Impact Stories

Responding to Need

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.

Read More

The Community Foundation Awards $11,500 through the Kaiser Permanente Northern Virginia Social Health Impact Fund

March 1, 2022
Northern Virginia as a region is not a monolith- the communities we serve range from the inner suburbs and edge cities of the Nation's Capital, to the rural shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and everywhere inbetween. Recently, the Community Foundation awarded two organizations from two very different parts of the region, two separate grants totalling more than $10,000. Though distance may separate them, they are two organizations driven by their mission and values- to fulfill a critical need for those most vulnerable.

Read More

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.

Read More

$15,000 Awarded to Northern Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce

August 17, 2021
The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia today announced a $15,000 grant from its Build Back - Dream Forward: COVID-19 Response Fund to the Northern Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce (NVBCC).

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

Community Foundation Supports Local Businesses with Grants to Five Chambers of Commerce

March 25, 2021


"Together, I believe we can set a new foundation for a robust
economy now and for our next generation of business leaders
in Northern Virginia"...Sheila Dixon, Executive Director, Northern
Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce

The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t just put stress on minority-owned businesses in the Northern Virginia region, but also on the chambers of commerce that serve them. The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia today announced it has awarded grants totaling $43,000 to five area Chambers of Commerce: Northern Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce, Asian American Chamber of Commerce, Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, NOVA Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and Virginia Asian Chamber of Commerce.

Read More

Community Foundation Awards $100K in Hunger Relief Grants

January 21, 2021


As the coronavirus crisis unfolded across our region, food banks had to expand their services to address not only the increase in the demand for food aid, but also healthcare, housing assistance, and other services.

Today, the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia announced it has awarded $100,000 in grants to four organizations in a new round of funding through its Build Back – Dream ForwardCOVID-19 Response initiative. The grant recipients include ALIVE!, Arlington Free Clinic, Capital Area Food Bank, and The House, Inc. Each organization received a grant of $25,000 that will be used to support creative and innovative solutions for food access and distribution to residents in Northern Virginia.

Read More

Community Foundation Opens Three 2021 Grant Cycles

January 7, 2021

The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia, a trusted leader in philanthropy in the region announced today the opening of the 2021 grant cycles for its Community Investment Funds (CIF), The Environment Fund, and The Ross-Roberts Fund for the Arts. 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.

Read More

$200,000 Awarded to Child Care and Early Childhood Education Providers in Northern Virginia

November 17, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a host of new challenges to early childhood education and daycare services nationwide and across our region. Today the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia, in partnership with the Greater Washington Community Foundation, and PNC Foundation announced a $200,000 Build Back – Dream Forward COVID-19 Response Fund grant to support infant and toddler childcare and early childhood education programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read More

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.

Read More

ACTS Use App to Rescue Good Food to Combat Hunger

October 27, 2020
Food insecurity impacts millions of people in the United States, and yet over 40% of fresh produce in our country goes to waste. The USDA defines food insecurity as the disruption of food intake or eating patterns because of a lack of money and other resources. In Prince William County, Virginia over 6% of adults and 12% of children are food insecure. Local nonprofit Action in Community Through Service of Prince William (ACTS), is on the frontline of providing much-needed food to those in desperate need.

Read More

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.

Read More

Community Foundation Awards Healthy Kids Grants for 2020-2021

September 22, 2020
Parkour, virtual yoga, outdoor gardening, the truth about dieting, and nutrition and sugar are just some of the projects represented by this year’s Community Foundation for Northern Virginia’s Healthy Kids Grants recipients. Seven public Elementary, Middle, and High School programs were recently selected after a competitive application process to receive grants up to $2,000 to support programs promoting healthy lifestyles through increased exercise and physical activity or healthy nutrition. The grants totaling $10,212 are for the 2020-2021 school year.

Read More

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.

Read More

PUBLIC ART INSTALLATION EXPLORES HISTORY BURIED BENEATH A NAME IN ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA PRESENTING THE WORK OF LYNDA ANDREWS-BARRY

August 20, 2020
Arlington Arts Center (AAC) and the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia are pleased to present Passage, a site-specific public artwork by artist Lynda Andrews-Barry. The work will be featured on AAC’s lawn at 3550 Wilson Boulevard in Arlington from August 22 through December 13, 2020.

Passageis the result of a unique partnership between AAC and the Community Foundation. The work was funded by the Foundation’s Ross-Roberts Fund for the Arts and is undertaken in cooperation with Arlington Public Art. Passage will include 26 large-scale sculptures created from driftwood, rebar, metal hardware, and canvas sails—designed to evoke the ships that transported more than 12 million kidnapped and enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean between the 16th and 19th centuries.

Read More

Community Foundation Awards $250,000 in Scholarships to high school, college students for 2020

July 30, 2020
The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia announced today that it has awarded over $250,000 in scholarships to more than one hundred area students to support their higher education goals beginning this fall. This year’s awards went to students pursuing either undergraduate or graduate degrees in areas like STEM, medicine, health, and education, as well as students planning to attend Northern Virginia Community College.

Read More

Build Back Better After COVID-19

July 20, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has pulled back the curtain and exposed longstanding structural and systemic inequities that exist in communities of color across our nation. From the education system to the labor market, to housing, health, and economic stability the coronavirus has had a disproportionate impact on African American and Latino communities.

The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia recently hosted a virtual Town Hall – Build Back – Dream Forward where local leaders representing business, education, economic development, and philanthropy gathered to raise awareness around the uneven playing field that pre-existed COVID-19 and potential paths forward for greater equity in our economic systems.

Read More

Community Foundation COVID-19 Response Fund Announces A New Round of Grants, Totaling $440,000

June 30, 2020
The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia announced today it has awarded $440,000 in its fifth round of COVID-19 Response Fund Grants to 22 local organizations providing relief and services to communities in the region disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, including vulnerable and disadvantaged communities.

Read More

Arlington Free Clinic: Serving our Low-Income Neighbors During COVID-19

June 3, 2020
For over 25 years, Arlington Free Clinic (AFC) has provided free, high-quality healthcare for low-income, uninsured adult Arlingtonians through the generosity of donors and volunteers. With the help of close to 500 volunteers, we deliver patient-centered, comprehensive, integrated healthcare to approximately 1,600 vulnerable residents each year.

Read More

General Inquiries

info@cfnova.org
703-879-7640

3201 Jermantown Road
Suite 660
Fairfax, VA 22030
EIN# 51-0232459

Seal of TransparencyCFCCharity NavigatorAccreditedNOVA Champions
© The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy