SPOTLIGHT
on non-profit
The Environment Fund: Helping nonprofits advance green initiatives BY A N A L I E S E K R E U T Z E R
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an one person make a difference? The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia thinks so. Thanks to an anonymous donor’s $500,000 endowment, the Community Foundation established the Environment Fund, which has given grants to the Foundation of the Fairfax County Public Schools for its Get2Green program and to the Coalition for Smarter Growth. The Environment Fund is part of the Community Foundation’s Permanent Fund, launched in 2018 in conjunction with the Foundation’s 40th anniversary. “The goal of the Permanent Fund is to be an endowment that will be here for the community forever,” said Tara Nadel, vice president of marketing and events at the Community Foundation. “There’s a lot of variety in how people can support the Permanent Fund and leave a lasting legacy that is meaningful to them. One way is a field of interest fund like the Environment Fund and our Ross-Roberts Fund for the Arts.” While the principal from the Environment Fund’s endowment remains intact, the investment income it generates provides the funding for the grants, about $25,000 annually. The grants are intended to encourage collaboration, raise public awareness, provide education, and promote citizen engagement, in keeping with the Environment Fund’s mission to protect, restore and improve the natural environment of Northern Virginia. In 2018, the Fairfax school system’s Get2Green program became the first recipient of an Environment Fund grant. Get2Green teaches environmental stewardship and integrates its principles into the curriculum at all grade levels. “The board really liked the idea of the expanse of the FCPS grant because it wasn’t a single school or a single program,” Nadel said. “FCPS was looking at a variety of ways to encourage schools to participate in the program or build 22
THE BUSINESS VOICE
COMMUNITY FOUNDATION CREATES COVID-19 GRANT FUND
In response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia has created a response fund for nonprofit organizations and other programs in the region responding to COVID-19 and its impacts. The fund’s focus will be to help communities that are disproportionately impacted by the virus and its economic consequences. Through early April, the foundation had awarded over $780,000 in grants to 60 different organizations.
opportunities for different programs the schools could use to participate. It was a program that had a number of different choices along the lines of getting green, not just nutrition or energy efficiency.” The grant helped fund projects at a variety of grade levels, from elementary school through high school, said Donna Volkmann, educational specialist for Get2Green program. “Get2Green has already supported 30 schools in implementing a variety of student-led actions, such as creating native schoolyard habitats, vegetable gardens, and weather stations and by providing tools and professional development opportunities for teachers to learn best practices for engaging their students in outdoor learning,” Volkmann added. “It’s so meaningful and rewarding to meet with schools and be able to offer the resources and funding to help with turning student and teacher sustainability visions into action.” In 2019, the Community Foundation awarded its second Environment Fund grant to the Coalition for Smarter Growth. In Northern Virginia, the coalition has been instrumental in advocating for smarter growth, balanced development and conservation. As one of its signature community engagement events, the coalition offers walking tours to educate people about what makes a successful walkable, livable neighborhood. The tours illustrate the interconnection of land use, transportation, and housing with environmental sustainability and social equity.
| SPRING 2020
The grant from the Environment Fund—combined with a seed grant from the Prince Charitable Trusts and funding from a second anonymous donor and friend of the Community Foundation— enabled the coalition to hire its first Northern Virginia advocacy manager, Sonya Breehey. Adding that position increased the coalition’s ability to build coalitions, offer public education and engagement, and shape policies that will ensure Northern Virginia grows more sustainably and equitably. Breehey has “strengthened the coordination among conservation nonprofits and their partnerships with advocates for affordable housing, social equity, transit, and safer streets for biking and walking,” said the coalition’s Executive Director, Stewart Schwartz. “The goals CSG promotes will result in a cleaner environment, along with improved health, social equity, quality of life, and economic competitiveness.” For the first three years of the Environment Fund, the Community Foundation chose the grant recipients by inviting a select group of nonprofits to submit focused letters of intent, which were reviewed by a panel of volunteers who made recommendations to the Community Foundation’s board. However, starting next year, the process will be open to a full competitive grant cycle, Nadel said. “Each year will have an area of focus that will be determined and described in advance.” For more information visit CFNOVA.org.
