If I were a foundation funding senior services in New Jersey, I would study the top 20 funders before reviewing a single proposal.
They control 81% of the capital flow.
Across the last 5 years of available data, the sector recorded roughly $175M in institutional grant funding.
But that capital is highly concentrated:
- The top 5 funders account for ~47% of all ecosystem grant dollars.
- The top 10 account for ~66%.
- The top 20 account for ~81%.
This is within a market that includes 461 funders and 410 funded nonprofits over the same period.
A few examples from the top 10 funders:
Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ: ~$15.3M
The Kaplen Foundation: ~8.6M
FellowshipLIFE: ~8.2M
Most foundations think in terms of individual grants, but ecosystems behave based on aggregate capital flow.
When funding is concentrated:
- Strategic shifts by a small number of actors ripple across the system.
- Renewal decisions reinforce long-term structural patterns.
- Smaller funders tend to align with dominant capital flows rather than counterbalance them.
- System stability becomes more sensitive to major allocators’ decisions.
None of this is inherently good or bad. It's structural.
And structural patterns are hard to see when you only look at your own grants.
If you fund aging services in New Jersey, your decisions sit inside a concentrated capital core.
Clarity about that position changes how your portfolio strategy is designed.
This analysis comes from the NJ Philanthropy hub, built with the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers and New Jersey Center for Nonprofits. The senior services ecosystem was added because their members asked for it.
Click here to see a full report on New Jersey's senior services ecosystem.