The Bunbury Fund supports non-profit organizations making significant impacts across central New Jersey, and most specifically Mercer County, to strengthen their capacity to effectively advance their missions toward sustainable, organizational maturity.
The Fund awards one-year capacity building grants of up to $50,000. It also accepts proposals for multi-year grants focused on developing organizational effectiveness over a period of up to three years and a total amount of up to $150,000. It will also consider awarding a planning grant of up to $10,000 to help an organization evaluate the resources required to undertake a more comprehensive capacity building project.
Bunbury Fund Community Survey Response
In spring 2021, the Bunbury Fund sent a survey to its grantees and recent applicants seeking feedback on our processes and communication. Thank you to all who responded. Your comments were helpful and we have used them to make some specific adjustments to the process.
- Extremely high response rate – 33% (43 out of 130 invited participants)
- Appreciation of the Bunbury Fund’s distinct focus on capacity building grants
- Keen desire for more networking, collaboration and information sharing among the Bunbury Fund grantees and including Bunbury Fund advisors
- Interest in regular feedback from advisors on fund priorities, grantee progress and declines
- Further streamlining the application
- Reducing the number of attachments
- Increasing the added Administrative Grant from 10% to 15% but continuing to not fund staff salaries
- Committing to consistent grantee feedback through virtual grant updates and site visits
- Finding new ways to strengthen our partnership with grantees by facilitating grantee learning opportunities through the Community Foundation and by staying abreast of the changing needs and demands being placed on the community we serve.
Thank you to our grantees for the important work you are doing. We are learning with you.
Bunbury Fund Advisors,
Nancy Kieling, Shannon Mason, Meredith Moore, Carolyn Sanderson, Jamie Kyte Sapoch, John Thurber and Jay Watson
The Bunbury Fund is pleased to support NonProfitConnect’s LeadershipConnect series of trainings for nonprofit leaders.
The Bunbury Fund at the Princeton Area Community Foundation is providing support for the 9-month training program geared toward mid-level managers interested in becoming executive directors. The program began in September and will feature sessions on topics including Personal Leadership Style, Financials, and Strategic Planning.
The Bunbury Fund sponsored a seminar for board and executive leaders on The Power Good Governance.
To learn more about that event, read 12 Takeaways from our Good Governance Seminar.
The Bunbury Legacy
In 1952, longtime Princeton resident Dean Mathey created The Bunbury Company as a private, grant-making foundation to further his charitable intentions. With a touch of humor, he named the foundation after Uncle Bunbury in Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Ernest. For years when an important project needed funding, and friends came seeking Dean’s support, he would routinely defer the decision until he could make a consultation with his valued advisors at Bunbury.
Mathey died in 1972, but his philanthropic legacy lived on through The Bunbury Company’s grantmaking. Over the next 40 years, the foundation awarded more than $75 million to central New Jersey non-profits working on important social, environmental and educational projects. In 2015, The Bunbury Company started a new chapter as a fund at the Princeton Area Community Foundation. The Bunbury Fund at the Community Foundation continues original foundation’s legacy of dedication to supporting the nonprofit sector, now with a focus on capacity-building.
Photo by Tyler Tooker.
Organizations may only apply once per grant cycle. Once awarded a grant, an organization must sit out for 12 months. Planning grant recipients may request to move forward sooner. These requests will be considered at the discretion of the Fund Advisors.
If you have any questions, please email us at bunburyfund@pacf.org
To begin the online application process, please click here.
We recently celebrated the retirement of Sam Lambert, a Bunbury Fund Advisor. Sam, thank you for your countless hours of volunteer service to our community!
For more information or support, please contact:
Nelida Valentin
Vice President, Grants & Programs
Email Nelida Valentin