Northern Monmouth Community Enrichment Initiative

06/11/2025

Congratulations to the 2025 Keyport High School NMCEI Service Award Winners - Chloe Stahl, Max Fredericks, Jasmin Mejia, and Grace Kreft!

06/09/2025

Help us fund up to 100 micro-grants in 2025–2026. Your $50 can launch a dream. Your $250 can change a community.

Support NMCEI’s First Annual Fund Drive: www.nmcei.org/donate

06/12/2024

Congratulations to the Keyport High School Class of 2024 and all of the Senior Awards recipients. It was a wonderful celebration of accomplishment. These young men and women inspire us all. A special congratulations to the inaugural NMCEI Student Leadership Awards recipients, Kate DiPaolo and John Vairo. Thank you, Suzanne Metrick for the pictures! Keyport Public Schools !

01/19/2022

Our first micro-grant went to the to help them purchase singlets for the wrestlers. This is the start of what we hope will be a trend of support for volunteer and community organizations throughout Northern Monmouth and the rest of the county. If you are interested in CONTRIBUTING, JOINING or APPLYING for a micro-grant, visit www.NMCEI.org today!

NMCEI strives to assist initiatives that support a community’s effort to elevate the vibrancy, quality of life, civic commitment and sense of place in communities throughout Northern Monmouth County, NJ.

11/06/2021

Are you a volunteer in your town? Sports? Scouts? Public Service? Emergency Service? What is your passion? Please share!

04/30/2021

Visit www.NMCEI.org!

NMCEI strives to assist initiatives that support a community’s effort to elevate the vibrancy, quality of life, civic commitment and sense of place in communities throughout Northern Monmouth County, NJ.

04/19/2021

Microgrant Programs are pretty common. From honorable initiatives that help people rise out of poverty to financing that helps non-profit organizations achieve their goals, the benefits are many. Some are detailed in the University of Kansas' Community Toolbox:

They inspire creative and innovative thinking.

They are an excellent way to reach "hard to reach" or "yet to be reached" people, because they are awarded to groups (like parent teacher associations, scouts, neighborhood organizations) that have access to many more citizens than traditional health and human service organizations.

Many grass-roots groups are not eligible for traditional grant funding. For example, they may not have federal tax-exempt status (a common grant requirement), or, they may not have another organization to act as a fiscal conduit for them. Thus, micro-grants give them a chance to get hold of resources that would otherwise go only to bigger fish.

The small amounts of money (the usual range being $400-$2000 per micro-grant) tend to discourage large agencies from applying, while encouraging smaller, innovative groups who might not otherwise respond.

Learn how micro-grants can engage citizens in creative community betterment efforts and generate accomplishments citizens can take pride in.