Meet Eileen Ellsworth the President of the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia since 2005. With $30 million in managed assets, the Community Foundation approves grants to help meet the most critical needs of our region. During her five years as President, Eileen has grown the Community Foundation’s unrestricted grant making levels from $12,000 in 2005 to $300,000 in 2010, grown the donor advised fund grant making levels from $1 million in 2005 to 4 million in 2010, opened an affiliate office in Loudoun County, spearheaded the funding and publication of the Community Foundation’s first ever Child and Youth Needs Assessment, and launched a $5 million campaign to benefit the discretionary grant making capability of the organization.
WashingtonExec: What do you find most rewarding about working with the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia? Eileen Elllsworth: We help our donors invest in Northern Virginia to impact lives, solve problems, and improve futures. Many people volunteer time to help fight different social and economic problems.
WashingtonExec: What can the average person do to take bigger steps toward achieving success when trying to solve a problem?
Eileen Elllsworth: Social and economic problems are complex. There are no obvious and easy answers. The first step for the average person would be to learn what they can about a cause they care about.
WashingtonExec: What is the extent of the problem? What are its contributing causes? What have others done to address it, and have they moved the needle? If so, how much and in what direction?
Eileen Elllsworth: This knowledge informs us all and guides our strategic philanthropic investments. The Community Foundation and many other institutions, including local governments, nonprofits, churches and schools, are all repositories of useful information about the depth and breathe of our most critical community needs. When someone donates to a specific fund, how do you make sure that every penny goes toward effectively aiding the people?Grant making by any foundation is not a science. Rather, it is a competitive process in which potential grantees submit applications which are reviewed by a volunteer grants committee of community leaders that we convene. The committee reads all of the submitted grant proposals, accompanying financials and annual reports, and makes the very best recommendations it can on what programs appear to be the most well managed and impactful. Those programs win the grants. So our donors know that when they donate to a Community Foundation fund, the Community Foundation will run a grant making process that has integrity and transparency and that is informed by our due diligence and knowledge of critical community needs.