Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Leaves Morristown For Newark

MORRISTOWN, NJ — After years in Morristown, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation is transferring its headquarters to Newark, saying it wants to be in a place that embodies its social justice mission.

The organization, named after Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge, the youngest child of Almira Geraldine Goodsell and William Avery Rockefeller, Jr., has helped build arts, education, environment, and local journalism ecosystems across New Jersey.

The foundation was established in Morristown in 1974 as a result of an $85 million donation from the Rockefeller family heiress. Over its history, the Dodge Foundation has distributed more than $500 million in grants and technical support to New Jersey nonprofits.

The nonprofit organization, which will be celebrating its 50th anniversary next year, announced the move from its downtown Morristown office on Maple Avenue, where it has operated for the past 15 years, earlier this week.

The organization will relocate to 550 Broad Street in downtown Newark.

Before departing Morristown, and to continue to honor the legacy of Dodge and the Foundation’s long-term commitment to the Morristown area, the group stated that it will keep its ties to Morris County by creating a new grantmaking fund, The Fund for a Just and Equitable Morris County, at the Community Foundation of New Jersey in Morristown.

Over the next three years, the fund will provide $500,000 to organizations in the county that intentionally serve and support historically underrepresented communities in Morris County.

"Over the past few years, the Dodge Foundation has undergone a strategic transformation to center its work and funding priorities toward a vision of a just and equitable New Jersey. As part of aligning its operations with this new vision, the Dodge Foundation decided to relocate its headquarters to Newark in order to better engage with and learn from one of the communities where it already had numerous partners and where there is an active and shared commitment to dismantling systemic inequities," the foundation said in a statement.

The relocation will occur in 2024, bringing 15 employees to the historic 550 Broad Street building, which will sit across from the revitalized Harriet Tubman Square that "inspires the continued efforts towards racial justice."