A Year in Review: Looking Back at the Top Milestones from 2022

Now that 2022 has come to a close, we’re reflecting on and celebrating our most impactful stories from the past year – from launching the $95 million Health Equity Fund, to the creation of the Children’s Opportunity Alliance, to appointing a new Chair of the Board of Trustees. Here are some of our most meaningful milestones from 2022.

Outlining a Vision for Change at the Celebration of Philanthropy

At the 2022 Celebration of Philanthropy, President & CEO Tonia Wellons outlined The Community Foundation’s strategic vision and path to pursue economic justice, with a neighborhood-centered approach to over 200 supporters, community partners, and friends gathered at the Warner Theatre.

The evening included a special conversation with two of the country’s leading experts on racial inequality – Dr. Rashawn Ray, a Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution and Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, and Dr. Thomas Shapiro, award-winning author and Professor of Law and Social Policy at Brandeis University – to reflect on the causes and consequences of the racial wealth gap, and how can we pursue economic justice for the Greater Washington region.

Let’s GO DMV! Guaranteed Income Pilot launches in DC

In April, The Community Foundation joined if, a Foundation for Radical Possibility, Meyer Foundation, and other partners to announce the launch of Let’s GO DMV! – a 5-year guaranteed income pilot that provides $1,000 a month–no strings attached– to 75 hospitality workers who lost their jobs during COVID. All but one of the workers are individuals of color.

Let’s GO DMV! is designed to get cash in people’s hands – giving them increased flexibility and financial freedom to overcome the systemic barriers they face. Our hope is that this initiative can be used as a case for future government-supported programs and policies that are needed to advance economic justice.

Historic Health Equity Fund Announces Inaugural Grant Round Targeting Economic Mobility

In October, The Community Foundation announced $9.2 million in grants during the inaugural round of funding from the Health Equity Fund. The grants focused on boldly investing in economic mobility and wealth-building in DC’s historically underinvested communities – recognizing that 80 percent of DC’s health outcomes are driven by social, economic, and other factors, compared to just 20 percent by clinical care

The historic $95 million fund was welcomed to The Community Foundation’s philanthropic family earlier this year. The fund is governed by a seven-member Health Equity Committee, in partnership with the Greater Washington Community Foundation and is dedicated to supporting innovative systems-changing strategies as well as existing approaches that improve prospects for Black, Latinx, Indigenous, people of color, and other marginalized populations.

Partnership To End Homelessness Invests in the Future of Homeless Services

This year, the Partnership to End Homelessness provided grants to enroll 26 nonprofit partners in The Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH)’s Supportive Housing Medicaid Academy.

The six-week series provided invaluable trainings and one-on-one technical assistance to nonprofits in the permanent supportive housing (PSH) space – including smaller, BIPOC-led organizations. As a result, these organizations will be better prepared to leverage an estimated $20+ million in new, annual federal resources made available through Medicaid this past summer.

The new Medicaid funding could be a breakthrough in our region’s fight against homelessness; specifically for our PSH programs -- one of the leading nationally-recognized solutions to chronic homelessness.

Children’s Opportunity Alliance Named Montgomery County Coordinating Entity for Ages 0-5

In July, Montgomery County leaders announced the launch of the Montgomery County Children’s Opportunity Alliance, a nonprofit entity that will connect partners in support of equitable outcomes for children from birth through age 5. 

The Children’s Opportunity Alliance is a new independent nonprofit organization that transitioned from the Children’s Opportunity Fund, a public-private impact initiative created by the Greater Washington Community Foundation, Montgomery County Government and Montgomery County Public Schools in 2014.

Bringing Faith & Philanthropy Together in Prince George’s County

In June, The Community Foundation convened faith, nonprofit, and philanthropic leaders from across Prince George’s County to recognize the important role that the faith community has historically played in the fight for social and economic justice and will continue to play, as we partner together to close the racial wealth gap.

Greater Washington Community Foundation Welcomes Richard Bynum as New Board Chair

In September, The Community Foundation announced the appointment of Richard K. Bynum, Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer for The PNC Financial Services Group, as the new Chair of its Board of Trustees.

Bynum is an accomplished executive with nearly 20 years of executive leadership experience. As chief corporate responsibility officer for The PNC Financial Services Group and a member of its Executive Committee, Bynum leads the PNC Foundation, Community Affairs, ESG practice, Community Development Banking, and Diversity and Inclusion.

Bynum succeeded Katharine Weymouth who served as Board Chair since September 2020. During her tenure as Chair, Weymouth oversaw the hiring of Tonia Wellons as permanent President and CEO in 2020 and she played a key role during the development of The Community Foundation’s new 10-year strategic vision.

Celebrating $1.5 Billion in Giving & Looking to the Future at the 2022 Annual Meeting

In October, The Community Foundation hosted its 2022 Annual Meeting at The National Press Club and via livestream. The event capped off a record-breaking year of growth and community impact for The Community Foundation and its donors and partners – which recently surpassed $1.5 billion in grantmaking (with approximately $93 million given in FY22, alone).

The event also included a panel discussion with two nationally recognized experts on economic mobility – a major focus of The Community Foundation’s strategic vision, outlined by President & CEO, Tonia Wellons. The panel included Nisha Patel, co-author of the study Restoring the American Dream, and Gary Cunningham, President & CEO of Prosperity Now, and touched on a wide range of topics, including entrepreneurship, the need for more investment in social safety nets, shifting policies and practices to advance economic mobility, and the need to center these policies around lived experiences.

Continuing our Learning Journey at the DMV Community Book Group

Our quarterly DMV Community Book Group hosted several riveting discussions this past year that created invaluable space for conversation around economic and social justice.

In September, we hosted Anne Price for a conversation about her article “What We Get Wrong About Closing the Racial Wealth Gap”. Price outlined how there is no “one-size fits all” solution to closing the racial wealth gap, and outlined the importance of redefining racial wealth.

In December, we invited Dr. Manuel Pastor to discuss his book Solidarity Economics: Why Mutuality and Movements Matter. We learned about the vital role that social movements play in creating a society and economy that work for everyone.

The Community Foundation Closes out COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund with Investment in Mutual Aid Groups

Recognizing the critical role of mutual aid networks in responding to current and future crises, the Greater Washington Community Foundation awarded $250,000 in grants to support mutual aid groups in their work to help neighbors meet basic needs, support vaccine education and access, strengthen political education and organizing, and more.

These investments marked an important milestone as they represent the final grants issued from the COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund established at the onset of the pandemic.

The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Recognized with 2022 Arts Champions Award

In December, The Community Foundation was proud to recognize The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation with the 2022 Arts Champion Award, in recognition of its outstanding commitment to helping arts organizations adapt and respond to the pandemic.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the Cafritz Foundation was among the first to recognize the devastating impact that it would have on the region. Within weeks, the foundation approved a $1 million grant to The Community Foundation’s COVID-19 Response Fund – one of the largest single contributions to the fund -- at a time when uncertainty surrounding the pandemic was at its height.

A month later, the Cafritz Foundation made a lead grant of $500,000 to launch Arts Forward Fund – a collaborative partnership with The Community Foundation and more than a dozen other individual and institutional contributors, and followed up with a second grant of $400,000 in 2021. Since October 2020, the fund has distributed more than $2.7 million in grants to 100+ organizations, providing essential resources to help them continue their work during the pandemic.

Advocates Hold 10th Annual Vigil for Dozens who have Died without Housing

On a night when temperatures were expected to drop below freezing, friends and advocates for DC’s Homeless Community huddled around an empty coffin at Luther Memorial Church, honoring of the 70+ DC Residents who have died without housing in 2022.

“Today we say goodbye to over 70 people – 70 people that are no longer with us, but whose memories we will always carry,” Donald Whitehead, Executive Director of the National Coalition for the Homeless shared prior to the procession in what could only be described as an impassioned eulogy.

Donald Whitehead, Executive Director of the National Coalition for the Homeless addresses friends and advocates at Luther Memorial Church.

“These were unnecessary deaths,” he continued. “Most of them preventable and would not have happened in a safe, decent affordable home. For most of them, there was no funeral; no headstone; no accolades read out – regardless of their accomplishments in life. Because they were forced into homelessness, it is up to us – to this congregation of the willing to say, one last time “we’re glad you were here”.

“It is in their memory – and in memory of thousands of others across the US – that we must change the conditions of this country – and we must do it today! We must end homelessness – and we must end it now!”

On each pew, sat a list of names of those who have died without housing in 2022 (thus far). While many of their stories and pasts remain untold, the data that is available reveals a grim narrative. The average age of the deceased was 55 – with the oldest being nearly 80 years old.

Perhaps most concerning to housing advocates is the number of deaths that were nearly prevented. More than 60% of those on the list had received a housing voucher but died before they could be housed – a troubling statistic that underscores one of the most glaring pitfalls of the current housing system.

“Of the 70 people who died without housing, 81 percent were Black,” explained Jesse Rabinowitz, the Senior Manager of Policy & Advocacy who helped compile the list as part of Miriam’s Kitchen’s The Way Home Campaign.

