This is the time of year when many people think about the causes to which they want to donate. What if you want to support a community, not just a few organizations? Maybe it’s the place you live or work in now, or one you grew up in. Or, maybe it’s a community you want to help, because it could use your help. One of the best ways to do this is to support a place with a donate through a local community foundation.
Community Foundations Can Help You
Community foundations work to improve the overall quality of life in the places they serve. Many people think of foundations as the organizations that give money to other charities or schools. Community foundations do this and so much more.
Some community foundations do service projects like producing public art or installing rain gardens or bringing leaders together to address critical issues affecting their communities. These foundations also support valuable research on their communities, and they also partner with community leaders to help more people be better off.
Community foundations like ours, the Northern New Jersey Community Foundation (NNJCF), do this by pooling the wealth in their communities from individual donors, families and businesses to help donors achieve more good together than they could do alone.
According to the Council on Foundations, although more than 1000 community foundations exist around the United States, a small number of them are found in New Jersey. Some of them – like those in Montclair or Maplewood – support an individual town, while others, like the Northern New Jersey Community Foundation, support a region. At NNJCF, we provide support to the eight counties of North Jersey – Bergen, Hudson, Essex, Union, Warren, Sussex, Passaic and Morris.
Since 1998, NNJCF has given more than $1 million to nonprofit organizations and schools throughout North Jersey. We produced more than a dozen community-oriented public art projects in Bergen County. The NNJCF continues to build alliances to address flooding in Hackensack and protect the Hackensack River watershed.
If you are a public official or community leader in North Jersey, we invite you to partner with us to help your community. Please contact NNJCF Executive Director Leonardo Vazquez at leo@nnjcf.org or 201-568-5608, x2 to discuss how we can partner.
Support a Place Through a Community Foundation
If you’re not familiar with your local community foundation, or didn’t know how much it does – you’re in good company. That is why in 1989, then-president George H.W. Bush designated November 12 through 18 as Community Foundation Week.
Community Foundation Week runs November 12 through November 18. Make a donation to support a place in your area.
There are several ways you can support a place through a community foundation. You can make a gift of cash or stock directly to the foundation, which will help support any number of programs and grants. You can give to funds managed by the community foundation which support causes you care about. At the Northern New Jersey Community Foundation, we have a dozen funds, most of them donor advised funds. They support a variety of causes, including medical research, education, creative placemaking, and support for visually impaired people.
You can also create a fund in a community foundation to support any kind of cause you want. Although some donors give millions, some foundations can help you set up a fund for just a few thousand dollars. At NNJCF, the minimum fund size is $5,000. This is a great option for people,who imagined creating their own foundation, but don’t want to spend the time and resources needed to manage it.
To create a fund, please contact Associate Director Danielle De Laurentis at danielle@nnjcf.org or 201-568-5608, x2.
Knowledgeable Staff to Help You
When you set up a fund, the foundation pairs you with a philanthropic advisor. This advisor recommends the best strategies to achieve your charitable goals. Philanthropic advisors vet nonprofit organizations to determine which ones would be the best fit for your dollars and can help you achieve the most impact.
While the fund is technically owned by the community foundation, you will have some say in where the money goes. (This is why they are called donor-advised funds.)
Community foundations work with knowledgeable financial advisors. Philanthropic advisors know how much to give out per year. The money you put into the fund can last for decades or more.
The staff at community foundations are smart about many things. But what they do know most is the communities they serve. One of the best ways to do so is through a community foundation!
–By Leonardo Vazquez, Executive Director, Northern New Jersey Community Foundation. For further information, contact him at leo@nnjcf.org.
