MORRIS COUNTY — The F. M. Kirby Foundation Board of Directors has awarded 249 grants totaling $14,354,050 in 2022 to nonprofit organizations working to foster self-reliance and create strong, healthy communities.
More than half of these organizations have been partners of the Foundation for over 20 years,
in keeping with the foundation’s philosophy of long-term investments in effective programs, Executive Director Justin Kiczek stated.
The foundation’s 2022 grantmaking included increased contributions to nonprofit organizations in the arts and humanities, education, health, and human services, environment and animals, public affairs, and religion, Kiczek added.
More than 100 grants totaling more than $5.2 million were awarded to New Jersey-based nonprofit organizations working to make a direct impact on people’s lives throughout the state, 60 of which, totaling $3.1 million, supported work in Morris County, the foundation’s home county. The organization’s headquarters are in Morristown.
Additional grants totaling over $9 million supported organizations in Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, regions connected to Kirby family members, as well as national nonprofits largely based in Washington, D.C., and New York City.
“The F. M. Kirby Foundation was founded more than 90 years ago by Fred Morgan Kirby, an entrepreneur. The values that led to his success have informed this organization and its grantmaking since its founding,” Kiczek said. “We are proud of the ways in which we supported, in 2022, the entrepreneurs, innovators, and problem-solvers who are fostering strong and healthy communities.
“On a local level, our grantmaking this year supported organizations like Rising Tide Capital, based in Jersey City, in their mission to transform lives and communities through entrepreneurship.
“On the other hand, we continued to promote national and global social entrepreneurship through the F. M. Kirby Prize for Scaling Social Impact, administered by the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. We remain committed to funding the next generation of Fred Morgan Kirbys, who are inspired to use their entrepreneurial vision to tackle the significant challenges of our era.”
Chairwoman of the Board Laura H. Virkler added, “While entrepreneurship has been in our organizational culture for some time, as a family foundation, tradition and long-term partnerships are equally important. Another key value of our foundation is stewardship, the careful cultivation of relationships and resources to pass down to future generations. We embrace stewardship in our relationships with long-term partners, like Cornerstone Family Programs in Morristown, to whom we have provided general operating support since 1965.
“Stewardship also shows up in our environmental grantmaking, where grantees like the Nature Conservancy of the Adirondacks have been working to ensure that we not only have natural, public places for generations but that they are healthy and well-maintained. As a multi-generational family foundation, we are particularly inclined to think about how the careful stewardship of resources will help foster strong and healthy communities now and in the future.”
Endowed in 1931 by Fred Morgan Kirby, one of the founders of the F.W. Woolworth Company, the foundation was designed to continue in perpetuity through generations of the family. Since its inception, the foundation has awarded more than $768 million in grants. Six Kirby family members, currently spanning two generations, serve on the board, as well as two non-family directors.
You can learn more about The F. M. Kirby Foundation by clicking here.
