(LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ) -- The New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal Fund (NJACRF), received an $815,000 grant from the Prudential Foundation to continue its work to fill a critical funding gap for smaller nonprofit arts and culture organizations across the state.
The grant will be paid in installments over four years.
With this multi-year commitment of support from the Prudential Foundation, the New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal Fund will be able to continue its core grantmaking activities and will have a sustainable future.
Founded in 2020, the New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal Fund is an unprecedented collaboration between private and public donors. The Fund, hosted by the Princeton Area Community Foundation, prioritizes support to small and mid-size organizations, led by and/or serving Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) that were hit especially hard by the pandemic and have historically been underfunded.
It has awarded more than $6.7 million grants to 192 organizations in every New Jersey county during four rounds of funding, which began in January 2021. Unrestricted grants of up to $50,000 are awarded, with an average grant size of $23,000.
The Fund’s total grantmaking is expected to exceed $9 million by the end of 2023.
“We understand the importance of the arts in the community and that is one of the reasons why we were a founding donor of the New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal Fund,” said Shanè Harris, Vice President of Social Responsibility and Partnerships and President of The Prudential Foundation.
The Fund has also received significant support from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
Nicole Butler, Vice President, Community Affairs and Partnerships, Prudential Financial, sits on the Steering Committee that guides the New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal Fund along with its Executive Director, Lynne Toye. Over the past two years, it has become clear that the Fund addresses a critical and ongoing need for funding for smaller nonprofits in the sector. It was decided that the New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal Fund should continue its work beyond the pandemic. Butler and Tanuja M. Dehne, President and CEO of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, agreed that the Prudential Loan Fund, a collaboration among The Prudential Foundation, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and the Community Foundation of New Jersey would reallocate the remaining funds to the New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal Fund.
The Prudential Loan Fund, founded in 2015, was administered by the Community Foundation of New Jersey and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. The Fund provided a fast and nimble way to offer bridge financing to ease cash flow crunches for qualified Dodge Foundation arts grantees waiting to receive state grants. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, the program was paused to address the urgent needs of the pandemic.
That same year, the New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal Fund launched with founding support from The Prudential Foundation and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, among other funders in the state. With the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic confronting arts organizations across the state, the collaborators behind the Prudential Loan Fund identified an opportunity to reimagine its purpose and drive funding to organizations that needed support. Now, with this $815,000 grant, the New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal Fund will continue to provide grants to small and mid-size organizations, led by and/or serving Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) that have historically been underfunded.
“We are thrilled that these funds will strengthen the sustainability of the New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal Fund, an important organization that supports the vibrancy of the arts sector across our state,” says Tanuja M. Dehne, President and CEO of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. “As a racial justice funder in New Jersey, we are particularly excited to support the Fund’s mission to deploy much-needed resources to BIPOC-led and serving arts organizations. We know that our organization, alone, cannot address the root causes and repair of structural racism in our state, and we are pleased to see the evolution of this innovative partnership to meet the real-time needs of the community.”
The New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal Fund was created by a coalition of New Jersey funders aligned to ensure a coordinated approach to sector support with a commitment to equity in grantmaking. The New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal Fund provides financial support to catalyze an equitable statewide recovery and build cultural sector resilience. The Fund is hosted by the Princeton Area Community Foundation.