“As a city, we paint ‘Black Lives Matter’ on the sidewalk – clearly, we need to do more to ensure that Black Lives are not dying on the sidewalk.”

Following the service, the participants filed out onto 14th Street where they followed the empty coffin on a mile-long march towards Freedom Plaza.

For some in the procession of fifty or so participants, this was their first time at the annual vigil – which has become something of a somber holiday tradition in the homeless community.

For those at the front of the procession; the pallbearers – especially those with ‘lived experience’ of homelessness, this was their 10th time – a decade milestone that represents far too many cold sleepless nights and far too many friends needlessly lost.

“I know the feeling of the hard concrete before the cold,” Andrew Anderson, Outreach Director with the People for Fairness Coalition shared. “It’s part of why I do what I do – getting out on the streets and giving hope to those that need it the most. ‘Cuz I know how hard it can be.”

“We’re all outreach directors in our own right,” he added. “Any time you go the extra mile to give hope to the homeless in any way you know how. While many – especially those out in the cold tonight – want to give up hope, we know that housing is a human right. As long as there is a collective of the willing to fight for that right, there is hope.”

People for Fairness Coalition (PFFC) hosts this annual vigil each year and is a partner of The Community Foundation through our Partnership to End Homelessness.

To learn more about our work and how you can get involved visit www.endhomelessnessdc.org. To learn more about PFFC and how to support their work visit pffcdc.org.

Mutual Aid Groups: Preparing for Tomorrow’s Crises by Investing in Today’s Problem Solvers

Ever since early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a tremendous mobilization in the social services sector. Within weeks, nonprofit organizations across the country scrambled to shift their operations to meet community needs – organizing new programs, experimenting with new technologies, and seeking new ways to connect and collaborate with community members.

Yet perhaps the most impressive mobilization has come from a different source – Mutual Aid Networks -- a growing movement of neighbors helping neighbors on a grassroots level.

“Mutual aid is a critical part of our region’s social safety net,” said Tonia Wellons, President and CEO of the Greater Washington Community Foundation. “When neighbors help neighbors meet their basic needs, it strengthens the whole community’s ability to address current crises – and weather future ones, as they continue along the path to economic progress.”

While the concept of mutual aid has been around for a long time, the pandemic saw a dramatic increase in the organization and mobilization of networks throughout the Greater Washington region. Neighbors mobilized to help each other with issues that ranged from food and transportation needs to utilities assistance.

“The heart of our work is to redistribute wealth and resources to Black communities in DC who are facing rapid displacement,” one organizer with Serve Your City, Ward 6 Mutual Aid shared. “When a community can care for itself from within, leaders are developed, and new power models are created.”

In addition to greatly increasing the efficiency and reach of ongoing relief efforts, these power models can provide vital infrastructure and partnership opportunities for future community-wealth building initiatives.

“Our dream is to create sustainability within Black neighborhoods so that the city's most long-standing residents can maintain homes within thriving communities,” another organizer added. “We are all best served when our community is safe and healthy, and when communities have agency over decision-making.”

Recognizing the critical role of mutual aid networks in responding to current and future crises, the Greater Washington Community Foundation recently awarded $250,000 in grants to help meet the basic needs of low-income residents, bridge diverse communities, support vaccine education/access, strengthen political education and organizing, and more.

These investments also marked a milestone for The Community Foundation as they represent the final grants issued from the organization’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund established at the onset of the pandemic.

“We are grateful for the donors and nonprofit partners who have stood by us and our community during one of the most trying and transformative periods in its history,” Wellons said.

“Though this concludes our immediate crisis response work, we will continue working together with our partners to prepare for future crises and to support pathways to economic mobility so more people can overcome everyday crises that prevent them from thriving in our region.”

Grant Recipients include:

East of the River Mutual Aid (EORMA/Grassroots DC)

To support the work of East of the River Mutual Aid in Wards 7 and 8 to provide residents with basic needs such as groceries, hot meals, hygiene items, cleaning supplies, school supplies, transportation, emergency housing, clothing, baby formula, diapers and more. EORMA will also provide support related to grief/loss, elderly resident support, political education/organizing, and operates a COVID-19 hotline to help neighbors with vaccine education/access.

Serve Your City/Ward 6 Mutual Aid (SYC/W6MA)

To support the work of Serve Your City/ Ward 6 Mutual Aid Network in Wards 5,6, 7 and 8, including food and supply distribution, providing critical supplies and advocating alongside unhoused neighbors for access to resources, youth education and workforce programs, digital divide program, and political organizing and advocacy.

Silver Spring & Takoma Park Mutual Aid (SSTPMA)

To support mutual aid efforts in the Silver Spring, Takoma Park, and Kensington areas of Montgomery County that includes grocery store gift cards and financial assistance for utility bills. Funding will help expand the capacity of ongoing work as well as assist with the backlog of requests for assistance.

Ward 3 Mutual Aid (W3MA)

To support food assistance programs including buying /delivering groceries to neighbors, grocery gift cards, Ward 3 Food Pantry and household cleaning supplies, and financial assistance to other mutual aid groups in the city. W3MA has an ongoing commitment to providing support to East of The River Mutual Aid and to supporting a hot meal program for low-income people in other wards.

Ward 5 Mutual Aid (W5MA)

To support mutual aid efforts in Ward 5 and help neighbors with basic needs including groceries, personal and household items. W5MA operates a grocery delivery system and supply hub which is staffed by volunteers and has a storehouse of canned/dry food items, some fresh produce, diapers, and clothing. Funding will help meet the consistent inflow of grocery requests, and growing backlog.

The Hope Collective

To support a group of nonprofit organizations in Prince George’s County that utilize their resources collaboratively to provide school-based and community wraparound services in areas where violent crime is an issue. The Hope Collective will support up to 5 nonprofit organizations that will provide youth and their families with mental health, workforce development, after-school programming, and re-entry services specifically to address rising crime and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Book Group Recap: Solidarity Economics with Dr. Manuel Pastor

Our quarterly DMV Community Book Group closed out the year with a lively discussion with Dr. Manuel Pastor, Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at University of Southern California and co-author of Solidarity Economics: Why Mutuality and Movements Matter.

“For 250 years now, our major economic and political institutions have rewarded those who act in self-interest over those who act out of mutuality,” Dr. Pastor explained.

“But we know that that’s not how most people operate – we know that in our own lives, communities do better when everyone feels connected.”

“This book is an attempt to move the middle – to present a common-sense perspective of why systemic change benefits everyone.”

Dr. Pastor kicked off the webinar with a reminder about language usage.

“We have been brainwashed into thinking that equity is bad for the economy,” Dr. Pastor explained. “But the reality is that it’s not ‘the economy’; it’s ‘our economy’.”

“When we talk about ‘the economy’, we make it sound like it’s an extraterrestrial force that can’t be impacted. Our economy is something that we are constantly involved with.”

“This simple language shift is incredibly important because it changes how we look at issues in our society – especially those that impact African-Americans, Latinos, and other groups that have been systematically marginalized and disenfranchised.”

Dr. Pastor quoted one of the DMV Book Club’s past reads, Heather McGhee’s book The Sum of Us, challenging participants to consider “the sum of us” instead of just “some of us” when it comes to combating racism and its consequences.

“Equity is not a ‘special-interest’ issue,” Dr. Pastor continued. “It’s not something that is only beneficial for communities of color. It’s something that can grow our economy in ways that benefit most, if not all of us.”

However, he was also realistic about the need for systemic change.

“There are still those who benefit from the current state of affairs,” Dr. Pastor explained. “Because of this, we need more social movements that can change the constellation of power.”

“These movements are critical,” he added. “Just as markets reward and teach us to pursue self-interest, movements reward and teach us to act mutually. When you become part of a movement for social change, you build bridges to other communities and help find the uncommon common ground between those groups.”

When asked how to build those bridges, Dr. Pastor highlighted the need to have real conversations with community members about what they are actually feeling.

Citing another book of his, South Central Dreams, Dr. Pastor highlighted community organizing efforts in South Los Angeles – a community which has transformed from a historically Black neighborhood into a predominantly Latinx one. The book outlines how organizers helped community members to develop a sense of place or spatial identity – as well as racial identity.

“It’s not just expressing commonality,” he said. “It’s about exploring the ways that we are ignorant of one another. It’s about creating a conversation where people can say what they are thinking – including the myths or misconceptions they have – and having a dialogue so we can work to dispel them.”

“We need to help people understand the history of their communities,” he continued. “We need them to realize that the terrain of inequalities and deprivation that they face today has been set by centuries of anti-Black racism.”

Dr. Pastor concluded the discussion responding to a question about the role that philanthropy can play in advancing the concept of Solidarity Economics.

“We need to invest in more fundamental power-building – at a community and movement level,” Dr. Pastor explained.

“Foundations often look at their work across three progressive dimensions -- projects, policy, and power. Projects demonstrate what’s possible. Policies canonize projects and establish standard operating procedures – but it’s power that actually moves policy.”

