Special Interest Grants Reflect Donors' Passions

We have the most fascinating donors at the Hampton Roads Community Foundation. And, each has an idea of what makes a great community.

At no time is that more evident than in December when we award our annual Special Interest Grants. These come from donors' field-of-interest funds and reflect their concerns and passions. 

Since many of these funds were established through bequests after the donors passed away, we have not always had the opportunity to ask what motivated their generosity. But, we are grateful that these donors entrusted their community foundation to do good in their names forever.

Click here to see all the Special Interest grants awarded in December 2016.

They focus on areas such as:

• Mental health research -- chosen by brothers Benjamin and Charles Brown for their funds started in 1985 and 1983. This year grants from their funds will be funding research at Eastern Virginia Medical School related to pediatric neuropsychology.
• Helping abused people -- a focus area of the Sue Cook Winfrey Memorial Fund started by an estate gift from her husband Guy in 1997.  Grants from this fund are helping five area Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) programs create a handbook to help parents and guardians involved in child abuse and neglect cases. 
• Supporting shelter animals -- an interest of the Alfred L. Nicholson Fund started in 1988 after the death of Nicholson. Grants will be improving the Chesapeake Humane Society and Virginia Beach SPCA.  

Doing Good: An Important Number to Know

Here is a number we hope you never have to call: (757) 251-0144

But, if you or a friend or family member are survivors of rape, sexual assault, human trafficking or domestic violence in southeastern Virginia, you will find immediate help by calling. Until October 7, 2016 there were multiple hotlines with different numbers. Each was staffed by shelters in area cities. Each was attached to a specific shelter but had no easy way to know what other organizations might have openings for someone needing to move to safety right then.

A $45,000 grant from the Hampton Roads Community Foundation's Sue Cook Winfrey Memorial Fund provided the money for four domestic violence shelters to plan and implement a single, networked crisis line. Working on the project were representatives from The Genieve Shelter, Help and Emergency Response (H.E.R. Shelter), Samaritan House and YWCA of South Hampton Roads. The shelters work in Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk and Virginia Beach.

The launch the region’s first Coordinated Crisis Response was timed for October -- Domestic Violence Awareness month. The October 7 ribbon cutting at the YWCA's downtown Norfolk headquarters drew advocates and government leaders from throughout Virginia and Hampton Roads, including Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring.

Trained staff and volunteers are available 24/7 to get information, help and safe shelter for the callers.The YWCA is housing the hotline and is training. Estimated call volume per year is 20,000 -- based on calls the shelters fielded last year.

 This Virginian-Pilot article highlights the importance of this new coordinated effort in its October 8 article. . 

Guy Winfrey

The late Guy Winfrey's 1997 bequest started the Sue Cook Winfrey Fund at the Hampton Roads Community Foundation. His field-of-interest fund is for spouses and children experiencing domestic violence and has provided more than $2 million in grants to area nonprofits over the past 19 years. Guy, a car salesman with a good heart, led a hard-knock childhood and dropped out of school at age 14 to go to work to help support his younger siblings. We think he would be pleased to see how his generosity is helping others get the help they need to lead better lives.


 

Helping Others: $264,650 in Grants to 6 Nonprofits

The late William Goldback and Perry and Bunny Morgan have a lot in common.

Perry and Bunny Morgan

These forward-thinking Hampton Roads citizens cared deeply about people in the region of Virginia where they lived and worked for so many years. Thanks to their charitable bequests they left behind permanent field-of-interest funds that underpin important grants through the Hampton Roads Community Foundation. 
 

Perry Morgan of Virginia Beach, who had been publisher of The Virginian-Pilot, died in 1999 --- seven years after his wife Bunny. The charitable focus he requested includes essential human services as well as arts and education.

William Goldback

Bill Goldback of Norfolk, a former Navy supply officer and owner of Atlantic Electric, left a legacy that funds medical services, education or research as well as the performing arts. 

Thanks to generous community foundation donors who have entrusted us with unrestricted funds, six area nonprofits received$264,650 in community grants. Grants focused on health and human service and included:

·         Building Trades Academy - $10,950 to train and place 15 low-income area students in facility management jobs.

