The New Jersey Cultural Trust was created in July 2000 as a public/private partnership to help ensure a stable and healthy nonprofit cultural industry in New Jersey that is sustainable even in the toughest of economic times.

The Trust provides grants to support capital projects, endowments and institutional and financial stabilization of arts, history and humanities organizations in New Jersey. Funding for the grants comes from interest earned on the Cultural Trust Fund, which is a permanent investment fund.

The guidelines for the Cultural Trust’s FY26 Institutional and Financial Stabilization Grants for History & Humanities Organizations (IFS History/Humanities) are now available. For FY26, the New Jersey Historical Commission is accepting applications from history and humanities organizations to recommend to the Cultural Trust for funding.

More information about the grant round

To be eligible to apply for any Cultural Trust grant, an organization must first be designated “qualified” by the Cultural Trust. The Cultural Trust will hold a Zoom workshop on qualification on Wednesday, April 23, 2025, at 11 a.m. Participation is free, but registration is required.

• Register for the April 23 workshop.

For more information about qualification, go to the Qualification page.

The mission of the Cultural Trust is to ensure a stable and healthy cultural industry in New Jersey that is sustainable under fluctuating economic conditions through the establishment of permanent, interest-generating funds to be an additional source of revenue to nonprofit arts, history and humanities organizations.

Carol Cronheim, Chair
Bette C. Daniele, Vice Chair
John Paul Nicolaides, Vice Chair for Finance
Claire Knopf, Secretary
Deborah R. Bozarth, Board Member
Tom Carroll, Board Member
S. Nadia Hussain, Board Member
Rabiya S. Kader Esq., Board Member


ex officio members
Tahesha Way, Secretary of State
Elizabeth Maher Muoio, State Treasurer
Felicia Grant, Chair, NJ State Council on the Arts
Peter Lindsay, Chair, NJ Historic Trust
Maxine Lurie, Chair, NJ Historical Commission

General Contact
609-292-6403
cultural.trust@sos.nj.gov

Isabel (Izzy) Kasdin, Executive Director
609-633-0522
isabel.kasdin@sos.nj.gov

Avery Wehrs, Grants and Operations Coordinator
609-777-3657
avery.wehrs@sos.nj.gov