“Movement [power] efforts aren’t just instrumental to policy change – they are fundamental to community change,” he added. “When you invest in organizing and movements, you are empowering community members to take actions in their own lives. Rather than enlisting them in a cause, you empower them to choose and advocate for the issues that make the most difference in their lives, allowing them to pivot from issue to issue in ways that make sense. THAT is what sparks lasting change.”

Click here to watch a full recording of the December 2022 DMV Community Book Club.

Our next DMV Community Book Club will be in early 2023, when we will discuss Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice by Jessica Gordan Nembhard.

Three Tips to Maximize Your Year-End Giving for 2022

As the end of the year approaches, The Community Foundation’s Senior Advisor Rebecca Rothey provides three tips to help you meet your personal giving goals while maximizing tax benefits in an uncertain economy.

Gifts of appreciated stock still shine

Giving in a roller coaster market may continue to be a real concern for many, but remember, not all stocks are down. Donating an appreciated gift of stock is a fantastic tax-advantaged way to make gifts to charities. When donated directly into a donor advised fund at the Greater Washington Community Foundation or directly to the charity, you can avoid capital gains tax on the appreciation. 

Ashley Hall, Director at Chevy Chase Trust and a member of our Professional Advisor Council, shared the following experience:

“A client came to us this year looking to make a larger gift to a cause important to them through their fund at the Greater Washington Community Foundation. Despite being in a down market, we still had highly appreciated positions in their portfolio that were prudent to reduce from a portfolio management perspective but would be costly to sell. Donating parts of this appreciated stock allowed us to reduce this position and saved the client almost $10,000 in Federal and local taxes.” 

Donor-advised funds help both you and your favorite nonprofits

Even during economic uncertainty, grantmaking from donor-advised funds (DAFs) continues to rise, as donors pay increasing attention to the ways a donor-advised fund can help with tax planning. We encourage you to reach out to our team to learn more about how “bundling” at year end can maximize your tax benefits, and at the same time ensure that your favorite nonprofits receive the support they need.

Plan ahead to meet your goals!

As we approach the end of the year and look forward to 2023, I encourage you to make time to sit down and plan ahead so you can meet your personal philanthropic goals. Be aware of year-end giving deadlines to ensure you can receive the appropriate tax benefits.

Remember that checks to a fund at The Community Foundation must be postmarked no later than December 31 or hand-delivered no later than Friday, December 30 at 1 p.m. Gifts of marketable securities also need to be fully transferred by December 30, so be sure to contact us in plenty of time so our team can process and receive the transfer.

A reminder that the deadline for you to recommend grants through your fund at The Community Foundation is Friday, December 16. Any grant recommendations received after this date run the risk of not being processed in 2022 due to increased volume.

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We are grateful that you have chosen to partner with The Community Foundation on your philanthropic journey. We are proud to partner with you in making a difference for the Greater Washington region – and look forward to continuing our work together in 2023!

Wishing you and your family a safe and connected holiday season!

Heading “Up-County”: Community Foundation Visits Focus Neighborhoods in Montgomery County

Members of The Community Foundation’s Montgomery County Advisory Board, staff, and Sharing Montgomery donors recently visited with key community partners in Germantown, Maryland -- one of the “Priority Neighborhoods” identified by The Community Foundation as part of its new 10-year strategic plan.

The day began at Captain James E. Daly Elementary School, where the group met with school administrators and leaders of the Thriving Germantown coalition – a collaboration launched by the Healthcare Initiative Foundation, Shepperd Pratt (locally known as Family Services), and other nonprofits to holistically connect students and their families to vital supports.

Principal Pedro Cedeño explained, “We have 618 students here at Captain James E. Daly Elementary. More than 77 percent of them are enrolled in the Free and Reduced-price Meal Program. Partnerships like Thriving Germantown have been critical to helping us meet the needs of our students and their families during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Daly Elementary School’s student population is 56% Latinx, 28% Black, 6% Asian, and 6% White. School and nonprofit staff both noted the importance of providing linguistically and culturally appropriate support to fully engage the families and foster a sense of community.

“In the years prior to COVID, most nonprofits didn’t provide services north of Gaithersburg,” Sharon Settlemyer, a Community School Liaison at the school added. “As a result, many of our families spent hours on public transportation just to get food.”

To combat this challenge, the school staff worked with Thriving Germantown’s network of community partners to set up a food pantry on the school’s campus and began connecting parents to other resources for clothing, training, job opportunities, and more.  

While acknowledging these efforts have made great strides in helping families address their basic needs, both school staff and nonprofits were acutely aware of systemic breakdowns which hinder economic mobility that would led to greater stability.  They especially flagged the numerous barriers families face in securing affordable, accessible childcare which is necessary to get and keep a job. 

The group then moved to the Up-County Wellness Center where they met with representatives from local nonprofits providing a continuum of supports from basic needs through economic mobility: Care For Your Health, Up-County Hub, Identity, Inc., CareerCatchers, and Shepperd Pratt. While reflecting on both accomplishments, lessons learned, and the work ahead, the nonprofit leaders emphasized the importance of leveraging and cultivating relationships with community members.

“This isn’t charity,” Anna Maria Izquierdo-Porrera with Care 4 Your Health explained. “These are vital members of the community, all of whom have talents and gifts to share. Investing in them is key to the recovery of our community.”

She went on to point out how this is especially true in immigrant communities, where trust is often as great a barrier as language or culture.

“These folks are used to nonprofits showing up for a short time and then disappearing,” Grace Rivera-Oven with Up-County Hub added. She added that to truly make a lasting difference, “you need to be willing to stick with the community; to listen to them and be willing to invest in them.”

Representatives pointed to the recent COVID vaccination initiative as an example. At the height of the pandemic, Latinos made up 77 percent of COVID cases in Montgomery County. Working in collaboration with Up-County, Care 4 Your Health and others, the County government launched the Salud & Bienestar (Health & Wellbeing) initiative – which was so successful that Montgomery County’s Latinx population become one of the most vaccinated in the country; even going so far as to surpass the County’s more affluent White population.

However, like many efforts launched during the pandemic, the initiative’s outreach efforts have scaled back as the county’s federal relief dollars dwindled.

“The problems that our community is facing won’t just go away overnight,” Rivera-Oven continued. “We need the government to keep showing up.”

The group ended the day at the Middlebrook Mobile Home Park, where they spoke with resident leaders to hear about their priorities for their community and ways they are they have been empowered to help drive change.   One of the neighborhood’s elders spoke of how she became the leader of a collective effort to address concerns the residents are being overcharged for some of their basic utilities.  We also heard from a young man who, even though he moved out of the trailer park, comes back every week to help with food distributions and other outreach efforts.  Nicknamed “El Comandante,” he recalled how he used his background in IT to provide tech support for the neighborhood’s children when school were operating remotely. 

Rivera-Oven and Izquierdo-Porrera noted that partnering with residents has been the key to their organizations’ ability to not only provide services, but also build lasting community relationships with other entities such as the Police Department and the Fire Department which have contributed greatly to the well-being of the community.

“Before COVID, the crime rate in this community was very high,” El Comandante shared. “Now that they come to help with the food distribution, it’s much safer.”

Following the tour, Anna Hargrave, Executive Director for Montgomery County for the Greater Washington Community Foundation, reflected on two key takeaways:

• It was gratifying to see the incredible outcomes achieved by grantees of our covid-response efforts.  Their achievements prove that investments in organizations which center racial equity ultimately make our entire community healthier.

• The pandemic forced government and nonprofits to cut red tape and innovate at lightning speed.  Moving forward, it will be important that we continue to test out new ideas, “fail forward” by learning and improving, and then scaling solutions that work—all while meeting the urgent demands of the day.

On behalf of The Community Foundation, we must give special thanks all the resident leaders, Daly elementary school staff, our nonprofit guest speakers for sharing their wisdom, and to our funding peer, the Healthcare Initiative Foundation, who led a similar community tour seven years ago which sparked the creation of the Thriving Germantown coalition and helped “plant seeds” for other partnerships that ultimately launched during the pandemic.

To learn more about upcoming in-person and virtual visits plus other learning opportunities, contact Olivia Hsu at [email protected].

Recognizing The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts

Tonia Wellons, President & CEO of The Community Foundation, presents the 2022 Arts Champion Award to Mardell Moffett, Executive Director of the Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation

The Greater Washington Community Foundation is proud to recognize The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation with the 2022 Arts Champion Award, in recognition of its outstanding commitment to helping arts organizations adapt and respond to the pandemic.

The Foundation, which is celebrating 75 years of supporting organizations in the Greater Washington area, has long been a bedrock for the arts, making major contributions and annual general operating support grants that have transformed and sustained many of the region’s leading institutions – large and small – including The Washington Ballet, the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, Levine Music, The Kennedy Center, Signature Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Dance Place, Dance Institute of Washington, Imagination Stage, Wolf Trap, Sitar Arts Center, Young Playwrights’ Theater, Washington Performing Arts, and hundreds of others.  The Foundation has provided consistent support for the region's arts and culture organizations for decades.  Since 2000 alone, it has provided more than $110 million in support to 218 arts and culture organizations across the region.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the Cafritz Foundation was among the first to recognize the devastating impact that it would have on the region. Within weeks, they approved a $1 million grant to The Community Foundation’s COVID-19 Response Fund – one of the largest single contributions to the fund -- at a time when uncertainty surrounding the pandemic was at its height.

