In a message from Brandon McKoy, President of The Fund for New Jersey, he shares why this moment demands bold thinking, collaboration, and long‑term solutions to New Jersey’s most pressing challenges. Read his message and explore what’s ahead.

Join The Fund for New Jersey on April 9^th as Dorothy A. Brown discusses her new book with Brandon McKoy. Getting to Reparations is a thoughtful manifesto that examines historical precedents for reparations in response to the legacy of slavery in the United States, and outlines a legal framework for how such efforts could be pursued.

Board member Adriana Abizadeh-Barbour was featured as a woman of influence in ROI-NJ for leading efforts along the Kensington Corridor Trust to return stability and growth to the residents who live and work in the neighborhood. Adriana shared some gems she learned along the way. Among them is the importance of passion and collective decision making. Read more here…

Explore Our New Fund for NJ Website

We are excited to launch the new fundfornj.org, informed directly by insights from our design process participants. Their feedback played a key role in creating a more user-centered online experience. We hope you will take a moment to explore and get to know the new site.

What are we at The Fund reading and watching?

• The Army of God Comes Out of the Shadows (The Atlantic)
• Congress once fought to limit a president’s war powers − more than 50 years later, its successors are less willing to assert their authority (The Conversation)
• What happened to the Black women Trump purged from the federal work force? (Hammer & Hope)
• Why your brain has to work harder in an open‑plan office than private offices: study (The Conversation)
• Labor market: Is AI responsible for the rise in entry-level unemployment? (Revelio Labs)

Grantee News

Policy Updates 

• Fair Share Housing Center (FSHC): In March, Montvale’s mayor, Mike Ghassali, filed a response in Bergen County Superior Court rejecting claims from FSHC that the borough offered more incentives for a developer to build a large data center instead of affordable housing. The already approved plan allows a developer to either build 250 new units – 50 of which would be designated as affordable housing or construct a data center. However, if the developer chooses the data center option, they can make a payment in lieu of taxes to the municipality.  Read more here…
• Latino Action Network Foundation (LANF): Governor Mikie Sherill signed a three-bill immigration package, known as the Immigration Trust Act, into law. The legislation sets new limits on how state and local agencies share personal information, requires law enforcement officer to reveal facial identity during certain public interactions and, codifies the Immigrant Trust Directive which limits how state and local law enforcement agencies cooperate with federal immigration authorities. This comes after years of advocacy by immigrant rights groups such as, the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, Wind of the Spirit and LANF. Read more here…
• NJ Institute for Social Justice (NJISJ): In response to a lawsuit filed by the Trump administration demanding unredacted voter registration records from New Jersey. NJISJ, Pashman Stein Walder Hayden, P.C., and several civil rights advocates including Salvation and Social Justice, filed a motion to intervene as defendants. The intervenors argue that releasing voter rolls would pose privacy risks to residents, which could potentially discourage people from voting. Read more here…

Grantee Reports

• Advocates for Children of New Jersey (ACNJ): After engaging in a series of conversations with 64 fathers across the state, ACNJ published a report titled “We’re Here Too!” The report highlights the importance of fathers in a child’s development and challenges men encounter in trying to access parenting and co-parenting supports in communities across the state. It also identifies eighteen programs across the state that support and benefit fathers. Read more here…
• NJ Institute for Social Justice (NJISJ): NJISJ released a report examining how policing in Newark has changed over the past nine years. This comes after Judge Madeline Cox Arleo ended the Newark Consent Decree in 2025, which was created to investigate unfair policing in the community. The report found that in 2024, 15% of Black residents in Newark felt that police treated people fairly regardless of race or ethnicity. Read more here…
• New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP): NJPP released a report analyzing Governor Mikie Sherill’s Fiscal Year 2027 budget proposal. According to the report, the proposed budget includes roughly $2 billion in spending cuts to address a $3 billion structural deficit. Although the budget provides support for family tax credits, health coverage and investments in infrastructure like NJ Transit and clean energy, NJPP cautions that in the long run, the administration cannot depend on budget cuts alone to maintain funding for programs and services that residents depend on. Read more here…
• New Jersey Center for Nonprofits: New Jersey Center for Nonprofits released its report, New Jersey Nonprofits Trends and Outlook 2026, providing insights into how nonprofits performed in 2025 and their expectations for the year ahead.  Based on 545 responses collected from New Jersey 501(c)(3) organizations between late January and mid-February 2026, the report finds that there are ongoing challenges in the sector. These include persistent workforce shortages, federal policy constraints, and rising expenses that continue to outpace available funding. Read more here…
• The Pinelands Alliance: The Pinelands Alliance released its 2026 State of the Pinelands report, evaluating the actions of government agencies over the past year and the impact on environmental preservation. While the report commends the previous administration’s efforts to address energy costs by passing legislation aimed at investigating PJM’s pricing model, the report also highlights ongoing challenges. Among them is the floor elevation exemption included in the recently adopted the NJ PACT (New Jersey Protecting Against Climate Threats) REAL (Resilient Environments and Landscapes) rules for affordable housing units. Read more here…

Events

• April 9 – Data Center Development: Understanding the Risks of AI in New Jersey (NJEJA)
• April 9 – Why the Era is the 28^th Amendment (NJLWV)
• April 9 – Dorothy A. Brown in conversation with Brandon McKoy: “Getting to Reparations: How Building a Different America Requires a Reckoning with Our Past” (The Fund for NJ, SPIA, NJISJ)
• April 16 – Beyond the Rulings with Llyod Freeman, Esp and The Rutgers Law School Community & Transactional Lawyering Clinic (NJ Center for Nonprofits)
• April 20-22 – ABFE Harambee Conference 2026 (San Francisco, CA)
• April 23 – Citizenship, Immigration, and Deportation: Then and Now (ACLU-NJ)
• April 23 – Healthy Homes and Communities Summit (HCDNNJ)
• April 24 – Spring Native Plant Sale (Pinelands Preservation)
• April 28 – Learning and Unlearning Asian American Representation in Film: The Intersection of Pop Culture and Policy
• May 12-15 – Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation (FCCP) Annual Convening in Philadelphia, PA

Job Announcements

• Adhikaar – Multiple Positions
• American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey – Multiple Positions
• American Friends Service Committee – Multiple Positions
• Education Law Center – Program/Administrative Assistant
• Fair Share Housing Center – Staff Attorney
• Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey – Community Scholars Program Internship
• Ironbound Community Corporation – Multiple Positions
• Latino Action Network Foundation – In-person Internship
• New Jersey Future – Development Manager, Corporate and Individual Giving
• New Jersey Citizen Action Education Fund – Development Director
• New Labor – Domestic Worker Campaign Organizer
• Pinelands Alliance – Multiple Positions
• The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation – Senior Program Officer

We welcome your policy updates, job announcements, and staff news. Please send submissions to Naeema Campbell, ncampbell@fundfornj.org or Beauty Okunbor, bokunbor@fundfornj.org for inclusion in our newsletter.