Collective Philanthropy Impacts Those Close to Home and Hearts

By Wendy Greenberg | Photos courtesy of PACF

When John Hatch and David Henderson attended Capital Philharmonic of New Jersey’s performance of Trenton-born composer George Antheil’s Ballet Mecanique and other compositions at the Roebling Machine Shop this past spring, with the Trenton Circus Squad charming audiences at intermissions, they were “ecstatic.”

As advisors of the Trenton Arts Fund through the Princeton Area Community Foundation (PACF), Hatch and Henderson had played a behind-the-scenes role in bringing the festive evening to fruition, and as Trenton residents they could see their generosity in action.

The Trenton Arts Fund, one of some 450 funds under the care of PACF, supports both the Capital Philharmonic and the Trenton Circus Squad, among other Trenton cultural organizations.

“It wasn’t the usual pairing, and you felt like you could see this pairing only in places like Paris or Berlin, but here it was in Trenton,” says Henderson. “If you are interested in the arts, this is where they are. There is a synergy, and the fund is a unique vehicle for supporting that. We have a good understanding of the community, and have been able to make impactful gifts.”

John Hatch and David Henderson are advisors of the Trenton Arts Fund at PACF.

The ability of Hatch and Henderson to see the impact of supporting nonprofit organizations that are close to their hearts, and to their home, is what has made PACF the choice of many during its 33-year-history. But what really sets this nonprofit apart is its structure: a small donation can go further, as philanthropic experts with deep knowledge of community needs invest the money in a pool. As a philanthropic resource and manager of charitable funds, PACF helps people and companies make effective charitable gifts and awards grants to nonprofits.   

In 2023 more than $15.5 million PACF grants went into health, education, the environment, arts and culture, housing, animal welfare, and other areas. Mercer County-area residents can see PACF’s impact everywhere, although it isn’t always obvious. For example, the late Princetonians Ray Wadsworth — a former borough councilman, merchant, and fire department chief — and Herb Hobler — former WHWH radio station owner and loyal Princeton University alumnus — formed the Spirit of Princeton Fund in 1997 to support Princeton’s Memorial Day Parade and other events. Social service and cultural organizations like Womanspace, Dress for Success Mercer County, Housing Initiatives of Princeton, and Young Audiences New Jersey & Eastern Pennsylvania depend on PACF support. Summer swim lessons for youths through the Hamilton YMCA have received support from PACF, as has the Greater Princeton Youth Orchestra.   

The Bunbury Fund plans to sunset by next year, awarding the initial round of sunset grants this year and early next year. Including a pledge to the Community Foundation, the initial sunset grant awards total more than $12 million. The local Boys & Girls Club is among the nonprofits that will receive one of those grants.

Fund For Women and Girls

The Fund for Women and Girls (FWG) at PACF celebrated 25 years in 2023 by awarding $250,000 in grants. FWG grantees have included Womanspace, KinderSmile, Freedom House, RISE, and Housing Initiatives of Princeton. Over the last quarter of a century, the FWG has awarded more than $2 million to nonprofits in the region, and over time the fund has given close to 100 grants.

Less than two percent (1.8) of all organization funds went to women and children (nationally), says FWG Chair Carolyn Sanderson. “That is staggeringly low.” FWG focuses on improving the lives of economically vulnerable women and children through investment, education, and collaboration.

“Did you know there is no place to give birth in the city of Trenton?” asks Sanderson. “Women of color were delivering pre-term, low birth weight babies, so the Children’s Home Society of New Jersey began a doula program,” she says. A community doula provides emotional and physical support during pregnancy, labor, and delivery. They also provide information about childbirth and breastfeeding, connect to bilingual resources, provide postpartum consultation, and even help with child care.

The program has served 180 women, most of whom had babies at term and healthy birth weights, says Sanderson, and met the indicators for raising healthy children. The AMAR Community Doula program was started with support from the Burke Foundation, with which PACF collaborates, and it continues to be a major supporter.

“Collective philanthropy becomes an opportunity for us to make larger, more impactful gifts than any of us could individually,” says Sanderson.

The FWG started in 1998 with $2,000 from Women in Development (formerly Mercer County, now New Jersey), Sanderson recalls, at a time when “a lot of communities were thinking of creating a network of philanthropic women. The first full time executive director of the Princeton Area Community Foundation, Nancy Kieling, and the development director, Judy Feldman, had the idea to approach Bristol Myers Squibb with the proposal to give $100,000 to launch a matching gift effort — if they could find 100 women to give $1,000 each, Bristol Myers would contribute $100,000. And they did.”

