The Jewish Community Foundation, Inc. offers grants to non-profit organizations serving the Southern New Jersey community, including Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey agencies, synagogues, Jewish day schools, and secular non-profits.
Donor Name: The Jewish Community Foundation
State: New Jersey
County: Selected Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 03/15/2023
Size of the Grant: up to $5,000
Details:
The Jewish Community Foundation, Inc. has provided Grants since 1999 to a wide variety of Jewish and secular organizations.
During this time, the JCF has distributed nearly $2 million in Grants to fund hundreds of exciting and important programs and services, benefiting countless community members. Their volunteer Grants Committee, which consists of over 15 members of the local community, reviews every application and deliberates to determine how to award available dollars. Their Grants are made possible thanks to generous donors who have contributed to their Community Endowment Fund or who have established separate funds for Grants. They welcome members of their community to contribute to this process to expand the program.
Program Goals
- Benefits to the Community: First and foremost, JCF Grants are meant to provide benefit to community members, not strictly the organizations that are awarded the funds.
- Launching New Community Initiatives: They operate in a vibrant Jewish and secular community, and the JCF hopes to ensure this continues into the future. They are thrilled to see programs that they fund grow into larger, ongoing programs for many years. While they don’t expect this to happen to each and every initiative that they fund, they do ask that grantees give it their all when producing a program, and, if it works, it will gain momentum, and, if not, it was worth a try.
- Marketing Exposure: The JCF also provides Grants to gain marketing exposure in the community. Their hope is that, when awarding a grant to your organization, the constituents who take part in the program, your existing Board members, and/or your donors, will want to consider endowing the program (or another initiative) to last for future years. The JCF works with donors to establish endowment funds which they manage, and they would be happy to work with you and your donors to discuss this important opportunity to benefit your organization.
Funding Information
The JCF provides funding of up to $5,000 (an increase from our previous maximum of $3,600) for each grant application that is approved by their Grants Committee and Board of Trustees, and applicants can apply for funding for more than one program per cycle. Each program is eligible to receive funding over the course of up to three cycles (usually once per year for three years), with a new application required for each cycle.
Funding is provided primarily for new and innovative programming and services benefiting residents of Burlington, Camden, and/or Gloucester counties in South Jersey. Grants are not intended to supplement or duplicate existing funding or ongoing operating budgets of an organization or programs and services presently in existence.
The JCF welcomes applications from any organization that is interested in applying. That said, their typical Grant awards fall under the following guidelines:
- New & Innovative Programs: This type of proposal is the JCF’s top priority. Your organization may apply if you are looking to try out a new program and need seed funding to get off the ground. It’s like having a safety net for your big leap into a new endeavor.
- Expansion of Existing Programs: Secondly, if your organization has an existing program that is built into your budget, but intends to expand it in new directions, they welcome your application.
- Emerging Critical Needs: Lastly, if your organization is seeing critical issues arising in the community that need to be addressed, you may apply.
- Note: The above areas of funding are intentionally broad. They want to allow organizations to be creative but also have some framework to start with.
Additional Funding Preferences
The JCF prefers to fund programs that meet the following additional criteria:
- Locally-Based: In most cases, aims to fund programs that will take place in Southern New Jersey area, particularly Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester counties. Note that your organization need not be based in Southern New Jersey.
- Promoting Jewish Values: While JCF-funded programs do not need to serve exclusively Jewish
participants, JCF asks that the programs they fund promote Jewish values. Broadly speaking, this means that programs should be inclusive, committed to social and economic equality, and providing tikkun olam (healing the world). - “Bang for the Buck”: All things being equal, the JCF would prefer to fund programs that impact a larger group rather than a few individuals
- Ongoing Programs: JCF generally prefers to fund ongoing, sustainable programs, rather than events that are held only once
- Collaborative Initiatives: The JCF generally looks favorably on Grant requests where two or more organizations can collaborate to launch a program and meet both organizations’ goals
- Federation Mission & Priorities: The JCF aims to support programs that align with Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey’s Mission and ongoing priorities.
Grantee’s Organizational Requirements
- Organizations that meet the following requirements are eligible to apply for JCF Grants:
- IRS-qualified 501(c)(3) non-profits or incorporated synagogues/churches that may not have a 501(c)(3) designation
- Organizations must be in existence for at least one year.
- For organizations that are “new” to the JCF, we may ask for more information, such as the most recent IRS Form 990, a list of the organization’s Board members, or a copy of a tax exempt form.
For more information, visit The Jewish Community Foundation.
