Impact Stories

Permanent Fund

The Community Foundation Awards Over $800,000 in Grants to Advance Equity Throughout NOVA

April 17, 2024

The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia is awarding $805,940 in grants to 49 local organizations through its 2024 Community Investment Funds (CIF), Environment Fund, and Ross-Roberts Fund for the Arts competitive cycles. These grants, supported by charitable endowments and managed by the Community Foundation, will address current and emerging needs in the region.
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The Ellsworth Weil Fund for Northern Virginia

October 27, 2023
During Eileen Ellsworth's 18 years as President and CEO of the Community Foundation, the Permanent Fund for Northern Virginia grew from $60,000 to $26,844,000.  The Community Foundation now relies upon several permanent community endowments that greatly benefit the nonprofits and other charitable programs serving the people who live here. Watch this video in which Eileen shared her vision for the Permanent Fund a few years ago:

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Forty-four Organizations Awarded $763,969 in 2023 Grants Cycle

April 25, 2023
The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia has awarded $763,696 in grants to 44 local organizations through its 2023 Community Investment Funds (CIF), Environment Fund, and Ross-Roberts Fund for the Arts, helping support broad-based needs and address complex social issues across the region. This work addresses two of the core pillars of the Community Foundation’s strategic work— to build community resilience and advance social and economic mobility for all of Northern Virginia’s residents.

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The Permanent Fund & Legacy

April 25, 2023
"Several years ago, my wife Laura and I heard Eileen Ellsworth talk about a new fund with the Community Foundation that could help our region for generations to come. It was a permanent endowment that would help fund the wide variety of community needs that the Community Foundation supports.

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Aging in Northern Virginia

March 22, 2023

Research and Investments to support those 65 and older


Northern Virginia is home to more than 310,000 adults over 65, of which 82 percent are living in a condo or house that they own. These aging homeowners have high rates of disability (28 percent) and poverty (13 percent are living below 200 percent of federal poverty).  Source: American Community Survey, 2015-19; Insight Region® 2023 Growing Old Together in Northern Virginia Report

To address the needs of our aging population, the Community Foundation has produced data-driven reports, developed a permanent endowment, and makes grants annually to support non-profit partners working to support our neighbors 65 and older each year - having awarded $225,000 since 2011 in this field.

Connect with all of our Aging Resources below.

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Community Foundation Awards $613,725 in Community Investment Fund Grants

April 27, 2022
The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia has awarded $613,725 in grants to 50 local organizations through its 2022 Community Investment Funds (CIF), Environment Fund, and Ross-Roberts Fund for the Arts, helping respond to need and seed innovative solutions to complex social problems across the region.

As the Community Foundation’s core grants program, funds are invested in organizations serving the northern virginia community in the areas of Aging, Arts, Child and Youth Development, Education, Environment, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Mental Health, Military Personnel and Families, and Safety Net to Support Basic Needs. This represents the largest ever discretionary grants cycle in the Community Foundation’s history.

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Grant for Nueva Vida supports mental health intervention program for Latinos in Northern Virginia

February 4, 2022
In 2021, Nueva Vida received a two-year grant totaling $30,000 from the Mental Health Fund, a permanent community endowment at the Community Foundation dedicated to the mental health and well-being of all members of the Northern Virginia community. The grant helped Nueva Vida design and implement the Más Fuertes Juntos (Stronger Together) program – a mental health intervention program to assess the emotional well-being and health-related quality of life for uninsured Latinos across Northern Virginia, with a targeted focus in Prince William County.
“The demand for culturally tailored mental health services is a critical need for the overwhelmed uninsured Latino community. Forever funding can help close the vast gaps in equitable mental health care and provide recent Latino immigrants support as they face traumatic exposures of migration, PTSD, depression and stress associated with the immigration experience and the challenges of integration vs. marginalization in the US.”
-Laura A. Logie, PhD, Director of Research, Nueva Vida.

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Community Foundation’s Innovation Fund Awards $40K Grant to George Mason University’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

August 20, 2021
In our ongoing mission to recognize and support innovation in our region, the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia is pleased to announce its 2021 Innovation Fund has awarded a $40,000 grant to the George Mason University Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Food Depot.

This Innovation Fund grant to the Food Depot will provide the opportunity to further develop a community of innovators and entrepreneurs in Mason’s CIE. Specifically, Mason's students and faculty will create, develop, and staff the Food Depot.