·         Chesapeake Care - $81,500 over three years for a program to help more than 200 low-income Chesapeake patients manage their diabetes.

·         Community Housing Partners - $67,200 to provide financial education and other services to 828 low-income area households whose residents face eviction.

·         Healing Place of Hampton Roads - $50,000 in seed funding for a new regional program to help area homeless adults overcome drug or alcohol addiction.

·         Hope U Inc. - $40,000 over three years for a program to help area youth who have aged out of the foster-care system obtain job skills and become self-sufficient.

·         Mercy Medical Angels - $15,000 to buy bus or train tickets or gas cards to help low-income sick children and their families travel for specialized medical care not available in Hampton Roads.

Learn more about other grantopportunities as well as how you can turn your passion into reality.

Scholarships Help 400 Students Go to College This Year

Giving Back: Forever Serving Others Through Generosity

Lynn and Ethel Mason

Restaurant owners Lin and Ethel Mason loved serving their signature Crab Norfolk dish to guests at Mason’s Seafood Restaurant in Norfolk, Virginia. Although Lin and Ethel passed away years ago, thanks to a charitable bequest today they are helping expand the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center and create a river academy for area students through Elizabeth River Project.

Since 1950, donors from all walks of life have been the Hampton Roads Community Foundation's partners in philanthropy – entrusting their community foundation to do good works in their name.

The Masons will forever be helping people in their home region because of their charitable bequest they left through their community foundation.

You, too, can leave behind a legacy of helping others by adding a charitable gift to your will or other estate plans. 

Learn how by visiting leaveabequest.org or calling (757) 622-7951 to spend a few minutes on the phone with us. Order a free bequest guide by emailing kstine@hamptonroadscf.org.

Breakfast Welcomes 32 Hampton Roads Nonprofit Leaders



Executives lead a variety of Hampton Roads organizations.

The Hampton Roads Community Foundation was happy to be part of the August 16, 2016 New Nonprofit CEO Welcome Breakfast held by 757 Nonprofit Collaborative in Norfolk. The Collaborative is a partnership of Tidewater Community College's Academy for Nonprofit Excellence and VOLUNTEER Hampton Roads. The Obici Healthcare Foundation helped sponsor the breakfast held at Dominion Enterprises headquarters.

Among the guests were 32 nonprofit executives, all of whom recently assumed significant roles in the Hampton Roads nonprofit sector. They are pictured above listed from left to right:

• Jenny Fertig, Healthy Chesapeake
• Hal Smith, Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula
• Edith White, HRCAP Inc.
• Sheri Klym, March of Dimes Hampton Roads
• Ed Collum, Opportunities for Change
• Betsy Roberts, Tidewater Youth Services
• Dr. Renee Felts, Paul D. Camp Community College Foundation
• Jim Spore, Reinvent Hampton Roads
• Kristen Carter, Children’s Harbor
• Lavora Moore, So-Etiquette Society
• Mary Kate Andris, YWCA of South Hampton Roads
• John Raniowski, Hero Kids Foundation
• Robin Gauthier, Samaritan House
• Tami Park Farinholt, Newport News Green Foundation
• Lisa Baehre, Sandler Center Foundation
• Chet Hart, Western Tidewater Free Clinic
• Major James Alison, The Salvation Army
• Melynda Ciccotti, Champions for Children: Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect
• Richard Gillcrese, Barrett Transitional Home
• Mary Campana, Equi-Kids Therapeutic Riding Program
• Kodi Fleming, Communities in Schools
• Jennifer Priest, Norfolk Sister City Association
• Jane Glasgow, Early Care and Education Initiative of the Hampton Roads Community Foundation

Not pictured above: Ruth Jones Nichols, FoodBank of Southeaster Virginia and the Eastern Shore; Angela Kellam, The Planning Council, and Linda McAbee, Hampton Roads Hounds for Heroes

The 757 Nonprofit Partnership unites the unique purposes and missions of two leading organizations serving the nonprofit community:

• The Academy for Nonprofit Excellence which offers professional development programs focused on the latest trends and best practices for nonprofits
• VOLUNTEER Hampton Roads which connects businesses with opportunities to create a positive impact on our community, equips nonprofits with the resources they need to achieve their mission, and mobilizes volunteers to create change.

