What is Racial Equity?

In 2019, the Hampton Roads Community Foundation board of directors adopted a Racial Equity statement to guide the community foundation’s work, to better

How to Donate

align our grantmaking and scholarships programs for equitable outcomes, to

We welcome charitable donations of all sizes. Gifts of $25,000 or more let you start an endowed

host courageous conversations about race and the history of race, and to provide

charitable fund that will forever help others. Your fund can have the name and purpose you select,

leadership through collaborative action to address racism in Hampton Roads.

or you can remain anonymous. Explore your options by contacting Kay Stine, vice president for development, at (757) 622-7951 or kstine@hamptonroadscf.org.

Our Commitment to Racial Equity

W

e believe that racial equity is essential to the success of our region and its people. We further believe that advancing a more equitable and inclusive community is core to the mission of the Hampton Roads Community Foundation.

Race has long held a defining place in American society. It is embedded in our culture, laws and policies, educational institutions, and economy. The result is a system of racial bias and inequities that limits opportunities for people of color. If left unchallenged, such structural racism threatens our future.

To be sure, this system is bigger than the Hampton Roads Community Foundation and the region. It is nonetheless a powerful force pushing against “a thriving community with opportunity for all”– what our community foundation envisions for the people of Hampton Roads.

Easy Ways to Support Your Community • Mail a tax-deductible check using the envelope in this publication.

• Community Fund (provides grants to all types of nonprofit organizations) • Community Fund for Arts and Culture • Community Fund for Civic Leadership

• Go to HamptonRoadsCF.org and donate through our secure online system.

• Community Fund for Educational Achievement

• Talk with us about arranging for a charitable gift of appreciated stock or other assets.

• Community Fund for the Environment

• Include the Hampton Roads Community Foundation in your will, trust, IRA or other retirement plans.

• Community Fund for Scholarships

• Community Fund for Health and Human Services

• New! Racial equity efforts

Acknowledging that racism exists.

Working together to fix problems caused by discrimination.

Ensuring People of Color have fair access to resources.

Creating a more inclusive community with opportunity for all.

Types of Charitable Funds Available:

4 Options for Donor-advised Funds:

Unrestricted funds – tackle an array of critical

community needs now and those in the future we can’t imagine now.

The Hampton Roads Community Foundation offers options for starting a donor-advised fund – one of the fastest-growing forms of philanthropy:

Field-of-interest funds – provide grants to

Endowed Fund – Your legacy will last forever through this endowed,

nonprofits working in key areas of concern such as arts, education, or the environment.

Donor-advised funds – let living donors

recommend grants to specific nonprofits as an alternative to having a private foundation. See the list on this page for the four types of donor-advised funds available.

Scholarship funds – help college students pay for their education.

HamptonRoadsCF.org/ RacialEquity

Types of Community Funds and Giving Opportunities:

What is Racial Equity?

Designated funds – forever provide annual grants to specific nonprofits you name.

permanent fund that lets you and successor advisors recommend grants to nonprofits. When the advising period ends, your fund will become the type of charitable fund you choose, such as unrestricted, scholarship, or field of interest. (Initial charitable gift: $25,000 or more.)

Current-use Fund – You make one donation and then recommend

grants to nonprofits until you spend the fund balance. (Initial charitable gift: $50,000 or more.)

Quasi-endowed Fund – You and your successor advisors can

recommend grants to nonprofits as long as your fund keeps a minimum balance of at least $50,000. When the advising period ends, your fund becomes a permanent charitable fund with the purpose you specified. (Initial charitable gift: $50,000 or more.)

Customized Fund – You create a specialized donor-advised fund

that meets your needs now and helps others through your generosity.

(Initial charitable gift: $2 million or more.)

Owning Our History

Equity in Action:

In 2018, the community foundation began looking inwardly at our policies and practices around equity as well as our engagement with residents and community partners. Since then, we have:

The Hampton Roads Community Foundation awarded nearly $1 million Black Community Partnership Fund in grants to 30 local Black nonprofit organizations as a part of its commitment to racial equity.

• Worked with a consultant, LM Strategies, to coach staff and board members about racial equity issues, and to create a Racial Equity Statement and plan

This commitment involves confronting unfair and unjust policies and practices that persistently limit opportunities for Black people in Hampton Roads and beyond.

The grants come from the Black Community Partnership Fund, which the Foundation launched in 2020 thanks to a $1 million gift from Facebook to

• Hosted the annual Black Philanthropy Month celebration to amplify Black voices often left out of traditional philanthropy

Community Conversations The community foundation is a convener. We bring together people from all backgrounds to tackle important community issues, such as racial equity. Here’s a sampling:

Beneath the Surface Beneath the Surface is a collaboration between Virginia Humanities and the community foundation, which explores the ways race has shaped this region and advances personal understanding and community dialogue. It began in 2019 with a community residency with author and former Spelman College President Dr. Beverly Tatum.

It was followed by a series of community conversations called “Unmasking Hampton Roads.” The third and final phase is a grant program launched in late 2020.

