Announcing Second Round Grants 2021

Announcing $4.3 million in grants

The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Board of Trustees met virtually this June and approved $4.3 million in grants to nonprofit organizations focused on the Arts, Education, Informed Communities, and Technical Assistance, as well as new Imagine a New Way grants that address root causes and repair of structural racism and inequity in New Jersey.

“All that we have learned since embarking on our racial equity journey and through the pandemic is affirming the Dodge Foundation’s path toward a more just and equitable New Jersey, said Tanuja M. Dehne, Dodge Foundation President & CEO. “We are humbled and inspired by the networks, movements, and organizations which continue to meet community needs and build power so that our systems provide opportunities for people of all races and communities to thrive.”

Aligned with the Foundation’s refined strategic focus, Dodge approved $350,000 in new Imagine a New Way grants to four organizations and projects that are using strategic tools to tackle barriers to a just and equitable New Jersey.

These include:

• $200,000 over two years to the Newark Movement for Economic Equity, the City of Newark’s Guaranteed Income Pilot Program. Launched in April 2021, the two-year pilot program provides unconditional cash to select Newark residents as a means to combat poverty and reduce the racial income gap.
• $100,000 to The Institute for Citizens & Scholars, formerly the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, to strengthen American education and to rebuild a flourishing civil society. Citizens & Scholars launched the Civic Spring Project to support youth-centered projects in New Jersey by Groundwork Elizabeth and Newark Youth One Stop and Career Center that addressed pandemic-related challenges facing communities, and that promoted local civic engagement during the 2020 general election.
• $25,000 to Make the Road New Jersey, a community-based organization which builds the power of immigrant, working-class, and Latinx communities to achieve dignity and respect through community organizing, legal, policy innovation, and transformative education.
• $25,000 to Wind of the Spirit, an inter-faith-based organization that educates, organizes, and mobilizes immigrant communities and allies. Their work is centered in community needs and drives towards just and humane migration policies, human rights and dignity for all people, along with promoting solidarity and a world of justice and peace.

For more on Dodge’s Imagine a New Way transformation, read the latest President’s Message.

All Second Round Grants 2021

• Alborada Spanish Dance Theatre (Woodbridge, Middlesex County): $15,000 in general operating support. Through dance, drama, and music, Alborada’s artistry reveals the many diverse and historical threads that comprise the multicultural fabric of Spanish culture. Program Area: Arts
• Algonquin Arts (Manasquan, Monmouth County): $5,000 in general operating support. Algonquin Arts Theatre provides cultural enrichment and arts education for residents and visitors of central New Jersey and the Jersey Shore through high-quality performances and programs in theatre, music, dance, and film. Program Area: Arts
• Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (New York, N.Y.): $5,000 in project support for 2021-22 Ailey Arts In education and community programs for underserved youth, AileyCamp, and AileyDance Kids in-school residencies in Newark. Program Area: Education
• American Theater Group (East Brunswick, Middlesex County): $7,500 in general operating support. American Theater Group produces new and classic works primarily by American playwrights with an emphasis on the development of new works and the rediscovery of undeservedly neglected older ones. Program Area: Arts
• Appel Farm Arts and Music Center (Elmer, Salem County): $65,000 in general operating support. Appel Farm delivers transformative arts and learning experiences as the arts education leader in South Jersey Program Area: Education
• Arden Theatre Company (Philadelphia, PA.): $15,000 in project support for Arden for All, a theater education outreach and access program serving Camden. Program Area: Education
• Art Pride New Jersey (Burlington, Burlington County): $125,000 in general operating support. ArtPride New Jersey advances, promotes, and advocates for the arts as essential to the quality of life of every citizen and to the economic vitality of our state. Program Area: Arts
• Arts Council of Princeton (Princeton, Mercer County): $10,000 in general operating support. Arts Council of Princeton builds community through the arts by presenting a wide range of arts and arts education programs including studio-based classes and workshops in the visual, performing and media arts, exhibitions, performances, and free community cultural events. Program Area: Arts