The Power of Endowments: Primeplus Norfolk Senior Center

Primeplus Norfolk Senior Center strives to provide programs and services that help adults in Norfolk, Virginia

enjoy good lives as they age.

To help the center accomplish its mission in 1998 it started an endowment at the Hampton Roads Community Foundation with $70,650 in donations. Since then Primeplus has regularly taken annual distributions -- putting more than $55,719 to work helping older adults stay as healthy, active and engaged in their community as possible. Today the Primeplus endowment is valued at more than $80,000.

 

“The beauty of the endowment is that it allows us not to have gaps in service when there are budget shortfalls caused by government cutbacks or funding delays,” says Lynne Berg, Primeplus executive director. Her nonprofit has also used its endowment grants to double or triple matching grant challenges. “The endowment has been fabulous to have,” Berg says.

 

Today the Hampton Roads Community Foundation manage more than 45 similar endowments for an array of nonprofits working to improve arts, education, health, human services and other areas in Hampton Roads.

Each fund is designed to grow over time while benefitting the specific nonprofit that created it with options for the organizations to take annual distributions while leaving the principal to grow.

If you want to explore how an can help your nonprofit organization, contact Kay Stine or Debbi Steiger at mailto:kstine@hamptonroadscf.org or mailto:dsteiger@hamptonroadscf.org. Or call (757) 622-7951.

 

The Hampton Roads Community Foundation and the United Way of South Hampton Roads have teamed up
to improve access to free dental care for people who desperately need dental work but can't afford it. Not having regular dental care can lead to heart problems, emergency room visits and other problems.

Recently the two funders awarded $50,000 in joint grants to help four southeastern Virginia nonprofits expand free dental services:

• Beach Health Clinic, $4,000 to purchase an additional extension arm for a digital x-ray machine for its Virginia Beach free dental clinic. This will enable the clinic to have an two volunteer dentists working at the same time.

Chesapeake Care, $20,000 to enhance its Diabetes Initiative’s efforts to educate diabetes patients about reducing their risk for oral diseases. The grant will help pay for a part-time dental hygienist to help educate patients, teeth cleanings and fee waivers for dental treatment.

Hampton Roads Community Health Center, $20,000 to help adult patients at its Norfolk and Portsmouth centers receive free dental exams, x-rays, cleanings, fillings or emergency dental visits. The center also is

People in Need (PIN Ministry), $6,000 so the Mercy Dental program in Virginia Beach can provide homeless or poor adults free dental x-rays, evaluations, cleanings, fillings, crowns, extractions and dentures.

"This grant lets us help individuals who are uninsured and have not seen a dentist ever or in a very long time," says Barbara Willis, CEO of the Hampton Roads Community Health Center, which operates dental clinics in Norfolk and Portsmouth as well as a dental van it can take to homeless shelters and partner agencies to make it easier for patients to get treatment.


In 2016 the Community Foundation and the United Way sought grant applications from nonprofits working with low-income dental patients. Both organizations had individually funded dental care in the past. Each funder provided $25,000 for the grants.

“This is the first time the Community Foundation and the United Way have joined forces with a single proposal request,” says Dr. Deborah M. DiCroce, president and CEO of the Hampton Roads Community Foundation. “We are leveraging the strengths of two long-standing organizations and modeling the power of collaboration to improve life for area individuals with tremendous dental needs and no resources to address them.”

“Many of us have never known what it is like to live with constant dental pain and to be embarrassed by not having teeth,” says Carol McCormack, United Way of South Hampton Roads president and CEO. She has seen clients at dental clinics come because “they couldn’t have the heart surgery or kidney transplants they needed until their dental problems were fixed."

“We are thrilled to work with the community foundation as partners tackling one of our community’s most significant needs,” McCormack says.

The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and supports causes ranging from arts and education to health and human services. The United Way is the largest private funder dedicated solely to human service needs in South Hampton Roads.

 

 

 

The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and supports causes ranging from arts and education to health and human services. The United Way is the largest private funder dedicated solely to human service needs in South Hampton Roads.