Philanthropist to Help Future Generations Nurture The Environment

Jane Batten is a Hampton Roads philanthropist, mother and grandmother who loves

The Learning Barge gets kids on the water.

children and preserving the environment. For Batten, helping kids become adults committed to caring for the world around them "makes good sense."
That's why Batten recently made the Elizabeth River Project the latest Batten Endowment Challenge grant recipient. The environmental group was announced in January 2014 as the eighth area nonprofit to benefit from the Hampton Roads Community Foundation program that gives organizations $1 million endowments and then challenges them to double that amount. This is the Elizabeth River Project's first permanent endowment fund.

Here is how the latest Batten Endowment Challenge works for the Elizabeth River Project:

 *A $1 million grant from the Batten Educational Achievement Fund has created an endowment fund for Elizabeth River Project at the Hampton Roads CommunityFoundation.

Jane and Frank Batten

The grant came from a donor-advised fund Jane and her late husband Frank started in 2003 at the community foundation with a $20.3 million gift.  

*Jane Batten has challenged the Elizabeth River Project to raise within five years another $500,000 from additional donors. She will match every dollar donated up to $500,000 -- essentially doubling the Elizabeth River Project's endowment.

"I'm impressed by the way the Elizabeth River Project is getting industries to be its partners," Batten says. She also likes its innovative programs that are helping create "a generation of children who go home and talk to their parents who may not have thought much about the environment."

Each year the Elizabeth River Project works with more than 30,000 area students -- from preschoolers to high school seniors. Programs are held on its learning barge parked in area waterways, in classrooms and in the new Paradise Creek Nature Park in Portsmouth. In addition 150 area schools are River Star Schools where teachers involve students in hands-on environmental projects each year.

For Marjorie Mayfield Jackson, executive director of the Elizabeth River Project, the new endowment and its challenge mean "stability" and that the organization she founded 21 years ago to restore the tainted Elizabeth River is "maturing."

The endowment will initially provide the Elizabeth River Project annual grants from the community foundation of 4.5 percent of the fund's value -- $45,000 the first year. As the endowment grows, the amount of grants coming to the environmental group each year will increase.

"When you have major urban rivers used and abused for years, you need dollars to stretch as far as you can," Jackson says. The new endowment will help Elizabeth River Project expand its efforts to once again make area rivers safe for swimming and fishing.

Donations to the Batten Endowment Challenge should go directly to the Elizabeth River Project by:

• Sending a check to the Elizabeth River Project earmarked for the Batten Endowment Challenge. Mail it to 475 Water Street, Suite 103A, Portsmouth, VA 23704.
• Clicking here to donate online to the Elizabeth River Project's Batten Endowment Challenge.
• Calling the Elizabeth River Project at (757) 399-7487 to talk about other ways you can support the endowment challenge.

(The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $195 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org.)