Over the years, The Nicholson Foundation’s focus areas evolved. At our founding in 2002, the Foundation's emphasis was on enhancing family well-being and stability, promoting youth engagement in school and work, and helping individuals successfully transition from incarceration back to the community. We supported one-stop centers that linked these population groups to services and resources. As new opportunities emerged in later years, our priorities shifted, ultimately leading the Foundation to focus its grantmaking on five areas within health and early childhood: primary care, population health, early childhood, professional development, and state government. At the same time, the Foundation’s guiding principles remained essentially the same—systems change, “riding the wave” (searching for opportunities in areas where momentum existed), and sustainability.
These principles were key to developing projects that had substantial impact for vulnerable populations in New Jersey.
To learn more about our work and what we achieved through our grantmaking, we invite you to read the following sections:
CHANGING SYSTEMS, CHANGING LIVES BOOK
On the eve of our closing at the end of 2021, The Nicholson Foundation published the book Changing Systems, Changing Lives: Reflecting on 20 Years and an accompanying website. Both describe our work and contain observations, thoughts, and lessons learned from our years of building effective partnerships, providing technical support, and grantmaking.
STORIES OF OUR IMPACT
The stories in this section illustrate how the Foundation made a difference in distinct areas of health and early childhood, such as boosting the availability of behavioral healthcare in primary care settings, or expanding the role of community health workers to deliver key services to people needing them the most.