Not content to stop there, in May 2020, The Cafritz Foundation commissioned a study to measure the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on small local arts and culture organizations.

The results were sobering. More than a third of study participants had already laid off staff – and most were considering making additional cuts. With infrastructure and resources already scarce, small arts organizations were struggling to make the transition to online and digital programming.

A month later, the Cafritz Foundation made a lead grant of $500,000 to launch Arts Forward Fund – a collaborative partnership with The Community Foundation and more than a dozen other individual and institutional contributors, and followed up with a second grant of $400,000 in 2021. Since October 2020, the fund has distributed more than $2.7 million in grants to 100+ organizations, providing essential resources to help them continue their work during the pandemic.

The Fund also provided support for organizations responding to the national movement for racial justice, sparked by the murder of George Floyd in July 2020. More than 60 percent of grant recipients were BIPOC-led or predominantly BIPOC-serving organizations.

Thanks to this equity emphasis, Arts Forward Fund received recognition from prominent organizations and philanthropists – including MacKenzie Scott, who made a $1 million grant to the fund in June 2021.

“The contributions of The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation gave life to the arts in Greater Washington, at a time when it was most desperately needed,” President & CEO Tonia Wellons said. “We are proud to acknowledge them as a Champion of the Arts.”

The Community Foundation presented The 2022 Arts Champion Award at a private event at the Warner Theatre on November 30, 2022.

Nonprofit Partners Outline Key Factors in the Fight to End Homelessness in DC

As the Partnership to End Homelessness celebrates its three-year anniversary, the Partnership’s staff and Leadership Council are taking time to reflect on the Partnership’s accomplishments and to begin planning for our work ahead.

In order to better understand what has changed since the Partnership launched and where we go from here, the Partnership invited several partners and experts to join our most recent convening. These experts shared their perspectives on the changing landscape of homelessness in DC and emerging challenges that require the support of private sector leaders.

Here are the top three takeaways from the conversation with Marisol Bello, Executive Director of the Housing Narrative Lab, Lara Pukatch, Chief Advocacy Officer at Miriam’s Kitchen, Theresa Silla, Executive Director of the DC Interagency Council on Homelessness, and Robert Warren, Director of the People for Fairness Coalition.

1. The stories we tell about the causes of homelessness drive the solutions we create and the policies we make. Since the end of the critical phase of the pandemic, there has been an increasing focus in local and national media on homelessness being a result of bad choices made by individuals. This unfortunately has led to more calls for punitive actions against people who are experiencing homelessness, such as criminalization of camping.
   This growing narrative ignores the fact that the primary causes of homelessness are failures in systems like housing, healthcare, and criminal justice. Research demonstrates that by telling this true story, we can focus our collective efforts on supporting proven solutions by addressing the root causes of homelessness. We can all become storytellers and make change by speaking out and influencing our families, friends, and organizations.

2. Advocacy drives change, and we can all be advocates. In the past two years, the District has invested a record number of resources in ending homelessness in our city. This is in part thanks to the advocacy of those with lived experience of homelessness and our advocacy partners – together with members of the private sector -- who have tirelessly lobbied policymakers to make these historic investments. Making a meaningful impact can be as simple as sending an email or making a phone call. We all have a role to play as advocates.

3. We can end homelessness for everyone in the District if we “hold fast and stay true.” The fight against homelessness has made many exciting strides in recent years. Since 2015, family homelessness is down by 80 percent. Veteran homelessness has also fallen – down by 50 percent since 2017. But we cannot become complacent – we need to continue our work to end family and veteran homelessness through tested, proven practices.
   
   At the same time, we need to take what we’ve learned in the family and veteran systems and apply that knowledge and intensity to addressing homelessness among single adults and youth.  

The Partnership to End Homelessness will be continuing the conversation over the coming months.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Partnership’s plans, and how you can support this work, please contact Jennifer Olney at [email protected].

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.

Honoring Philanthropy in Prince George’s and Montgomery County

This past month, the Greater Washington Community Foundation gathered with donors and partners from across the region to celebrate philanthropy in Prince George’s County and Montgomery County at the 2022 Civic Leadership Awards and the Celebration of Giving. Here are a few highlights from the events:

Igniting the Power of Philanthropy in Prince George’s County
The party started early at the MGM at National Harbor, as friends and supporters of The Community Foundation’s local office in Prince George’s County gathered for the 2022 Civic Leadership Awards. Tracee Wilkins, Prince George’s County Bureau Chief with NBC4, served as master of ceremonies for Prince George’s County’s first major event since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are so excited to be reunited with so many of you in person, after so long,” President and CEO Tonia Wellons shared. “We look forward to sharing a memorable evening with all of you.”

The evening proved to be both memorable and emotionally moving. The program started off with a moving tribute to the first Civic Leadership Award recipient, The Sardelis Family of Sardi’s Pollo A La Brasa. Founded in Prince George’s County, Sardi’s has quickly become a cornerstone of the community – both for the quality of its food, as well as its commitment to give back during the pandemic. The award was accepted by Phil E. Sardelis, whose cousin and co-founder, Phil G. Sardelis tragically passed away last year due to COVID complications.

Mr. Sardelis was followed by the presentation of the second Civic Leadership Award to Rosie Allen-Herring, President & CEO of the United Way of the National Capital Area – a champion for progress in Prince George’s County. Long-time friend Steve Proctor of G.S. Proctor & Associates presented the award via prerecorded message, extolling Rosie’s commitment to family and the region as a whole.

Rosie was followed by the presentation of Nonprofit Leader of the Year Award to Rick & Dawn Collins of the 2nd Lieutenant Richard W. Collins III Foundation. There was scarcely a dry eye in the room, as Dawn Collins tearfully shared how much this recognition meant for their family’s ongoing work against hate crimes – a mission they have undertaken since their son was brutally murdered by a White Nationalist in 2017.

Rick and Dawn were one of four nonprofit leaders nominated for the award. The other three nominees – who were also recognized -- included Lupi Quinteros-Grady of Latin American Youth Center, Deborah Martinez of Mission of Love Charities, and Rob Malone of The Arc Prince George’s County.

After Rick & Dawn, the Corporate Philanthropist of the Year Award was presented to IKEA College Park – in recognition of its investment in the region during the pandemic, when the Swedish-based company invested $1 million to support The Community Foundation’s pandemic response, as a way to “pay it forward” in acknowledgment of the unemployment benefits collected by furloughed employees from Maryland, including the College Park store. The award was accepted by IKEA College Park Market Manager for the DC area, Tony Giacona.

He was followed by the presentation of the Wayne K. Curry Award for Leadership & Public Service to The Honorable Kris Valderrama of Maryland’s 26th District. Named after the first African American to serve as Prince George's County Executive, the Wayne K. Curry Award acknowledges outstanding elected officials who advocate for and champion change in Prince George's County. Kris has served as Maryland's 26th District Delegate since 2006, where she has championed legislation advocating for the rights and needs of Prince George's County's residents in the state of Maryland.

After Kris, Veronica Jeon presented the Chairman’s Award to Prince George’s County Advisory Board Member and Host Committee co-chair Chris Borgal, in recognition of his contributions to The Community Foundation’s efforts in Prince George’s County.

The final award of the evening, the Emerging Leader of the Year Award was presented to John Edward, General Manager of Bond 45. Born in Egypt, John moved to the US to pursue his American Dream in the hospitality industry and provide a better life for his family. His charisma and commitment to quality service has captured the hearts of many in Prince George’s County.

John was one of four Emerging Leaders nominated for the award. The other nominees included Altmann Pannell of Coca-Cola Consolidated, The Honorable Mahasin El Amin, Clerk of Circuit Court for Prince George’s County, and Husein Sharaf of Cloudforce.

Additional information on our honorees – including personalized tribute videos – are available on our website.

Celebrating Giving in Montgomery County

On November 16th, donors and community partners in Montgomery County gathered for the Celebration of Giving, honoring the 2022 Montgomery County Philanthropist of the Year, Mimi Brodsky Kress.

A third generation Washingtonian, Mimi Brodsky Kress maintains a deep commitment to her home community of Montgomery County through both her personal philanthropy and as the co-owner of Sandy Spring Builders, where she is one of only a few women builders in the area.

During the program, Mimi joined Bethesda Magazine President Sumindi Peiris onstage for an “Oprah Winfrey”-style interview, where she shared the motivation that compels her to get deeply involved in her community.

“If there’s one thing my parents taught me,” Kress shared, “it was the importance of the Jewish principle of ‘Tikkun Olam’ – that we need to actively engage in action to repair the world.”