• Arts Ed Newark (Newark, Essex County): $30,000 in project support for Newark Arts Education Roundtable. Program Area: Education
• Arts Ed NJ (Warren, Warren County): $165,000 in general operating support. Arts Ed NJ is a diverse group of constituents who agree on the educational benefits and impact of the arts, specifically the contribution they make to student achievement and a civilized, sustainable society. Program Area: Education
• Artworks (Trenton, Mercer County): $40,000 in general operating support. Artworks promotes artistic diversity by fostering creativity, learning, and appreciation of the arts. Program Area: Arts
• Atlantic City Ballet (Atlantic City, Atlantic County): $20,000 in general operating support. Atlantic City Ballet bring the joy, artistry, and appreciation for dance to the world’s stage through artistic excellence, exhilarating performances, innovative choreography, and superb educational programs Program Area: Arts
• Barat Foundation (Newark, Essex County): $15,000 in general operating support. Barat Foundation is dedicated to the power of the arts to transform lives and to level the playing field for highly motivated, underserved youth. Program Area: Education
• Camden Repertory Theater (Camden, Camden County): $40,000 in general operating support. Camden Rep tells the truth no matter how painful or embarrassing and strives to be the voice of her story. Program Areas: Arts, Education
• Cape May Stage (Cape May, Cape May County): $20,000 in general operating support. Cape May Stage produces compelling impactful theatre that engages audiences to enrich their lives. Program Area: Arts
• Center for Contemporary Art (Bedminster, Somerset County): $10,000 in general operating support. The Center for Contemporary Art is a vibrant regional art center with in person and virtual art classes, workshops, and summer art camps, rotating art exhibitions, and community outreach programs. Program Area: Arts
• Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University (Montclair, Essex County): $100,000 in general operating support. The Center for Cooperative Media grows and strengthens local journalism and supports an informed society in New Jersey and beyond. Program Area: Informed Communities
• Center for Investigative Reporting (Emeryville, CA): $25,000 in general operating support for work in New Jersey. Program Area: Informed Communities
• Chalkbeat (New York, N.Y.): $50,000 in general operating support for Chalkbeat Newark. Program Area: Informed Communities
• Children’s Home Society of New Jersey (Trenton, Mercer County): $32,500 in project support for the Trenton Education Dance Institute (TEDI) 2021-22. Program Area: Education
• Conservatory of Music and Performing Arts Society (Trenton, Mercer County): $25,000 in project support for Arts for Any Given Child Trenton. Program Area: Education
• Community Info Coop (Movement Alliance Project): $80,000 in general operating support for the Bloomfield Information Project and Sharing our Stories: Camden News Hub Project. Program Area: Informed Communities
• Crossroads Theatre Company (New Brunswick, Middlesex County): $50,000 in general operating support. Crossroads Theatre Company is the nation’s premiere African American theater. Program Area: Arts
• Dance New Jersey (Verona, Essex County): $2,500 in project support for Dance on the Lawn in Montclair. Dance New Jersey is a service organization committed to advocating the excellence of dance and dance education in the state. Program Area: Arts
• Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre (Summit, Union County): $10,000 in general operating support. The Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre professional ensemble of actors builds community with our audience by sharing contemporary, life-affirming stories that challenge, energize, and entertain. Program Area: Arts
• Educational Arts Team (Jersey City, Hudson County): $20,000 in support for the Middle School Theater Arts Social Emotional Learning and Literacy Program in Jersey City. Program Area: Education
• Free Press (Florence, MA): $125,000 in project support for News Voices to foster resilient infrastructure in New Jersey’s local news and information ecosystem, organize community-led solutions that address information inequities, and grow Latinx media engagement in northern New Jersey. Program Area: Informed Communities
• Freespace Dance (Upper Montclair, Essex County): $12,000 in general operating support. Freespace Dance is a contemporary modern dance company renowned for creating emotionally driven work with a bold, athletic signature style. Comprising exceptionally strong and seasoned performers, this vibrant company continues to create humanistic works. Program Area: Arts
