A Monument for Peace and a Beacon for the Future

Tonia Wellons with Carrie Hessler-Radelet, former Director of the Peace Corps (2014-2017) and Glenn Blumhorst, Chief Advancement Officer of the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation

Earlier this month, our President & CEO Tonia Wellons convened a small gathering of friends and supporters to discuss plans for Peace Corps Park – a National Monument dedicated to the Peace Corps and its legacy of international service. The project will also include a digital platform and community outreach project to engage past, present, and future Peace Corps Volunteers.

Established in 1961, the Peace Corps has been instrumental at promoting world peace and friendship for more than 60 years by providing international service opportunities for US Citizens in more than 60 countries.

“The Peace Corps has provided so many invaluable global experiences for members of our community,” Tonia Wellons shared. Prior to joining The Community Foundation, Wellons served as the Head of Global Partnerships for the Peace Corps during the Obama Administration. Many of our colleagues serving local philanthropy and fundholders are either returned peace corps volunteers or have backgrounds in international development service. “We’re especially excited for what this project will mean for our local community – and our international community. With so many memorials dedicated to war, it will be a breath of fresh air to have one dedicated to peace.”

“We want to create a space that not only honors the Peace Corps, but also builds the community,” Glenn Blumhorst, Chief Advancement Officer with the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation shared. “There are so many inspiring stories of service within the Peace Corps, and the Greater Washington Region is a large part of that.”

Part of creating that space involves creating a digital platform where past and current Peace Corps Volunteers can experience Peace Corps Park in virtual reality, as well as share their stories.

The design and location of Peace Corps Park were approved by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts in November 2021. The Community Foundation is proud to support this project through our Fund for Greater Washington.

For more information, visit https://www.peacecorpscommemorative.org/

Turning Empathy Into Action

Reflections from Tonia Wellons, President & CEO, Greater Washington Community Foundation

All week I’ve been wrestling with what we might do or say to offer comfort to people who are impacted directly or indirectly by the crisis in the Middle East – Israeli people, Palestinian people, and all who suffer violence, terror or threats of terror, and crimes against their humanity.  At the Greater Washington Community Foundation, we strongly condemn antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate and bigotry and we unequivocally stand against acts of hate, violence, and the loss of innocent lives. We offer our deep empathy and compassion to the innocent civilians, their families, and all who are impacted by this crisis. Safety is a basic human right that we all deserve, and we pray for peace, both here and abroad..

I have discussed this crisis with staff and members of our Board and Advisory Boards to share our collective grief and concern. These conversations have resurfaced the hurt, trauma, fear, discomfort, and polarization that people are experiencing. I know that thoughts and prayers have become symbolic given the number of crises we’ve experienced, especially over the last several years. 

I am also struck by the strength and resolve our community has shown, both now and historically, to quickly channel pain into philanthropy (an expression of love and compassion) and contribute to organizations providing aid to the victims. As I’ve shared before, I firmly believe that the antidote to respond to catastrophe is to choose community.

In the coming weeks and months, our Community Foundation intends to expand upon the interfaith series of dialogues we’ve hosted over the last year with even more faith leaders around the table. Additionally, we intend to make matching grants aligned with Montgomery County’s Nonprofit Security Grants program, administered by the Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, to help protect “nonprofit and religious organizations with additional funding to enhance the security of their facilities and promote safety within the communities they serve,” due to the uptick in threats of violence specifically in Montgomery County.

For our donors and partners who are looking for a way to move from empathy to action, please contact us for guidance on how to contribute to humanitarian efforts.

A Statement On Solidarity and Justice

Over the course of many months, the Greater Washington Community Foundation, the Jewish Community Foundation by The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, and the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers have been in dialogue about ways in which our region’s Black and Jewish communities can operate with greater alignment, solidarity, and allyship, rebuilding the historic ties of these communities.

