[quote]Twenty local nonprofits awarded over $500,000 in GREATER MERCER GRANTS from the Princeton Area Community Foundation[/quote]

Princeton Area Community Foundation is proud to announce its Spring 2012 competitive grant awards totaling $511,724 in funding to local nonprofits for a full range of community building programs and activities.

To date, Greater Mercer Grants has invested $8 million in the most innovative and effective work being done in our region.  Each year, more than 120 local nonprofits submit detailed proposals.  The Community Foundation’s grants committee reviews them in a rigorous, competitive process.  About $1 million is annually awarded to about forty organizations.

The Community Foundation collaborates with the Harbourton and Piper Sutton Foundations, as well as several local corporations and many charitable funds established by individuals and families to support the competitive grants program.  (* scroll down for a full list of these funds)

Grants are awarded in Community Building, as well as in the form of Operating Support (general, unrestricted funding) and support for specific Programs to organizations that meet the needs of low income individuals and families.

 

Building the Region’s Social Capital:

The Community Foundation supports efforts that address a shared problem or take advantage of a shared opportunity among multiple municipalities or within a single borough, city, or township. We seek to build the social capital in Greater Mercer County by increasing the number and strength of social networks in the region, and the ways they motivate people to do things for each other.

CityWorks – $25,000 for the East Trenton Collaborative, a thriving partnership of several organizations (including Isles, Habitat for Humanity, Homefront, Better Community Housing and A Better Way), focused on improving a specific city neighborhood.

Housing & Community Development Network of NJ – $30,000 for the Mercer County Development Team/Trenton Problem Properties Initiative, an advocacy and support network that serves the nonprofit community and housing development sector of New Jersey, working to increase access to safe and affordable housing.

Isles, Inc. – $35,000 for the THDC Community Resource Center, a part of the Trenton Historic District Collaborative Neighborhood Implementation Project to bring about lasting change in the THDC’s target West Ward neighborhood.

Preservation New Jersey – $12,800 for the Adaptive Reuse Study for the 1867 Sanctuary at Ewing, a community-driven effort to restore and revitalize the former home of the First Presbyterian Church of Ewing.

Princeton Center for Leadership Training – $50,000 for Campaign Connect Mercer County, a county-wide team effort of school leaders (public and private) to build safe and supportive school communities that increase student connectedness.

The Citizens Campaign — $50,000 for Trenton Call To Service, a non-partisan effort that will educate and mobilize citizen journalists and advocates to foster greater civic engagement.

Unrestricted Support:

Better Beginnings Day Care Center of Hightstown/East Windsor, Inc – $25,000

Institute of Wonderful Working Women for Empowerment – $25,000

Millhill Child & Family Development Corporation – $25,000

Trenton Children’s Chorus – $25,000

Westminster Community Life Center – $20,000

Program Support:

Catholic Charities, Diocese of Trenton – $ 25,000 for El Centro de Recursos par Familias

Every Child Valued – $15,000 for the After School Program

Greater Donnelly Neighborhood Initiative – $24,924 for Gang Resistance Programs

Mount Carmel Guild of Trenton – $25,000 for the Emergency Assistance Program Food Pantry

Princeton Senior Resource Center – $15,000 for Next Step: Engaged Retirement and Encore Careers

Rider University – $15,000 for Minding Our Business – Smarter Summers for Mercer County Youth

RISE/A Community Service Partnership – $15,000 for Summer H.E.L.P. (Hightstown East Windsor Learning Partners)

YMCA of Princeton – $25,000 for Princeton Young Achievers

Young Audiences of New Jersey – $24,000 for The Trenton Adopt-A-School Initiative

 

COMMUNITY GRANTMAKING FUNDS AT THE PRINCETON AREA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION

Tristan Beplat Fund, Blair Family Fund, Charles L. and Ann Lee Brown Fund, James E. & Diane W. Burke Fund, Judith and William Burks Fund, Jane M. Campbell Fund, Esther Y. Eure Fund, Archer & Thomas Harvey Fund, Robert Wood Johnson Jr. Fund, Kuser Arts Fund, LVC Fund, Princeton Youth Fund, Leroy E. “Brick” Purvis Charitable Fund, Barbara B. Smoyer Memorial Fund, Marjorie R. Smoyer Fund, Stanley C. Smoyer Fund, Speir Fund, Frank E. Taplin Jr. Fund, Weymar Fund, Whitehead Fund, Willy N. Fund, and several advised funds.

For information on establishing a community grantmaking fund or participating as a supporter of Greater Mercer Grants in future funding cycles, please visit www.pacf.org/give.