Blue Foundry Charitable Foundation Inc.

Blue Foundry Charitable Foundation is the corporate giving vehicle of Blue Foundry Bank (Rutherford, NJ), converted with an initial $9M contribution in 2021 and now holding roughly $7.25M in assets. This is a small, disciplined corporate foundation, not a large program-driven grantmaker — its entire grantmaking universe runs through four named pillars: Education, Health and Human Services, Affordable Housing, and Youth Programs, and every eligible applicant must both fit a pillar and operate within Blue Foundry Bank's NJ service footprint (heavily Bergen, Passaic, Morris, Essex, Union, and Hudson counties, based on the grantee roster). First-time applicants should treat this as a relationship-first funder: the foundation's own instructions ask for a written request rather than a formal RFP response, evidence of 501(c)(3) status, board/officer lists, and financial statements — closer to a due-diligence packet than a competitive proposal. The relationship progression is simple and largely one-tiered: submit a letter of inquiry (window January 15 - March 1), follow with a full application (accepted through May 1), and expect the foundation's stated review timeline of up to 11 months before a decision — unusually long for grant sizes this small, so patience and a habit of asking for status updates via info@bluefoundrycharitablefoundation.org are essential. There is no evidence of site visits in available materials; awards appear to be board-decided based on the written packet and existing bank relationships. Of the 328 grants in the platform's grantee history, Health and Human Services dominates by grant count, with Education, Affordable Housing, and Youth Programs filling out the remainder — a strong signal that direct-service, safety-net nonprofits (food banks, family service bureaus, medical initiatives) are favored over policy, advocacy, or capital-campaign asks. Recurring multi-year grantees (Felician University, Cornerstone Family Programs, the Summit Medical Group Foundation) suggest the foundation values continuity and will re-fund organizations that report well and stay visibly active in Blue Foundry Bank's branch communities. First-time applicants with no prior bank relationship should not expect an award above the low five figures regardless of program scale.

The foundation's own typical-grant-size data puts awards between $2,500 and $5,000 (median $5,000, average $4,886, n=22), while the platform's broader 328-grant dataset shows a wider effective range — $100 to $200,000 lifetime cumulative-per-recipient, with an average single grant of $4,843 and total historical giving of $1,588,361, all concentrated in New Jersey (328 of 328 grants). The largest single relationship on record is Cornerstone Family Programs at $200,000 across two grants (Health and Human Services), followed by Women's Rights Information Center ($60,000/3 grants) and Nutley Family Service Bureau ($52,000/2 grants) — evidence that a small set of trusted, recurring partners absorb a disproportionate share of total dollars even though the typical single check is $5,000-$20,000. By purpose, Health and Human Services is the clear plurality across the top-50 grantee list (roughly 30 of 50 entries), Education and Affordable Housing each account for a handful of six-figure-adjacent relationships, and Youth Programs rounds out the remainder at generally smaller ($10,000-$20,000) grant sizes. IRS filings show total giving swinging year to year: $127,690 in FY2021 (the foundation's first full year, funded by a $9M contribution from the bank's 2021 stock conversion), $655,788 in FY2022, $500,945 in FY2023, and total assets declining from $12.3M (2021) to $7.25M (2024) as the foundation pays out faster than it earns investment income — total revenue was just $9,885 in FY2024 against $9,000 in 2021's initial funding year. Web-sourced 2025 quarterly totals ($20,000 Q1, $63,750 Q2, ~$65,000 Q3) annualize to roughly $180,000-$210,000 for 2025, consistent with the foundation's historical $120K-$650K giving band and suggesting FY2025 giving lands closer to the lower end of that range. Geographic concentration is total: 100% of tracked grants go to New Jersey nonprofits, and almost all identifiable recipients sit in Bergen, Passaic, Morris, Essex, Union, or Hudson counties — the core Blue Foundry Bank branch network.