• Gallery Aferro (Newark, Essex County): $35,000 in general operating support. Gallery Aferro is a platform for the exchange of ideas in service of advancing human dignity and beauty, with a focus on visual arts as the vehicle. Program Area: Arts
• GlassRoots (Newark, Essex County): $40,000 in general operating support. GlassRoots ignites and builds the creative and economic vitality of greater Newark, with a focus on underserved youth and young adults through the transformative power of the glass art experience. Program Area: Education
• Hunterdon Art Museum (Clinton, Hunterdon County): $40,000 in general operating support. The Hunterdon Art Museum engages people with contemporary art, craft, and design in ways that educate, challenge, and inspire. Program Area: Arts
• Institute for Citizens and Scholars (Princeton, Mercer County): $100,000 in general operating support. The Institute for Citizens and Scholars works to strengthen American education and to rebuild a flourishing civil society. Program Area: Imagine a New Way
• Institute of Music for Children (Elizabeth, Union County): $40,000 in general operating support. The Institute of Music for Children is building a community of high-achieving citizens who are arts lovers and arts makers through professional instruction, mentorship, and family engagement. Program Area: Education
• Jazz House Kids (Montclair, Essex County): $25,000 in general operating support. Jazz House Kids transforms young lives and opens doors to the future by offering pre-professional, year-round musical training along with community engagement and education programs for K-12 students from diverse backgrounds. Program Area: Education
• Lead New Jersey (Princeton, Mercer County): $10,000 in general operating support. Lead New Jersey fosters and promotes a robust network of informed and prepared leaders, its Lead New Jersey Fellows, who work to make New Jersey a better place to live and work. Program Area: Technical Assistance
• Leadership Newark (Newark, Essex County): $25,000 in general operating support. Leadership Newark is creating a network of emerging and established leaders with the drive, knowledge, skills, and connections to improve Newark’s future. Program Area: Technical Assistance
• Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District (Newark, Essex County): $20,000 in general operating support. Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District facilitates the integration of arts and culture amenities to advance local economic development, housing and neighborhood stability, and community engagement to support Lincoln Park’s transformation into a healthy, safe, and vibrant neighborhood. Program Area: Arts
• Little Kids Rock (Montclair, Essex County): $50,000 in project support to advance equity in music education through culturally relevant, student-centered programming in underserved public schools across New Jersey during the 2021-22 school year. Program Area: Education
• Luna Stage (West Orange, Essex County): $50,000 in general operating support. Luna Stage develops and produces vibrant plays about local and global experiences and brings communities together for artistic events that spark conversations and create understanding and change. Program Area: Arts
• Lydia Johnson Dance (South Orange, Essex County): $15,000 in general operating support. Lydia Johnson Dance’s distinctive choreography uses components of ballet woven seamlessly into a contemporary dance vocabulary. Program Area: Arts
• Make the Road New Jersey (Make the Road States) (Brooklyn, N.Y.): $25,000 in project support of Make the Road New Jersey. Make the Road New Jersey builds the power of immigrant, working-class and Latinx communities to achieve dignity and respect through community organizing, legal, policy innovation and transformative education. Program Area: Imagine a New Way
• Mayo Performing Arts Center (Morristown, Morris County): $10,000 in general operating support. Mayo Performing Arts Center is where our community comes together to be inspired, entertained and uplifted by the power and the passion of the performing arts. Program Area: Arts
• McCarter Theatre (Princeton, Mercer County): $50,000 in general operating support. McCarter creates world-class theater and present the finest performing artists for the engagement, education, and entertainment of our community. Program Area: Arts
• Millville Development Corporation (Millville, Cumberland County): $30,000 in general operating support. At Millville Development Corporation, Advocate for the Arts is a means of community and economic revitalization by advancing the Glasstown Arts District and center city neighborhood. Program Area: Arts
• Monmouth Museum and Cultural Center (Lincroft, Monmouth County): $10,000 in program support for the 2021-22 New Jersey Emerging Artists series with a focus on underrepresented groups and communities and support of the Green Arts Studio. Program Area: Arts
