 April 2010
Starbucks Memorial Fund Grants: Dedicated to Violence Prevention, Advocacy and Victim Assistance
While the good news is that crime rates in the District of Columbia are below those at this time last year, there is still much cause for concern. Most incidents take place in DC's Ward 8 -- one of the poorest sections of the city with exceptionally high unemployment. We need only look to the tragic incident of two drive-by shootings that killed four and wounded six in this same neighborhood just last month to remind ourselves of the District's checkered history of violence. (Read more HERE.) What's more, the combination of tough economic times and soon-to-come hot summer nights may prove to be even more deadly. (Read the April 1997 Washington Post article HERE). Starbucks quickly responded by establishing the Starbucks Memorial Fund at The Community Foundation. Dedicated to violence prevention, advocating for violence prevention victims of violence, and providing assistance to victims, since 1998 the Fund has made grants totaling in excess of $700,000 to dozens of nonprofit organizations focused on preventing violence in the Washington, DC region. The Fund is managed by The Foundation’s Philanthropic Advisory Services team, who help donors make the most of their charitable giving by providing individuals, families, foundations and corporations with everything from sound advice on effective nonprofits to the administrative work of grantmaking.
The latest Starbucks Memorial Fund grants, awarded earlier this year, will support four nonprofits. They are:
Grantee Profile: Men Can Stop Rape
Some investments lead to tangible results, such as a building, says Neil Irvin, Executive Director of Men Can Stop Rape (MCSR), an international organization based in Washington, DC.
MCSR was founded in 1997 and, since that time, the organization has led the call to redefine masculinity and male strength as part of preventing men’s violence against women. In contrast to traditional efforts that address men as “the problem,” MCSR’s signature Strength Campaign embraces men as vital allies with the will and character to make healthy choices and foster safe, equitable relationships. The organization has trained more than 9,000 youth-serving professionals and provided technical assistance to more than 200 agencies and organizations. Since 2000, the Men of Strength (MOST) Club has provided high school age young men with a structured and supportive space to learn about healthy masculinity and redefine male strength. The Campus Strength Program provides campuses with tools to develop effective, replicable programming, to build the leadership skills of student organizers, and to mobilize faculty, administration, and other allies. MCSR has reached hundreds of thousands of men through its public service campaign, taking its message everywhere from bus shelters in the nation’s capital to public health clinics in South Africa. A member of the MCSR staff for nine years, Irvin has grown the organization’s youth development program from one school in Washington, D.C. to more than 100 locations in ten states throughout the country. Participants, he points out, reflect a range of life experiences. For instance, one teen, who lives in a predominately white depressed lumber mill community in rural California, holds a job because his parents are unemployed. The challenges he faces include juggling working and going to school, figuring out where he fits into the social scene and how his family is going to make ends meet, among others. Across the country, young men are challenged to prove their masculinity—by selling drugs or dropping out of school, for instance.
This year, the organization received a $20,000 grant from the Starbucks Memorial Fund—which is housed at The Community Foundation—in support of continued expansion of programs into all DC public high schools and middle schools, reaching some 400 young men through gender-based violence prevention education and advocacy. (See previous article.) “Starbucks understands that prevention is truly the only way to sustain our investment in young men,” said Irvin.
