings, partner programs, and skill-building webinars. Cnjg funder briefings provide a forum to exchange knowledge and insights related to pressing societal issues that affect our communities. Skill-building workshops are an integral part of the Council's educational programming for members. These workshops offer a range of topics to develop New skills and acquire knowledge to advance and inform members' grantmaking. Affinity groups provide a valued forum through which New Jersey Grantmakers can connect, exchange information, and learn from experts in a wide range of fields and sectors. We partner with united philanthropy forum, as well as a wide number of regional and national philanthropy-serving organizations and other nonprofit organizations, throughout the year to provide special briefings and knowledge-building programs for members.other programs and services include member research and queries, special reports such as the New Jersey philanthropy benefits & salary summary report, newsletters, and communications to keep members informed, listserves, foundations on the hill, and the newark philanthropic liaison initiative. The office of the newark philanthropic liaison is an innovative collaboration between the city of newark and cnjg and represents one of the nation's first formal partnerships between a city and the philanthropic community. The non-partisan liaison position serves as a bridge between newark funders, members of the Council and newark's administration. The liaison's overall primary goals are to convene, connect, leverage, and raise resources through partnerships between New Jersey's philanthropic community and the mayor's office.

Signature eventsin 2022, we planned and offered two signature events, including the virtual spring colloquium and the cnjg annual meeting & holiday gathering. Held virtually, the spring colloquium: igniting equitable systems change together welcomed over 140 New Jersey foundation and nonprofit leaders for an afternoon of valuable discussion, learning, and connection. Panelists explored systems change, grassroots leadership, and the ongoing need to challenge traditional grantmaking structures and practices. The 2-part annual meeting & holiday luncheon welcomed over 130 members in person to explore philanthropy's role in narrative change, and how philanthropy can help the general public better understand the overall work of the social sector, followed by a virtual workshop to change narratives and assumptions around the grant application process.

Doing good better initiative in partnership with the New Jersey center for nonprofits, the nonprofit organization serving New Jersey's charitable sector, we are working to reimagine how our state's nonprofits and philanthropy can better and more deliberately work together. This initiative builds on our covid response efforts, and the work of cnjg's racial equity task force, and is infused throughout our newly approved strategic plan. While cnjg took a leading role convening funders in their response to covid, the pandemic showed the limitations of existing philanthropic structures and practices. As a result, Grantmakers recognized that organized philanthropy must adapt, change, and realign itself to meet the challenges of today, and find real solutions that can pave the way to equitable communities. Together with our partners, we're creating a framework for a full and candid conversation between our state's philanthropic and nonprofit sectors to examine traditional grantmaking practices, and determine how we might employ New best practices resulting in resilient and equitable communities for all New jerseyans. Covid made clear it's necessary for philanthropy to work differently. As a result during the pandemic, foundations stepped up to provide more flexible funding, loosen restrictions on grants, and unburden nonprofit partners so they could spend their time and energy responding to the covid-19 crisis. In 2021, we established both a steering committee to implement the work, supported by a grant-funded consultant, and an advisory group to help guide our work. The doing good better tent is committed to moving forward trust-based philanthropy principles, participatory grantmaking practices, and solutions to advance equity; rightsizing uneven power dynamics between nonprofits and foundations; and streamlining grant processes and reporting requirements. This will be a multi-year, signature project.