Affiliates

Affiliates

We collaborate with many organizations to improve life in Hampton Roads. The organizations listed below are nonprofits we helped start and have supported with guidance from our staff as well as with grantmaking dollars. Without our donors we would not have been able to support these organizations in their quest to make our region a better place to live. They are:

• Academy for Nonprofit Excellence, an ongoing education program for Hampton Roads nonprofit staff and board members. We helped found the academy at Tidewater Community College in 2005 and continue to be its major funder drawing financial support from our unrestricted funds.
  
  Over time many generous people have created unrestricted funds with us that give us flexibility in awarding grants. In this case these donors have helped more than 650 nonprofit staff members improve their knowledge and skills through one- and two-day classes. More than 20 people have taken multiple classes and earned Certificates in Nonprofit Management.
  
  
• Business Consortium for Arts Support, which has awarded more than $15.6 million in grants to 45 South Hampton Roads arts and cultural organizations. We helped start the consortium in 1987  and continue to be a major funder and provide it office space. Each year the consortium helps more than 30 arts groups with grants for operating support.
  
  Paul S. Huber (pictured here) was the catalyst for starting the consortium. Although this Norfolk newspaper publisher died decades earlier his family honored him in 1985 with a field of interest fund for the arts. Huber's memorial fund continues to support the consortium along with grants from memorial funds honoring the Ashinoff family, Lee and Helen Gifford, Perry and Bunny Morgan, and John and Sarah Roper. All of them were people from our region who loved the arts and are making sure they thrive in our region.
  
  
• Eastern Shore of Virginia Community Foundation, an affiliated community foundation serving Northampton and Accomac counties of Virginia. A $2 million challenge grant from the Argyle Fund at The Norfolk Foundation, our predecessor foundation, helped start this new community foundation in 2004.
  
  The Argyle Fund's donor, the late Charles F. Burroughs, Jr. of Norfolk (pictured here), had a special place in his heart for the Eastern Shore where he enjoyed many leisurely weekends. Before his death in 2007 at age 94 Burroughs had the satisfaction of knowing his generosity had motivated many other people to support starting a new foundation in two of Virginia's poorest counties.
  
  
• Smart Beginnings South Hampton Roads, which works to ensure that all South Hampton Roads students enter kindergarten ready to learn and succeed. We helped start this advocacy organization in 2004 as a foundation initiative and are its major funder through the Batten Educational Achievement Fund.
  
  The late philanthropist Frank Batten and his wife Jane of Virginia Beach (pictured here) started the Batten Educational Achievement Fund at the foundation in 2003. The goal is to help young people in Hampton Roads become productive, self-sufficient citizens. One way is to ensure that all area pre-schoolers have quality early care and education that puts them on a path to success in life.