• Newark Movement for Economic Equity (Community Foundation of New Jersey) (Morristown, Morris County): $200,000 over two years to support the City of Newark’s Guaranteed Income Pilot Program, which provides unconditional cash to select Newark residents as a means to combat poverty and reduce the racial income gap. Program Area: Imagine a New Way
• Newark News & Story Collaborative (Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University) (Newark, Essex County): $51,000 in project support for the Newark News and Story Collaborative. Program Area: Informed Communities
• Morris Arts (Morristown, Morris County): $55,000 in general operating support. Morris Arts creates more livable, vibrant, and sustainable communities. Program Area: Arts
• Morristown Neighborhood House (Morristown, Morris County): $60,000 in general operating support. Cornerstone Family Programs and Morristown Neighborhood House provide resources to people from age 2 to 102 in the greater Morris County area. Program Area: Morristown
• Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company (Fort Lee, Bergen County): $40,000 in general operating support. Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is a leading producer of engaging cultural experiences that reflect the diversity, courage, and hop of the cross-cultural journey through dance, developed in collaboration with diverse artists and community partners. Program Area: Arts
• New City Kids (Grand Rapids, MI): $20,000 in project support for after-school music education centers for urban youth in New Jersey. Program Area: Education
• New Jersey Ballet Company (Florham Park, Morris County): $40,000 in general operating support. New Jersey Ballet’s mission is to enrich lives by promoting, preserving, and innovating the art of ballet through performances, operation of a dance school, and programming that promotes inclusiveness, accessibility, and community. Program Area: Arts
• New Jersey Festival Orchestra (Westfield, Union County): $15,000 in general operating support. New Jersey Festival Orchestra promotes the world’s legacy of symphonic, operatic, musical theater, and cross-cultural music to a regional audience. Program Area: Arts
• New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (Newark, Essex County): $65,000 in general operating support. New Jersey Symphony Orchestra connects with the people and diverse communities of New Jersey through the power of live symphonic music to inspire, entertain, and educate. Program Area: Arts
• New Jersey Tap Ensemble (Bloomfield, Essex County): $5,000 in project support for SILENT TAPS, which tells the story of the work of rhythm tap dance artists from New Jersey Tap Ensemble through dynamic black and white photographic imagery presented in a 2022 calendar to promote and educate about RhythmTap. Program Area: Education
• New Jersey Theatre Alliance (Morristown, Morris County): $65,000 in general operating support. New Jersey Theatre Alliance unites, promotes, strengthens, and cultivates New Jersey’s professional theatres and advances the theatre community by developing innovative, collaborative, and engaging programs and services for member theatres and their diverse audiences. Program Area: Arts
• New Music USA (New York, N.Y.): $10,000 in New Music USA project grants to New Jersey dance companies, organizations, and Individuals in support of dance projects. Program Area: Arts
• Newark Arts Council (Newark, Essex County): $3,000 in project support for Dance Therapy at Newark Symphony Hall. Program Area: Arts
• Newark Arts Council (Newark, Essex County): $40,000 in general operating support. Newark Arts provides leadership, direction, and technical assistance through partnerships with Newark’s many artists, arts administrators, community organizations, community development corporations, planning groups, economic development agencies, and government agencies as well as the general public. Program Area: Arts
• Newark Boys Chorus School (Newark, Essex County): $10,000 in general operating support. The Newark Boys Chorus School develops its students into successful young men of sound character through rigorous academic and musical training. Program Area: Education
• Newark Museum of Art (Newark, Essex County): $90,000 in general operating support. The Newark Museum of Art welcomes everyone with inclusive experiences that spark curiosity and foster community. Program Area: Arts
• Newark School of the Arts (Newark, Essex County): $40,000 in general operating support. The Newark School of the Arts changes the lives of youth through access to quality education in the performing and visual arts. Program Area: Education
