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August 20, 2025
Dear Friends,
August is a special month for New Jersey Future and for nonprofits everywhere. On August 17, we celebrated National Nonprofit Day, a time to reflect on the impact organizations like ours have in shaping more sustainable and thriving communities. Your support fuels the work that ensures every New Jersey community has clean water, vibrant public spaces, efficient transportation, and economic opportunity for all.
As summer continues, it’s also the perfect time to soak in all that New Jersey has to offer, whether it’s relaxing along our beautiful beaches, exploring scenic trails, or taking in the views from our mountains. These special places are part of what makes our state such a vibrant place to live. That’s why protecting and enhancing them through thoughtful planning and smarter growth is so important, for today and for generations to come.
This month, we also want to recognize our 2025 Smart Growth Award winners and our Leadership Honoree, Adenah Bayoh, whose vision and commitment inspire us all. We look forward to honoring them at our Smart Growth Awards on October 9, a celebration of innovation, leadership, and the partnerships that move New Jersey forward.
As we mark National Nonprofit Day, I invite you to invest in this work and stand with us in creating a future where every community can thrive. Thank you for being part of this journey.
Late in the decade of the 2000s, around the time of the Great Recession, New Jersey’s population growth pattern underwent a major shift. After more than five decades of suburbanization, in which most population and employment growth happened on undeveloped land on the urban fringe while most of the state’s urban centers and compact, walkable first-generation suburbs stagnated or lost population, the state’s older centers began growing once again around 2007 or 2008. This new demand for in-town living appeared to be driven largely by the preferences of the Millennial generation, who were rejecting the car-dependent suburbs of their parents’ generation. Read more.
The results are in! The Smart Growth Award winners have been announced, so now it’s time to celebrate. Join us for an unforgettable evening toasting to excellence, innovation, and the inspiring projects impacting communities from West Orange to Camden. The Smart Growth Awards will be held on October 9 from 5:30-8:30 at the South Orange Performing Arts Center, bringing together changemakers for a night of recognition, connection, and storytelling.
🎬 We’re currently working on exclusive video features that will highlight the importance of each winning project to their community and New Jersey. These powerful stories will premiere at the event!
🥂 Come raise a glass and connect with the incredible individuals and teams who are making a difference across the Garden State. This is a special networking opportunity for architects, engineers, developers, government officials, community leaders, and more to learn how solutions are being implemented to make our communities more livable!
As we approach a crucial juncture in New Jersey’s political landscape, New Jersey Future is dedicated to protecting our natural resources, expanding transportation choices, and ensuring access to affordable and inclusive neighborhoods. Our core belief is that a thriving New Jersey is for every resident.
We encourage every candidate and voter to explore the following ideas and envision the potential when we prioritize smart land use, comprehensive planning, and sustainable growth. The choices we make today will have a lasting impact on generations to come.
🏡Rethink Housing: Building Great Homes and Neighborhoods 🚆Expand Transportation Choice: Making it Easier, Cheaper, Safer and Healthier to Get Around 🚰Invest in Water Infrastructure: Building the Foundation for Sustainable Growth ⚖ Plan Smarter: Saving Money and Using Our Limited Supply of Land Wisely 🌊Adapt to Natural Hazards: Protecting People While Using Taxpayer Dollars Sensibly 🌱Elevate Health: Upgrading Communities to Improve Health Outcomes
How Can You Identify and Replace Outdated Lead Service Lines?
On Tuesday, July 29th, New Jersey Future and the Atlantic County Municipal Utility Authority (ACMUA) knocked on doors in Bungalow Park to share information about the Lead Service Line Replacement (LSLR) Program. The program consists of a series of actions that the ACMUA is undertaking to address lead and galvanized service lines (pipes) in the drinking water utility system. The program also aims to educate the public on actions they can take to reduce their exposure to lead in drinking water.
New Jersey Future’s Funding Navigator team has developed expertise in supporting water systems and municipal leaders in navigating the complexities of LSLR funding, outreach, and communication. Meanwhile, the Jersey Water Works Lead Service Line Implementation Work Group and Lead-Free New Jersey address the technical and logistical aspects of LSLR. Effective communication and community outreach are critical aspects of a successful LSLR program. These key strategies can improve participation rates and build customer trust.