Now a grants committee includes “14 savvy, sophisticated, insightful voting members, who each contribute $1,000 or more to support annual grants,” says Sanderson. The group has created an infrastructure, “a leadership group focused on educating our members about the needs of economically disadvantaged women and children in the community, collaborating with one another and area nonprofits, and investing our time, talent, and treasure in those organizations doing critical work to improve our community.”

The group has developed a clear grants application process that defines what types of organizations they will fund, and in what geography. This year the committee pored over 19 applications with the aim of presenting a smaller number of vetted organizations to the voting members to choose their grantee partners. “Pruning is a tough process, as every organization is doing important work,” notes Sanderson.

The fund’s impact permeates the community. Princeton Nursery School needed child-height toilets, and sinks at the right height for children to practice dental hygiene. “Now the bathrooms are renovated,” says Sanderson. “A family came to see it and loved the bathroom, and the whole nursery school. I felt very gratified.”

A two-year grant to Housing Initiatives of Princeton yielded a renovated apartment; and RISE, the Hightstown and East Windsor center of social support, has been better able to meet day-to-day needs of families and individuals. “Someone needed $500 to get her car fixed, to get to work, and the case manager was able to help,” says Sanderson. “The ripple effect is that she is providing for her family.”

It’s not just about giving money, says Sanderson. “It’s also important to educate members on how they can help, to expand philanthropy. We can do so much more together than we can do individually. The longer I am involved, the more I understand the importance of working together.”

Dr. William P. (Bill) Burks, trustee emeritus and volunteer at PACF.

Trusted Philanthropy

Creating a charitable fund at the PACF is easy, says Dr. William P. (Bill) Burks, trustee emeritus and volunteer. “Generous people can open a fund with donations of cash, stock, or complex assets, such as real estate,” he says. “Once fundholders make that gift, they receive an immediate tax benefit, and their charitable dollars are invested in the Community Foundation’s high-quality investment pool.”

“Fundholders,” he explains, recommend grants to nonprofits, and the PACF staff “handles all the paperwork and due diligence to ensure grants are awarded to qualified organizations in good standing. With deep knowledge of the local community and grantmaking best practices, the Community Foundation staff can also provide fundholders with personalized attention, expert guidance, and support.”

Since its founding in 1991, PACF has made grants of more than $200 million and provided more than an additional $32 million in support to its nonprofit fund holders. Of the $200 million in grants, more than $90 million has been awarded to nonprofits in the greater Mercer County region. In 2018 PACF was named by Charity Navigator as “One of America’s 10 Best Community Foundations,” and it is accredited by Community Foundations National Standards.

In 1991 the fund had $300,000. It now has more than $260 million.

PACF, according to Burks, was modeled after the Cleveland Foundation, a 1914 program in Cleveland, Ohio. The idea took off around the country, as some 800 like organizations were formed, including PACF, says Burks, who is a retired surgeon.

“These foundations exist for building an endowment to address issues in the community,” he says. “When organizations need money they can go to the community foundation, which pools its money.”

In Princeton’s case, a small fund was started in 1991, and has built up at a gradual pace, with funds reflecting donors’ interests. “It began to catch on in the late 1990s. People came to us,” Burks says. “Families began establishing donor-advised funds, nonprofits began to trust their endowments with PACF.”

Kieling played a critical role in the successful growth of the Community Foundation, giving credibility of its value to the Princeton community. “She spurred the process on and as more heard about us, they ‘joined in the party’ if you will,” Burks says, “The trustees created a solid organization that was there when people needed it, and it changed people’s lives.”

Eleanor Horne, center, trustee emerita and volunteer at PACF.

All Kids Thrive

“From the day we were formed, integrity was the priority,” says Eleanor Horne, trustee emerita and current volunteer. “We have adhered to high standards in all that we have done even before we received certification.”

Horne formerly worked at Educational Testing Service (ETS) and was responsible for ETS’ contributions to the community. “I was intrigued by PACF’s work and became involved to learn how to do my job better. It is the gold standard,” she says. “And the organization and its work get in your blood.”

After Kieling served for 20 years, Jeffrey M. Vega successfully built on the work of Kieling as president and CEO for nine years before he died in January 2024. The Foundation is seeking a president and CEO to succeed him. 

As Kieling created an ethical foundation and Vega followed, “that integrity has followed us today,” Horne says. “PACF is still building on both of their work.”

Horne speaks passionately about the All Kids Thrive initiative. Launched in 2018 to combat chronic absenteeism in schools, the goal is to work with nonprofit partners to develop strong, school-based partnership programs so that children and adolescents living in poverty can attend school and have opportunities to succeed. The initial investment was $3 million over five years, funding 10 school/nonprofit partnerships in four communities — Hamilton, Lawrence, Princeton, and Trenton. 

“We were committed to reducing chronic absenteeism,” says Horne. But, as the COVID-19 pandemic evolved in 2020, the fund took an immediate pivot to address some of the more urgent needs of schoolchildren.