Those closest to Mimi know that being actively engaged is something she is very good at. In addition to running a small business, Mimi is volunteers extensively with Habitat for Humanity, leading a group of women called “the Hammer Chicks” who get out into the field and help build affordable homes. Her leadership on the boards of several local charities – including (but not limited to) the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Montgomery County, Jewish Women International, and the Jewish National Fund — has been game-changing, leading to organizational growth and expansion of services to meet increasing demand.

We are grateful to Mimi for allowing us to shine a spotlight on her, knowing her example will inspire many others to give and get involved in our local community.

Additional information about our 2022 Philanthropist of the Year is available in this Bethesda Magazine Article and on our website. You can also view this special tribute video that was debuted at the event.

Moving the Needle in the Fight Against Food Insecurity

By Anna Hargrave

In 2019, a study by the USDA estimated 1 in 8 Americans were “food insecure”. In Montgomery County, one of the wealthiest counties in the country, that number was closer to 1 in 12 (about 8%).

Within six month, both of those numbers nearly doubled, as thousands of families found themselves struggling with the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In response, donors across Montgomery County sprang into action, pouring their time and resources into Food for Montgomery – a strategic public-private response effort spearheaded by The Community Foundation, County Government, and the Montgomery County Food Council to address urgent needs within our food security system.

To date, Food for Montgomery has deployed over $2.6 million to support nonprofits in our food system. This work is increasingly vital – as studies suggest that food insecurity may have more to do with an already broken food system than the impact of a global pandemic. 

Even as COVID infection rates continue to decline, food insecurity rates remain high -- the latest report by the Capital Area Food Bank says that 46% of households with children in Montgomery County have experienced food insecurity at some point in 2022.

As we continue work with our amazing nonprofit grantees to lower these rates and build a more just and equitable food system, here are three key lessons that we have learned:

Go for the “Triple Win”

The pandemic forced nonprofits and government to collaborate more strategically and efficiently to meet ever-changing needs. In time, many found ways to innovate a single creative solution/partnership to solve multiple problems facing the community. By seeking a “triple win” they were able to leverage both philanthropic and public dollars to make a deeper impact.

For example, the leaders of the Mid-County Hub, led by Hughes United Methodist Church, realized they needed to provide hot meals for frail seniors, people with disabilities, and other vulnerable residents facing food insecurity.  Food for Montgomery’s grant enabled Mid-County Hub to team up with So What Else which provided donated and recovered food. They then partnered with IMPACT Silver Spring, which led a culinary class to teach residents new skills while they prepared the weekly meals for their neighbors.  Ultimately, this effort rescued perfectly good food that might have ended up in a landfill, turned it into delicious meals, and empowered people with meaningful skills that helped them get jobs in local restaurants.

Community Members take notes during a Culinary Class offered by IMPACT Silver Spring

To make a deep impact, racial equity must be top of mind (not an afterthought)

The tragedy of food insecurity is inevitably tied to racial inequity. According to the USDA and Feeding America, nearly 1 in 5 Black people and 1 in 6 Latinx people live in households facing food insecurity due to a wide range of social, economic, and environmental challenges. That’s 2-3 times higher than the rate of food insecurity experienced by white individuals.

In order to create lasting, meaningful change in our food system, we need to lead with racial equity at the forefront. This means not just serving people with dignity, but also creating space so that low-income residents can lead the change they want to see for their communities.

For example:

Early on, leaders at the Manna Food Center realized that many families – especially in immigrant communities -- were fearful of asking for help from unfamiliar organizations. In addition, given the incredible diversity of our community, it was difficult to provide all the culturally specific foods that our many immigrant communities need to prepare traditional meals at home.

Community Member poses with produce grown at an AfriThrive Community Garden. AfriThrive partnered with the local immigrant community to grow culturally appropriate produce for residents.

To address both issues, Manna teamed up with several grassroots nonprofits that employed resident leaders who already had established relationships within their communities. Thanks to this partnership, those neighborhood leaders were able to enroll more than 4,000 households to receive food through Manna and provide 1,500 households with vouchers to purchase supplemental food from ethnic grocery stores. 

Systems either amplify or undermine your philanthropy—there is no in between!

Policy decisions at the federal, state, and local levels have a major impact on what we all eat—and how much it costs us.  Those decisions can also undermine our philanthropy by making it harder and costlier for nonprofits to help people.  That is why it is vital we invest in strategic partners advocating for a healthier, more equitable food system. 

One fantastic example is the Montgomery County Food Council which created a food security response plan in partnership with over 100 nonprofits, local businesses, and government partners. Working closely with Montgomery County Government and The Community Foundation, the Food Council’s leadership was vital to maximizing public and private resources to meet community needs. Building on that important work, the Food Council is now galvanizing partners and gathering insights from families who are experiencing food insecurity right now.  Together, they are identifying barriers and developing strategies to reduce food insecurity across all childhood age groups in Montgomery County.

As we continue our efforts to fight hunger and build a more just and equitable food system, we would like to thank our donors and partners for their consistent and ongoing support.  Creating meaningful, lasting systems change requires an incredible amount of time, resources, and patience. We have witnessed all of this, and more from our incredibly generous community.

With your support, we continue to move this work forward and build a Montgomery County where food is plentiful for all.

For more information about Food for Montgomery and it’s incredible impact, visit https://www.thecommunityfoundation.org/food-for-montgomery-fund

Investing in the Future of Homeless Services: How Medicaid is Driving Systemic Change in DC’s Fight to End Homelessness

This year, the Partnership has been working to support nonprofit PSH providers as they transition to Medicaid billing. Our partnership with nonprofit providers, advocates, and government agencies makes us uniquely positioned to identify and support projects like this. In addition to support for individual organizations, investing in the system as a whole is an essential piece of our work to end homelessness. To learn more about the project, check out our previous blog post Investing in Nonprofit Capacity to Leverage Federal Funds to End Homelessness.

This year, DC launched a new Medicaid benefit that will fund permanent supportive housing (PSH) services for people experiencing homelessness -- allowing the city to leverage an estimated $20+ million in new, annual federal resources through Medicaid. The move also frees up local funding to be reinvested towards other human services programs in DC.

The new funding could be a breakthrough in our region’s fight against homelessness; specifically for our PSH programs -- one of the leading nationally-recognized solutions to chronic homelessness.  

However, this exciting funding unfortunately does come with a slight catch. In order to access it, DC’s nonprofit PSH providers must first make significant changes to the ways they’ve traditionally worked, adopting new policies and practices to ensure they can successfully bill and provide services under the new Medicaid model. Providers also need to improve their infrastructure to support the expanded human resources, accounting, evaluation, and compliance functions that come with this funding.

“It was scary at the start,” said Chandra Dawson, the Chief Permanent Supportive Housing Officer of Friendship Place. “As the person responsible for PSH at Friendship Place, I asked myself can I do this? How do I help my team do this?”

Recognizing the challenges that nonprofits – particularly smaller, BIPOC-led organizations – might face in making this transition, the Partnership to End Homelessness made a grant to provide technical assistance for twenty-six PSH providers through The Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH), a national leader in supportive housing.

PSH providers were enrolled in CSH’s Supportive Housing Medicaid Academy, a six-week series of two-hour trainings where they learned how to enroll themselves as Medicaid providers. Topics included the how to enroll clients, how to supervise, budget, and bill under the Medicaid model, and how to comply with Medicaid regulations. In addition to group sessions, CSH also provided individual, one-on-one technical assistance to each organization.

Chandra Dawson, Chief Permanent Supportive Housing Officer of Friendship Place participated in CSH’s Supportive Housing Medicaid Academy.

Another benefit of the Medicaid Academy was that it allowed providers to meet and learn from each other. “Before this project, we had few opportunities for interaction and conversation with each other,” Dawson added. “It was great to have a dedicated space to exchange ideas, ask questions, and collaborate. I have experienced increased opportunities to meet and strengthen my relationship with other providers”

CSH also conducted individual assessments to assess providers’ readiness, identify remaining organizational capacity gaps, and make recommendations for improving organizational capacity. Even after completing the Academy, graduates continue to receive one-on-one technical assistance from CSH as they begin the process.

“CSH continues to give us feedback on our performance as we work on completing this transition,” Dawson added. “They are also really good about soliciting feedback from us to pass on to DHS; which is important while DHS develops policies at the agency-level that will impact us and other providers on the front lines.”

However, Dawson says the Medicaid transition isn’t just about changing billing procedures. It’s about changing the way that service providers operate.

“Our clients can often feel overwhelmed by all the systems they have to interact with,” Dawson explains. “They can feel invisible or unable to advocate effectively for themselves. As their service provider, we have a responsibility to lift that burden.”

“As a result of this Medicaid transition, there are additional “eyes” both within and outside of Friendship Place looking at our performance. Moving forward, we’re increasing our expectations for our case managers, as well as for our supervisory staff and program leaders. We hope this higher level of accountability will translate into a higher standard for service delivery, which should correlate with better housing and well-being outcomes for the people we serve.”

