Resources / Affiliates

We value our relationships with the many nonprofit organizations we work with as a funder and collaborator. In addition to these nonprofits, there are several regional organizations with whom we have an official relationship. They include:

• 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.
  
  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.
  
  Philanthropists Frank and Jane Batten of Virginia Beach (pictured here) started the Batten Educational Achievement Fund at the foundation in 2003. Their goal is to help young people in Hampton Roads become productive, self-sufficient citizens. For the Battens making sure all area pre-schoolers have quality early care and education is a logical way to put them on the path to success in life.