As community leaders, we recognize the interest and imperative for strengthening communal relationships generally, and more especially are committed to this pressing opportunity to address antisemitism, anti-Black racism, and bigotry more broadly. We are committed to combatting all forms of hate and extremism in our region. Recognizing the parallel missions and convictions of many of our donors and partners, we believe now is the time to deepen the understanding between our communities and our commitment to action, starting with an interfaith lens.

In February 2023, we co-hosted a small gathering for Black pastors and rabbis to break bread for mutual understanding. Our intention overtime is to expand these conversations to other sectors, faiths, and communities of color. We recognize there is a need to seed and catalyze solidarity through place-based strategies and transformational relationships between Black, Jewish, and other peoples as we engage in grantmaking and work together towards a racially just future. In addition, you can expect a specific body of work that deliberately explores this topic with institutional philanthropy, donors, and nonprofit partners.  

You will hear from us about opportunities for engagement that will deepen our historical relationships to accelerate social action efforts already underway and identify new opportunities for collective action.

Sincerely,

Sara Brenner

Executive Director,
Jewish Community Foundation by The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington

Ruth LaToison Ifill

President & CEO,
Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers

Tonia Wellons

President and CEO,
Greater Washington Community Foundation

Budgeting to End Homelessness: A Letter to DC Mayor Bowser

Dear Mayor Bowser:

I am writing on behalf of the Greater Washington Community Foundation and its Partnership to End Homelessness Leadership Council. We are very grateful for your ongoing leadership to reduce homelessness, and we applaud your bold third-term goals to advance economic and racial equity. As you work to develop your Fiscal Year 2024 budget proposal, we ask that your agenda for equity prioritize ending chronic homelessness and making substantial investments in affordable housing for DC households with extremely low incomes (0-30 MFI). In addition, we urge you to take steps to connect DC residents experiencing homelessness with the substantial number of vouchers funded for this purpose in recent years.

As you know, the Partnership to End Homelessness is a collective effort of private sector business leaders, philanthropists, and national and local nonprofits working to ensure homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring. The Partnership provides direct investments to strengthen the homeless services system and increase the supply of deeply affordable and supportive housing in every ward of the city. We know that the private sector and philanthropy play an important role in supporting and funding efforts to end homelessness. However, we also know the city’s success depends on the leadership of the DC government in both adequately funding and skillfully implementing evidence-based solutions.

Our FY 2024 budget recommendations align with the recommendations of our community advocacy partners. The recommendations below reflect several realities: the ongoing economic instability resulting from the pandemic, the need for continued funding to end chronic homelessness, the challenges DC has faced to implement the vouchers funded in recent years, and the enormous need for deeply affordable housing. Our recommendations are as follows:

Expand Permanent Supportive Housing and Targeted Affordable Housing to end chronic homelessness: We recommend:

• $36.6 million in Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) to end chronic homelessness for 1,260 single adults

• $18.9 million for PSH for 480 families and $58.4 million for Targeted Affordable Housing for 1,920 families. These investments would end homelessness for all families who are living in shelters or struggling with the uncertainty and challenges of Rapid Re-Housing.

Support Emergency Rental Assistance for all who need it: One-sixth of DC residents with low incomes are behind on their rent. Meanwhile, rents continue to rise sharply, even in rent controlled units. The pandemic and its ongoing impacts highlight the critical importance of funding emergency rental assistance at much higher levels than before the pandemic. Due to the combination of rising rents, the higher numbers of eviction filings and the higher number of actual evictions, sustained and increased ERAP funding is needed to avert preventable evictions and increases in homelessness and housing instability. We recommend:

• $117 million in FY 202 to fund DC’s ERAP program.

Provide sufficient staffing to put residents into PSH: A shortage of case managers and outreach workers has made it hard for the District to connect residents who are eligible for PSH with housing. This failure contributes to the inability to help residents move from tent encampments to their own home and results in human suffering and widespread frustration.

• We urge you to provide enough funding in the Department of Human Services for the staffing needed to ensure every available unit of PSH is connected with a resident experiencing homelessness.

• We ask you to work closely and urgently with the DC housing Authority to identify and implement collaborative solutions to address long processing times for vouchers.

