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.
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 donor-advised fund (DAF) 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.
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!
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.
To view slides from our September 2020 grant information session, click here.
If you have any questions, please email us at bunburyfund@pacf.org
To begin the online application process, please click here.
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.
For more information or support, please contact:
Nelida Valentin
Vice President, Grants & Programs
Email Nelida Valentin
Eddie Roberts
Director, Grants & Programs
Email Eddie Roberts