• Newark Trust for Education (Newark, Essex County): $35,000 in project support for safe and supportive learning environments. The Trust envisions a public education infrastructure that leverages the wide array of opportunities available to the young people of Newark, effectively creating positive conditions for learning that help young people meet rigorous academic outcomes, develop strong socio-emotional skills, and have access to high-quality post-secondary options. Program Area: Education
• NJ Spark (Rutgers University Foundation) (New Brunswick, Middlesex County): $35,000 in project support for NJ Spark to explore a pilot community media collaboration engaging students, journalists, community organizations, and residents in New Brunswick. Program Area: Informed Communities
• Noyes Museum of Art (Stockton University) (Galloway, Atlantic County): $30,000 in general operating support. Building upon the core of the Fred and Ethel Noyes Collection, The Noyes Museum of Art of Stockton University provides the southern New Jersey region opportunities to learn about, explore, and experience the arts. Program Area: Arts
• Passage Theatre Company (Trenton, Mercer County): $65,000 in general operating support. Passage Theatre Company is committed to creating and producing socially relevant new plays and arts programming that deeply resonate with and reflect its community. Program Area: Arts
• Paterson Alliance (Paterson, Passaic County): $40,000 in project support for fostering diversity, equity and inclusion in the nonprofit community in Paterson.  Program Area: Technical Assistance
• Paterson Education Fund (Paterson, Passaic County): $60,000 in general operating support. Paterson Education Fund stimulates community action for change so that the Paterson Public Schools ensure that all Paterson children achieve high standards. Program Area: Education
• Paul Robeson Galleries (Rutgers University-Newark Campus) (Newark, Essex County): $5,000 in general operating support. The Paul Robeson Galleries is dedicated to presenting art and cultural artifacts as well as educational and public programming in the spirit of the diverse metropolitan context of Rutgers University’s Newark campus. Program Area: Arts
• Premiere Stages (Union, Union County): $20,000 in project support for the 2021-22 Premiere Stages Play Festival. Program Area: Arts
• Princeton Festival (Princeton, Mercer County): $5,000 in general operating support. Princeton Festival enriches the communities it serves through a world-class performing arts summer festival. Program Area: Arts
• Pro Bono Partnership (Parsippany, Morris County): $15,000 in project support to provide legal services to New Jersey nonprofit organizations. Program Area: Technical Assistance
• Pushcart Players (Verona, Essex County): $25,000 in general operating support. Pushcart Players brings substantive musical theater, workshops, educational programs, and residencies to young people and their families in schools and community theaters nationwide. Program Area: Arts
• Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts (Millville, Cumberland County): $20,000 in general operating support. Riverfront Renaissance Center is the focal point for cultural, educational, and artistic enrichment dedicated to perpetuating a sense of community and to the economic and cultural vitality of the Millville Glasstown Arts District. Program Area: Arts
• Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts (New Brunswick, Middlesex County): $30,000 in project support for Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts’ 2021-22 arts education and community arts programs. Program Area: Education
• School of the Garden State Ballet (Rutherford, Bergen County): $5,000 in general operating support. The School of the Garden State Ballet is a tradition of excellence in training under the guidance and inspiration of outstanding professional instructors, designed for the pleasure and development of all age groups. Program Area: Education
• Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey (Florham Park, Morris County): $75,000 in general operating support. The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey is the state’s largest professional theatre company dedicated solely to the presentation of Shakespeare’s canon and other classic dramatic entertainments for the cultural enrichment of the community. Program Area: Arts
• Sharron Miller’s Academy for the Performing Arts (Montclair, Essex County): $22,000 in general operating support. Sharron Miller’s Academy for the Performing Arts provides comprehensive, inclusive developmental training in dance and related theater arts to students at every stage of life. Program Area: Education
• Shelterforce (National Housing Institute) (Montclair, Essex County): $20,000 in general operating support. Shelterforce is the only independent, non-academic publication covering the worlds of community development, affordable housing, and neighborhood stabilization. Program Area: Informed Communities
