by Nicole Acosta | Dec 14, 2018 | Philanthropy Rocks
This week, community foundations across Northern Virginia, including the Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties, welcomed Amazon to our community in a joint letter. As we prepare for and anticipate the impact Amazon will have across the region and here in Loudoun, we look forward to new opportunities that lie ahead. Recently, Jeff Bezos, founder, chairman, and CEO of Amazon, and his wife Mackenzie Bezos, donated $97.5 million to 24 nonprofits across the country that are working on family homelessness. The Bezos The Day 1 Families Fund announced in November that it will invest $2.5 million in Northern Virginia Family Service’s efforts to end family homelessness in the region. The grant will support fund NVFS’s work to pursue solutions to family homelessness. Funding from the grant will go toward housing after shelter and providing families with services, skills training and job support needed in transitioning to and remaining in permanent housing. Community foundations have a long-standing history of working with corporations to create solutions to local needs in the communities they serve. Northern Virginia’s community foundation leaders welcome Amazon our vibrant, diverse community; below you can read our welcome letter. Dear Amazon, Welcome to Northern Virginia! As the timeframe for your decision on HQ2 drew closer, those of us who already call this region home began to think about how we’d welcome you to our community. Community foundations have a more than 100-year history as community conveners and conversation brokers who work tirelessly to preserve, enhance and protect the quality of life for our neighbors. This role often places us directly in the middle of our...
by Nicole Acosta | Dec 6, 2018 | Uncategorized
This week, we announce two local leaders joining our Board of Directors! Rajan Seth, a resident of Ashburn, is the President of Seth Enterprises CPA, LLC, and has extensive experience in tax and financial management. Kimberely Evans, a lifelong Loudoun resident currently residing in Leesburg, is Senior Manager of IT Procurement at Maximus, Reston, VA, and has extensive experience in the telecommunications field. She is also the owner and founder of Generations Gourmet, a local catering business. “We are very pleased to welcome Kimberely and Rajan to our active and engaged Board of Directors. The expertise and passion for the community that they each bring to their board service will be a plus for the Community Foundation and the nonprofits and individuals that we serve,” stated Board Chair, Tracey White. The Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties has an all-volunteer Board of Directors of thirteen members. Amy Owen serves as the organization’s President and CEO and was recently named Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2018 Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce Small Business...
by Nicole Acosta | Nov 27, 2018 | Uncategorized
Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and now…..Giving Tuesday! This year, join the movement of Giving Tuesday by supporting your local community. Here are some ways to give locally, where your gift will join forces with others, for maximum impact right in your own backyard. Endowment for the Community Established by our Board of Directors to create permanent endowment supporting our community, the Endowment for the Community makes grants to meet changing and pressing needs in Loudoun and Fauquier Counties. Gifts for Good Gifts for Good is an alternative gift portal with a collaboration of local human service organizations working together to offer you the perfect choice to make a gift in honor of someone special during an event or holiday celebration. Your gift will support 18 nonprofit organizations in Loudoun County working together to meet local needs. Your donation includes a printable card for you to send to the person your gift honors. PAW Fund Loudoun County charities that focus on animal safety, education, adoption, health, and overall animal welfare, as well as animal-based human therapy nonprofits, benefit from the PAW Fund, a giving circle founded by local veterinarians in 2018. Loudoun Impact Fund The Loudoun Impact Fund is a giving circle of annual philanthropic investors who review and recommend grants into our Loudoun Community. Make a gift to join this partnership between the Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties and our neighboring sister community foundation, the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia. Gifts to join are $1,000 per individual and $5,000 for businesses for a fall grants cycle. Learn more. ...
by Nicole Acosta | Nov 17, 2018 | Uncategorized
As we wrap up Community Foundation Week, we take a moment to honor all of our nonprofit partners in making Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties an incredible place to live, work, and play. And, we thank these local nonprofits who showed us some love for Community Foundation Week–we love you too! If you want to share why you <3 your Community Foundation, send a selfie with our sign (download to print here) to Nicole at nicole@communityfoundationlf.org and we’ll add yours to our photo gallery! Greg Masucci and Maya Wechsler, A Farm Less Ordinary Olivia Rogers and Katy Tyrrell Reed, Middleburg Community Center HealthWorks for Northern Virginia team Kasia Bochenek and Anarosa, YMCA Loudoun County Susan Mandel Giblin, Louodun Volunteer Caregivers, and her team Judy Hanley, Loudoun Abused Women’s Shelter, and her team Nikki Daruwala, Loudoun Literacy Council Nikki Daruwala, Loudoun Literacy Council Nikki Daruwala, Loudoun Literacy Council Beth Driggers, Volunteers of America Chesapeake, and her team Valerie Pisierra, Loudoun Cares Katey Comerford and team, Girls on the Run of Northern Virginia Carol Smith, Crossroads Jobs Bob Dale, Windy Hill Foundation Jennifer Montgomery, Loudoun Hunger Relief, and...
