Youth In Philanthropy: Community Foundation for Northern Virginia Visit

Interning at the Council on Foundations is giving us a great look at a cross-section of the philanthropic field. The Council’s members, after all, come in all shapes and sizes – large, small, corporate, community foundations, and everything in between. As much as we research them, as much as we hear their names thrown around, the opportunity to actually visit and connect with a member really brought our work into context.

This past week, we visited Community Foundation for Northern Virginia and met with their staff, who provided us with unique insight into the community in which we are working during our time as interns at the Council. As a grantmaker and collaborative partner serving the entire northern Virginia region, including Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William counties, CFNV is acutely aware of the needs of its local citizens.

The foundation’s president, Eileen Ellsworth, shared with us her history with the Council and the member resources they utilize. Even for those of us who are only here for a couple of months, it was great to hear how useful the work that we are doing is to our members. At an organization that is driven in service of its members, meeting with someone whose charitable missions are furthered by the resources the Council provides gave additional meaning to our summer internships.

We also learned about the admirable work that the foundation does for their region. For example, we learned that in partnership with Deloitte, the foundation published a report last summer assessing the network of services available for regionally-based veterans. They found that the philanthropic sector can better serve the veteran community by coordinating across providers to make it easier for veterans to locate services.

Community Foundation for Northern Virginia also manages innovative Giving Circles and employs a community-based approach to awarding annual grant dollars – the kinds of ideas which we will be able to take back to the community foundations in our respective hometowns at the end of the summer. It was an enlightening meeting that served to remind us of the important work of community foundations and how rewarding an internship in the field of philanthropy can be.