Creative New Jersey brings people together to find creative solutions to community problems. A statewide initiative launched by the Dodge Foundation, Creative NJ is dedicated to fostering creativity and collaboration throughout New Jersey. Creative NJ has held 16 convenings since 2011, working with 152 partnering organizations and more than 1,000 participants in communities ranging from Atlantic City and Trenton to Rahway and Sandy-ravaged Highlands. From these Calls to Collaboration, new partnerships are flourishing and creative ideas are taking hold. Creative New Jersey believes deeply that the only way to meet today’s complex challenges is by solving them together, with people from all fields and backgrounds. Your donation today will support their video project, so they can champion the creativity and innovative collaborations of New Jersey’s citizens! Connect via Twitter @creativenj

Journalism needs community support, and communities need the support of local journalists. That simple idea drives Free Press’ News Voices: New Jersey project. Free Press has helped lead the fight to protect the free and open Internet — we have their mobilizing work to thank for Net Neutrality — and is working to revitalize quality local journalism right here in the Garden State. Free Press is hosting forums in cities around New Jersey to help close information gaps and help newsrooms and communities collaborate on newsgathering. Free Press envisions a world where people have the information and opportunities they need to tell their own stories, hold leaders accountable, and participate in policymaking. You can help make this vision real in your community by supporting their work today. Connect via Twitter @freepress.

At the Community Soup Kitchen and Outreach Center in Morristown, a warm bowl of soup is more than just a meal. It is a lifeline. Even in this wealthy community, more than a quarter of households struggle to put food on their table and meet basic needs. The Soup Kitchen’s friendly, dedicated staff and volunteers provide healthy food, a dose of hospitality and comfort to anyone who walks through their doors – no questions asked. They also connect individuals in need with community resources and services, like mental health counseling, substance abuse help and job training. And in 30 years, the Soup Kitchen has never missed a day. Because they are always there when the community needs them most, please support them today. Connect: @CommSoupKitchen

In the 2015 Locavore Index, a ranking of states’ commitment to local food production, New Jersey ranked 39th out of the 50 states. Why is the “Garden State” in this position? Should something happen to disrupt our food supply chains, could New Jersey feed itself? The Foodshed Alliance works at the intersection of food, farming and the environment to foster a self-sustaining foodshed that supports farmers, nourishes people, respects the land and strengthens our communities. They promote closer connections between eaters and those who grow and produce our food and support food entrepreneurs with the goal of rebuilding the food infrastructure. They run a gleaning program that delivers farm-fresh food to soup kitchens and food pantries, and they operate farmers markets and run educational events. If you value the food on your plate, please support this organization. Connect via Twitter @FoodshedNJ

Sometimes called the urban sister to the Appalachian Trail, the East Coast Greenway is the world's longest urban trail system. Created for self-powered users of all ages and abilities, the East Coast Greenway stretches 2,900 miles from Maine to Florida, linking 15 states and 450 communities. The 100 miles of linear park through central and northern New Jersey is mostly on public land, connecting countless waterfront esplanades, park paths, abandoned railroad corridors, and canal towpaths. It passes through Trenton, Princeton, New Brunswick, Newark, and Jersey City, as well as many forests, meadows, and rivers in-between. The East Coast Greenway Alliance needs your help to make the route safer and to support innovative programming for a healthy and sustainable future as we make trail the most popular park in America over the next decade, tripling the 10 million annual visits it receives today. Please donate today. Connect via Twitter @ECGreenway

We all deserve clean drinking water from the tap, clean air to breathe, parks within walking distance, and pollution-free rivers to fish, canoe and kayak. From the Highlands and Pinelands to the Delaware River and Jersey Shore, Clean Water Fund collaborates with communities to create innovative solutions that improve the environment, health, economy and quality of life for all. Did you know that every time it rains, many places are flooded with a slurry of sewage and waste? Clean Water Fund is working with Newark communities and a network of partners to put an end to that, creating models for green infrastructure and climate resiliency that have other health and economic benefits as well. Because everyone deserves the opportunity to enjoy a long and healthy life regardless of where they live, please support Clean Water Fund. Connect via Twitter @CleanWaterNJ

Think back to your favorite class in elementary, middle or high school. What made it so special? Chances are your favorite school memory involves a teacher. The best teachers challenge students to work harder, inspire them to think outside the box and make learning fun, and that never leaves us. That’s what Arts Horizons is all about – inspiring good teachers to become great teachers through the arts, which translates into more creative students. Their Artist/Teacher Institute is a place for teachers to learn new skills, knowledge, and techniques that promote creativity, artistic expression and inter-disciplinary connections. If a teacher has ever made a difference in your life, please make a donation to Arts Horizons. Connect: @artshorizons1

Educational Arts Team offers programs designed to promote critical literacy, not just rote technical literacy. Its Dramatic Impact program brings engaging, experiential activities into grade 3 to 8 language arts classrooms, helping students improve reading comprehension. Their approach encourages deep learning and social skill development to meet the needs of all students through drama, writing, storytelling, puppetry, music, dance and visual art activities as strategies to teach core lessons. Outside the classroom, they also run an arts camp at Liberty State Park that has served thousands of young people in Jersey City with educational, recreational and cultural activities during the summer months. If you believe the arts enhance learning, please support them today. Connect: @edartsteam

Nimbus Dance Works uses dance to bring the community together. They teach and perform dance because they believe there’s no better way to embody emotional expression and camaraderie. Their approach centers not only on excellence but how to connect with the Jersey City community, youth, and the larger dance community, collaborating with artists around the world. Their school serves 100 young dancers, they work with about a dozen New Jersey schools and colleges, and their dancers — who hail from around the world — perform concerts throughout the Northeast. Their largest, most successful performance is Jersey City Nutcracker, which puts a local, urban spin on the holiday story. How cool. If you share Nimbus’ love for all kinds of dance and community, please support them. Connect @NimbusDance

GlassRoots devotes itself to fanning the embers of creativity in young people until they burn hot enough to forge bright futures. Their Newark hotshop is more than a glassmaking studio — it is a place where young people learn to focus, solve problems, and keep the glassmaking pipes spinning. Students work together to form glass vases, cups, and artistic items in the 2,200 degree heat of GlassRoots’ furnace, use gas torches to melt glass and create fine jewelry in their flameworking studio, explore the ancient art of mosaics along with more modern techniques in their flat shop students, and bring business and entrepreneurship to life in their classrooms. For nearly 15 years, GlassRoots has proven it’s possible to marry art and entrepreneurship through real life application of talent, interest and skills. Help ignite a passion for creativity and transform the future of GlassRoots students; please support this organization. Connect @glassroots

Young people need attention, structure, and discipline to thrive. But, for a wide range of reasons, not every kid gets it at home, making it easier to fall behind in school or turn to the streets. The Boys and Girls Club fills the gap. Since 1938, the Boys & Girls Club of Newark has been providing affordable after-school, weekend and summer programs to thousands of children in Newark and surrounding communities. They take an integrated approach to youth development, offering services that nurture the whole child – emotionally, physically and socially. Whether at the Boys and Girls Club’s Central Ward Clubhouse or their school-based sites, their caring staff instills in young people a sense of personal power that stems from feelings of competence, belonging, usefulness and engagement. Help break the cycles of poverty and crime in New Jersey’s largest city and support this organization. Connect on Twitter: @BoysGirlsNewark