New Jersey Fuel Funds

• Gift of Warmth fuel fund, customer and company contributions from one gas utility.
• In late 1997 a coalition of New Jersey's top energy companies and non-profit agencies formed New Jersey SHARES (Statewide Heating Assistance and Referral for Energy Services), a nonprofit statewide fuel fund. It was slated to begin providing assistance in the fall of 1998.

  New Jersey SHARES grants are targeted to non-welfare residential energy customers who have short-term financial difficulties, have exhausted all other available resources and cannot pay their energy bills. Recipients are certified for eligibility by local community agencies.

  New Jersey SHARES was funded principally by a $1 million start-up grant from Public Service Gas & Electric Company. The other energy provider members contribute a flat rate percentage of first-year administration costs and a pro-rated contribution based on the number of residential electric and gas customers they have in New Jersey. More funding is expected from solicitations of the state's businesses and the general public. Three utilities that previously operated their own fuel funds have folded them into New Jersey SHARES.

LEVERAGING

2010: $223,114
2009: $432,802
2007: $311,358
2006: $424,487
2005: $360,646
2004: $1.6 million
2003: $1.6 million
2002: $8 million
2000: $160,890
1999: $153,018
1998: $336,019
1997: $216,233
1996: $225,282
1995: $104,915