Preserve Public Housing, Expand Affordable Housing: Housing is the solution to homelessness. We urge you to make a substantial commitment to affordable housing for households earning 0- 30 percent of the Median Family Income (MFI). Expanding deeply affordable housing, paired with targeted funding to end homelessness, will create the long-term housing stability needed to provide security to all DC residents and to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring. We recommend:

• $60 million to repair and preserve public housing.

• $17.3 million for 800 Local Rent Supplement Tenant Vouchers, to assist those on the DC Housing Authority waitlist.

Support safe and affordable housing for targeted populations: The District’s housing investments should take into account the unique needs of certain populations. To that end, we recommend:

• $18.6 million for housing for victims of domestic violence, including building new permanently affordable housing, supporting transitional housing, and providing emergency housing support. Collectively, this will support 166 families.

• $1.3 million to provide tenant vouchers to 60 returning citizens

Create storage options for people experiencing homelessness: One of the traumatizing consequences of experiencing homelessness is the inability to safely secure and maintain one’s belongings. We recommend:

• $1.5 million to create storage options for 600 residents experiencing homelessness.

Expand non-congregate shelter for people experiencing homelessness: The District should take steps to transform its shelter system to make them smaller, safer, and trauma informed. Shifting away from large congregate shelters is essential to supporting the dignity of unhoused residents but also to help them recover.

Continue to invest in homelessness prevention: We urge you to expand programs that help prevent homelessness, including Project Reconnect, an effective and low-cost program that enables people to exit homelessness quickly.

Support efforts to end youth homelessness: We recommend:

• $25 million to increase youth homelessness provider contracts to account for inflation and provide providers the opportunity to administer recruitment and retention bonuses to staff. (DHS)

•  $1.7 million to create a traveling mental health unit to meet the mental health needs of unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness. This unit will meet youth where they physically congregate to increase access to mental health support. (DBH)

• $1.1 million to create a targeted workforce development program for unaccompanied youth experience homelessness mirroring the Youth Works model which not only provides workforce supports but wraparound services (DOES)

As the District works to address serious ongoing challenges and the impact of the pandemic, including high levels of housing instability, it is imperative to continue prioritizing actions that will advance racial and economic equity and meet the needs of DC residents with the lowest incomes. Not only is that the right thing to do, but it also is essential to DC’s future. Stable and affordable housing is the key to creating healthy communities, which in turn supports school success, promotes public safety, and narrows DC’s racial income and wealth gaps.

Thank you again for your leadership and commitment to ending homelessness in our city. We urge you to make 2024 the year that DC makes bold and significant investments to end homelessness and to increase the supply of deeply affordable housing for extremely low-income households.

Sincerely,

Tonia Wellons

President and CEO, Greater Washington Community Foundation
Chair, Partnership to End Homelessness Leadership Council

A Video Message from Tonia Wellons, President & CEO

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year! I am so excited for all that awaits us in 2023!

This past holiday season, I took a moment to reflect on just how impactful 2022 was for us, and for our broader community.

Last year alone, we received over $100 Million in gifts to and through The Community Foundation from generous donors and partners. We also granted more than $85 Million to nonprofit organizations and community organizations and completed the first year of our 10-year strategic vision to increase economic mobility with a north star of closing our region's racial wealth gap.

As we enter 2023, we look forward to celebrating 50 years of shared impact and history with all of you who have made The Community Foundation what it is today -- and what it will become in the next 50 years!

We look forward to sharing with you an exciting calendar of events that will be included in your monthly newsletter next week. I hope you will join us in celebrating this incredible milestone for our organization.

On behalf of all of us at The Community Foundation, we thank you for your commitment to this community and to this region. We look forward to continuing to partner and ensure that we create a place where everyone prospers.

Sincerely,

Tonia Wellons
President and CEO
Greater Washington Community Foundation

Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?

By Tonia Wellons, President & CEO of the Greater Washington Community Foundation

As the year comes to a close, I have been reflecting on our work at The Community Foundation to promote a more just and equitable region.

