The Greater Washington Community Foundation is the largest funder of nonprofit organizations in the region. Since 1973, we have granted more than $1.7 billion to thousands of nonprofits, including more than $92 million last year. The following community impact funds represent The Community Foundation’s discretionary and competitive grantmaking. For information about available grant opportunities, please visit the For Nonprofits section.
The $95 million Health Equity Fund is designated to improve the health outcomes and health equity of DC residents. Created against a backdrop of urgent healthcare needs in the District of Columbia, the Health Equity Fund will address health disparities and social and structural determinants of health for historically underserved District residents. Mindful that health and wealth are inextricably connected, the strategy for this fund is to use an economic mobility frame to address the root causes that are causing health challenges in the first place.
The LGBTQ+ Fund for Philanthropy aims to support and build our region’s LGBTQ+ community. Through this effort, we seek to empower and engage the LGBTQ+ people throughout Greater Washington. Our vision is for our region to be an inclusive place where all LGBTQ+ people and communities can thrive.
The Fund provides support for both immediate and long-term needs, including investing in solutions to issues impacting LGBTQ+ people, promoting diversity and inclusion, offering collaboration opportunities, and educating our community. Together, we can fulfill our vision of creating an equitable Greater Washington where everyone can thrive.
Led by the Greater Washington Community Foundation and the DC Interagency Council on Homelessness, The Partnership is the first-of-its-kind initiative in DC to bring together the public and private sectors to ensure homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring. Through our grantmaking fund, we invest in nonprofit organizations working to advance housing justice through budget advocacy, policy advocacy, and public awareness building; nonprofit direct service providers helping to move people into housing and out of homelessness more quickly; and in efforts to make homeless services more efficient, effective, and coordinated.
Everyone deserves to grow up and live in a community free from gun violence. The Peace For DC Fund is dedicated to funding proven strategies to reduce shootings and homicides in the District. By focusing on transforming the lives of the small number of individuals most at-risk of gun violence, and treating trauma in the communities that have suffered from the city’s highest homicide rates, we can dramatically reduce incidents of gun violence. In consultation with the nation's top gun violence reduction experts, we will build the capacity and scale of evidence-based programs run by trusted neighborhood based nonprofits. Peace For DC’s investments will interrupt the cycle of violence to stop shootings before they happen. Eliminating gun violence in DC is key to establishing racial and economic equity for everyone. Together, we can create and maintain Peace For DC.
Prince George’s County, through the Department of Family Services, established the Domestic Violence Community Grants Fund in March 2017 to award mini-grants to domestic violence prevention nonprofit organizations. Grants assist individuals, families and survivors of domestic violence in achieving a greater level of independence, strengthen the family’s ability to cope with healing, and rebuild the family unit by removing various challenges which inhibit self-sufficiency, including but not limited to legal services, counseling services, support groups, employment, training and housing. The Fund recently made $280,000 in grants to provide survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking with counseling, housing, transportation, and legal services.
The Sharing Community Funds bring together donors who share our passion for building more equitable, just, and thriving communities. With expert facilitation by Community Foundation staff, donors join together to learn first-hand about the challenges facing our community. Thanks to the generosity of this growing community of givers, together we discover and invest in visionary nonprofits working on the frontlines of our region’s most pressing needs.
Contact your local Community Foundation Giving Officer or visit your local office webpage to find out how you can get involved in this impactful fund!
