The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation in Morristown, New Jersey, has announced a hundred and thirty-four grants totaling more than $4 million to nonprofits engaged in COVID-19 relief and response efforts, as well as organizations working to improve and/or advance the arts, education, the environment, and community development in the state.

COVID-related grants announced by the foundation include a total of $600,000 to five pooled funds in support of relief efforts that fall outside the foundation's focus areas. The total includes awards of $300,000 to the Community Foundation of New Jersey in support of the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund; $100,000 to the United Way of Greater Newark in support of its COVID-19 Community Response Fund: $100,000 to the Community Foundation of South Jersey for the South Jersey Response Fund; $75,000 to the Princeton Area Community Foundation in support of its COVID-19 Fund; and $25,000 to Dance/NYC in support of the Coronavirus Dance Relief Fund. In addition, the foundation awarded $400,000 in rapid response grants to help fifty-six organizations stabilize their operations, adapt their programming to a post-COVID world, and respond to community needs.

The foundation also awarded thirty-six grants totaling more than $1 million in support of the arts, twelve grants totaling $387,500 in support of education initiatives, twenty-three grants totaling more than $1 million in support of environmental organizations, three grants totaling $125,000 to organizations working to inform communities, and nine grants totaling $360,000 in support of other issue-related activities.

"With crisis comes risk and opportunity, and since the realities of the COVID-19 public health crisis have unfolded, Dodge has been focused on opportunity," said Dodge Foundation president and CEO Tanuja Dehne. "We have the opportunity to act swiftly and decisively to provide immediate funding for COVID-19-specific relief, to stabilize the nonprofit sectors and systems we helped build, to shape the recovery and close the widening gap of social disparities that this pandemic has shined a glaring light on."

For a complete list of the foundation’s first-quarter grants, see the Dodge Foundation website.

(Photo credit: Roxey Ballet)