CJP is pleased to announce our General Community Impact Grant (GCIG) fund, designed to enhance the well-being and vibrancy of the Greater Boston Jewish community.

The GCIG fund was developed to maximize our awareness and response to the changing needs of our community. Our goal is to provide a transparent, efficient, and consistent process to ensure that organizations can identify and address needs, opportunities, and innovations within the communities that CJP serves. We will review applications with critical attention to:

• CJP Impact Areas
• Collaboration
• Geographic diversity within CJP catchment area
• Impact
• Innovation

General Community Impact Grant Fund Application Guidelines

CJP Mission
To inspire and mobilize the diverse Boston Jewish community to engage in building communities of learning that strengthen Jewish life and improve the world.

CJP Vision Statement
Our community is a leading center of Jewish life, inspired by Boston’s unique intellectual and cultural heritage. Expansive, dynamic models of living and learning include everyone and provide meaningful connections to Judaism, the Jewish People, Israel, and the broader world. Networks of thriving Jewish institutions work collaboratively to strengthen our future. Grounded in Jewish history, tradition, and values, we care for one another, pursue justice, and repair our divided world.

CJP Grantmaking Philosophy
CJP uses grantmaking as one critical tool for reaching our shared communal vision. With our grants we seek to strengthen the health and breadth of our community and invest in key priority areas that will shape our future. Through our grants, we seek to incentivize or amplify partnership, capacity, resiliency, innovation, and adaptability.

CJP Impact Areas

• Caring for Vulnerable Populations: More people are financially, physically, and emotionally secure, and meet or exceed their basic needs in a community that preserves dignity for all.
• Broader and Deeper Engagement in Jewish Life: More people are more engaged and attribute life choices to a sense of belonging within/to the Jewish community.
• A Healthy, Thriving and Sustainable Community: Healthy, relevant, and efficient networks of organizations work collaboratively for enhanced impact in delivering against key strategies.

Community Impact Grant categories of support

The GCIG fund welcomes applications for new and ongoing results-oriented projects or initiatives which support CJP’s Impact Areas; can demonstrate a measurable and sustainable impact; and involve one of the following areas:

Organizational Capacity Building that brings a nonprofit to the next level of operational, programmatic, financial, or organizational maturity. Organizational capacity building reflects an investment in the effectiveness and future sustainability of a nonprofit to effectively deliver its mission. This may also include an urgent or acute need that an organization can demonstrate how it provides unique and critical services to one or more CJP regions.

Community Enhancement Initiatives are events, actions, or programs — virtual or otherwise — that strengthen or enhance a community-building effort to support communities of any type, including those based in geography, spirituality, interest, age, or identity. Community Enhancement Initiatives may include innovative pilots, small-scale programs, or other efforts that help an organization learn how a large-scale project might work in practice and help provide learnings for the Greater Boston Jewish community more broadly. A pilot program provides a platform for the organization to test ideas, prove value, and reveal deficiencies.

General Community Impact Grant fund guidelines

• Applicants must select to submit its application to one of the two Categories of Grant Support: Organizational Capacity Building or a Community Enhancement Initiative
• Applicants are eligible to apply for up to $15,000 of funding (although this is the maximum amount, smaller project applications are also eligible and encouraged)
• Applications will be open on August 31, 2021 and must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on October 6, 2021. Decisions are expected to be announced by the week of December 6, 2021.
• Applicants may only receive one grant from the GCIG fund per fiscal year. In addition, applicants may apply to and receive funding from either the Young Adult or Teen Community Impact Grant funds  provided (i) the applicant may not submit an application for the same program to multiple grant funds and (ii)  the aggregate funding received from CJP annually in combination with the aggregate monies received from the General, Young Adult or Teen Community Impact Grant fund sources may not total $50,000 or greater.
• Applications must support organizations or projects being carried out within the CJP catchment area
• All applicants must be a public charity with an IRS letter of Determination, have arranged for a fiscal agent, or be a synagogue or other religious organization that is a currently operating house of worship in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
• The GCIG fund awards grants for a one-year period. For Community Enhancement Initiative grants, grantee may apply for a second year of funding for the same project for up to 50% of funds received in the first year. Our goal is for all grantees to move toward a self-sustaining model.
• Grantees will be required to sign a grant agreement and comply with mid-year and end-of-term data and reporting requirements
• Program and publicity materials for your program receiving funding must include the CJP logo (available at cjp.org/logos) and this tagline: This program is supported in part by a grant from Combined Jewish Philanthropies
• For applications involving collaborations between and among organizations, letters of support from all partners must be included
• All grants must demonstrate consideration for program accessibility and participation for individuals with disabilities
• Funding is not available for the following:
• • Requests for capital projects
  • Requests for endowments
  • Requests for scholarships
  • Organizations that currently receive $50,000 or more in funding from CJP. If your organization currently receives $50,000 or more from CJP and you would like to propose program ideas or capacity building, please contact your CJP relationship manager for discussion.

Please note:

• First-time grantees need to provide a current copy of their organization’s W9, 501c3, Mission Statement, and EFT banking instructions
• Organizations that have previously received a grant from CJP are not required to resubmit their W9 and 501c3
• Organizations that have previously received a grant in the form of a check from CJP, please note that we will now require EFT banking instructions to complete the application
   

General Community Impact Grant selection process

• All applications are reviewed by a geographically and demographically diverse committee of volunteer lay leaders who have been trained in the grant review process, and who bring a wide range of skill sets and experiences to the review process

APPLY NOW

Contact

Questions? Contact Beth at betht@cjp.org or Alex at alexg@cjp.org.