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Community Foundation Awards $548,450 in Community Investment, Environment, Arts Grants for 2021

April 28, 2021

The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia, a trusted leader in philanthropy in the region announced today it has awarded $548,450 in grants through its Community Investment Funds (CIF),  Environment Fund, and the Ross-Roberts Fund for the Arts to 39 local nonprofit organizations. The Community Foundation conducts several discretionary grant cycles each year that help meet critical needs and seed innovative solutions to complex social problems across the region.

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Mental Health Fund Grantees

April 28, 2021

Investments to nurture the emotional health and well-being of the Northern Virginia community


The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia is committed to investing in nonprofit organizations dedicated to supporting the emotional health and well-being of all members of the Northern Virginia Community. The following organizations are recipients of annual grants through the Community Investment Funds process, a highly competitive cycle that responds to need throughout the region.

Since 2007, the Community Foundation has awarded more than $940,000 to support mental health across the region.

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Aging Fund Grantees

April 28, 2021

Support for the needs of adults over the age of 65 in Northern Virginia


The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia is committed to investing in nonprofit organizations dedicated to supporting the needs of our aging neighbors. Guided by the Community Foundation’s data-driven reports on Aging in this region, the Community Foundation continues to invest in organizations that help the growing number of older adults age in place. The following organizations are recipients of annual grants through the Community Investment Funds process, a highly competitive cycle that responds to need throughout the region.

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Community Foundation mark’s Earth Day’s 50th Anniversary by Naming 2020 Environment Fund Grant Recipients

April 22, 2020
As the world observes the 50th anniversary of Earth Day today, the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia announces it has awarded two $25,000 Environment Fund grants to local organizations working to protect, restore, and improve the natural environment of Northern Virginia.

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An Interview with Stephen Roberts

November 13, 2018
Ross Roberts 1993bStephen S. Roberts and Dr. Sue Goetz Ross, pictured in 1993Stephen Roberts, a donor advisor for the Sue Goetz Ross and Stephen S. Roberts Music Fund, recently made a legacy gift to help launch the Ross-Roberts Fund for the Arts. We asked him to share some thoughts on how this new fund helps honor his wife's legacy.

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Announcing The Ross-Roberts Fund for the Arts

November 1, 2018

A permanent source of funding to celebrate, support and promote the arts in Northern Virginia

ArtsFund Logo FINAL LowResThe Community Foundation for Northern Virginia launched The Ross-Roberts Fund for the Arts. The mission of the new fund is to celebrate, promote, and support the arts in Northern Virginia. Thanks to a generous donation from Stephen Roberts and his donor advised fund, the Sue Goetz Ross and Stephen S. Roberts Endowment Fund, this new fund is endowed as part of The Permanent Fund for Northern Virginia, forever able to make grants to support the arts in our region. To kick it off, the Community Foundation convened a volunteer panel to review Letters of Intent submitted by local arts organizations and awarded $10,000 to 1st Stage to support its capacity building and strengthen its development and education initiatives.

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Catherine Schott Murray

September 20, 2018
Schott Murray C 3x4 FINAL 2We recently sat down with Catherine Schott Murray of Odin, Feldman & Pittleman. Catherine is a Community Foundation Board member, member of the Raise the Region Gala committee, and member of the Business Women's Giving Circle.

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Get2Green Program

June 4, 2018
Ali Culhane, Get2Green Program Specialist and Donna Volkmann, Get2Green Resource Teacher, talk about the Get2Green Program

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Environment Fund Established

May 10, 2018

$25,000 Grant Awarded to Fairfax County Public Schools Get2Green Initiative

The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia today announced the establishment of The Environment Fund. This fund is made possible by a $500,000 gift to The Community Foundation from an anonymous donor.

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Melinda Merk, Philanthropist

May 2, 2018
Melinda MerkThis interview is with Melinda Merk, Attorney at McCandlish Lillard, new Community Foundation Board Member, Business Women's Giving Circle (BWGC) member, and active philanthropist.

Melinda has a background in providing holistic multi-generational income and wealth transfer tax planning advice and estaate and trust services to high net worth individuals, families, and business owners.

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Cheryl Janey, Philanthropist

March 7, 2018
Cheryl Janey This interview is with Cheryl Janey, Community Foundation Board member, BWGC member, Gala sponsor, and Community Foundation Diversity Task Force member.

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Brandon Elledge, Board Member, Philanthropist

January 24, 2018
Elledge Brandon 72Brandon H. ElledgeThis interview is with Brandon H. Elledge, Community Foundation Board member, investment committee and Loudoun Impact Fund member, and Permanent Fund donor. He is a partner in Holland & Knight's Northern Virginia office in Tysons Corner.

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