The process has also inspired Friendship Place to look at ways to improve all their programs, not just PSH: “In the past, program design has been primarily led by our program staff. However, Medicaid requires us to work collaboratively with team members from finance, evaluation, compliance, and human resources to develop strong quality assurance practices.”

“As we’ve documented workflows and updated policies and procedures in preparation for this transition, we’ve identified ways that we can work more efficiently across the organization.”

As a Partnership, we’re excited to share that many of the city’s PSH providers have already successfully enrolled in the Medicaid benefit and most providers should be billing Medicaid by early 2023.

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 

2022 Year End Gifts and Grantmaking

Please note: The Community Foundation will be closed for the following federal holidays: Thanksgiving (November 24 and 25), Christmas (December 26), and New Year’s Day (January 2). We will also close at 1 p.m. on December 23 and 30.

As we near the end of the year, we would like to recognize our donors and their generosity throughout 2022. Thank you for standing with us as we worked to support and strengthen our community. You’ve continued to demonstrate the strong philanthropic spirit that empowers our region. 

In an effort to assist you with carrying out your philanthropic goals, please see below for The Community Foundation’s deadlines regarding year-end giving and grantmaking activities.

RECOMMENDING GRANTS FROM YOUR FUND

Grant recommendations submitted by December 16 will be processed by December 31, provided the grantee organization meets The Community Foundation’s due diligence requirements. Due to increased volume, we cannot guarantee that grant recommendations submitted after December 16 will be processed in 2022.

PLEASE NOTE: Grants submitted prior to December 16, 2022 must also meet The Community Foundation’s due diligence requirements to be processed by December 31, 2022.

Grant recommendations should be submitted through your Donor Central account. Questions regarding Donor Central can be forwarded to Emily Davis (202-973-2501, [email protected]).

MAKING GIFTS TO THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION

All gifts submitted to The Community Foundation by December 31 will be credited as a 2022 contribution. Please note: The gift must be in The Community Foundation’s account by this day to be eligible for a 2022 tax deduction. 

GIFTS MADE ONLINE:

Gifts can be made online at www.thecommunityfoundation.org/donate.  

GIFTS MADE VIA CHECK: 

Greater Washington Community Foundation 
1325 G St. NW, Suite 480
Washington, DC 20005

Please note: checks sent by US Postal Service mail must be postmarked no later than December 31, or hand-delivered no later than Friday, December 30 at 1 p.m.

GIFTS OF CASH OR SECURITIES MADE VIA WIRE TRANSFER:

Please see the instructions for making gifts via ACH or wire transfer. Make sure to include your or the donor’s name/fund name in the reference section of the transfer. You can contact the Finance Department at 202-955-5890 if there are any questions. Monies must be in The Community Foundation’s account by December 30, to be earmarked as a 2022 contribution.

GIFTS MADE VIA TRANSFER FROM MUTUAL FUNDS:

In order for gifts made from mutual funds gifted to The Community Foundation to be received by December 31 and earmarked as a 2022 contribution, the transfer must be initiated early enough — typically at least two weeks or more — to be posted into our account. Please check with your broker on their internal timelines.

QUALIFIED CHARITABLE DISTRIBUTIONS (IRA Charitable Rollover)

As a reminder, qualified charitable distributions from your IRA (if you are at least 70.5 years of age) cannot be used for donor-advised funds. They may be used for designated, field of interest, and other types of funds. Notify your plan administrator no later than December 15 if you intend to make a gift from your IRA. Please contact us for help with these types of gifts.

Illiquid assets and real estate

The Community Foundation accepts gifts of illiquid assets such as closely held stock, partnership interests, and real estate. Gifts must be reviewed and approved by The Community Foundation’s Gift Acceptance Committee. Please allow plenty of time for review and approval.

Exploring Economic Mobility at the 2022 Annual Meeting

On Tuesday, October 11, the Greater Washington Community Foundation hosted its 2022 Annual Meeting at The National Press Club and via livestream. The event capped off a record-breaking year of growth and community impact for The Community Foundation and its donors and partners – which recently surpassed $1.5 billion in grantmaking (with approximately $93 million given in FY22, alone).

“It is an exciting time to be a part of The Community Foundation,” President & CEO Tonia Wellons shared. “We are so glad to have you as a member of our philanthropic family during this important milestone in our history.”

Tonia kicked off the meeting by outlining some of The Community Foundation’s and our donors biggest achievements over the past year – including the incubation of the Children’s Opportunity Alliance, the creation of a Faith & Philanthropy forum, and the launch of the historic $95 million Health Equity Fund.

She also reiterated The Community Foundation’s commitment to closing our region’s racial wealth gap – with a particular focus on community wealth-building within Black and Brown neighborhoods.

“For nearly 50 years, our fundholders have responded to the everyday needs of people in our region,” Tonia stated. “We invite you to envision a region where the families we support during times of crisis are able to manage their daily emergencies with more agency – because their basic needs are met.”

“Our history has shown that we must move beyond simply addressing the symptoms of generational poverty,” Tonia concluded. “We must double down on investments in people in communities who are struggling to most and set up conditions for them and their families to flourish.”

Tonia outlined several projects that The Community Foundation has supported to promote economic mobility including guaranteed income projects such as Let’s Go DMV! and Arlington’s Guarantee – part of a growing movement of more than 100 Guaranteed Income pilots happening across the country.

She also discussed our intent to invest in and launch Children’s Savings Accounts pilots in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties – another growing economic mobility initiative that was lauded by our expert panel as having the potential to close the racial wealth gap. Researchers with the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that children’s savings accounts could close the racial wealth gap in a community by as much as 28 percent.

The program then transitioned to a panel discussion with two nationally recognized experts on economic mobility - Nisha Patel, co-author of the study Restoring the American Dream, and Gary Cunningham, President & CEO of Prosperity Now.

The panel touched a wide range of topics, including entrepreneurship, the need for more investment in social safety nets, shifting policies and practices to advance economic mobility, and the need to center these policies on lived-in experiences.

“Here’s the thing about poverty,” Nisha shared, quoting a fellow expert, John Powell. “It’s not just about a lack of money; it’s also about a lack of power.”

“What you do is important; but how you go about it is perhaps even more important. Your programs need to promote a sense of agency, a sense of belonging, and a sense of community.”

Gary concurred, sharing a number of studies about the impact of trust amongst Black-owned businesses and the positive impact of entrepreneurship among women of color. He also emphasized the importance of continuing to push the momentum of economic mobility work.

“The work that we do is a continuation of the Civil Rights movement in this country,” Gary shared “Towards the end of [Dr. King’s] life, he spent most of his energies fighting for economic justice in this country.

“The work that each of you are doing to make this country a better place through your investments in the community matter. We need to take it to the next level so that everyone – no matter what their race, no matter what their color -- can actually thrive in this country of plenty.”

Click here for a complete recording of our annual meeting! You can click here to see more photos of the event!

Greater Washington Community Foundation Announces $9.2 Million in Health Equity Fund Grants

The Greater Washington Community Foundation today announced $9.2 million in grants funded by the historic Health Equity Fund (HEF). Grants will support 32 DC nonprofit organizations (see full list of partners below) engaged in economic mobility to help close the glaring and intolerable racial health and wealth gap.

The $95 million Health Equity Fund has the potential to reshape the way DC addresses its long-standing health inequities. Given that 80 percent of DC’s health outcomes are driven by social, economic, and other factors, compared to just 20 percent by clinical care, the strategy for this fund is to use an economic mobility frame to address the root causes that are causing these challenges in the first place.

“Mindful that health and wealth are inextricably linked, the HEF’s first round of grants is boldly investing in economic mobility and wealth building in DC’s historically underinvested communities,” said Greater Washington Community Foundation President and CEO Tonia Wellons. “Achieving this vision puts our city on a trajectory to improve and achieve optimal health outcomes for all DC residents.”

“The Health Equity Fund represents an important opportunity to advance DC HOPE—health, opportunity, prosperity, and equity,” said DC Mayor Muriel Bowser. “We know that by addressing the social determinants of health, we can attack disparities in health outcomes, empower families, and transform communities.”

“At CareFirst, we recognize that social and environmental factors have a greater impact on health outcomes than factors within our healthcare system,” said Brian D. Pieninck, President and CEO of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (CareFirst). “By supporting community-based efforts to improve the economic mobility of District residents, this first round of funding aligns with our mission to advance accessible, affordable, equitable, and quality healthcare for people and communities in the District.”

Nonprofit Partners

A committee composed of Community Foundation staff, community members, and representatives of local foundations and think tanks reviewed proposals from 101 eligible applicants. The 32 selected grant recipients include diverse organizations and projects, including:

• Bread for the City will pilot their CashRx program, a direct cash assistance program that focuses on the social determinants of health to reach those most impacted by poverty.

• Capital Area Asset Builders will address the social determinants of health by providing BIPOC individuals living in DC’s lowest-income neighborhoods emergency savings and access to mainstream financial resources.

• First Shift Justice Project will support working mothers and Latinx and BIPOC people in low-wage jobs to assert their rights to reasonable workplace accommodations and accessing paid leave benefits leading to job retention and stability that increases economic mobility.