“The Covid Relief Fund was a model for other community foundations. We sprang into action within two or three days of the announcement of the closing of schools and many other organizations,” says Horne. “We would receive a request for funding early in the week and the check was out the door on Friday. We trusted the agencies in our community to know and address the needs of the people we served.  Our funders trusted us.  They said, ‘We know PACF will use the funds for the greatest impact.’ A group of us met twice a week at 7 a.m. to respond as quickly as we could to community needs. For everyone at PACF and our donors, addressing the needs of a pandemic that threatened all of us was a burning passion.”

The lasting lesson was that “schools can and should be the hub of supporting children and their families, not with the expectation that the schools can do it all themselves, but because they can be a place where students and their families can tap into the services they need,” says Horne. “A trusted teacher, principal, counselor, or school nurse can encourage the families’ use of helpful resources that can address many of the underlying causes of chronic absenteeism such as homelessness, food insecurity, and lack of warm clothing and translation services.”

“We have come to see the school as the center of the village,” she continues, referring to the phrase “It Takes a Village.” As the next multi-year phase of All Kids Thrive develops, the fund is working with several school districts to develop this community philosophy. “We could see the impact and the power and value of a community that cares for each other.”

Pictured are participants in Boys & Girls Club activities supported by Summer Initiative grants.

Trenton Arts Fund

The arts, culture, and history are also among the keys to the health of a community, and with that understanding Hatch, a Trenton architect, and Henderson, a real estate developer, started the Trenton Arts Fund in partnership with PACF.

Since its inception in 2018, the Trenton Arts Fund has distributed more than $82,000 to 13 different Trenton arts, culture, and history organizations including Artworks Trenton, Capitol Harmony Works, New Jersey Capital Philharmonic, Passage Theater Company, Trenton Circus Squad, Trenton Museum Society, and Trenton United Family Foundation, all recommended by a grants committee.

“The amount of art happening in Trenton is so cutting edge, so extraordinary,” says Hatch, “and PACF is so good at supporting donors — it’s made our goal much, much easier to accomplish. We started a fund with a relatively small amount. Raising money has been inspiring.”

“It started with a conversation between David and me, in 2018 or so,” says Hatch. “We had moved to Trenton in 1988 and by 1989 were both involved in the city. We had renovated our house, then renovated other houses in Mill Hill. Both of us were living and working in Trenton. We got involved in various arts and culture groups and the Old Mill Hill Society.”

Hatch served on the Passage Theatre Board for many years, including as president, as well as on the Trenton Historical Society Board, the Potteries of Trenton Society, and ultimately the Capital Philharmonic of New Jersey, currently as president of the board. Henderson has served on various boards including the Trenton Downtown Association and the Trenton Film Society.

“Being involved with many Trenton organizations, we know that every year there is a scramble to put together budgets and to find funding. Arts, culture, and history nonprofits in particular need funds, and what was missing was funding they could count on.”

The amount that the Trenton Arts Fund grants each year totals 50 percent of donations received. The remainder is added to the endowment so that the fund can provide immediate support as well as building an endowment for the long-term vitality of the arts community. Hatch and Henderson recently announced a personal $250,000 donation to the fund’s endowment.

While the grants ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 are not considered large, “they make a difference for these organizations,” Hatch says. “But it’s also a bit of a stamp of approval. It means something to get a grant from the Trenton Arts Fund of the Princeton Area Community Foundation. These grants help organizations leverage funding from other sources — foundation, corporate, and individual.”

The New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal Fund provides grants to support nonprofit organizations whose primary focus is arts and culture, education,and/or history. It was created by a coalition of funders to raise and direct much needed support to the nonprofit arts and cultural sector statewide, including the Glass Impact Fund, pictured here. The fund was established with a lead gift from the Grunin Foundation and is hosted by PACF.

Passionate about PACF

It is telling that more than one person interviewed teared up when talking about the impact of the organization on the community, so passionate are they about PACF’s work.

“What I’m most proud of,” says Burks, “is that we took an idea back in 1991 and made our own valuation of what the foundation can do. People in the community really bought into it because they understood this was a good concept. Our community trusted us to do the right thing. We made small philanthropists realize they could have a larger impact in the community.”

“Our purpose,” says Horne, “is not just to raise money, but show people the impact they can have with their donations. We can all be philanthropists.

“Everything we do is born of our love and concern for all our neighbors all the time, whether there is a community-wide crisis or a crisis that impacts a single family or person. Helping each other is our moral obligation — PACF makes it easy.”

For more information about the Princeton Area Community Foundation, visit pacf.org.

Carolyn Sanderson, middle in black dress, gathers with Fund for Women and Girls 2024 grant recipients.