A New Life for The Partnership for Equity
At The Community Foundation, for many years we’ve focused our efforts on the diversity of our region, working hard to ensure that all the residents of the DC metropolitan area have the opportunity to participate in the our region’s prosperity. Therefore, in 1998, we first launched The Washington Area Partnership for Immigrants (WAPI), with the goal of supporting the ability of immigrants to obtain U.S. citizenship. In 2001, The Common Ground Fund, originally founded by the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, became a program of the Community Foundation with the goal of strengthening leadership within communities of color, including immigrant communities, to ensure more fair and justice outcomes for marginalized communities. Most recently our social justice efforts have been grounded in the work of The Partnership for Equity(PFE), which was established in 2007 as a result of the merger of WAPI and The Common Ground Fund. In our new fiscal year, which began on April 1, 2010, we are making some important changes in our social justice work. As of April 30, we will close out The Partnership for Equity as a funding collaborative – the public-private advisory group will disband and cease collaborative grantmaking. At the same time, we will weave in the values, principles and practices of the work of PFE into the larger fold of The Foundation’s efforts to strengthen the nonprofit community (also known as "capacity-building"). Specifically, we will continue to convene capacity-building and social justice funders, private- and public-sector grantmakers, individual donors, and nonprofits in peer-to-peer networking and learning opportunities as we increase the effectiveness of both philanthropy and nonprofit organizations. What does this mean for donors? When you support The Community Foundation, you will be giving all of our residents the opportunity to participate in the region’s prosperity, to achieve self-sufficiency, and to become fully engaged in what it means to be part of the larger Washington metropolitan area community. Grantee UpdatesCensus Project:
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Virginia Cheung is General Counsel/Managing Director of Estate Planning for McLean Asset Management Corporation. Previously she was an attorney with Kidwell, Kent & Curran in Rockville, MD. Virginia also serves on the boards of the Nonprofit Advancement Fund for Montgomery County and Asian American LEAD. |
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Verdia Haywood is the retired Deputy County Executive for Fairfax County, where he oversaw all human service agencies for 26 years, including the county's grant process for nonprofits and its innovative work around homelessness and affordable housing. In addition, he created an interfaith liaison office for the county. |
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Martin Weinstein is Partner, Wilkie, Farr & Gallagher, and a Community Foundation donor. Martin leads the Compliance and Enforcement group at Wilkie and is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Fraud Division. He is the founder of the Willkie, Farr & Gallagher Foundation, which pools contributions from attorneys and staff and makes charitable contributions to local groups. |
New Officers
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David M. Bradt, Jr., Chair David Bradt is the Managing Director of the Washington, DC office of WTAS LLC. He has extensive experience providing investment consulting, tax planning, financial planning, family wealth planning and tax-reporting services to high net worth individuals, corporate executives and family business owners. David serves as chairman of WTAS’ Investment Committee and leader of the firm’s Investment Advisory Services Practice. For 28 years before joining WTAS, David was with an international professional services firm, where he led the firm’s Investment Advisory Services Practice as well as the Private Client Services Practice for the Mid-Atlantic Region. |
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Carol Thompson Cole, Vice Chair Carol Thompson Cole is President & CEO of Venture Philanthropy Partners, a philanthropic investment organization that helps great leaders build strong, high-performing nonprofit institutions. She is a member of the Federal City Council; the Greater Washington Advisory Board of SunTrust; the Summit Fund; and is a Lifetime Trustee of the Urban Institute. |
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Boisfeuillet Jones, Jr., Treasurer Boisfeuillet Jones, Jr. is a distinguished publisher, media executive, and former attorney. In September 2000, he succeeded Donald Graham as Publisher and CEO of The Washington Post, and was named Vice Chairman of The Washington Post Company and Chairman of The Washington Post in February 2008. Prior to joining The Post, Jones was an attorney with Hill & Barlow in Boston, MA. |
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Patricia McGuire, Secretary Patricia McGuire is the President of Trinity Washington University. She is a member of the Women's Advisory Board of the Girl Scouts of the Nation's Capital and serves on multiple boards of directors including Greater Washington Board of Trade, The Washington Hospital Center, Women's College Coalition, The Washington Metropolitan Consortium of Universities, The D.C. College Success Foundation, Goodwill of Greater Washington, and The UNIFI Mutual Holding Company. |
Meet David Bradt, New Board of Trustees Chair and Community Foundation Donor
Writer Janice Kaplan recently spoke with David Bradt about his new role at The Community Foundation.
The beauty of a community foundation is it allows donors to join with others to strengthen our region in measurable and sustainable ways for the benefit of all our residents. 
Kaplan: Congratulations on your new role as chair of The Community Foundation Board of Trustees.
Bradt: I have big shoes to fill. Dan Mayers provided inspiring leadership during some challenging times–from September 11 to the recent economic downturn. I look forward to tapping into Dan’s wisdom and 50 years of volunteer experience in our community.
K: This is the first time in many years that a financial advisor has been at the helm of The Community Foundation.
B: I’ve been a financial advisor my entire professional life. That’s more than 30 years. I truly love what I do. I think my background allows me to help donors understand how The Community Foundation fits into their philanthropic, tax and wealth management objectives.
K: There was a time when people said The Community Foundation was a well kept secret.
