VFN is excited to announce our new special feature opportunity called “Bringing You in the Know.” It’s another opportunity to highlight work amongst members across the network in our bi-weekly issues of Network News. Our member organizations are working on so many cool projects and forming “Bringing You in the Know” will feature special projects that member organizations are excited about and opportunities they’d like to highlight. If your organization would like to be featured in an upcoming “Bringing You in the Know” feature please contact Patte Koval at patte@vafunders.org.
This month VFN is highlighting VFN member, the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia (CFNOVA) whose mission is “to advance equity across Northern Virginia through philanthropy and community leadership.” Here’s a little more about who they are and what they are working on:
What are the top issue or areas/priorities your organization is currently focusing on?
- Social and Economic Mobility
- Racial Justice and Equity
- Inclusive Systems of Economic Growth and Community Resilience
What partnerships and/or collaborative efforts have been meaningful to you in the last year? What have those partnerships/collaborative efforts helped you accomplish?
-Awarded $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.
– The Business Women’s Giving Circle (BWGC) at CFNOVA celebrates 10 years of local impact this year. In that decade, the BWGC has invested more than $535,000 in grants, inspiring thousands of girls and young women to join the STEM fields and connecting countless donors, changemakers, and constituents alike.
– On Friday, February 9 2024, the CFNOVA hosted its 2024 Shape of the Region Conference in collaboration with 19 regional partners, which highlighted a key problem facing our region, and the whole country today: Americans’ belief that most people can be trusted declined 47 percent from 1984 through 2022, according to the General Social Survey.
– We recently received an anonymous gift that pushed our Environment Fund past the $1 million endowment mark.
Tell us a project or an area of work you’re most excited about.
Denise Bellows, PhD, Senior Director of Insight Region®, has curated a case study report on the impact of unrestricted grantmaking to a nonprofit organization called, United Community. In alignment with our strategic priority to improve social and economic mobility in Northern Virginia, CFNOVA has embraced the growing momentum towards trust-based philanthropy in our grantmaking. The trust-based approach has allowed nonprofits to support programs or initiatives that foster deeper community engagement.
Over three years, the CFNOVA’s Lamond Fund to Benefit Children and Youth invested $200,000 in United Community through unrestricted, multi-year grants. This funding enabled United Community to pursue an innovative, theory-based Lived Experience Consultants (LEC) initiative to understand the community along the Route 1 corridor in Alexandria and Fairfax County, helping build trust and provide deeper access to community support. The LEC initiative demonstrated impact on LEC participants, the community, and within the organization itself.
See the report found here.
What else would you like your fellow funders to know about this program/initiative?
CFNOVA is working to build a community that works for everyone. By working towards trust-based philanthropy through unrestricted grantmaking,CFNOVA is prioritizing funding in a way that truly supports nonprofits and is responsive to their needs. This $200,000 multi-year grant to United Community is a model for a stronger partnership with the nonprofit leadership, a deeper connection among community members, and better access to community services in an underserved area.
We hope that grantmakers, funders, and donors will engage in trust-based philanthropy, collaborating with and granting funds to nonprofit leaders in order to achieve long-term impact and growth.
