LISC New Jersey launched its first 2026 Neighbors Helping Neighborhoods Grantee Spotlight live.

LISC New Jersey is a local office of the nation’s largest community development enterprise, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). Together with residents and partners, LISC forges resilient and inclusive communities – great places to live, work, visit, do business and raise families. Since 1986, LISC New Jersey has worked to create communities of opportunity in the greater region. *** In 1979, when the Ford Foundation first conceived of LISC, it envisioned an “intermediary”—a nimble non-profit with strong community partnerships that would connect hard-to-tap public and private resources with under-resourced communities working to access opportunities everyone deserves. The premise is still as it was then: government, foundations and for-profit companies have the capital; residents and local institutions understand the need; and LISC helps bridge the gap by offering the relationships and expertise to assist community organizations in attracting the kinds of resources that allow them do their best work. The components of our programming and our role continue to evolve and expand. But for 40 years, our mission has remained the same.