The West Windsor Community Foundation is now in business.
By: Jill Matthews
WEST WINDSOR With funding to help move along the creation of a township arts center among the first projects it will consider, the West Windsor Community Foundation formally announced Monday that it is in business and ready to serve the community.
The foundation is a nonprofit group that plans to seek grant proposals for events, projects and community-service programs that promote making the township a better place to live.
"I think that local government is able to provide for a lot of the absolute needs of the citizens of the community, but we felt there was also an opportunity to satisfy some of the wants of the community that budget restraints wouldn’t be able to take care of," said Howard Alter, president of the foundation board.
The arts center project, he said, is the type of project the foundation would like to help fund because it would benefit the entire community.
The West Windsor Arts Council, a nonprofit group that sponsors culturally and artistically diverse events and is an outgrowth of the Arts Center Formation Task Force, hopes to convert the township-owned Princeton Junction firehouse on Alexander Road into a community arts center.
In July, the township awarded a bid of just under $110,000 for landscaping improvements at the building.
Providing money for the arts center is just one of many programs the foundation will consider supporting. Others include funding a community-service award and a scholarship grant, among other things.
The committee is still refining its procedures for receiving applications and reviewing them, but the committee is ready to entertain a variety of grant proposals, said Mr. Alter. He added that the foundation has not yet established a yearly fund-raising goal and will have a better sense of how much it may expect to raise from area businesses and groups as times goes on.
"I think the goal over the next five years is to really be in a position to have funds available to help … a wide array of worthy projects for the citizens of West Windsor," he said.
With $50,000 already in the bank thanks to a generous donation from Tyco International Ltd., which is based in West Windsor the foundation is off to a solid start.
Tyco moved its executive offices from New York City to West Windsor about a year ago and announced it wants to become an active member of the community.
"The cultural diversity of West Windsor was an important factor to help Tyco decide to bring our U.S. headquarters to this area," said Stephanie Wolcott, manager of corporate citizenship for the company. "Our donation to the West Windsor Community Foundation reflects our commitment to being a vital part of this vibrant community."
The idea for the foundation was born after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, when many members of the West Windsor community called the township to find out how they could donate funds to the families of the victims, said Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh. After checking with the township financial officer, he found the township could not accept money directly.
"We decided we need to have a nonprofit organization to facilitate that type of thing for the community," he said. "This is something I thought would be a good vehicle to facilitate donations."
The mayor said he will donate fees he collects from officiating weddings to the foundation.
A 14-member board of trustees, comprising a broad spectrum of township residents and business leaders, runs the foundation.