Bill Zink, president of christopher consultants manages the scholarship fund through the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia. We recently asked Bill to share his thoughts about the importance of this philanthropic effort.
The NVBCC is a 501(c)3 public charity with a mission to help Black owned businesses succeed in the region. They are currently engaging in a number of initiatives focused on the impact of the pandemic on Black business owners, including programs that help them obtain access to existing local, state and federal program funding and that also help them obtain better access to capital, mentoring, and coaching services.
The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia today announced Catherine Schott Murray, Esq., has been elected to serve as its new board chair beginning July 1, 2021. Schott Murray previously served as vice chairman of the board and succeeds Bernard Mustafa, who served as chair since 2019.
Dear Members of the Board, Community Foundation Staff, and Friends,
As I make my exit as the Board Chair (2019-2021), I would like to thank each of you for your incredible service. Through our collective efforts, we are helping to build a more inclusive Northern Virginia community that works for everyone.
A college education gets more expensive every year. Tuitions have skyrocketed in the past decade forcing students to take on more borrowing debt to finance their higher education dreams. Here at Community Foundation one of the many scholarships available to help offset the rising cost of college is the Northern Virginia First Responders Scholarship Fund.
The fund benefits first responders and dependents of active first responders in the Northern Virginia area. Scholarship recipients receive up to $20,000 in funds spread over four years. The fund was established by Aaron Kinworthy. We asked Aaron to share some thoughts on why it’s important to create higher learning opportunities through this scholarship.
Earlier this month, Donya Momenian joined the staff at the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia as the 2021 summer research and marketing intern. It’s always exciting to see new faces bring fresh energy and ideas into our work! Donya is a recent graduate of Virginia Tech University with a Bachelor’s in Economic Science. We asked Donya if she would share a little bit about herself.
Why did you want to intern with the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia?
Exploring the broader context of Northern Virginia's exceptional rates of economic mobility
by Elizabeth Hughes, Senior Director of Insight RegionTMIn May 2021, Insight Region released its second brief in the Inclusive Prosperity series, Spreading the Wealth, which found that 19 percent of lower-income children who grew up in the region in the 1980’s and 1990’s were earning in the top quintile for household income as adults, the highest rate of economic mobility across the 50 most populous metro areas in the US. The region also produced the highest rates for Black children (10 percent) and Hispanic children (15 percent) in lower-income families. Compared to the broader DC metro area of which Northern Virginia is a part, these rates were also substantially higher—overall, 11 percent of children raised in poorer families in the DC metro area attained wealth as adults, dropping down to the 15th highest rate among metros; 6 percent of Black children (4th highest) and 13 percent of Hispanic children (2nd highest) raised in poorer families made it to the top quintile.
Our May 2021 brief went on to estimate the current level of opportunity across Northern Virginia’s 500+ census tracts, based on seven factors that research has shown influence mobility. But we had to wonder—how did Northern Virginia’s opportunity factors compare to those in the broader DMV?