$714K in Neighbors in Need Grants

It’s a Lot…But It’s Not Enough

The big news this month is that through our Neighbors in Need Fund, we’ve just awarded $714,300 to 37 nonprofit safety-net organizations in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Northern Virginia. Among the recipients are groups such as food banks and free meal programs, homeless shelters, clothing distribution, and foreclosure-prevention efforts working in neighborhoods stretching from DC, Capitol Heights, Gaithersburg, and Silver Spring to Arlington, Alexandria, Falls Church, and Loudoun County. View the complete list of grantees here.

Combined with our previous Neighbors in Need Fund grants, so far in 2009 The Community Foundation and our generous "community of givers" have invested over $1.2 million in the region’s safety-net. This includes $165,000 granted by our Montgomery County affiliate to nonprofits in the county. And the money is truly making a difference. For example, read the story of SEED, a Neighbors in Need grantee, below.

But, impressive as these numbers may be, they can’t begin to meet our community’s needs. In Virginia alone, since the recession began applications for food stamps have risen 18%. In DC, city budget cuts threaten to decimate the services of many safety-net nonprofits. In the Montgomery County Public Schools, a full 24% of students qualify for free and reduced-price meals. 

Join with us. If you haven’t donated to the Neighbors in Need Fund yet, make a gift today. And if you’ve already donated, consider renewing your gift. Community Foundation donors can use their Donor Central account*, and anyone can make a gift securely online here:

Our community’s rainy day is still here -- and the cold winter months are just around the corner. Take the lead with us…and reach out to your neighbors in need.

*Don’t have a Donor Central account yet? It’s free and easy to use. To learn more, contact Starlet Hunter, Manager of Donor Services, at (202) 263-4763 or shunter@cfncr.org.

 

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SEED Helps Fend off Foreclosure

A Lot of Community Problems Go Unnoticed Here

"A lot of community problems go unnoticed here," Lisa Butler McDougal said in an interview with Making Connections. The "here" McDougal is referring to is Prince George’s County, where she is Director of the nonprofit Sowing Empowerment & Economic Development, Inc. (SEED). "Unlike Washington or Baltimore, Prince George’s County doesn’t have the resources of a large city," said McDougal. "Much of our work is done from the ground up, instead of from the top down."

"We have individuals who have launched organizations out of their church, out of their house or their car," she said. "We have single-issue organizations and multi-service organizations. We have partnerships, such as the Human Services Coalition and the two-year-old Coalition for Home Ownership Preservation." The one thing Prince George’s doesn’t have, McDougal laments, is an established network of local funders.

Which makes The Community Foundation’s recent grant all the more meaningful. SEED recently received $25,000 from The Foundation’s Neighbors in Need Fund, allowing it to provide additional food, clothing and foreclosure prevention to low and moderate-income families throughout Prince George’s County.

Founded in 1997, SEED finds itself today in the eye of the economic storm. "The recession has hit us in literally every program area," says McDougal. In the past year, due to cuts in government and private funding and donations, SEED had reduced the hours of operation for its food distribution center from three days a week to one day, while at the same time seeing an increase in clients, especially those facing foreclosure. At one time, the organization provided counseling to 100 first-time homeowners per month. Today, while more first time home buyers are seeking counseling as a result of new government incentives, a large part of SEED’s focus is on foreclosure prevention. Prince George’s County has the highest rate of foreclosures in the state of Maryland.

SEED’s three counselors are currently juggling nearly 400 open foreclosure cases with as many as 20 new calls coming in every day. "If we don’t do something now, we’re going to see a new wave of homelessness in the coming years," says McDougal. "With the colder months coming, it’s scary to think about the new types of needs we’re going to see in our community."

With support from The Community Foundation, the SEED food distribution center is now open two days a week and SEED has added an additional foreclosure prevention workshop each month.

One homeowner, who prefers to remain anonymous, turned to SEED after losing his job last December. "I’d never been unemployed in my life," said the 53-year-old. "This was unfamiliar territory."

So was the possibility of foreclosure. After researching his options, the man signed up to participate in SEED’s foreclosure prevention workshop. "SEED walked me through the steps needed to keep my house, calmed my fears and left me with the feeling that I wasn’t alone in this." This, in turn, allowed him to focus his attention on finding a new job.

Today, he is on the road to employment and optimistic he will be able to stay in his home.

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Making Their Dollars Go Further

"There is power in numbers." This is how Jackie Marlin explains the impact of the modest donation she and husband David made to The Community Foundation’s Neighbors in Need Fund in the fall of 2008. Contributors to the fund include individuals, families and organizations with donations ranging from $25 to a $2 million gift from The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. Contributions arrive every week, and individuals, families, and corporations are expected to continue their participation in response to the alarming – and rapidly growing -- need in communities across the Washington metropolitan region.

The Marlins are happy to do their part. "While we don’t think of ourselves as philanthropists," says Jackie, "we’ve always been givers — whether of our time or our money." The couple arrived in Washington, DC in 1961 when David came to work as an attorney in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Jackie, who most recently served as director of Harvard University’s preschool, wondered how she could top that experience. The answer came in the form of a call from The White House, inviting her to teach the country’s most famous preschooler: Caroline Kennedy.

In the following years, the Marlins raised three children while continuing to pursue careers in civil rights and early childhood education. Jackie also co-founded the Levine School of Music, where she has served on the board for many years.

In 2007, after downsizing to a smaller home, the Marlins found themselves with a small pot of money. Their friends, Rick and Nancy Gould, suggested that they look into setting up a donor-advised fund at The Community Foundation, allowing them to continue to contribute to their favorite charities with added tax benefits and administrative support. "In other words," says Jackie, "it was a more convenient way to do what we had always done. It turned out to be the right decision."

When The Community Foundation responded to the recession by setting up The Neighbors in Need Fund and soliciting donations to support emergency services, the Marlins responded to the call. "We want to help those who are less fortunate," Jackie says. "But beyond that, we wanted to do something for The Community Foundation which, in the short time since we had set up our fund, has done so much for us. We’re grateful for the role they play in addressing the community’s needs and for their expertise. We wanted to show our appreciation."

"Now is the time to provide the basics," says Marlin, adding that she can always give to education and the arts, and still does. "What good is an education, or music lessons, if you don’t have food to eat, a roof over your head or clothes to wear?"

Not long ago, the Marlins returned from their summer vacation to a large pile of mail, including many solicitations from local nonprofits. That’s when they decided to make a second -- and larger -- contribution to The Neighbors in Need Fund. "I trust The Community Foundation will do the right thing with our money," she said. "There is no question our neighbors are hurting."

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The Good News: Community Foundation Donors Are Responding!

We’ve been tracking the giving patterns of our donors, and the good news is that giving to health and human services nonprofits by our “community of givers” is up significantly over last year. Donors increased their giving to safety net groups by $3.3 million at a time when many are cutting back on their giving.

 

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