Highlighting the people and programs transforming our region
Explore the stories, articles, and interviews that showcase how the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia is making a difference across our region. Since our founding in 1978, we’ve awarded over $100 million in grants and scholarships—fueling innovation, supporting nonprofits, and empowering individuals.
This is philanthropy in action. Learn how we’re turning generosity into lasting impact.
If you have any story ideas, please contact Amanda Bomfim, Manager of Marketing, Communications and Events.
In Northern Virginia, like much of the nation, Black-owned businesses are being negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. One report found 41% of Black-owned businesses have been forced to close due to COVID-19 compared to just 17% of white-owned businesses. All of this while Black-owned businesses face long-term, racial disparities that severely restrict business ownership, growth, and access to investment capital.
This month, the Loudoun Impact Fund awarded $100,000 in grants to 12 nonprofit organizations serving Loudoun County. Grant awards were made possible through the generosity of approximately 50 individuals and businesses that pooled charitable gifts.
The Loudoun Impact Fund brings together individuals and businesses interested in grantmaking administered through a joint effort of the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia and the Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties.
Participants make a gift of $1,000 per individual or $5,000 per business to join the giving circle. Members review proposals submitted from local nonprofits and decide together which charities to grant. More than $287,000 in grant requests were received from 28 organizations, highlighting significant community needs this year in light of COVID-19.
The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia’s Business Women's Giving Circle (BWGC) today announced the winners of its annual grant cycle. A total of $60,000 in grants has been awarded to five local nonprofit organizations and schools that provide STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Mentorship programs to girls and young women in Northern Virginia. To date, BWGC has awarded more than $400,000 in grants that have impacted the lives of over 3,000 girls and young women in the region.
The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia has launched Build Back – Dream Forward – a post-COVID-19 Growth Initiative. Its purpose is to achieve social and economic equity, promote racial justice and equity, and catalyze more inclusive systems of economic growth in Northern Virginia, particularly in local communities of color who have been disproportionately impacted by the virus and its fallouts.
Food insecurity impacts millions of people in the United States, and yet over 40% of fresh produce in our country goes to waste. The USDA defines food insecurity as the disruption of food intake or eating patterns because of a lack of money and other resources. In Prince William County, Virginia over 6% of adults and 12% of children are food insecure. Local nonprofit Action in Community Through Service of Prince William (ACTS), is on the frontline of providing much-needed food to those in desperate need.
In 2020, the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia launched Insight Region®, a center for community research. It is a growing hub for reliable, well-researched, and actionable data and analyses on issues critical to Northern Virginia. Through this work, we seek to inform charitable giving, inspire civic and social action, and foster a more inclusive, prosperous region.
In 2021, Insight Region will focus on understanding and promoting Inclusive Prosperity – increasing self-sufficiency, expanding economic opportunity, and forging pathways for long-term movements out of poverty for all of Northern Virginia’s residents.
The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia hosted its first virtual Raise the Region Gala on Friday, October 2, 2020. Business, philanthropic, and community leaders joined us from their own homes across the region and the nation to take part in this live-streamed event.
Hosted by NBC4’s Leon Harris, 2020 Raise the Region gala is an annual mission-critical fundraiser that enables the Community Foundation to respond to need, seed innovation, and lead and convene the community. The theme for this year’s event was Building a Community that Works for Everyone.
Parkour, virtual yoga, outdoor gardening, the truth about dieting, and nutrition and sugar are just some of the projects represented by this year’s Community Foundation for Northern Virginia’s Healthy Kids Grants recipients. Seven public Elementary, Middle, and High School programs were recently selected after a competitive application process to receive grants up to $2,000 to support programs promoting healthy lifestyles through increased exercise and physical activity or healthy nutrition. The grants totaling $10,212 are for the 2020-2021 school year.
A crowd of more than 100 joined with the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia at its latest Innovation Breakfast Series: The Reinvention of Food virtual event on Thursday, September 17, 2020, to discuss the challenges facing the emergency food safety net since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the Greater Washington region in March including some persistent racial and social inequities that exist, and possible paths forward to address them.
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