Looking back, 2017 was an exciting year for the Princeton Area Community Foundation, in no small measure because of YOU!

Thanks to you, we awarded over $20 million in grants to nonprofits. Your Community Foundation is now more than $170 million strong, and working with you to care for our whole region.

We kicked off an ambitious, new All Kids Thrive agenda. This multi-year, multi-million-dollar initiative aims to transform the lives of children and adolescents living in poverty. More than 230 of our community partners joined us to unveil All Kids Thrive last fall. We will focus on decreasing chronic absenteeism – in which students are absent from school for 10% of the year – and connecting students to academic, social, health and other resources offered by strong school cultures and dedicated nonprofit collaborators. We will announce our grantee partners later this year.

We know there are other needs in our region, and we’re committed to them, too. That’s why our Community Impact Grants funded seven categories: arts education, behavioral health, career development and literacy, community development and education, food insecurity, social services/homelessness and youth development. We made grants totaling over $590,000 to 15 grantee partners in these areas.

We also work to strengthen nonprofits. This year, we’ll again offer our popular education seminars; you’ll receive a workshop calendar by mail soon. Register now on our website for our March seminar, The Major Gifts Challenge: How to Grow Your Major Gifts Program.

Our mission challenges us to help every philanthropist in our region make informed and high-impact gifts. We have scheduled workshops throughout the year designed to do just that. The first will take place in March, when McCarter Theatre will generously give us a behind-the-scenes peek at their programs for low-income children. A full calendar will be available soon.

It is thanks to you, our generous donors, partners and friends, that we can do such fulfilling work. We look forward to working with you in 2018.