Thanks to our fundholders’ generosity, CFNJ made 8,900 grants to communities totaling $163 million last year — a $58 million increase compared to 2024 — and achieved a new record. The Community Foundation also reached $1.17 billion in total charitable assets because of gifts from countless fundholders and partners over the past 46 years.
We are proud to share about our collective philanthropic impact in 2025:
- Grants – Our team paid 2,100 program-related expenses and accepted 6,400 donations. Gifts to CFNJ totaled roughly $208 million, the second highest in our history.
The largest number of grants, totaling $1.4 million, were awarded to the Community Food Bank of New Jersey (CFBNJ). In a state where nearly 12% of New Jerseyans are food insecure, CFBNJ distributes food to more than 800 community partners through its hunger-relief programs. Its partners include feeding programs for children and seniors, soup kitchens, and food pantries. CFBNJ also advocates for anti-hunger and anti-poverty legislation.
- Partnerships – We collaborated with several organizations to improve the lives of young children and families and help launch an innovative national model to fight poverty. CFNJ worked with the Community Health Acceleration Project and NJ Birth Equity Funders Alliance to fund a report, Navigating Obstacles: the Complex Journey of Perinatal Care in New Jersey, which examines challenges in perinatal care access insurance markets across the state — highlighting coverage gaps and disparities.
We also partnered with The MCJ Amelior Foundation and the Newark Alliance to raise $5.1 million from nine funding partners to launch The Bridge Project in New Jersey. This project, which is supporting 250 women and their babies, works to reduce child poverty by providing unconditional cash support to mothers starting in pregnancy and continuing through a child’s early years.
- NJ Strong – In response to funding freezes and terminations of existing contracts, CFNJ launched a rapid-response fund in May 2025 to provide a safety net for nonprofits that were negatively impacted by the loss of federal support.
We received over 80 applications requesting nearly $3.5 million in grant funding from organizations that were struggling to protect the health, wellness, and safety of individuals and families in our state. CFNJ disbursed 26 grants totaling more than $1 million across 16 out of 21 counties in New Jersey.
- Other Grantmaking Projects/Funds – With the Empower NJ grant opportunity, we supported three major initiatives that focus on closing the racial wealth gap through data analysis and policy advocacy, providing free civil legal aid for vulnerable populations, and aligning education with workforce needs in New Jersey.
We also made an impact on communities with various CFNJ funds. Through a fund dedicated to education in Newark, we made a three-year grant investment in Gateway U to increase the number of qualified committed teachers.
More than $2.1 million in Lindemann Legacy Fund grants was awarded for 12 Jumpstart Grants, two capacity-building grants, and Pet Advocate positions for four organizations. These grants aim to help organizations serving DV survivors and their pets with vet bills, pet security deposits for apartments and rental homes, trauma-informed support for survivors and their pets at shelters, and pet accessibility.
Finally, one of the family foundations we support, the Reitman Foundation, has been a long-time supporter of the Kessler Foundation. In 2025, it funded a project for a pediatric exoskeleton and training initiative.
- Scholarships – In 2025, 271 students benefited from scholarship awards with distributions totaling more than $2 million. The Community Foundation currently administers 138 scholarship funds, with assets totaling over $31 million.
This past year, we continued to see an increase in the number of students pursuing STEM majors with a strong emphasis on engineering. CFNJ also added four new scholarships: the Marie J. Carroll Foundation, the Willard Arntz Scholarship, our first employer-related scholarship with Sigma Corporation, and the Lillian Renee Werenne Scholarship.
We’re looking forward to what 2026 brings and will continue to do our part to support our fundholders and partners in achieving lasting impact across the state and beyond.