$944,939 in Grants
Help Nine Nonprofits

The Norfolk Foundation awarded in April 2008 a $187,500 grant to Village Gardens Retirement Housing Foundation to help build a 40-unit apartment complex in Norfolk for low-income adults over age 62. The grant helps fill the gap between $4 million awarded by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and the actual cost of building the units in the Lambert’s Point neighborhood. The new apartments will be adjacent to a similar project The Norfolk Foundation helped fund in 2001. The Village Gardens foundation was among 10 nonprofits awarded $944,939 in grants during the foundation’s first round of grants for 2008.
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Foundation Wins Award
For Children’s Work

The Norfolk Foundation was honored a recipient of the 2008 Safe Harbor awards presented by Children’s Harbor. The Foundation was honored on April 16 for its ongoing work improving life for Hampton Roads youngest citizens. Since 2001 it has convened business and civic leaders around the issue of improving the care and education of preschoolers in Hampton Roads. The Foundation has also awarded more than $3.8 million in grants to support this effort. The Foundation was among 10 recipients of the Safe Harbor award.



Light Honored by YWCA

The YWCA of South Hampton Roads selected Angelica D. Light, Norfolk Foundation president and CEO, as one of 12 Women of Distinction for 2008. She was honored at an April 9 luncheon at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott. Light received an award in the business category for her leadership of The Norfolk Foundation since 1999. Since then Foundation assets have doubled to $220 million. In 2007 The Norfolk Foundation awarded more than $8 million in grants and scholarships to improve live in Hampton Roads. This was the largest amount awarded in a single year.

Batten Challenge Provides
$1 Million Endowments
To Area Nonprofits

The Norfolk Foundation announced in January 2008 the new Batten Endowment Challenge – a program of the Foundation’s Batten Educational Achievement Fund designed to create a lasting source of funding for nonprofit organizations working to improve the educational attainment of children and youth in South Hampton Roads. Horizons Hampton Roads and Young Audiences of Virginia were selected recently as the first Batten Endowment Challenge recipients. Each organization will receive $1 million from the Batten Educational Achievement Fund to establish permanent endowment funds for the organizations at The Norfolk Foundation. In addition, each nonprofit is challenged to raise up to $500,000 in additional donations over the next five years. These funds are to be placed in organizational endowments at the Foundation and will be matched dollar for dollar by grants from the Batten Educational Achievement Fund. To help the organizations increase their development capabilities, the Foundation will award them Building Excellence Development Capacity Building grants that will provide technical assistance. The Foundation plans to select two additional Batten Endowment Challenge recipients each year through 2012.

“The Batten Challenge will jump start our drive to do a planned giving campaign, This is not just about the money but is also about the prestige and recognition that help us tell our story to a new group of people,” says Tom Crockett, executive director of Young Audiences of Virginia, which provides arts programs to children and students in Hampton Roads and throughout Virginia.

For Horizons, the challenge grant has ”re-energized our board and helped us focus on raising sustainable funds,” says Lisa Cook, executive director of Horizons Hampton Roads, which offers summer learning programs for public school students with limited family incomes in Norfolk and Virginia Beach.

Funding for the Batten Endowment Challenge is provided by the Batten Educational Achievement Fund started in 2003 at The Norfolk Foundation by philanthropists Frank and Jane Batten of Virginia Beach. Their $20.5 million gift was the largest single gift the Foundation has ever received. The Batten Fund is a donor advised fund that has a focused on helping area youth develop the knowledge and skills needed to become productive, self-sufficient citizens.

For more details on the Batten Endowment Challenge click here.
 

Foundation Grants
Exceed $8 Million

The Norfolk Foundation awarded $8 million in grants and scholarships in 2007 – the most awarded in a single year. In December during the final round of grant-making for 2007, the Foundation granted $175,000 in seed funding to the Hampton Roads Center for Civic Engagement. The three-year grant will help encourage area citizens to participate in discussions about important community issues. The new center plans to conduct a survey on the civic health of Hampton Roads, use technology to increase public participation in discussions and hold a regional summit on civic engagement.

The Foundation also awarded seed funding to Child and Family Services of Eastern Virginia for the Norfolk Family Violence Alliance to initiate a program to help domestic assault victims and their families. A $100,000, two-year grant for the alliance’s Commitment to Change program will provide counseling, an 18-week intervention course, parenting courses and other services focused on preventing a recurrence of family violence.

The two grants were among $1.29 million awarded to 15 Hampton Roads nonprofits during the foundation’s final round of grantmaking for 2007. For a complete list of grant recipients click here.
 

Foundation Announces
New Grant Guidelines

The Norfolk Foundation has introduced new grant guidelines for 2008 that include:

• A new Green Building Initiative to encourage environmentally friendly and energy efficient building projects by area nonprofits.
• An amended “three-year rule” that lets a nonprofit that has received capital funding apply for seed funding without waiting three years.
• Different deadlines for organizations to apply for funding in the categories of arts and culture and health and human services.

To view the 2008 guidelines click here.
 

Report Focuses
On Regional Giving
Charitable giving to Hampton Roads nonprofits working in the human services field increased in 2006 – the only regional sector to report an upswing in donations, according to the sixth annual Dimensions of Philanthropy in Hampton Roads Report for 2007. The study was released on National Philanthropy Day, November 15, 2007, by The Norfolk Foundation and the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Hampton Roads. For details click here.