by Nicole Acosta | Nov 16, 2018 | Uncategorized
The Loudoun Chamber of Commerce has announced that its charitable foundation arm, the Loudoun Chamber Foundation, is accepting applications from local nonprofits seeking financial support for their work in our community. All Loudoun Chamber nonprofit members are eligible to submit an application for a Loudoun Chamber Foundation grant. The deadline to apply is 5 p.m. on December 1, 2018. Since it was launched in December of 2014, the Loudoun Chamber Foundation has awarded $60,000 in grants to 21 local nonprofit groups focused on issues as diverse as education, health care, hunger and mental health. In 2018, through both the Foundation and other fundraising activities, the Loudoun Chamber generated more than $40,000 for Loudoun-based nonprofit organizations. “The Loudoun Chamber is committed to investing in our community and supporting our nonprofit partners that are focused on improving the quality of life for our families, our employees and our neighbors. There are so many local nonprofits doing outstanding work to serve Loudoun’s citizens, businesses and workforce, and we are privileged to be in a position to support their work,” said Loudoun Chamber President Tony Howard. The Loudoun Chamber Foundation was created to provide financial support to area nonprofits that are focused on economic development, education and workforce development, public safety and healthy communities. The Loudoun Chamber Foundation’s grant application can be found at https://fs21.formsite.com/LoudounChamber/form33/index.html or at www.loudounchamber.org/non-profit-initiative. For questions about the application, please contact Tony Howard at...
by Nicole Acosta | Nov 14, 2018 | Uncategorized
As we celebrate National Community Foundation Week, learn more about Community Foundations in the US and across the world: What is a Community Foundation? A community foundation can be defined simply as a grantmaking public charity dedicated to improving the lives of people in a defined local geographic. Increasingly, however, larger community foundations are funding global initiatives, in addition to programs in their geographic region. Facts about Community Foundations · The first community foundation was created in 1914 in Cleveland, Ohio, and operates now as the Cleveland Foundation. · Every continent but Antarctica has a community foundation, and it is estimated that there are at least 1,000 community foundations outside of the United States and Canada. · As of 2015, there were 795 community foundations in the United States. Indiana has the highest number of any state, with 76 community foundations. · Total giving by community foundations in 2015 was nearly $7 billion. Community foundations in California gave the most, with total giving by community foundations in the state totaling nearly 1.5 billion dollars. · Nearly every type of gift, from cash to real estate to bitcoin to stock, can be donated to a community foundation....
by Nicole Acosta | Nov 14, 2018 | Uncategorized
Local donors and nonprofit leaders gathered today at Integrus Holdings as The Loudoun Impact Fund awarded $125,000 in grants to 16 nonprofit organizations serving Loudoun County. The awards were made possible through the generosity of more than 50 individuals and businesses that pooled charitable gifts. The Loudoun Impact Fund brings together individuals and businesses interested in grantmaking administered through a joint effort of the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia and the Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties. Participants make a gift of $1,000 per individual or $5,000 per business to join the giving circle. Members review proposals submitted from local nonprofits and decide together which charities to grant. More than $270,000 in grant requests were received. “The quality of the grant requests clearly demonstrates the level of need in our county, our community. We’re trying to make a small dent in the charitable giving deficit in Loudoun,” stated giving circle co-chair, Robert Fiolek. “Doing so with a group of energetic, like-minded, sincere neighbors brings an added level of gratification that, together, we can make an impact.” Terry Allen, another co-chair of the Loudun Impact Fund, said “’Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much’ embodies the spirit of the Loudoun Impact Fund. This is without a doubt my favorite way to donate, as a group, working together, to better our community.” “We love our partnership with the Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties through which both our organizations leverage our entire networks to grow and sustain philanthropy in Loudoun County. It is important work made possible through a joint effort that...