Recent events have compelled me to stop and think about what it means for a community to be equitable, just, and thriving. I am reminded of a refrain instigated by Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1967 just before his assassination, “Where do we go from here: Chaos or Community?”

During times of immense community crisis, pain, divisiveness, unfathomable violence, hate, and bigotry, do we choose to come together as a community or do we let chaos reign over us? Over the last several years, I have seen our neighbors choose community and engage deeply in word and deed as we reacted to the “Muslim bans” in 2017; following the Tree of Life shooting in 2018; and as we spoke out against the rise in police killings of unarmed Black Americans, including George Floyd.

What is happening both in our community and across the country right now requires that we ponder this question again, as we raise awareness and concern about the uptick in antisemitic incidences nationally, and especially in our local community.

In line with the Greater Washington Community Foundation’s commitment to racial equity and inclusion and our dedication to justice and belonging, we answer the question by standing in solidarity with the Jewish community, especially in Greater Washington. We unequivocally condemn all acts of hate, religious bigotry, and intimidation in any form.

We believe that racism and antisemitism are part of a parallel narrative and harmful actions that work against our core values. These dueling systems rip apart shared ambitions for justice and for community.

I invite you to join us and choose community over chaos. To choose belonging over bigotry, antisemitism, racism, and other hateful ideologies that have no place in the Greater Washington region.

In the period ahead, we look forward to interrogating our shared ambitions, values, commitments, and actions toward building an equitable region for all.

The Community Foundation Applauds Housing Investments in DC Budget; Urges Continued Action

Dear Councilmembers, 

As we begin the new fiscal year, the Greater Washington Community Foundation and its Partnership to End Homelessness Leadership Council thank you for the substantial progress made toward ending homelessness through the FY 2023 DC budget. Thanks to your efforts, hundreds of individuals and families facing chronic homelessness will have the dignity and security of a permanent home, putting DC on a path to ending chronic homelessness. That is a truly amazing accomplishment that should be celebrated.  

The Partnership to End Homelessness (PTEH) is a collective effort of private sector business leaders, philanthropists, and national and local nonprofits working to ensure homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring. The Partnership members engage directly to end homelessness in DC, but we know that public-sector investment, aligned with private sector resources, is the only way to ensure that everyone in our community has the stability that housing provides.

The progress made in the FY 2023 budget is laudable. We thank you for adopting a budget that provides permanent supportive housing to 500 individuals and 260 families, funding to help 400 families facing expiring Rapid Rehousing subsidies, and $51 million for badly needed repairs to public housing.  We also applaud the provision of $444 million for the Housing Production Trust Fund, with a commitment to meeting the target that 50 percent is used to serve households with incomes below 30 percent of Median Family Income.

The budget is the necessary first step of the process toward ending homelessness, but not the end. It will be critically important to take steps to ensure that funds are put to use effectively, with assertive steps to implement them and with active Council oversight. In particular, we urge you to work with the DC Housing Authority to ensure that new vouchers are made available quickly and that public housing repair funds are used well. We appreciate the legislation adopted by the Council, that allows voucher holders to self-certify their identity, and other efforts to remove barriers to leasing up a unit. We urge you to do even more to ensure that residents can use their voucher quickly and easily to get into a home of their choice.  And we fervently ask you to meet the HPTF requirement to target households with extremely low incomes, which has not been met for years.

Beyond that, maintaining the progress in the FY 2023 budget is critically important and will require greater future investments in deeply affordable housing and eviction prevention, places where the FY 2023 budget fell short.  As we start looking toward the FY 2024 budget – it is never too early – we are concerned that the District’s budget did not provide enough funding for all families with expiring Rapid Rehousing subsidies, and did not create a plan for fixing that program’s serious problems. We urge the Council to pass pending Rapid ReHousing reforms, and for the mayor and Council to fund them in the next budget cycle. The 2023 budget also seriously underfunded emergency rental assistance and provided a very small number of LRSP vouchers compared with the need. These must be priorities as we continue to work toward our shared goal of ending homelessness in DC.