• Expanded grant guidelines to require nonprofits to report racial demographic data on their boards, staff, and clients in order to get a more comprehensive picture of our community, who we help, and opportunities for support • Commissioned the Giving Black® Hampton Roads study to learn about Black philanthropists and giving trends

Dred Scott Presents In honor of the National Day of Racial Healing in January, the community foundation, in partnership with Virginians for Reconciliation, hosted Dred Scott Presents: Sons and Daughters of Reconciliation.

The event convened a civil rights panel to discuss how United States laws have fostered discrimination. It featured descendants of plaintiffs and judges in two landmark 19th-century U.S. Supreme Court cases – The Dred Scott Decision and Plessy v. Ferguson.

America to Me • Joined diverse community organizations, including the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Coastal Virginia, Asian Business Association of Hampton Roads, Black BRAND, and others The work continues with trainings, conversations, research projects, and ongoing assessment of our internal practices and external actions.

The community foundation sponsored an Understanding Hampton Roads civic engagement forum exploring the intersection of race, equity, and education. It included a screening of the first episode of the America To Me documentary followed by a panel discussion, which included local school and community leaders as well as student activists.

For the complete list of grantees, go to BlackCommunityPartnership Fund.org

support Black-led nonprofits. In early 2021, the community foundation awarded grants to nonprofits with a majority Black board of directors, executive leadership and/or staff, and that primarily serve Black people.

Grants, which will be paid over two years, can be used for a variety of programs and needs.

Buffalow Family and Friends Community Days, which received a $10,000 grant, is a family-oriented organization offering support and encouragement to the community in Chesapeake. It provides food and clothing to individuals in need.

The Don Carey REECH Foundation also received a $10,000 grant.

The organization provides students the opportunity of academic achievement and exposure to diverse areas through hands-on, innovative programs including science, technology, engineering, and math.

Here are three ways to be more equitable: 1. Learn about racial prejudice from the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities. According to VCIC, “The fight against prejudice is a cooperative process.” Take a class, download resources, and check out their programs here: InclusiveVA.org/programs/communities

2. Read books about racial issues, including these titles:

3. Donate to racial equity efforts, including at the foundation, here: HamptonRoadsCF.org/SupportRacialEquity

Keeping Their Legacy Alive

Scholarship Honors Brave Students of the Norfolk 17 In 1959, seventeen that church did when it children in Norfolk stepped in. The church took paved the way for future some risk in doing that as generations to obtain a well,” he said. “The whole good education.

Civil Rights Movement In 2020, two generous was just a critical period of donors created a time. Many people made scholarship fund to ensure sacrifices for the future – for that legacy continues. the future of the community Sandra and Lemuel and for the future of the Lewis, through a generous country.” gift, established the Lem said progress is Lewis Family Norfolk 17 possible when everyone Scholarship Fund at the works together to fight at the Hampton Roads injustices. Lem, who Community Foundation. It attended segregated Sandra Lewis stands in front of a historical marker honors the brave students schools in Lynchburg before at First Baptist Church with Dr. Patricia Turner, one of the 17 students who desegregated city enrolling as one of the few to desegregate Norfolk city schools. public schools amidst Black students at UVA in the fierce opposition.

1960s, said the couple is paying forward “Having the scholarship with the scholarships that helped them “Having the scholarship that name, it keeps the memory alive. achieve educational success. with that name, Somebody has to say, ‘well why do they “Without them, I would never call them the Norfolk 17?’” Sandra said. have been able to attend college,” said it keeps the memory alive.

“The men and women – or at that time Lem, who serves on the community Somebody has to say, the girls and boys – who suffered the foundation board of directors. “We both ‘well why do they call them insults, the threats, the hostility that very much appreciate and benefited they did to achieve integration, that from getting a good education. We the Norfolk 17?’” should never be forgotten. History is know of no better way to give back than — Sandra Lewis important.” through scholarships.”

Sandra knows firsthand the power Their first local scholarship was in the 1950s opened its doors to tutor of young people to change the course awarded in 2021, and it will forever help the 17 Norfolk students who – along of history. After all, she did it herself. others achieve a college education. with others across the state – were At 10 years old, Sandra became “We like the concept that this will shut out of public schools when the one of 12 students to desegregate continue the fundamental goal of the governor chose to close rather than Charlottesville public schools when Norfolk 17, which is to help people get a integrate them. she walked through the doors of good education,” Sandra said. “Because Churches were not immune to Venable Elementary in 1959. She went of the perpetual nature of having the fund racial violence during the Civil Rights on to become one of the first African with the Hampton Roads Community Movement, including bombings by American women to graduate from the Foundation, it will last a long time.” racist groups in the deep South, Lem University of Virginia’s College of Arts “And not only last but grow, and Lewis pointed out. & Sciences in 1972. grow in perpetuity,” Lem added.

“That, to me, is what history is – not The couple attends the historic Learn more about the Norfolk 17 at only what the Norfolk 17 did but what First Baptist Church in Norfolk, which HamptonRoadsCF.org/Norfolk 17.