2020-2021
A COMMITMENT TO POSITIVE CHANGE
As your community foundation, we are honored to be part of a legacy of generosity that is rooted in a keen awareness of our interconnectedness as people sharing a place and time. Our founders were convinced that we all have an obligation to offer our individual resources in order to ensure our neighbors — whose current condition is necessarily intertwined with ours — have basic amenities, opportunity, enrichment, and compassionate care. We consider this our calling.
A COMMITMENT TO POSITIVE CHANGE
As your community foundation, we are honored to be part of a legacy of generosity that is rooted in a keen awareness of our interconnectedness as people sharing a place and time. Our founders were convinced that we all have an obligation to offer our individual resources in order to ensure our neighbors — whose current condition is necessarily intertwined with ours — have basic amenities, opportunity, enrichment, and compassionate care. We consider this our calling.
Our core functions enable us to fulfill this calling in response to the needs of our region. We partner with local families and individuals to fund a variety of programs that make our region vibrant, caring, and fun. We offer tools to nonprofits to achieve long-term sustainability for their missions. We provide non-monetary resources that enable community-based organizations to build and grow organizational capacity. And we direct funding toward initiatives that seek to advance equity and ensure our region is a place in which everyone can belong, participate, contribute, and thrive.
We also believe we have a critical role to play in times of crisis. Over the past 18 months, our region has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic that has reached all parts of the globe. In the following pages, you will read the stories and data detailing our response, which would not have been possible without the support of so many compassionate community members. I hope you will join me in being inspired by the role that generosity, partnership, and innovation can play during times of unprecedented crisis.
As professionals and members of this community, we remain committed to learning and growing. Our recent experiences have helped us see our work in new ways, and we share those insights in the concluding pages of this report.
With deep gratitude, I say thank you to the many people in our region whose contribution of ideas, talents, money, time, and testimony have strengthened our community bonds and nurtured our interconnectedness. Let’s continue our journey forward, together.
Warmly,
Brennan Gould
President and CEO
CONTENTS
This website highlights some of the Community Foundation’s work and impact during the time between January 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021.
COMMUNITY CENTERED
To thrive together we must value and invest in one another. We envision a region in which everyone can meet their full potential, regardless of the circumstances of one’s birth. We believe that we cannot be the region we strive to be — one in which everyone has fair opportunity to participate in and realize the successes that they desire for themselves and their families — without paying careful attention to systemic causes of inequity. We strive to maintain the courage and discipline to honestly analyze our shared history and present conditions. In doing so, we can clearly and inclusively advance solutions that reverse longstanding disparities, dismantle harmful hierarchies, build power among marginalized people, and expand participation in our communities.
EQUITY FORWARD
Our organization’s continuing equity journey is rooted in humility and compassion. We actively build our understanding of racial and social justice and the systems of power that affect people’s lives. Through all-staff trainings, racial identity group caucusing, and leadership coaching, we are pursuing an anti-racist culture within our organization and aligning our decision making and actions with our equity values.
Additionally, we are applying an equity lens to our governance approach, removing barriers to service, and increasing the diversity of perspectives and lived experiences informing the Community Foundation’s work.
Our discretionary grant making is undergoing constant analysis and refinement. Specifically, we are:
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including equity and engagement criteria on grant applications;
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shifting power in relationships with grantees to mitigate hierarchies and create true partnerships; and
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responding to the unique needs of rural and small organizations, and those led by people of color.
CATCHAFIRE
Increasing Capacity, Providing Support
Nonprofits and community initiatives need capacity-building support. This was a resounding message we heard through feedback from surveys, focus groups, and conversations with community and grant partners.
This pivotal feedback inspired the Community Foundation to launch a partnership with Catchafire, a web-based platform that connects community-based organizations with highly skilled volunteers. Catchafire provides critical capacity and expertise in areas including COVID-19 support, finance and operations, fundraising, human resources, marketing and communications, program management, and technology.
