Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

At the Center for Whole Communities‘ Knoll Farm in Vermont this summer, Environment Program Director Michelle Knapik joined a group of New Jersey leaders interested in food-people-land connections to explore the fundamentals of building relationships in order to establish and develop a community food system “movement.” This is the third in our series of Environment Stories as told by our Program Staff.

Silos and Spoons

There were yurts, fire circles, and outdoor showers. There were the shimmering night skies of Vermont, the late August warmth of Knoll Farm, and the Center for Whole Communities faculty. Enter a stakeholder group from New Jersey comprised of farmers, soil scientists, state and federal government specialists, land preservation experts, organic and sustainable farming experts, a restaurant owner, land trust experts, urban gardening experts, and a Dodge Foundation representative. The Foundation’s purpose in convening this diverse group was to help participants explore the connections between agricultural preservation and a New Jersey (or regional) community food system that can address issues of food access, equity and security.

(more…)

Continuing our series of Environment Stories, this next post is from Education Program Director Ross Danis, whose visit with the folks at the Pinelands Preservation Alliance reminded him how important it is to be passionate about your work.

Planting the Seeds of Change

Sometimes chance encounters during our site visits to grantees and prospective grantees leave an indelible impression. Recently I visited with the folks at the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, and on the way back to my car, I met a staff botanist whose wonderful story of his work touched me at an unexpected moment.

(more…)

The Program staff at Dodge spend most of their days criss-crossing the state to meet with nonprofit groups and leaders. Naturally, they hear many inspiring stories, most of which aren’t publicly shared, despite deserving public recognition. The Dodge blog offers us the best opportunity yet to share these stories with you in a timely way.

As we are currently reviewing environment proposals, here’s an attempt to shine some (richly-deserved) light on the people and organizations making a difference in New Jersey’s environmental community. Our first story comes from President and CEO David Grant, who took an eye-opening bike ride with the folks of the East Coast Greenway Alliance.

Biking the East Coast Greenway

On a beautiful October Sunday, my wife Nancy and I biked eleven or twelve miles along the East Coast Greenway through Union County, then retraced our steps back to the Rahway train station, where we had left our car. It was a revelation.

Those of us who spend too much time stewing in our cars on New Jersey roads – which includes most of us who live here – might be forgiven for thinking it would be even harder to get around by bicycle. But we should all know about an ambitious vision to create what some have called a “sister Appalachian Trail,” a 3,000 mile walking and biking trail system through urban and suburban centers the length of the East Coast. Over 30 million people live along or near its route. (more…)

It has often been noted that those of us who work at foundations never tell a bad joke, let alone hear direct criticism of our work or our methods. In an effort to provide foundations with constructive feedback on their strengths and weaknesses, The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) has surveyed grantees of several hundred foundations and reported back to those foundations on how they are perceived relative to their peers on a wide range of measures. The Trustees of the Dodge Foundation commissioned a Grantee Perception Report last spring, and two representatives from CEP presented the findings to them at their Trustee Retreat in September.

(more…)

Clouds on the Ground by Amy Evans

Since 1992, the Dodge Foundation has awarded Visual Artist grants to New Jersey public school art teachers and supervisors, providing them with the opportunity to spend a summer rejuvenating themselves as artists as well as the opportunity to join a network of accomplished artist/educators with similar aspirations and professional concerns.

We are currently accepting applications for Visual Artist/Educator awards for the summer of 2009. You can get the complete application instructions here.  And while you’re at it, check out the a gallery of our Visual Artists’ work here. The deadline for applications is January 30, 2009.