The Bunbury Fund of the Princeton Area Community Foundation awarded over $1 million in grants to more than two dozen local nonprofits to support work that will strengthen the organizations’ internal capacity, so they can better serve the community.

The grants, totaling $1,035,205, were awarded to 26 nonprofit organizations in 2023. It marks the fifth year in a row that the Bunbury Fund issued more than $1 million in funding.

“Through our experience as Bunbury Fund Advisors, our team continues to learn about the key issues in our region and what it takes for a nonprofit organization to effectively address them, often as a result of undercapitalization,” said Jamie Kyte Sapoch, Lead Fund Advisor and former Community Foundation Trustee. “We believe that the capacity building resources approved by the Bunbury Fund in 2023 will result in meaningful, enhanced delivery of missions for the 26 nonprofit organizations listed below.”

2023 Grant Recipients

  • Anchor House Inc., Trenton – $50,000 for Building Our Future: Implementation of Year 2 Strategic Plan Activities; funding will help the nonprofit with its strategic plan goals, including building its capacity, recruiting clinicians/interns to expand mental health services for youth and families, implementing a communications plan, redefining its mission, vision and values, and deploying strategies to recruit and retain staff to decrease turnover.
  • Dress for Success Central New Jersey – 7 Counties (Formerly Dress for Success Mercer County), Lawrenceville – $30,430 for Improving Processes, Data and Efficiency; to purchase customer relationship management software, as well as training and consultant support, so it can strengthen its financial reporting, enhance efficiency and better evaluate its programs.
  • The Father Center of New Jersey, Trenton – $27,800 for its Succession Plus-Building A Strong & Resilient Executive Team program; the grant will support executive coaching and leadership development, allowing the organization to prioritize projects, improve record-keeping and tracking systems for program evaluation and develop a better understanding of mentoring roles.
  • Friends for the Abbott Marshlands, Hamilton – $5,750 to help the nonprofit create a strategic plan to move from a startup to a sustainable future.
  • Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space, Hopewell – $13,600 for an updated communication plan that will help engage and garner support from the community, raise awareness about conservation and expand the organization’s reach.
  • Henry J. Austin Health Center, Trenton– $50,000 for Optimizing Healthcare Excellence: Process Improvement; funding will enable the nonprofit’s leadership to work with a consultant on strategies that enhance operational efficiency, patient care, and resource utilization. The center hopes to elevate healthcare delivery, optimize outcomes, and streamline workflows.
  • HomeFront, Inc. Lawrenceville – $24,000 for Charting the Course: Strategic Planning to support the development of its comprehensive strategic plan, following the retirement of its founder and during a time of transition and growth.
  • James R Halsey Foundation of the Arts, Hamilton — $30,000 to help develop a 5-year strategic plan to guide the staff, board and volunteers with a clear and measurable road map for growth and sustainability.
  • Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Greater Mercer County, Princeton — $47,000 for the development of a marketing plan to increase the visibility and support of JFCS in the community.
  • Meals on Wheels of Mercer County, Ewing — $10,000 for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Awareness Training and Implementation; the nonprofit plans to increase the cultural intelligence of volunteers, staff and board so it can attract a diverse professional and volunteer core and deepen its relationship with program participants.
  • Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness, Trenton — $38,500 to formalize a partnership with the NJ Coalition to End Homelessness, build a network of Mercer County advocates, and pilot a Mercer County-based cohort of the Coalition’s Garden State Leaders program.
  • People & Stories / Gente y Cuentos, Lawrence —$15,000 for its 2024 Website and Portal Reboot to update the website and the portal used by program facilitators.
  • Princeton-Blairstown Center, Princeton — $9,125 for a communications audit; the 115-year-old organization describes itself as one of the best kept secrets in Princeton. It will work with a marketing firm to build its brand recognition regionally.
  • Puerto Rican Community Center, Trenton — $47,000 for Classrooms of The Future for our Children; the project will improve technology and communications in the program’s six classrooms.
  • Trent House Association, Trenton — $30,000 for “Ésta es su casa/This is your home”: Outreach and Engagement with Our Spanish-Speaking Neighbors; to increase its reach and engagement with Spanish-speaking residents, the nonprofit’s plans include establishing relationships with local organizations and hosting co-sponsored events.
  • Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, Trenton — $50,000 for TASK: Building a Strong, Equitable Future; TASK recently implemented a transformative five-year strategic plan to respond to the increased demand for its services. The funding will help the organization meet its goals of strengthening organizational capacity in the areas of equity, governance and succession planning.
  • WE MAKE: Autism At Work, Pennington — $45,000 for We Make Donor, Audience, & Strategy Expansion; during each of its first five years, the organization doubled the number of persons served; to build capacity and sustainability, the nonprofit will work with fundraising and strategic planning consultants to design new development strategic plans.

Two-year grants

  • RISE, Hightstown — $100,000 for its Technological Transformation on the Rise program, which will provide technology upgrades to identify needs that are in high demand, allow the organization to make data-based decisions and update information in real-time. The upgrades are expected to improve service delivery and client outcomes and streamline communications.
  • The Workwell Partnership (formerly Lawrenceville Job Training Partnership), Lawrenceville — $92,000 to help establish the WorkWell Employer Coalition for Returning Citizens program, a collaborative effort with local businesses to create guaranteed employment opportunities for graduates of the program.

Each grant included an additional 15 percent in funding, which totaled more than $107,000, to help the nonprofits with administrative and overhead costs, such as rent and supplies.

Year-end grants

Unrestricted Impact Grants

  • I am Trenton, Trenton — $75,000 to help continue its grantmaking in the city
  • NonProfitConnect, Hamilton — $50,000 to continue to support its programs for nonprofit leadership
  • Outdoor Equity Alliance, Trenton, $75,000 to continue to build the capacity and leadership of the emerging nonprofit