Impact Stories

Leading and Convening the Community

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 Joins 17 Other Philanthropic Organizations Providing Mental Health Education and Training

March 2, 2023
Oakton, Virginia: March 2, 2023— The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia is collaborating with 17 other philanthropic foundations from throughout Virginia to provide funding for expanded REACH behavioral health trainings for primary care providers treating children, adolescents and young adults across the Commonwealth. More than $170,000 has been contributed by these foundations in an effort to address the growing need for improved access to mental health care.

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2021-2022 ANNUAL REPORT: RENEWAL

February 6, 2023
The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia released its 2021-2022 Annual Report, "Renewal," which highlights the surge of entrepreneurial ventures in the region during the past year, as well as the Community Foundation's work mental health, and adopting a new four pillar strategic plan that focuses on advancing equity.

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The Shape of Youth Mental Health

January 31, 2023
On February 1 2023, The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia’s Insight Region® Center for Community Research released the Shape of Youth Mental Health report with a presentation and discussion at George Mason University. The report discusses the mental health needs of Northern Virginia's youth, which have only increased since the onset of the pandemic in 2020. 

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Announcing our new Mission Statement and Five-Year Strategic Plan

November 17, 2022
Dear Friends and Donors:

We have two very special announcements to share with you today.

First, the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia has just adopted a new mission statement to advance equity across the region by unleashing the power of philanthropy and community leadership.

Second, we have launched a new five-year strategic plan that establishes a road map of activities to help us achieve our mission. Created by the board and staff of the Community Foundation with input from members of our greater community, the plan is structured around four overarching pillars to guide our grantmaking, fundraising, and community leadership efforts:

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A Message from President and CEO Eileen Ellsworth on the 2022 Raise the Region Gala

October 11, 2022
Dear Community Foundation Friends and Supporters,

Last Friday evening, we gathered for the first time in 3 years to celebrate our region’s resilience, success, and growing sense of home and place. As always, your support literally helped Raise the Region!

More than 500 guests joined us in person and another 100 tuned in to the virtual live stream. It was an incredibly heartening reunion and opportunity to celebrate the ties that bind us all together. Your support and generosity were unprecedented. The event raised a total of $650,000, which will help the Community Foundation build a community that works for everyone. 

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Mental Health Focus in 2022

July 26, 2022
In 2022, the Community Foundation has been focused on supporting access to mental health care for Northern Virginia’s diverse community. As the 988 number is rolled out across the country, it’s imperative for all sectors- particularly community-based organizations and nonprofits- to understand the depth of the challenges everyday Northern Virginians face, and what our roles in the solutions are.

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Shape of the Region 2022 - Finding our Way Back to Mental Health

March 15, 2022
Yesterday, Elizabeth Hughes, Senior Director of Insight Region®, the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia’s Center of Community Research, presented the findings in the report Finding our Way Back to Mental Health at the annual Shape of the Region Conference. This conference highlighted the complex barriers to basic mental health service - therapy, helpful medications, early interventions, as well as others. Over 300 persons attended, about half in person, and half online, from a near complete cross section of civil society - government workers, nonprofit and foundation employees, social changemakers, private sector businesses, and representatives from state, local, and national government offices.  The conference featured multiple panels of national and local experts for candid discussions of the challenges of accessing
basic mental health services in Northern Virginia, and what innovative ideas and opportunities may exist to address this
critical issue that impacts us all.


The discussion of the unique challenges for access to mental health presents a massive opportunity, and
a stark warning: whilst 750,000 adults in Northern Virginia have mental health needs, 370,000 who
want therapy or counselling are unable to get it.

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Mental Health Resources

March 14, 2022
The 2022 Shape of the Region Conference, and the incredible, impactful conversations we shared, simply would not have happened without the continued support of our partners and sponsors. Together, we’ve laid a foundation that will continue to serve as an enduring platform to ensure that everyone in our region has access to decent and quality mental health care. Please be sure to check out their websites, as well as these resources they shared during the conference.

To set the stage, here is a video recommended by NAMI Northern Virginia.