The Community Foundation’s investment allows participating organizations to utilize this resource at no cost and ensures access to resources critical for their stability, growth, and success. Catchafire helps level the playing field. Many highly effective nonprofit organizations, often led by people of color, experience inequitable access to resources to do their important work. We have prioritized these, along with rural and small organizations, for Catchafire eligibility.
This investment came at a critical time. As organizations pivoted in response to the global pandemic, they needed resources to support virtual programming, changes in fundraising strategies, increased demand for digital communications, and more.
IMPACT DASHBOARD
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More than 9,100 hours donated by volunteers
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99 organizations matched for 626
projects -
$1.8 million saved by nonprofit organizations
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12x return on Community Foundation’s investment
Based on data from November 2020 through June 2021.
Shelby Edwards, Executive Director, Public Housing Association of Residents (PHAR)
"I have had a wonderful experience with Catchafire this year! The ability to find volunteers with expertise outside of PHAR’s current skillset has allowed us to expand our reach and has included an updated logo, a website consultation and translation of community redevelopment updates in French and Arabic."
COLLABORATION TO
END HOMELESSNESS
Building Solutions Together
The City of Charlottesville and the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission recently completed housing-needs assessments and the results were alarming.
Regionally, more than 11,000 households are housing-cost burdened, spending more than 30% of their income for housing. Of this number, 2,000 households in the urban core are severely cost burdened, with housing costs accounting for more than 50% of their spending. Additionally, those experiencing homelessness represent some of our most underserved communities, including veterans, individuals with disabilities, and other marginalized groups.
The Collaboration to End Homelessness, a strategic partnership of housing-related nonprofits, is responding to this dilemma by integrating housing solutions across a spectrum of household in-comes and conditions, using evidence-based models for short- and long-term affordability. The centerpiece of their efforts is the Premier Circle Redevelopment. This innovative housing approach provides a medium-term safe haven for those experiencing homelessness, while also addressing the region’s historically intractable homelessness challenges.
Catalyzed by a first-of-its-kind $4.25 million grant from the Community Foundation — the largest in our organization’s history — the project is driven by a belief that housing is a fundamental human right and that the lack thereof constitutes a public health crisis. Of the grant, $3.6 million is recoverable and will be returned to the Community Foundation to be reinvested in future projects that benefit the region.
FUNDING PARTNERS
Anonymous Donors (4), the Bama Works Fund of Dave Matthews Band, and the University of Virginia
Residents of the Premier Circle Redevelopment
Annually it costs the community $30,000 to serve a homeless individual, but it only costs $10,000 for permanent supportive housing
HOMES AND HOPE
Reimagining solutions to our
most pressing problems for the near and long-term
Project Overview
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Will initially create an emergency shelter of up to 100 single-occupancy rooms (March 2021 – June 2023)
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Will build up to 60 affordable apartments (June 2023 – June 2025)
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Will build up to 80 permanent supportive housing units (June 2025 – December 2026)
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Project partners are People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry, Piedmont Housing Alliance, Thomas Jefferson Area Coalition for the Homeless, and Virginia Supportive Housing
Impact
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No significant outbreaks of COVID.
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Increased connection to holistic, wraparound services.
Eboni Bugg, Director of Programs, Community Foundation
"By listening to the community and thinking creatively, we can invest in new ways to achieve a deep and lasting impact. This collaboration with regional housing nonprofit partners is a community-centered approach that seeks to bring the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness to zero. By helping the most marginalized among us, the entire community benefits."
Sunshine Mathon, Executive Director, Piedmont Housing Alliance
"The Premier Circle Project was not fundamentally achievable without the necessary financing. The Community Foundation became the key. With a transformed funding approach, they embraced the collaborative vision of mission-focused nonprofit partners and unlocked the doors for our most vulnerable neighbors."
COVID RESPONSE
The Community Emergency Response Fund (CERF) was established in March 2020 to provide flexible resources to households and organizations in Central Virginia that were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to an unprecedented global pandemic, we received an outpouring of generosity. In eight short weeks, the community contributed 1,000 gifts and $5.5 million to our response efforts.