Legislative Updates
The Lead Disclosure Bill passed the full legislature with enormous bipartisan support! The fight isn't over yet, and with so many priorities, we must make sure this critical legislation gets the attention it deserves. You can protect New Jerseyans across the state by telling Governor Murphy to sign bill S1034/A2929 into law – ensuring that New Jerseyans are protected from the dangers of lead pollution!
Coming Up
October 9: The 2025 New Jersey Future Smart Growth Awards will be hosted at the South Orange Performing Arts Center. Join us to celebrate excellence in redevelopment and network with changemakers from across the Garden State. Register today!
December 11: Mark your calendars! Jersey Water Works will host its annual conference, bringing together experts and stakeholders to collaborate on improving water infrastructure and stormwater management. You could be part of the program! Call for session submissions is now open through September 5. Submit today.
Smart Growth for Everyone
Smart Growth is equitable growth. It is also restorative, as smart growth and redevelopment can help correct systemic racial and economic disparities. As New Jersey Future drives land use decision-making toward more equitable outcomes, we will be sharing useful resources and lessons in this monthly spotlight. Please give us your feedback and share with us any particularly insightful articles, talks, events, or videos that you come across.
This month marked National Nonprofit Day! This is a time to recognize the work nonprofits do to strengthen communities, uplift voices, and drive meaningful change. During a time of increased cuts to public resources, it’s more important than ever to rally together in support of the causes we care about.
New Jersey Future is a mission-driven organization and celebrates its many fellow nonprofit partners, and the people behind them, who dedicate their time, talent, and passion to making the world a better place. NJF is grateful to have a committed team of nonprofit professionals, which includes program experts, researchers, community outreach specialists, administrators, and communicators. Plus, our interns represent the next generation of inspiring leaders.
We could not be working for more livable communities without you! Whether you're a donor, volunteer, partner, or advocate, thank you for being part of our movement to build a better future for all New Jerseyans. Together, we’re making a lasting impact.
Take a look back at our behind-the-scenes reel to meet just some of the people who keep a nonprofit office like NJF running!
Have you tried buying a home in New Jersey recently? Hear from Laurel, who served as a Social Impact Fellow at New Jersey Future, on how Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) can be a tool hiding right in our backyards to help address housing supply and affordability.
Interested in keeping up to date on how we're tackling New Jersey's housing crisis? Follow the Great Homes and Neighborhoods for All initiative on their newly launched profiles!
NJF, The Watershed Institute, and WSP partnered to provide municipalities with updated guidance suited for today’s climate threats. The Enhanced Plan modernizes NJDEP’s 2004 model plan and reflects the latest regulatory updates, including compliance with pending updates to the Stormwater Rule through NJDEP’s Resilient Environments and Landscapes (REAL) rules.
NJF partnered with Princeton Hydro to create a New Jersey Stormwater Retrofit Best Management Practices Guide. This guide provides municipalities, counties, nonprofit organizations, developers, and property owners the tools to identify opportunities to retrofit existing stormwater BMPs and install new stormwater BMPs in built-out environments.
Guide to Local Climate Change Adaptation Planning Working with the NJDEP, Sustainable Jersey, and statewide partners, NJF led development of the Guide to Local Climate Change Adaptation Planning, providing a model Climate Change-Related Hazard Vulnerability Assessment (CCRHVA) and planning process for New Jersey Municipalities that satisfies the requirements of the 2021 MLUL amendment.
New Jersey Future is a member of The Circuit Trails Coalition and collaborated on the new report, Moving the Circuit Forward. This is a plan to get us where we need to go—making it safer and easier for people to move in their communities at a human speed. Connecting with each other. Connecting with nature. And connecting to the places they need to go.
Founded in 1987, New Jersey Future is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes sensible and equitable growth, redevelopment, and infrastructure investments to foster healthy, strong, resilient communities; protect natural lands and waterways; increase transportation choices beyond cars; provide access to safe, affordable, and aging-friendly neighborhoods; and fuel a strong economy for everyone. New Jersey Future does this through original research, innovative policy development, coalition-building, advocacy, and hands-on strategic assistance. Embracing differences and advancing fairness is central to New Jersey Future’s mission and operations. New Jersey Future is firmly committed to pursuing greater justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion through its programs, internal operations, and external communications.