• The National Reentry Network for Returning Citizens will support the creation of a new holistic wellness and wealth creation program for women of color returning from incarceration. The program will also feature an innovative matched savings accounts program to enable financial security and wealth creation, and access to housing and job readiness training.

• Mothers Outreach Network will pilot Mother Up, a guaranteed income cash transfer initiative for low-income mothers who are at risk of involvement with the child welfare system. The goal of the pilot is to provide evidence of whether additional money reduces the likelihood of involvement with the child welfare system.

• Tzedek DC will support advocacy to change the way medical debt is collected, educate the community, and litigate high-impact and individual medical debt cases.

• Yachad will support its Healthy Housing Remediation Program to preserve and rehabilitate existing homes for low-income Black and Brown multi-generational households in Wards 7 and 8, so that families can remain in their homes and benefit from increased property value.

About the Health Equity Fund

The Health Equity Fund was created to improve the health outcomes and health equity of DC residents. One of the largest funds of any kind focused on community-based nonprofits that serve District residents, the Health Equity Fund is also the largest in The Community Foundation’s nearly 50-year history. Over five years, the fund will support and advance a sustainable network of people, organizations, and projects that will ensure equitable health outcomes for Black, Brown, Indigenous, People of Color and other marginalized populations in Washington, DC.

The Community Foundation was independently selected to manage the Health Equity Fund because of its track record of working with individual donors, businesses, and local government to manage effective community investments and create tangible, lasting change in the region. Health Equity Fund goals align with The Community Foundation’s ongoing work and 10-year strategic vision to close the racial wealth gap by eliminating the historic, racialized disparities in our region.

The Community Foundation is working in partnership with a Health Equity Committee mandated by the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the District of Columbia and GHMSI. The seven-member committee includes Nnemdi Elias, MD, MPH; Dr. Tollie Elliott; Wendell L. Johns; Lori Kaplan; Juan M. Jara; Dr. Djinge Lindsay, MD, MPH; and Courtney R. Snowden. Together, The Community Foundation and Health Equity Committee are ensuring the Health Equity Fund is managed according to guidelines outlined in the Memorandum. 

About the Greater Washington Community Foundation

The Greater Washington Community Foundation ignites the power of philanthropy, catalyzes community impact, and responds to critical needs. For five decades, The Community Foundation has connected caring donors with nonprofits creating lasting change in DC, Montgomery County, Northern Virginia, and Prince George’s County. As the region’s largest local funder, we have invested more than $1.4 billion since 1973 to build racially equitable, just, and thriving communities where everyone prospers. Today, our strategic focus is to close our region’s racial wealth gap so that people of all races, places, and identities reach their full potential. For more information, visit thecommunityfoundation.org.

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2022 Health Equity Fund Partners

Asylum Seeker Assistance Project

Beloved Community Incubator

Bread for the City

Calvary Women’s Services

Capital Area Asset Builders

Capital Youth Empowerment Program

Communities in Schools of the Nation's Capital

Community Family Life Services

Council for Court Excellence

DC Affordable Law Firm

DC Central Kitchen

Dreaming Out Loud

Equality Chamber Foundation

First Shift Justice Project

Free Minds Book Club and Writing Workshop

Generation Hope

Healthy Babies Project

Honoring Individual Power and Strengths (formerly Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive)

Latin American Youth Center

Mamatoto Village

Martha's Table

Mothers Outreach Network

My Sister's Place

The National Reentry Network for Returning Citizens

Organizing Neighborhood Equity

Rebuilding Together DC Alexandria

Rising for Justice

Shaw Community Center

So Others Might Eat

Tzedek DC

Yachad Incorporated

The Young Women’s Project

Greater Washington Community Foundation Welcomes Richard Bynum as New Board Chair

The Community Foundation announces the appointment of Richard K. Bynum, Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer for The PNC Financial Services Group, as the new Chair of its Board of Trustees. Bynum succeeds Katharine Weymouth who has served as Board Chair since September 2020.

 Washington, D.C., September 22 – Today, the Greater Washington Community Foundation announced the appointment of Richard K. Bynum, Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer for The PNC Financial Services Group, as the new Chair of its Board of Trustees.

As Chair, Bynum will partner with President and CEO Tonia Wellons to lead the region’s largest public foundation with over $500 million in assets and $70 million in annual grants. As a regional foundation with a 50-year history of mobilizing philanthropic resources, The Community Foundation has invested more than $1.5 billion to build equitable, just, and thriving communities in the Greater Washington region.

Recognizing that our region’s biggest challenges stem from economic injustice -- the root cause of persistent inequities which have been exacerbated by the pandemic and economic crisis -- The Community Foundation staff and Trustees recently developed a bold new 10-year strategic plan to close our region’s racial wealth gap. The plan outlines how The Community Foundation will provide strong leadership to identify the most promising ways to close the gap and mobilize the resources and support to make it happen. This will include:

• Leading with an equity lens that guides its operations, investments, and grantmaking.

• Nearly doubling assets over the next ten years and building a permanent endowment in order to respond to the challenges and opportunities at scale.

• Directing resources toward strengthening neighborhoods with the greatest needs and the BIPOC-led community organizations that serve them. 

• Investing in strategies to increase economic mobility and support individual and community wealth building.

“Richard is the right person to lead our Trustees as we embark on an ambitious plan to create a more prosperous future for our region,” said Tonia Wellons, President and CEO, Greater Washington Community Foundation. “He possesses an essential combination of strategic business acumen, investment expertise, and a strong commitment to this region. At this critical juncture, Richard understands that it will take all of us working together to achieve this vision for economic justice and he is primed and ready to step up to the challenge.”

“It is an honor and a privilege to serve as board chair for The Community Foundation,” said Bynum. “I am passionate about creating impact and driving change, especially in my home market of Greater Washington. Measurable and meaningful impact requires creative strategy and strong collaboration. I know my fellow Trustees are up to the task and I look forward to working together to seize the opportunities ahead.”

Bynum is an accomplished executive with nearly 20 years of executive leadership experience. As chief corporate responsibility officer for The PNC Financial Services Group and a member of its Executive Committee, Bynum leads the PNC Foundation, Community Affairs, ESG practice, Community Development Banking, and Diversity and Inclusion. In addition, Bynum is leading the implementation of PNC’s Community Benefits Plan through which the company will provide at least $88 billion in loans, investments, and other financial support to benefit communities of color and low- and moderate-income individuals and communities.

Recognized as one of region’s most influential business leaders by the Washington Business Journal, Bynum serves on the boards of numerous nonprofit and civic organizations, including the corporate council for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture; the Economic Club of Washington, DC; the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts; the Federal City Council; the United Way of the National Capital Area; and the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation.

Bynum succeeds Katharine Weymouth who has served as Board Chair since September 2020. During her tenure as Chair, Weymouth oversaw the hiring of Tonia Wellons as permanent President and CEO in 2020 and she played a key role during the development of The Community Foundation’s new 10-year strategic plan. As a Community Foundation Trustee for the last 6 years, Weymouth continued a family tradition and legacy of giving and service to the Greater Washington region. Her grandmother (and namesake) Katharine Graham, who ran The Washington Post for more than two decades, also served on the board of The Community Foundation for nearly a decade. Weymouth previously served as Publisher and CEO of The Washington Post, and today she serves on the Board of Graham Holdings and advises several startup businesses.

Since its founding in 1973, The Community Foundation has mobilized philanthropic resources to support and strengthen the Greater Washington region and ensure it is a place where all residents can live, work, and thrive. Over the last few years, The Community Foundation has led the region’s largest coordinated philanthropic response to the COVID-19 pandemic – raising over $11 million in community support to help nonprofits meet the increased demand for food, shelter/housing, medical care, mental health services, legal aid, educational support, and more. Last year, the organization began implementing a new strategic plan to center racial equity and inclusion, align business practices with its values, and to close the racial wealth gap. Later this year, the organization will launch several new pilot programs focused on increasing economic mobility in marginalized communities throughout the region.

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The Greater Washington Community Foundation ignites the power of philanthropy, catalyzes community impact, and responds to critical needs. For five decades, The Community Foundation has connected caring donors with nonprofits creating lasting change in DC, Montgomery County, Northern Virginia, and Prince George’s County. As the region’s largest local funder, we have invested more than $1.5 billion since 1973 to build racially equitable, just, and thriving communities where everyone prospers. Now, our strategic focus is to close our region’s racial wealth gap so that people of all races, places, and identities reach their full potential.

COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund is a Model for Future Crises

By Benton Murphy

Almost every facet of our everyday lives were deeply, fundamentally, and permanently changed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The ripple effects of the pandemic have impacted the places we choose to live, how we work with our colleagues, how our children learn, and how we interact socially. Our world now is so different than the one we experienced when the pandemic first hit in February 2020. Now with two and a half years’ worth of hindsight, we can say that some of these changes are for the better and many are for the worse, while it will take years to fully understand the impact of these changes.

