The Fund for Women and Girls of the Princeton Area Community Foundation provided more than $315,000 in new grants to local nonprofits working to improve the lives and women and children in the Mercer County area.

An additional $80,407 in grant payments were issued by the Fund for multi-year grants awarded in previous years.

“We want to congratulate our grantee partners, who do critical work in our communities,” said Carolyn Sanderson, Fund Chair. “Because of the generosity of our community we’ve awarded more than $2 million to local nonprofits since our founding 27 years ago.  The Fund for Women and Girls educates donors about the challenges faced by nonprofits and offers donors a way to help make a difference. We can do so much more together than any one of us could do alone.”

Terry Kent, Chair of the Fund’s Grants Committee, said her committee members are an incredible group of dedicated philanthropists.

“We believe in collaboration that goes beyond our financial contribution,” she said. “We partner with nonprofits to learn from them.”

The Fund for Women and Girls is a field of interest fund of the Community Foundation, which helps people and companies make effective charitable gifts and awards grants to nonprofits. Since its founding in 1991, the Community Foundation has granted more than $241 million to nonprofits, including over $114 million in funding to local organizations.

The 2025 Fund for Women and Girls Grantee Partners:

Three-year, $75,000 grant, which was made possible thanks to the generosity of the Bunbury Fund at the Community Foundation:

  • Younity, Lawrence: the grant will provide operating support to meet urgent needs, including food, clothing, shelter and counseling for women and children who are victims of domestic and sexual violence. Younity is the only agency in Mercer County providing comprehensive, bilingual services for victims of domestic and sexual violence. The organization also runs the state’s domestic violence hotline.

Two-year, $50,000 grant:

  • CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of South-Central New Jersey, Ewing: the grant will help pay for core expenses, including recruitment and training of staff and volunteers who work with about 300 abused and neglected children in the foster care system. The local CASA office, which had worked in Mercer and Burlington counties, was recently asked to add three additional counties in South Jersey to their work. Volunteers undergo specialized, intense training so they can appear before family court judges, and they build relationships with the children, their biological and foster parents, doctors and teachers.

One-year $25,000 grant:

  • HomeFront, Lawrenceville: to support the creation of an evidence-based program to help parents who are staying at its Family Campus, which is the only shelter for children in the region. It provides a critical safety net for families, many headed by single mothers, ages 18‐24. The program will include a parenting education series designed for families receiving social services, staff training and activities for the families.
  • Housing Initiatives of Princeton, Princeton: the organization provides mothers and their children with low-cost transitional housing and a case manager to help connect them to support services. Through the program, moms learn to budget, reduce debt and complete degrees and certifications. The program leads families to permanent, affordable housing within two years. A recent study showed that over the last 13 years, 92% of their graduates remain stably housed, all are employed and all report being financially better off and that their children benefited from the enrichment and academic support provided.
  • KinderSmile, Trenton: to help support its Perinatal Health and Wellness Program at the KinderSmile Community Oral Health Center in Trenton. They provide services, including educational training, to pregnant women and new moms who are uninsured or Medicaid‐insured. They also provide training for maternal health workers. They have served more than 600 moms and 215 health workers.
  • Millhill Child & Family Development Corp., Trenton: for its PEERS program. Founded in 2016, the program provides education, mentoring and college planning support to high‐achieving students in Trenton. More than half of the 24 students in the current cohort are girls. The program also supports its alumni.
  • Freedom House, Trenton: the grant will help fund The Family Afterward program at Diane’s House in Trenton, one of only a few programs in the state that allows women who are in recovery from alcohol or drug abuse to live with their children. Women must complete a structured treatment program before moving into the house and must be ready to either work or attend school. The program provides women with life and parenting skills training, housing and case management and help navigating NJ’s child custody system. In 25 years, the program has served more than 200 women and reunited almost 400 children.
  • Princeton Nursery School, Princeton:  for renovations that will allow its Village Project to expand. The project will create a community learning center for the professional development of the staff, adult education programs for families, and a flexible space for health and wellness resources, including vision and dental screenings and parent counseling workshops.

Additional grants

  • Literacy NJ, Hamilton: a $11,000 grant for a program at Greenwood Elementary School in Trenton that provides free, high quality ESL instruction for parents, while providing a safe learning environment for their children. With a waiting list of more than 45 clients, the grant will help them serve more families.
  • Hearts and Homes Ministries, Cranbury: a $5,000 grant for the nonprofit that provides gently used furniture and home goods to families in need. The nonprofit partners with other local organizations, including HIP, to provide “Moms’ Empowerment Kits,” which include items like microwaves, dishes, toys, and grocery store gift cards, to families temporarily living in motels while awaiting permanent housing.

In addition, the Fund awarded a $25,000 grant to the Community Foundation this year. Grant payments were also made to nonprofits that were awarded multi-year grants in 2023 and 2024: Arm In Arm, Center at 353 (formerly Trinity Counseling), PEI Kids and RISE.