The Bunbury Fund of the Princeton Area Community Foundation Awards More Than $3.8 Million in Grants to Local Nonprofits as the Final Piece of their $17 Million Sunset Awards

More than four dozen local nonprofits will receive grants from The Bunbury Fund of the Princeton Area Community Foundation to help strengthen their work and impact in our region.

The recently announced awards total more than $3.8 million. All told, the Bunbury Fund has distributed a total of $17,139,000 in 74 grants to 55 regional nonprofits as part of a sunset process.

The Sunsetting of the Bunbury Fund caps 75 years of philanthropic grantmaking with roots in the private foundation that was The Bunbury Company. These Sunset Grants mark the Bunbury Fund’s ten-year anniversary as a donor advised fund (DAF) which opened at the Community Foundation in 2015.

“The Bunbury Fund Advisors hope all the sunset grants will amplify what has always been at the heart of our grantmaking – the opportunity to promote greater effectiveness and innovation for the greater good of our communities,” said Jamie Kyte Sapoch, Lead Advisor to the Fund. “We are grateful to the Community Foundation for incubating and enabling our heightened ability as grantmakers through the good stewardship of our financial assets.”

Over the last 10 years, The Bunbury Fund has awarded more than $24 million to almost 100 top nonprofit organizations across the region.

The most recent grants include unrestricted support in recognition of a nonprofit’s contributions to the community as well as funding through Bunbury’s last competitive cycle for capacity building work.

“As a DAF, we never envisioned being perpetual grantmakers,” said Sapoch. “We started this process two years ago, when we saw a moment to leverage our own capacity by spending down – and significantly investing – in organizations making meaningful impacts within the communities they serve.”

A full list of 2024 Competitive Grants is followed by a list of all Sunset grantees:

The 2024 Bunbury Fund competitive capacity building grants totaled $1,117,350. The fund also awarded an additional 15 percent to each grantee to help offset administrative costs.

The 2024 grantee partners are:

Anchor House, Trenton, $24,250 to expand mental health services and provide additional support for its new data management system
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mercer County, Hamilton, $14,100 to redesign and upgrade its Bigs and Littles match tracking system.
CASA for Children of Mercer & Burlington, Ewing, $9,000 for strategic and transition planning programs
Center for Modern Aging in Princeton, $65,000 for a comprehensive program evaluation, advanced data analysis, generative community engagement, and expansion of its marketing and public relations. It will include creating an older adult volunteer corps.
Dress For Success Central New Jersey, Lawrence, $30,000 to upgrade its technology and improve communications
Every Child Valued, Lawrence, $18,000 to strengthen its organizational structure, provide fundraising training for board members and contracting for accounting services.
Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space, Titusville section of Hopewell Township, $75,000 to design and implement a growth strategy for the nonprofit; the plan would include reorganizing and expanding its current conservation programs.
Friends of Princeton Open Space, $22,000, to improve its ability to manage 140 adopted acres and expand to a total of 390 contiguous acres, improve its governance and other organizational systems; and build its outreach to historically excluded populations.
Grounds For Sculpture, Hamilton, $100,000 to help it continue to incorporate its equity, diversity, and inclusion action plan.
HiTOPS, Princeton, $25,000 to engage in its next strategic planning process.
HomeFront, Lawrence, $100,000 for substantive and ongoing training for HomeFront staff who work at all levels of client involvement.
Housing Initiatives of Princeton $26,500 to develop its next strategic plan, create an organization handbook, and provide its Board and Staff with DEI training.
I Am Trenton Community Foundation, $50,000 to help the organization continue its outreach to the Latino community, enhance its grantmaking strategy and launch a new database system.
Interfaith Caregivers of Greater Mercer County, Hamilton, $50,000 to engage in strategic planning, develop a mission-driven marketing and communications plan, and upgrade technology.
Isles, Trenton, $45,000 to restructure Isles’ internal resource development program and create a new fundraising strategic plan, including a reassessment of its branding and communications.
Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Greater Mercer County, Princeton, $50,000 to create and implement a sustainable development plan that would allow the nonprofit to expand its services.
Meals on Wheels of Mercer County, Ewing, $70,000 to help the organization build community partnerships, expand volunteer recruitment, and strengthen its major gifts program.
NonprofitConnect, Hamilton, $20,000 to create, market and launch a new program, Making Our Way, for graduates of its Leading From Within program. The new program will strengthen their core leadership skills and create a local alumni community.
Outdoor Equity Alliance, Trenton, $65,000 to enhance its organizational effectiveness and community engagement by strengthening governance, developing a comprehensive fundraising strategy, and improving communication to engage donors and stakeholders.
Princeton Community Housing, $30,000 to strengthen its structure, governance, and operations, including an updated strategic plan.
Rescue Mission of Trenton, $50,000 to help centralize data across programs, streamline data collection, enhance real-time reporting and enable dynamic dashboard, and improve service delivery.
RISE, Hightstown, $7,500 for strategic succession planning and leadership development programs.
The Watershed Institute, Pennington, $24,000, for staff training to examine and strengthen justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion principles across operations and programs, and for board and staff development of organizational and cultural strategies to help them be even more effective and efficient.
Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, $75,000 to help the organization conduct a feasibility study to explore new revenue streams and respond to the space constraints caused by its growth and rising demand for services.
Trenton Health Team, $50,000 to improve its technology and communications to support individual giving, including designing stewardship plans.
Younity (formerly Womanspace), Lawrenceville, $22,000, to enhance and upgrade its technology for its Emergency Shelter, Transitional Housing, Crisis Response Teams, and Counseling Center. It will enhance communication with non-English speakers, facilitate accurate data collection and provide clients with better access to community resources.

Final Distribution of 2024-2025 Sunset Grants:

ArtWorks Trenton, Trenton
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mercer County, Hamilton
Capital Harmony Works, Hamilton
CASA for Children of Mercer & Burlington, Ewing
Center for Modern Aging, Princeton
The Children’s Home Society of New Jersey, Trenton
Every Child Valued, Lawrence
Friends for the Abbott Marshlands, Hamilton
Henry J. Austin Health Center, Trenton
Interfaith Caregivers of Greater Mercer County, Hamilton
Isles, Trenton
James R Halsey Foundation of the Arts, Hamilton
Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Greater Mercer County, Princeton
Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund (LALDEF), Trenton
Meals on Wheels of Mercer County, Ewing
Millhill Child Development Center, Trenton
NAMI Mercer NJ, Hamilton
New Jersey Community Capital, for the East Trenton Collaborative, Trenton
New Jersey Conservation Foundation for its work in Trenton
Old Barracks Association, Trenton
Passage Theatre Company, Trenton
The Paul Robeson House of Princeton, Princeton
PEI Kids, Lawrence
Princeton Nursery School, Princeton
Puerto Rican Community Center, Trenton
Snipes Farm and Education Center, Morrisville, Pa.
Sourlands Conservancy, Skillman section of Montgomery
Trent House Association, Trenton
Trenton Circus Squad, Trenton
UrbanPromise Trenton, Trenton
Younity, Lawrenceville
WeMake – Autism at Work, Pennington
West Windsor Arts Center, West Windsor
The WorkWell Partnership, Lawrenceville

Lastly, in 2024 the Bunbury Fund awarded a series of large transformational grants, totaling $12.75 million, to 11 nonprofits as part of its sunsetting process. Included in this was a $1 million award to the Community Foundation.