What is the best way to ease someone's pain and suffering? In this beautifully animated RSA Short, Dr Brené Brown reminds us that we can only create a genuine empathic connection if we are brave enough to really get in touch with our own fragilities.

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Community Foundation Receives National Grant to Support Access to Child Tax Credit Along Route 1

November 9, 2021
The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia announced today it is the recipient of a $50,000 grant to support Child Tax Credit application outreach in Northern Virginia. The grant is from the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Funders Network partnership with Community Foundation Opportunity Network (CFON) and CFLeads initiative designed to rapidly respond to the federal government’s effort to quickly stand up the Community Outreach and Opportunity Fund (CO-OP Fund).

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Insight Region Presents Ready for Kindergarten, Ready for Life

October 28, 2021

Report Examines Northern Virginia’s Disparities in Preschool Enrollment


Northern Virginia's children at or near poverty have the second lowest rate of preschool enrollment in the country; just 29 percent of three-and four-year-olds in this income bracket are in school, compared with 41 percent nationally. It also has the largest gap in enrollment rates between these children and their counterparts in higher-income families.

On October 28th, the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia's Insight Region® released a new brief that explores these disparities in preschool enrollment and disentangles how access, cost, and consumer preferences play into our findings: Ready for Kindergarten, Ready for Life: The causes and consequences of Northern Virginia's preschool enrollment disparity: The causes and consequences of Northern Virginia's preschool enrollment disparity.

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Inclusive Prosperity means that every child is prepared for success

October 27, 2021

Inclusive Prosperity means that every child is prepared for success  

by Elizabeth Hughes, Senior Director of Insight RegionTM

This past spring, Insight Region issued a seminal report on economic mobility in Northern Virginia—specifically, the odds that a child born in poverty will achieve wealth as an adult. As it turns out, Northern Virginia is one of the best places in the country to raise a child; an astounding 19 percent of our kids who grew up poor made it to the top as adults, the highest rate of any metro area. Our report identified several neighborhood “opportunity factors” that contribute to this outcome, with one of the strongest being early academic achievement. The connection is so obvious and well-documented by the research literature that I think it should be considered fact: early academic success tends to beget later financial success.

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Fundraising Record for Community Foundation for Northern Virginia’s 2021 Raise the Region

October 14, 2021
A record fundraising total of more than $500,000 was raised during Community Foundation for Northern Virginia’s 2021 Raise the Region, an annual, mission-critical fundraiser for the Community Foundation.

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Economic Mobility in the DMV

June 14, 2021

Exploring the broader context of Northern Virginia's exceptional rates of economic mobility

by Elizabeth Hughes, Senior Director of Insight RegionTM

In 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?

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Shape of the Region 2021 – What are You Inspired to do in our Community?

March 12, 2021

On Thursday, March 11, 2021, we presented the 2021 Shape of the Region Conference in partnership with 12 regional organizations to inspire our community about ways our region is coming together to institute real change. More than 300 people registered to attend the virtual event.



This year’s conference, Co-Creating a New Northern Virginia: An Emerging Vision of a More Inclusive, Sustainable, and Equitable Region examined strategies for advancing a more inclusive economy in our region while facing some of the biggest challenges of our day – entrenched poverty, structural racism, and environmental sustainability.

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2019-2020 Annual Report: Build Back – Dream Forward

February 16, 2021

The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia released its 2019 -2020 Annual Report, “Build Back -Dream Forward,” which highlights our response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact.

The past year has tested pretty much everything we are as human beings, as a country, and as a local community.  The Community Foundation, therefore, spent considerable time during 2020 in response mode, helping the region address not one, but two crises – the COVID-19 pandemic and racial injustice.

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Community Foundation Launches Build Back - Dream Forward Post-COVID-19 Initiative and Awards First Grants Totaling $100,000

October 29, 2020
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.

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Announcing the Launch of Insight Region

October 8, 2020

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.

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Community Foundation Hosts First-Ever Virtual Gala

October 7, 2020
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.

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Innovation Breakfast Series: The Reinvention of Food

September 21, 2020
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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