Blue Foundry sits in an asset tier nearly identical to its five closest peers (all clustered at $7.2M-$7.26M in total assets), but it stands apart operationally: it is the only one in this peer set with a bank-sponsored origin, a published open application process, a defined public website with eligibility criteria, and a documented multi-year grant history spanning 328 individual awards. Most family foundations of this size operate by invitation or personal board relationships with little to no public application infrastructure, which makes Blue Foundry meaningfully more accessible to a cold applicant than a typical peer at the same asset level — but its narrow four-pillar, NJ-only mandate means it will reject strong applications instantly on geography or focus-area mismatch, whereas an invitation-only family foundation might be reachable through a personal introduction regardless of formal criteria.

The most recent confirmed activity is the Q3 2025 distribution announced 2025-11-14: nearly $65,000 across 11 nonprofits, including United Way of Bergen County, Bergen CASA, Women's Center for Entrepreneurship, Boys & Girls Clubs of Union County, NewBridge Services, United Passaic Organization, Ramapo College Foundation, Girls on the Run NJ East, MarbleJam Kids, Homeless Solutions Inc., and Mahwah Environmental Volunteers Organization — the coverage frames these as organizations that 'strengthen community resilience.' That followed a Q2 2025 award of $63,750 to nine organizations (announced via the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers) and a Q1 2025 award of $20,000 to six organizations (2025-03-28, ROI-NJ). Looking back one year, Q3 2024 saw a notably larger $124,000 distributed to 13 organizations (Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative, Habitat for Humanity, Interfaith Food Pantry, Horizons Newark, Women's Center for Entrepreneurship, P.G. Chambers School, Kate's Way, Rebuilding Together New Jersey, The Hoboken Shelter, Bergen County CASA, Eva's Village, Joan Angela D'Alessandro Memorial Foundation, and Women's Rights Information Center), with foundation leader James D. Nesci (President & CEO, Blue Foundry Bank) quoted describing the grants as 'focused community investment.' The foundation's IRS-registered officers — Patrice Picard (President), James Nesci (Vice President), Kenneth Grimbilas (VP and Treasurer), and J. Christopher Ely (Secretary) — all draw zero reported compensation from the foundation, consistent with a bank-staffed, low-overhead structure rather than a professionally staffed grantmaking shop. No 2026 grant announcements or leadership changes were found in available web coverage as of this report.

Time the inquiry to the published window: letters of inquiry are accepted January 15 through March 1, with full applications due by May 1 — missing this window likely pushes a request into the following cycle given the foundation's stated up-to-11-month review timeline. Submit through the foundation's own portal at bluefoundrycharitablefoundation.org/grant/ rather than a generic proposal PDF; the foundation's instructions describe a structured written-request format (purpose/goals, target area, 501(c)(3) evidence, board/officer list, financials, funding sources, total budget) rather than a narrative grant application, so organize the submission under those exact headers. Name the pillar explicitly and early — proposals that force reviewers to infer whether the work is 'Education,' 'Health and Human Services,' 'Affordable Housing,' or 'Youth Programs' are working against the foundation's own screening criteria. Confirm and state directly that the organization operates in a community Blue Foundry Bank serves (Bergen, Passaic, Morris, Essex, Union, Hudson counties feature most heavily in the grantee history) — this is a hard eligibility filter, not a soft preference. Calibrate the ask to $2,500-$7,500 for a first-time request; the platform's typical-grant data (median $5,000) and the foundation's own $1,000-$7,500 stated award range make requests above $10,000 a mismatch unless the organization already has a multi-year track record with the foundation (as Cornerstone Family Programs and the Women's Rights Information Center do). A common mistake to avoid: treating this like a competitive RFP with elaborate budgets and outcome frameworks — the foundation's public materials suggest a lighter-touch, relationship-and-trust model more typical of a community bank's corporate giving program than an institutional foundation. Build the relationship outside the formal cycle too: the foundation publicizes its Community Impact Program (employee volunteering, e.g., assembling school-supply backpacks with the Women's Rights Information Center), so organizations that create volunteer opportunities for bank staff may build goodwill ahead of a formal ask. For any procedural questions, email info@bluefoundrycharitablefoundation.org directly rather than guessing — the foundation explicitly invites this.