Support Arts Education and Give Local this Holiday Season!

 Princeton, N.J. Nov. 25, 2014 – Year-end giving to Young Audiences New Jersey & Eastern Pennsylvania (YA) just got simpler with the debut of this year’s Jersey Give Back Guide, an online giving portal designed to showcase and support New Jersey’s most effective and respected nonprofits.

Using the Jersey Give Back Guide’s online Generosity Generator, individuals can choose from four categories — Arts, Community, Environment and Newark — to learn about this year’s 22 recommended nonprofits, find one or more that match their passions, and quickly and easily support them. All donations go directly to the organizations.

YA believes that every child deserves an education rich in arts learning that nurtures creativity, promotes cultural awareness, and helps children develop critical thinking and 21st century learning skills. Each year YA’s professional teaching artists advance the education of over 400,000 children, pre-k to 12th grade with workshops, residencies, assembly programs, field trips, family arts festivals and teacher professional development. YA serves over 700 schools across the state offering programs in every artform – visual, dance, music, theatre, digital media and language arts. Donations from the Generosity Generator will help YA reach more classrooms and children and enrich the cultural life of New Jersey’s communities.

Larry Capo, President & CEO of Young Audiences said, “We are honored to partner with the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation on the Jersey Give Back Guide this year. It is a wonderful opportunity for the New Jersey community to come together and support arts education and to give local.”

The Jersey Give Back Guide is a seasonal project of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation produced in partnership with the Victoria Foundation, Community Foundation of New Jersey, and the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers.

The featured nonprofits were chosen based on several criteria, including how innovative, collaborative, and financially healthy they are as organizations, as well as how deeply and effectively they engage their communities. All have excellent reputations for their work and reflect the programmatic and geographic diversity of the nonprofit sector in New Jersey.

This is the second year of the Jersey Give Back Guide, which will be available through mid-January. In 2013, more than 500 generous people donated $30,000 to the 15 nonprofit organizations featured in last year’s Jersey Give Back Guide.

“The Jersey Give Back Guide makes it easy for everyone to be a philanthropist,” said Chris Daggett, President & CEO of the Dodge Foundation. “The organizations featured in this year’s guide are some of the most effective in New Jersey, working tirelessly to make their communities stronger, more vibrant places to live and work. They need your help at this time of the year. With the Jersey Give Back Guide, it couldn’t be any easier to do so.”

The Jersey Give Back Guide is sponsored by media partners NJ Advance Media and NJ Monthly magazine.

Learn more about the Jersey Give Back Guide and the featured organizations at www.JerseyGiveBackGuide.org. 

About Young Audiences - Founded in 1973, Young Audiences New Jersey & Eastern Pennsylvania is the premiere arts-in-education resource in the region, providing high-quality performances and artist-in-residence programs to nearly 500,000 children pre-kindergarten through 12th grade annually. Young Audiences’ extensive professional artist roster represents all art forms—from dance and theater to music, language and visual arts.

Young Audiences’ programs are accessible to all socio-economic, ethnic, cultural, and geographic communities, and are designed to strengthen the arts in schools, meet local and state curriculum standards, involve families in arts activities, and enrich cultural life in New Jersey and Pennsylvania communities. 

Young Audiences New Jersey & Pennsylvania is the first arts education organization designated as a major service organization by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and, as part of the national network of Young Audiences, Inc. was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton. Young Audiences provides over 4,000 programs annually and are made possible in part through a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State and Pennsylvania Council of the Arts. Additional funds come from the National Endowment for the Arts, foundations, corporations and generous individuals.

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