by Amy Owen | Nov 13, 2018 | Uncategorized
If I could, I’d introduce you to Mrs. Lopez. She’s a widow and in her late 70s. She has some health issues faced by many of us in that time of life. Mrs. Lopez is benefiting from innovation that our collective grantmaking dollars fostered here at the Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties. Mrs. Lopez is a patient of Loudoun’s local nonprofit community health center, Healthworks, serving thousands of low-income families. When Ms. Lopez’s physician asks about her diet, if that doctor gets any hint she isn’t getting the variety needed for a good diet, the doctor writes her a “prescription” to go downstairs and get her weekly “prescription” of fresh veggies. Meanwhile, Loudoun Hunger Relief delivers fresh vegetables to Healthworks just for this purpose. It’s a match made in heaven—made possible because of local philanthropy. This story—along with the countless others like it—demonstrates the importance of community foundations in Loudoun County and other communities across the country. We are uniquely situated to improve our communities by supporting innovative solutions and creating powerful partnerships. From Nov. 12 to 18, we celebrate Community Foundation Week, a time when we can share and reflect on the stories of impact over the last year. Though you may not yet know your local Community Foundation, you’ve likely felt our impact. We granted almost $1 million to more than 100 local charities last year. Still, our work is much more than funder. We are conveners, workshop leaders, partnership builders, and champions of philanthropy. Have you come across our Faces of Loudoun community service campaign? It’s our way to introduce you to your neighbors through personal stories featuring real people. From hunger, to mental health struggles, to health, to...
by Nicole Acosta | Nov 12, 2018 | Uncategorized
During the week of November 12-18, 2018, The Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties will join more than 795 community foundations across America celebrating Community Foundation Week. For 29 years, the effort has raised awareness about the increasingly important role of these philanthropic organizations in fostering local collaboration and innovation to address persistent civic and economic challenges. Last week, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution, proclaiming November 12-18 as Community Foundation Week in Loudoun County. Throughout the week, we will highlight the impact of Loudoun’s local community foundation with facts and information about the impact of community foundations. “We have seen the impact that community foundations across the country can have on the lives of those in their regions,” said Amy Owen, President of the Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties. “We are more determined than ever to bring our community partners together to find innovative and effective solutions for some of our most challenging social problems and advance the most promising of opportunities to benefit our residents.” Community foundations are independent, public entities that steward philanthropic resources from institutional and individual donors to local nonprofits that are the heart of strong, vibrant communities. Locally, the Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties has demonstrated this leadership with initiatives such as the raising awareness of community needs through the Faces of Loudoun campaign, nonprofit training through the Nonprofit Academy, in partnership with the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce, nonprofit leadership development through the Social Impact Institute, and increased philanthropic giving through the annual Give Choose day of giving in Loudoun County....
by Nicole Acosta | Nov 7, 2018 | Uncategorized
“And the winner is…” Last week, Amy Owen, President and CEO of the Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties, was named Entrepreneur of the Year at the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce 2018 Small Business Awards. One of the top honors of this annual event, this prestigious award recognizes Owen’s hard work, dedication, and business savvy that has led the Community Foundation to incredible growth in her tenure as the organization’s leader. How did she do it? “I followed the path that almost every entrepreneur follows: overtime galore; walking the balance beam between networking and must-do desk projects; establishing best practices and finding practical solutions; and wooing and cultivating the team willing to volunteer and own the vision,” Owen stated. Celebrating with over 500 of Loudoun’s small business leaders, Owen gave the following remarks during her acceptance speech: WOW! In one of the most entrepreneurial communities ever, this is such a high honor. Thank you to the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce, in the biggest way, for its culture of building its own reputation by showcasing the reputation and work of others. And, thank you to the Chamber for recognizing that nonprofits are businesses and entrepreneurial, too. We do have one difference. Nonprofits have volunteer Board of Directors that are part of the Leadership Team. And, the Community Foundation’s Board is a starship enterprise. This honor is shared with them. So many fellow nonprofits could share this stage. Just like any business, it takes grit and ingenuity to keep a nonprofit running well. That’s especially true in Loudoun County. Did you know that Loudoun has some of our lowest household...
