Four Years Of Planning By Team Of 50 Community Leaders Earns ‘Significant’ New Funding From Ford Foundation
  The goal is to “help make South Jersey the best place to live and give.”
  And the promise of a new “significant six-figure grant” from the Ford Foundation will help launch the new Community Foundation of South Jersey
 toward that goal, according to CFSJ chair Jack Tarditi.
  “Across our region, individuals, families and business leaders dream of making a difference…improving opportunities for children…serving the elderly…protecting the environment and animals…preserving important local institutions…improving health care…and myriad other causes,” says Tarditi’s co-chair Mindy Holman.
  “The Community Foundation of South Jersey is the place to make those dreams reality,” says the Moorestown resident and president of the Holman Enterprises auto empire.
   “We’ve been working for almost the last four years to help people across the region understand exactly what a community foundation is and how this one will work.
  “We’ve recruited a terrific board, had a series of really productive community dialogue sessions across the entire region, and now we’re ready to raise and distribute money,” says Tarditi, the longtime Mayor of Haddonfield and an officer in the insurance firm of Conner Strong.
  “The Ford Foundation has ratified all of this hard work by promising a new multi-year grant that will not only help support our operations but will also provide the funds for our first actual grant-making,” says Tarditi.
  Recently, CFSJ has accelerated its fundraising efforts with successful get-acquainted events for prospective donors in both Gloucester and Burlington Counties that have drawn more than 100 interested individuals.
  Working under the guidance of the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers and funded by two generous initial planning grants from the Ford Foundation, the original 43-member Coordinating Committee selected a Founding Board of Directors that included, in addition to Tarditi and Holman, Dr. Stella Horton, Camden Center for Youth Development, attorney Rob Kugler from Archer & Greiner, Dr. Kim Warker Ayers, City of Millville, Planning/Economic Development.
  Recent additions to the Board have included Jill Lombardo-Melchiore, Reginald Stevenson, Kyle Ruffin, Theresa DiVietro, and the Rev. Floyd White.
  “Our new community foundation will give us the opportunity to manage and distribute charitable funds created by members of our community.  By combining the resources of many, we believe we will be able to do great things that will have a lasting impact on South Jersey”, says Holman.
   “There are six building blocks to our success,” Tarditi adds. “It starts with keeping South Jersey’s philanthropic dollars in South Jersey buy creating a new community ‘savings account.’”
  “With that in place, we have to generate support from people in all walks of life, help those donors create personal legacies, and multiply the impact of their gifts by pooling them with other gifts.
  When we have achieved those five objectives we will be able to use those gifts to build endowment funds that will benefit the community…forever,” explains Tarditi.
  “Community foundations are the fastest growing form of philanthropy in the country,” Holman points out. “Our new regional community foundation has been created to connect our neighbors across Southern New Jersey with those they want to help, “she says. “And every contribution, however large or small, can make a difference.”
  “Our role is to help people achieve important things in the communities they care about,” adds Tarditi. “It’s tempting to think of philanthropy as something only for the wealthy. But the reality is that four out of every five people in this country donate money each year to charity. In New Jersey, our philanthropists aren’t just the wealthy individuals or large corporations and foundations. They are people from all walks of life. And they share a common motive.  They care.”
  “As a community foundation devoted exclusively to meeting the needs of this region, CFSJ will link local people who care with the local causes they care about,” adds Holman.
  The work of CFSJ is being coordinated by the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers, under the direction of its President, Nina Stack.
  “CFSJ is a tax-exempt, nonprofit public charity, created by and for the people of South Jersey to enable people with philanthropic interest to easily and effectively support causes they care about immediately or though their will,” says Stack
  “Donors will be able to establish a charitable fund at the foundation…they can contribute a variety of assets: cash, real estate, jewelry, art, stocks, securities, insurance…and they can recommend grants in their name, to nonprofit groups or causes they support,” adds CNJG and CFSJ consultant Nancy Burd.
  The advantages of giving through CFSJ, according to Stack, include the highest available tax deductions for charitable contributions and its position as an attractive alternative to establishing a private foundation because CFSJ handles record-keeping, IRS reporting, accounting and investment management.
  Donors can create a named fund to create an individual or family legacy, explains Tarditi, who is shifting his family’s foundation from a Philadelphia-based organization to CFSJ.
  Holman adds that “pooled assets yield economies of scale, enabling the Foundation to hire top investment managers, and, she says, a community foundation gives donors the opportunity to be involved in the grant-making process.”
  CFSJ has been created to solicit, manage and grow individual, family and corporate charitable funds, nonprofit agency endowments, and community partnerships, says Archer & Greiner shareholder and founding CFSJ board member Rob Kugler.
  “A primary role of CFSJ is to use its assets—financial and human—to impact significant and positive change in the community. The foundation will lead and convene stakeholders to educate, inform, share knowledge, and be a catalyst for positive change in the eight-county region,” Kugler says.
  “Planned giving is challenging for many nonprofits, adds Jill Lombardo. “CFSJ can help smaller nonprofits offering support and training for their donors in the strategies of planned gifts offered by the community foundation. Community foundations aid the process by facilitating gifts and setting up a fund to benefit the donor’s charity of choice.”
  “In South Jersey, CFSJ can assist nonprofits in identifying untapped charitable resources in communities; determine a local vehicle for collection, local leadership that is known and trusted, and local strategies to address local community issues, Lombardo adds.
  “Remember,” says Tarditi, “four out of five people donate to charity each year. As a community foundation devoted exclusively to meeting needs of this region, CFSJ will link local people to local causes they care about.”