The Nicholson Foundation Announces Spend Down, Close at End of 2021

The Nicholson Foundation is announcing that it has determined the timeline for fulfilling its plan to spend down.  The Foundation will commit to its last grants through the middle of 2020, see them through over the following year, and close its office at the end of 2021. 

Since beginning operations in 2002, the Foundation has worked to improve human- and social-service delivery systems for vulnerable populations in New Jersey.  By the time it closes, the Foundation will have granted nearly $137 million for project support and more than $13 million providing direct technical assistance to grantees. 

The formal decision to spend down was made a number of years ago as the Foundation grew encouraged about its work and felt increasingly impatient about improving services meant to help people.  Below, watch the video of Jan Nicholson, President of The Nicholson Foundation, announcing the close and offering an early thank-you to our many partners.

The Nicholson Foundation’s work touches every corner of New Jersey through its focus on making systems-wide reforms to the state’s early child care system and healthcare safety net.  Because The Nicholson Foundation sought to make sustainable change by partnering with government, many of the initiatives it led are now permanent fixtures in New Jersey. Among the broad systems changes the Foundation shepherded in New Jersey:

• Family Success Centers. The Foundation brought a model of “one-stop shop” support for families, called Family Success Centers, to New Jersey. There are now more than 50 centers throughout the state supported by the Department of Children and Families.
• Behavioral Health Integration. The Foundation brought a model of integrating behavioral healthcare into primary care settings to New Jersey; embedded the model in several healthcare organizations across the state; and led efforts to surmount regulatory, legal, and fiscal barriers to integrating care.
• Medicaid Reform. New Jersey’s Medicaid program serves one out of every five state residents, and covers half of all births. The Nicholson Foundation drove wide-ranging improvements to the system by sponsoring the Medicaid 2.0 report and Medicaid Policy Center. It also sponsored the Medicaid Academy to train State employees on best practices for administering the Medicaid system.
• Early Childhood Care Quality Improvement. The Foundation helped support the launch of the first-ever statewide rating system for child care providers in New Jersey, Grow NJ Kids, and led efforts to tie reimbursement to a center’s quality.
• Community Health Coalitions. The Foundation supported the early growth of community-based health coalitions including the Camden Coalition and Trenton Health Team. These coalitions bring together local stakeholders to improve the overall health of their communities.