B: Those days are behind us. I think back on a time when few financial advisors knew what a community foundation was. Today, I’d be hard pressed to find someone in my line of work who doesn’t know about community foundations. That’s how far we’ve come. At the same time, the staff and board will continue to raise the profile of the organization. I plan to personally spend a good deal of time out in the community meeting with donors.
K: How do you view your role as chair?
B: I hope to complement the work of President Terri Freeman and the staff and encourage the board. We need to get to know our donors better, to help them achieve their philanthropic objectives and educate them about the programmatic side of our work. I am particularly excited about our programs. It is essential that our donors know more about our work in such areas as the Neighbors in Need Fund, workforce development and education. Those who have donor advised funds at the Foundation are natural contributors to the initiatives we are pursuing. I’d like to see more of that.
K: You and your wife Diane have a donor-advised fund at The Community Foundation.
B: Through our fund, we have made grants to groups as diverse as Greater DC Cares, the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital, Share Our Strength and Washington Episcopal School, not to mention the Neighbors in Need Fund, which was created in response to the economic crisis in support of local safety net organizations.
K: These are challenging times for many.
B: These are truly trying times for many in our community. At the same time, there have always been and will always be people in our region in need—even when the recession comes to an end. The beauty of a community foundation is it allows donors to join with others to strengthen our region in measurable and sustainable ways for the benefit of all our residents.
The 2010 Linowes Leadership Awards: Call for Nominations
Deadline: June 1, 2010
The Linowes Leadership Awards, sponsored by The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, recognize the vision, creativity and leadership of "unsung" community leaders of all ages working in the Greater Washington, DC region. Nominees largely should be unrecognized for their work and dedication. Learn more and submit a nomination by visiting www.thecommunityfoundation.org or contacting Rachel Dutcher at rdutcher@cfncr.org or 202-955-5890 ext. 171.
Upcoming Events
 Thursday, April 29, 2010 6:00pm – 9:00pm FedEx Field Landover, MD Now in its fifth year, this popular event recognizes and celebrates the people who make Prince George’s County a vibrant place to live, work, learn and play. Proceeds benefit The Community Foundation for Prince George’s County. For more information: terriwroberts@verizon.net |
 Tuesday, May 25, 2010 9:30am - 11:30am Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation 1250 Connecticut Avenue NW Suite 800 Washington, DC The forum focuses on the the region's continued need for workforce development and how funders can respond to a jobless recovery. Learn more HERE. |
 Save the Date! The Community Foundation's Annual Meeting Wednesday, June 23, 2010 12:00 - 2:00pm More details to come. |
Join Our Online Community
In our blog "Giving It Some Thought," Community Foundation President Terri Lee Freeman and others share their perspectives on regional issues and philanthropy. Read it and sign-up for RSS feeds HERE.
Become a fan of our Neighbors in Need Fund Facebook page and stay up-to-date on the latest Neighbors in Need news! Find us HERE.
Follow us @CommunityFndn and our President, Terri Lee Freeman, @TerriLeeFreeman
Community Foundation Donors: Go Green! Sign Up for E-Statements and Donor Central
If you're a Community Foundation donor, you now can receive your quarterly statements electronically. It's the fast, easy, efficient, and earth-friendly way to keep track of your fund profile. Registering only takes a minute. Sign up HERE.
Sign up for Donor Central! This free, secure online service lets you recommend grants and check your fund activity 24/7. Contact Starlet Hunter, Director of Development, at (202) 263-4763 or shunter@cfncr.org.
About The Community Foundation
Founded in 1973, The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region promotes charitable giving and plays a leading role in finding innovative solutions to the Greater Washington region's most challenging problems. The Foundation is a community of givers – individuals, families and corporations have joined with the Foundation; as a result, the Foundation provides sound management of some 700 funds and $320 million in assets. In FY2008, The Community Foundation and its donors awarded more than $91 million in grants to nonprofit organizations in the Washington, DC region and beyond. The Foundation has two affiliates – The Community Foundation for Montgomery County, and The Community Foundation for The Prince George’s County. For more information, visit www.thecommunityfoundation.org.
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Regional Affiliate – The Community Foundation for Montgomery County
8720 Georgia Avenue, Suite 202 | Silver Spring, MD 20910 | Phone: (301) 588-2544
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Regional Affiliate – The Community Foundation for Prince George's County
8181 Professional Place | Landover, MD 20785 | Phone: (301) 464-6706
