The National Capital Region is one of the most diverse areas in the nation today—this diversity is one of our greatest strengths, and has been reflected in the Community Foundation’s giving and special initiatives for decades. The Foundation has worked together with donors and community partners to tackle a host of critical issues that intersect with race and ethnicity. We have worked through these initiatives by:

Investing in Effective Nonprofits Addressing Inequities

The Foundation and its donors have invested millions of dollars in high quality programs and nonprofits addressing race-based inequities in education, employment, housing, health, civic opportunities, and a host of other issues.  Much of this work has been done in collaboration with our donors, local and national foundations, businesses and local governments. Read more about these collaborative approaches below:

• The Washington Area Partnership for Immigrants: a regional leadership group that granted more than $3.6 million over 7 years to raise awareness of changing demographics in the region, to build the capacity and voice of immigrant-serving nonprofits and to tackle issues around education, language access, workforce, citizenship and immigrant rights
  
  
• The Common Ground Fund: investing in social justice efforts in racially diverse neighborhoods throughout the region
  
  
• The Partnership for Equity: investing in leadership development for nonprofit leaders of color working in the metropolitan Washington region
  
  
• The Collaborative for Education Organizing: supporting the participation of low-income youth and families in education reform in the District of Columbia
  
  
•  The Greater Washington Workforce Development Collaborative: investing in efforts to help low-income adults obtain and retain jobs that provide good wages, benefits and opportunities for advancement.

Building Local Knowledge

Through major convenings of community members, donors, philanthropic organizations, government representatives, business sector leaders, and faith-based institutions, The Foundation has worked to heighten the profile of issues ranging from teacher quality to quality healthcare for low-income communities of color throughout the region.

In particular, our Putting Race on the Table Forums have addressed some of the most pressing community issues through the lens of race and ethnicity.

In addition, from 2003-07, The Community Foundation published the Spirit of Giving Guide, a resource for donors on high performing nonprofits, along with information on critical issues in the community.

Investing in Research

The Foundation has commissioned nationally-recognized research into the impact of race and ethnicity on the Washington region. Among the studies and reports commissioned are:

Issue Brief: Parent Leadership 2006

Issue Brief: Workforce English 2006

Issue Brief: Youth Engagement 2006

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