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45 Jersey groups receive Dodge grants Foundation looks to control rapid growth by preserving land and improving planning Wednesday, December 24, 2003 The Morristown-based Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, one of the nation's premier private financiers of conservation organizations, announced yesterday it was awarding $5.5 million in grants to 71 green groups in the Northeast, 45 of which are in New Jersey. Much of the money went to combating the rapid growth New Jersey is so famous for, with $1.4 million going to groups that buy open space and $1.4 million to groups that focus on municipal planning. "New Jersey's ecosystems are particularly burdened by the millions of people that use them," Robert Perry, who directs the foundation's grant-making, said in a statement. The Pennington-based Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association received the largest grant, winning $275,000 to continue helping towns improve their planning and zoning. The Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions received $250,000, which it in turn will dole out as smart-growth planning grants to towns in the Pine Barrens, the Highlands and the Delaware Bayshore. Two grants were media-minded: the Caucus Educational Corp. got $60,000 to produce three half-hour public television shows on environmentally friendly school designs, and New Jersey Network received $125,000 for environmental coverage and documentaries. The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation was founded in 1974 with the
fortune of the late Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge, daughter of William
and Almira Rockefeller. Its mission is to "support and encourage
those educational, cultural, social and environmental values that
contribute to making our society more humane and our world more
livable." In yesterday's grant cycle, the New Jersey Conservation
Foundation received $200,000 and the Pinelands Preservation Alliance
received $180,000. Conservation Resources Inc. of Mendham, the new
consulting company founded by former Nature Conservancy of New Jersey
Executive Director Michael Catania, got $30,000 in start-up costs.
The New Jersey Public Interest Research Group got $60,000 to educate
politicians on the harm of sprawl. Partners for Environmental Quality,
based in Trenton, received $35,000 for Lighting the Way, a project
designed to demonstrate how houses of worship can use solar energy
and other renewable sources. The South Orange-Maplewood Community
Coalition on Race received $30,000 for initiatives designed to achieve
racial balance in the two municipalities. |
