The Community Foundation provides leadership to identify and address the most promising opportunities and critical challenges facing our communities. As both a funder and convener, The Community Foundation’s initiatives inspire neighbors – donors, community organizations, government, and the private sector – to work together to improve the economic conditions and social well-being of our entire community.
With over 100 pilots currently operating around the country, guaranteed income programs have proven to be one of the most promising approaches to lift people out of poverty and provide greater economic stability for families. The Greater Washington Community Foundation is an early adopter and investor in several guaranteed income pilots throughout our region.
Researchers have found that children’s savings accounts seeded with a modest amount of funding could help close the racial wealth gap in a community by as much as 28 percent. The Community Foundation is embarking on a pilot program to establish and seed accounts for two kindergarten classes in our priority neighborhoods that can be redeemed at graduation to pay for higher education, purchase a home, start a business, or take other steps toward securing their future.
The Emerging Leaders Impact Fund (ELIF) mobilizes resources to help local organizations deepen their impact and provide hope and opportunity in Prince George’s County. ELIF encourages collective giving and civic engagement from emerging philanthropists. Together, members pool resources, learn first-hand about nonprofits working in Prince George’s County, and invest in those that help residents participate more fully in the county’s social and economic growth.
Reimagine, formerly known as the Greater Washington Workforce Development Collaborative, is a coalition of funders committed to co-creating solutions alongside communities and people to advance systemic economic justice rooted in reimagining, redistributing, and rebalancing work, opportunity, and sustainability.
Reimagine is working toward a vision for an equitable and just Greater Washington region where each person has the agency to define what a productive and creative life means and the opportunity to lead that life which allows for material comfort, sustainability and growth.
We believe that all DC residents deserve a safe, stable, and affordable place to call home. The Partnership to End Homelessness, led with the DC Interagency Council on Homelessness, is the first-of-its-kind initiative in DC to bring together the public and private sectors to ensure homelessness is rare, brief, and nonrecurring. The initiative includes an impact investment focused on increasing the supply of deeply affordable housing and a grantmaking fund to help more people obtain and maintain stable housing, and ultimately end homelessness in DC.
Voices of the Community: DC, Maryland, Virginia (VoicesDMV), is a community listening and engagement initiative conducted every three years to help understand the diverse experiences of the people who live and work in the Greater Washington region. VoicesDMV uplifts community voice through a community-wide survey and community conversations to explore the issues impacting the region. The result is a rich collection of data that has informed more strategic and effective investments by The Community Foundation and our partners.
The COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund launched in March 2020 to address the urgent health and economic needs of communities disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. To date, it has mobilized more than $11 million and made grants to help stabilize 300 nonprofit partners and expand critical services. It responded to urgent needs with a focus on disproportionately impacted communities of color, and invested in recovery efforts to create a more equitable future for our region.