CERF included both a temporary Rapid Response grant program and Community Recovery & Catalyst grants to support nonprofits providing critical services, and a COVID-19 regional Resource Helpline to disburse emergency financial aid to households impacted by financial instability.
SUPPORTING NONPROFITS
Rapid Response
In April 2020 we quickly made grants to bolster nonprofit organizations providing critical services such as food, healthcare, personal protective equipment, and rent abatement during the onset of the pandemic.
Community Recovery & Catalyst Grants
In September of 2020 we launched a special grant round dedicated to community recovery and to help address continued racial injustice, which was designed to help organizations recover, sustain, and build their services. Grants supported areas such as mental health care, affordable housing, youth development, childcare, food insecurity, and the arts.
Recovery & Catalyst grants were made possible through generous contributions from the Bama Works Fund of Dave Matthews Band, the University of Virginia Health System, the Twice is Nice Fund, Dorothy Batten, and Enriching Communities, which is managed by the Community Foundation.
SUPPORTING HOUSEHOLDS
Resource Helpline
In March 2020 the Community Foundation joined with Cville Community Cares, United Way of Greater Charlottesville, the City of Charlottesville, and the County of Albemarle to create the Resource Helpline, a mechanism to distribute funds to households experiencing hardship due to the pandemic. The helpline, which served Charlottesville and seven surrounding counties, operated until May 6, 2020.
Funds Administered by the Community Foundation
Parent support groups launched The Reopening Fund (Charlottesville City Schools) and Families Helping Families (Albemarle County Public Schools) to support students and families during the 2020-21 school year. The initiatives centered equity in their efforts and, combined, contributed more than $200,000 directly to schools.
The Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Fund was established to provide mental health support to healthcare providers. After receiving more than 1,750 contributions totaling $230,000, Dr. Breen’s family established a foundation to continue this critical support for clinicians and their families.
Brennan Gould,
President and CEO,
Community Foundation
"As a region of interconnected people, we have the responsibility to care for one another. Our COVID response provided critical care to our community, while also bridging the gap between the immediate needs of families affected by the pandemic and state and federal assistance."
The Rapid Response grants and Resource Helpline would not have been possible without 1,000 gifts from our community, including large gifts from the following:
Adiuvans Relief Fund
Aerojet Rocketdyne Foundation
Alexandra Summer Fund
Anonymous (3)
Bama Works Fund of Dave Matthews Band
Bank of America Charitable Foundation
Barbara Fried
Batten Family Fund
Bonnie and Wick Moorman
Charles Heiner
Crane Charitable Fund (Fidelity)
Crutchfield
Dave and Emily Luebke
Heiner Family Fund
Hilltop Foundation
James and Patricia Atkins
Charitable Fund (Fidelity)
Jeff and Jody Hesler
Lilly Anne Bechtel
Madwoman Project Fund
Manning Family Foundation
Micron Opportunity Fund at the Northern Virginia Community Foundation
Molly and Robert Hardie
Nicholson Family Fund (Fidelity)
Quad-C Management
Quantitative Foundation
Saraswati Fund
SEG Family Fund
Sterba Family Fund
Dr. Lorna Breen (left) and her sister Jennifer Feist
BAMA WORKS FUND GIVES BACK
The Bama Works Fund of Dave Matthews Band has given back to the Charlottesville region for over two decades. In times of crisis, the band shows incredible generosity and partnership. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the band has contributed more than $11.5 million and other forms of support to local initiatives and ongoing work, including the following:
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Community Emergency Response Fund
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World Central Kitchen for emergency food support
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The Reopening Fund
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Preschool supplies
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Renovations at Premier Circle for emergency shelter use
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Public housing redevelopment
ONGOING GRANT PROGRAMS
The Community Foundation is committed to responding during times of crisis in a nimble and equitable manner, partnering with community-based organizations, and leveraging the philanthropic spirit of the region. At the same time, we have continued delivering core grant programs — Bama Works Fund, Enriching Communities, Shaping Futures, Strengthening Systems, and other standard grant rounds.