Looking back on the past two years, we now have a better sense of how our efforts to support and protect this community made a lasting impact.  The Community Foundation's COVID-19 emergency response effort began in March 2020 when the pandemic was just unfolding, and quickly grew into the largest coordinated philanthropic response focused on the Greater Washington region. Thanks to an outpouring of support from our donors, partners, and broader community, we ultimately distributed more than $91 million in support of COVID-19 emergency response impacting disproportionately impacted communities all throughout Greater Washington. Our funding supported critical efforts across a number of different issue areas ranging from housing to education to emergency food and healthcare.

Our investments were not only aligned to address the pandemic's immediate impacts, but we were also able to support organizations through a race equity frame. We concentrated resources in neighborhoods with disproportionate number of individuals impacted by COVID-19, primarily people and communities of color. Additionally, 57% of the organizations supported through our Emergency Response Fund were led by people of color. 

Our staff and partners also sought to align our investments around initiatives and projects intended to support system change in the face of the pandemic. We collaborated with healthcare providers to make PPE available to hundreds of local, smaller healthcare clinics and providers. We supported parents and children's ability to learn remotely in a safe and impactful environment in Montgomery County. We supported hundreds of small and local businesses and entrepreneurs in Prince George’s County to whether the economic impacts of the pandemic. These are just a handful of examples of the ways in which The Community Foundation provided support to help strengthen the region to be better prepared to face our next crisis, together. 

As we start to close this chapter and move from crisis to recovery, we are thrilled to report that more than 330,000 individuals in our region benefited from your generosity. Thanks to you, nearly 850,000 meals were provided; more than 100,000 people received tools to enable them to work or learn from home, safely; and nearly 45,000 people directly received cash assistance to help them weather the pandemic. You can read our final impact report to the community here.

At the Community Foundation we are always striving to make an immediate impact as well as lasting systemic change, and our COVID efforts proved to be excellent examples of how were able to accomplish this. Moving forward, we will be using our COVID effort as a template to respond to disasters that impact our region. This has led us to establish an Endowment for Disaster Recovery so that we can be prepared to help our region remain resilient in the face of future crises.

Centering Racial Equity and Inclusion at The Community Foundation

By Brittany Owens, Jennifer Olney, and Emily Davis

The Greater Washington Community Foundation has long been committed to centering equity and inclusion in our work to build thriving communities.  As we embark on our new strategic vision with a focus on advancing economic justice, we are building on a rich history of social justice grantmaking and community leadership initiatives as we reaffirm our institutional commitment to racial equity and inclusion.

Racial Equity and Inclusion Within Our Organization

Before The Community Foundation even began developing its new strategic plan – and even before COVID-19 illuminated the racial inequities in the Greater Washington region and across the country – our staff had started on a learning journey during the summer of 2020. Team members gathered over lunch to hear each other’s personal experiences and learn more about systemic and historical racial inequity through pieces like The Case for Reparations, by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

These initial informal conversations led to the formal creation of a Racial Equity and Inclusion (REI) Workgroup composed of staff members from each team in the organization. The REI Workgroup’s ambition is to make sure our staff have the same baseline understanding and can be more immersed in the history of systemic racism that has shaped our society. In early 2021, the REI Workgroup partnered with Association of Black Foundation Executives (ABFE) to facilitate a months-long multi-day series of trainings for all staff about systemic racism and policies, and later to introduce our staff to assessment tools to help shape our processes, policies, and procedures through an REI lens.

Since those workshops and learning sessions, our internal teams have worked together to ensure we continue to uplift BIPOC voices and experiences through all that we do. We have used what we learned from these trainings to revisit our internal processes and institutional infrastructure to make sure they reflect our values for racial equity in pay, voice, contracting, hiring, governance, and in our grantmaking process. For example, our Operations and Finance teams worked to develop a vendor selection policy that prioritizes BIPOC vendors for various aspects of our work - from consultants to catering, and much more.

Prioritizing Racial Equity and Inclusion Within The Broader Community

We also seek to center racial equity at The Community Foundation by actively engaging people and communities most impacted, particularly as we pursue solutions and investments. This includes more intentionally directing investments towards BIPOC-led nonprofits and BIPOC individuals and communities.

To implement REI in our grantmaking, our internal REI Workgroup and Community Investment Team researched best practices for grantmaking with a REI lens. We decided to ask all applicants to provide data showing the racial/ethnic composition of the organization’s management staff, other staff, and board members. We also want to know whether or not the organization’s management, staff, or board are majority people of color – and if not, what are their plans to increase the number of people of color in leadership positions. In addition, we  are encouraging applicants to share the work they are doing to close the racial wealth gap, so we can understand the scope and scale of efforts happening across the region and where we might play a role.

Finally, during the pandemic we adopted several Trust Based Philanthropy practices to provide our nonprofit partners with much needed flexibility and to ease the administrative burden on them. We’ve decided to make several changes permanent – including simplifying reporting requirements and offering more multi-year grant opportunities – as we continue to move toward adopting a Trust Based Philanthropy model that helps to “advance equity, shift power, and build mutually accountable relationships.”

Our Commitment to Racial Equity and Inclusion Moving Forward

REI is central to our work and our values at The Community Foundation. By sharing our REI Journey, we hope that it will inspire and offer some lessons learned to other organizations as they continue to invest in REI efforts internally and externally. This is a work in progress, but our commitment to this work remains steadfast.

For more information about our commitment to Racial Equity and Inclusion, read our 10-year Strategic Plan!

Book Group Recap: Redefining Racial Wealth with Anne Price

Our quarterly DMV Community Book Group met in August for a deep dive into the insightful article “What We Get Wrong About Closing the Racial Wealth Gap.”

“Nothing tells us about economic well-being more than the racial wealth gap,” Anne Price, the first female President of the Insight Center for Community Economic Development and co-author of the article, shared to a group of thirty friends and partners of The Community Foundation.

“But before we tackle the racial wealth gap, we have to come to terms with just how little we understand it and the conflicting narratives that surround it.”

In the article, Price and her co-authors address ten commonly held myths about the racial wealth gap – conventional ideas including “greater educational attainment, harder work, better financial decisions, and other changes in habits and practices on the part of Blacks.”

The article goes on to explain that “while these steps are not necessarily undesirable, they are wholly inadequate to bridge the racial chasm in wealth.”

Price explained that one of the reasons these ideas often fall short is because they follow a narrow, individualistic approach rather than recognizing the necessity of the need for broader systemic change.

“We have taken a deeply structural problem that is hundreds of years in the making and overlaid it with very small individual solutions, based on flawed and often false narratives.”

Some of those attending the discussion were surprised by some of the narratives that Price addressed – including widely accepted narratives such as the ideas that access to higher education or homeownership can close the racial wealth gap.

“The data clearly shows that wealth creates equalized educational outcomes and opportunities for homeownership – not the other way around,” Price explained.

While tackling higher education and homeownership may help close the gap somewhat, they are not “one-size fits all” solutions. In addition, Price pointed out that both approaches are riddled with systemic obstacles – such as student debt, predatory lending and racial bias-- that policymakers and changemakers alike often overlook.

“When we talk about building Black wealth, too often we get stuck behind these blinders that limit our perspective to just four areas – education, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, & homeownership,” Price explains. “There is so much more to wealth than that.”

Ronnie Galvin, Managing Director of Community Investment for The Community Foundation, echoed Price’s assertion:  “Black people will not be able to build wealth in the same ways that White people have built wealth.  If we are serious about doing this work, we need to be willing to expand our horizons and work with Black communities to identify and adopt more innovative and systemic approaches.”

One of the approaches that Price suggested was to seek to eliminate wealth extraction. She shared several simple, short-term solutions such as advocating for the end of garnishment policies and forgiving criminal legal debt.

“We need to seek for solutions that not only put more money in people’s pockets, but also give them piece of mind,” Price added. “Because wealth is more than just financial outcomes. We need to consider the social, mental, and emotional aspects as well.”

Rather than seeking a programmatic “silver bullet” to close the racial wealth gap, Price suggested taking a step back and re-examining what wealth means. She described wealth as “allowing us to live and retire with greater dignity, freedom and peace of mind” and providing “future generations with the freedom to dream big and become all they truly can be” with a focus on being “healthy, spiritually whole and contributing.”

Price explained that wealth (and wealth building solutions) are far more complex and distinct than most people realize.

“I’m so thankful that we have this space to expand our horizons and our imagination, as a foundation,” President and CEO Tonia Wellons shared. “We do not know everything – we’ve said that from the beginning – which is why we continue to build this ‘coalition of the willing’ – people who are willing to join us on this learning journey.”

“Together we will continue to learn, discover, and refine new ways to think about the work that we get to do in philanthropy, as we center our efforts around closing the racial wealth gap.”

Click here to watch a full recording of the August 2022 DMV Community Book Club. Our next DMV Community Book Club will be in December 2022 when we will discuss ‘Solidarity Economics: Why Mutuality and Movements Matter’ by Chris Benner & Manuel Pastor.

If you would like to join our discussion, please subscribe to our monthly newsletter to receive information on how to register!