Thank you again for your leadership and commitment to ending homelessness in our city. We look forward to continuing to work with you to ensure everyone in DC has a safe and stable place to call home.

Sincerely,

Tonia Wellons

President & CEO
Greater Washington Community Foundation

Co-Chair Partnership to End Homelessness Leadership Council 

Celebrating A Year of Leadership

On April 2, 2020—just one day after DC’s official COVID-19 stay-at-home orders were announced—Tonia Wellons was named President and CEO of The Community Foundation. This followed a half-year search during which she served as interim CEO of the organization. 

Today, on Tonia’s one year anniversary, we celebrate her steadfast leadership and vision. Throughout 2020, Tonia remained determined to care for our community with urgency and with care - and the community took notice. 

Through her many media features, awards and accolades this past year, we are so humbled and appreciative of all the positive support she’s received. Below, get to know Tonia better, and learn about some of this year’s top highlights. 

Introducing Tonia: ‘A Steadfast Vision Offering Us Hope’

Read about Tonia’s background and experience, and her vision for The Community Foundation. Hear what it was like starting as CEO during a pandemic and how she is shaping The Community Foundation’s priorities in response to the evolving crisis. 

• ‘Greater Washington Community Foundation Named Permanent CEO,’  Washington Business Journal

• ‘Meet Tonia Wellons, appointed CEO of a regional nonprofit the day after stay-at-home orders were put in place,’ Washington Business Journal 

• ‘Community Foundation Leaders Talk Rapid Response and Evolving Roles During Crisis,’ Inside Philanthropy 

Celebrating Her Leadership: ‘A Collaborator On The Journey Toward Solutions’

Learn about two significant awards Tonia received this year, which honored the incredible community leadership she’s provided amidst the COVID-19 crisis.

• Washington Business Journal’s Nonprofit Leader of the Year Award

• Named one of Washingtonian Magazine’s ‘Heroes of the Crisis’

Thought Leadership in Action

Last summer, Tonia wrote a Washington Post op-ed with Ursual Wright, Managing Director for FSG, where she referred to the pandemic as a ‘trifecta of crisis:’ health, economic, and democratic. Read more about her views on this crisis - and her perspective from being on the frontlines of philanthropy.

• ‘How To Reconstruct An Equitable Future For Our Region,’ Washington Post 

• “From the Frontline: How a Philanthropy Professional Views the COVID-19 Experience,” Washington Life Magazine

Tonia Wellons Named Nonprofit Leader of the Year by Washington Business Journal

Dear Friends of The Community Foundation,

Photo by EMAN MOHAMMED/WBJ
Courtesy of Washington Business Journal

What a year it has been! In light of the ongoing crisis and continuing cycle of bad news, I wanted to share the exciting news that Tonia Wellons, our fearless CEO, has been named Nonprofit Leader of the Year by The Washington Business Journal.

Tonia could not have taken over as The Community Foundation's permanent President and CEO at a tougher time. Tonia has proven to be the exact right leader for this moment and for our community. Under Tonia’s leadership and with the tireless work of our amazing staff, together with the generosity of all of you and many others in our community, we have raised over $10 million to date for our COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund.

As we continue to respond to the ongoing crisis and move forward with other critical initiatives, I hope you will join me in congratulating Tonia by making a gift to support The Community Foundation's work.

Congratulations to Tonia for this well-deserved recognition of your hard work!

Yours,
Katharine Weymouth
Chair, Board of Trustees
Greater Washington Community Foundation

Tonia Wellons named one of Washingtonian's "Heroes of the Crisis"

Tonia Wellons, President and CEO, of the Greater Washington Community Foundation, was recognized for our efforts to help struggling arts groups as part of the Washingtonian‘s feature on “Heroes of the Crisis.” The feature shines the spotlight on “some of the people who have helped get us through these most challenging of times” from medical professionals to social-justice activists to culinary stars.

How to reconstruct an equitable future for our region

In an opinion piece for the Washington Post, Tonia Wellons and Ursula Wright explore a new framework for for reconstructing a more equitable future for our region.