The Lawrence Township Community Foundation is making emergency grants available to area nonprofit organizations affected by the Covid-19 crisis.
Local nonprofits can access a special application form, available now on the LTCF website. Organizations submitting these urgent proposals must be registered nonprofits, and directly serve people living in Lawrence Township. The grants will be awarded in early May.
To make this possible, the LCTF decided to table proposals submitted for their spring grants and consider them in the fall grant cycle, when the LCTF board hopes that programs can begin to be held as usual. Nonprofits that submitted grants for this spring will not need to take any action to have their proposals considered in the fall.
The LCTF is also making 4 special grants totaling $20,000 to HomeFront, Arm in Arm, Mercer Street Friends and Trenton Area Soup Kitchen to support their efforts to help local families during the Covid-19 health crisis. The grants were made possible by a gift from Bristol-Myers Squibb to the LCTF.
The LCTF says BMS gave the gift to help it support local nonprofits during the pandemic. The all-volunteer board of LTCF met last week via Zoom to choose how the special emergency funds should be used.
LTCF president Rachel Cantlay says LTCF is grateful to BMS for the special grant and wants to do more. During the same meeting, board members agreed to respond as quickly as possible to the emerging needs of local nonprofits serving Lawrence residents.
To help address these problems, the board unanimously decided to use grant funds earmarked for usual distribution in May for special emergency grants. These grants will be offered to nonprofits to help them meet needs of township residents created by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Lawrence Township Community Foundation has been providing grants to local nonprofits
for more than 15 years. The group is supported by two major sponsors, The Lawrenceville School and Educational Testing Service, in addition to BMS.
In recent years, donations from township individuals have been providing additional funds to LTCF, adding to funds available for grants to local nonprofits. Anyone wishing to help LTCF with the COVID-19 special grants or its ongoing support to local nonprofits, can donate by visiting the LTCF website or checking out the LCTF Facebook page.