• State of the Arts (Stockton University) (Galloway, Atlantic County): $5,000 in project support for State of the Arts, a cornerstone program of NJTV bringing people on location with the most creative people in New Jersey and beyond since 1981. Program Area: Arts
• Stories of Atlantic City (Stockton University) (Galloway, Atlantic County): $75,000 in project support for Stories of Atlantic City, a collaborative project focused on telling restorative, untold stories about the city and its people. Program Area: Informed Communities
• Sustainable Jersey (Lawrenceville, Mercer County): $300,000 in general operating support. Sustainable Jersey empowers New Jersey communities to build a better world for future generations with the tools, training and financial incentives necessary to pursue critical sustainability initiatives. Program Area: Building Better Communities
• Newest Americans (Talking Eyes Media) (Montclair, Essex County): $25,000 in project support for Newest Americans, a multimedia digital project which honors the past, present and future of our migrating identities. Program Area: Informed Communities
• The Growing Stage – The Children’s Theatre of New Jersey (Netcong, Morris County): $40,000 in general operating support. The Growing Stage nurtures the development of the performing arts through education and creates, produces and performs works that engage the entire family. Program Area: Arts
• Trenton Children’s Chorus (Ewing, Mercer County): $15,000 in general operating support. Trenton Children’s Chorus empowers the academic, social, and spiritual lives of children through artistry in music. Program Area: Education
• Trenton Downtown Association (Trenton, Mercer County): $10,000 in project support for the downtown Trenton Parklet/Outdoor Space Activation Project. Program Area: Arts
• Trenton Music Makers (Trenton, Mercer County): $52,500 in general operating support. Trenton Music Makers brings children together in teams of music learners and makers to develop their minds, imagination, and community. Program Area: Education
• Union City Music Project (Union City, Hudson County): $50,000 in general operating support. A pioneer of the El Sistema movement in the Garden State, Union City Music Project provides access to low-cost orchestral music education in Hudson County. Program Area: Education
• University of Orange (Orange, Essex County): $20,000 in general operating support. The University of Orange is a free school of restoration urbanism in Orange founded in 2008 and building on a 64-year history of progressive organizing in the city. Program Area: Arts
• Urban League of Essex County (Newark, Essex County): $20,000 in general operating support. The Urban League of Essex County is an organization of talented professionals, caring volunteers, and engaged trustees dedicated to improving the lives of disadvantaged residents throughout Essex County. Program Area: Arts
• VH1 Save the Music Foundation (New York, NY): $25,000 in project support for 2021-22 school year to help complete five-year music education rebuild in partnership with the Newark Board of Education. Program Area: Education
• Victory Hall (Bayonne, Hudson County): $15,000 in general operating support. Victory Hall connects artists and the community to create meaningful cultural experiences for all. Program Area: Arts
• WHYY (Philadelphia, PA): $40,000 in project support to continue WHYY’s work to fill local news voids in South Jersey through collaboration with media partners, freelancers, community groups, and community members. Program Area: Informed Communities
• William Paterson University (Wayne, Passaic County): $100,000 in project support to fostering global perspectives and social emotional learning through arts integration. Program Area: Education
• Wind of the Spirit Immigrant Resource Center (Morristown, Morris County): $25,000 in general operating support. Wind of the Spirit is a faith-based organization for all immigrants and non-immigrants who are moved by the tradition of hospitality. Program Area: Imagine a New Way
• Young Audiences Arts & Learning (Princeton, Middlesex County): $180,000, including $100,000 in project support for the 2021-22 continuation of the Creativity Incubator and Creative Curriculum Institute and Creativity Consultant Project with teachers and schools and $80,000 in project support for the development and implementation of a New Jersey sequential theater-integrated curriculum for grades 2-5. Program Area: Education
• Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers (New Brunswick, Middlesex County): $10,000 in general operating support. Zimmerli Art Museum collects, preserves, researches, and exhibits world-class works of art to provide the university community and diverse regional, national, and international audiences with direct experience of the visual arts. Program Area: Arts