

Nova Labs is a makerspace - a community workshop – which is a collaborative place where entrepreneurs, hobbyists, tinkerers and artists – “makers” - have access to many more tools and expertise than they'd ever have in their own garages or studios.
Maker Faires are billed as the greatest show and tell on earth, and are a friendly collision of science and art. The first Maker Faire began in California and these days attracts upwards of 125,000 attendees to see exhibits ranging from fire-breathing sculpture to the explosive reaction of Coke+Mentos. The larger events have expanded to New York, Kansas City, and Detroit, with others in Europe and Asia. Maker Media curates the overall events and highlights in Make magazine the problem-solving hobbyists, artists, inventors, and tinkerers who have created homebuilt projects of all kinds and are willing to share what they've learned. Our Northern Virginia Maker Faire is considered 'mini' because of its size and regional focus. However, we had about 3200 people and over 100 makers, so it was hardly a mini effort.

Led by Sari Raskin (Community Foundation staff) and Brian Jacoby, a longtime donor at the


Recently I was asked to draw on my philanthropic passion to participate on the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia’s 2014 grant review committee. Having managed charity projects with volunteers and no money from the benefitting organization, I thought this process would be “easy”. We have money. 138 organizations have asked for money. How hard could this be?

I was pregnant with our twins when I read the Community Foundation’s Portrait of Children report in 2010. It resonated with our growing family and from that moment, we developed a relationship with the Community Foundation that has helped us to better understand the local needs in our region. I’m grateful to board members Steve Gladis and Cathy Lange for introducing me to Eileen Ellsworth and the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia family.

Though demographic indices and trends for Northern Virginians 65 and older are, on the whole, highly favorable, there are nevertheless problems that merit greater scrutiny and remedial intervention where possible. Challenges that arise from current circumstances and that are likely to be exacerbated by ongoing population changes include:
- Lack of health insurance: A large number of older residents do not have health insurance. This results from the surprisingly large number of older Northern Virginians who do not qualify for participation in the Medicare program. About 8.5% of the region’s older residents are without Medicare coverage. This is more than twice the Virginia and U.S. rates of about 4.0%.

A major demographic shift is underway in Northern Virginia. Over the next two decades the elderly population will grow much more rapidly than any other population group, more than doubling between 2010 and 2030. In 2010, there were 192,589 Northern Virginians 65 years of age and over. That population will grow to more than 326,000 by 2020 and to more than 429,000 by 2030. There will be substantially larger elderly populations in all local jurisdictions over the coming decades.
It has long been assumed that population aging portends consequential social change. Aging is associated with deteriorating health, increasing disability and dependency, social isolation, and growing economic insecurity. In addition to greater stress on elderly individuals and their families, there is concern that larger numbers of older people may tax the social, economic support, and health care services likely to be needed by an aging population.

And, again, if you’re anything like me, you don’t give nearly as much thought or effort into how you’re investing your philanthropic dollars. But what if I told you that I had found a trusted advisor to help me with my charitable giving? Well, actually, I don’t have just one trusted advisor – I have 130!

Word spread that the organization funded by the GCH was operating with a new automated volunteer management program. Questions arose. “Why can’t we expand the use of this application to all the organizations that provide volunteer rides? How about the Elder Villages that are sprouting all over the County? They could use this too!”

Once philanthropists cross the line into strategic philanthropy, it is truly a transformation. They acquire a panoramic view of the needs in the community and of the organizations that are working to meet those needs. Many nonprofits are so focused on their mission and so overworked; they do not see the connections that they can make, the gaps in service that may exist, or even the new technologies that they can use. Many times, the GCH can.

During the early years (2004-2006) of the Giving Circle of HOPE, the Human Services Coalition of Fairfax County morphed into the nonprofit coalition NonProfit NoVA, an affiliate of the Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington. The GCH joined that coalition with the intention of learning even more about the nonprofit world that we were funding and the service projects that we were supporting. The relationships we built there were instrumental in giving us valuable insights into the potential impact of our giving.