A $300 million Charlottesville foundation seeks community advisors to decide its grants

The Charlottesville Area Community Foundation (CACF) is making its first open call for a community advisory committee. They are looking for people who want to make three-year commitments to help decide how the foundation spends its money.

 “The Community Foundation has a vision of philanthropy that is restorative and reparative for the communities we serve,” Director of Programming Eboni Bugg said in a press release. “We believe that starts with trusting the expertise of and shifting the decision-making power to those who are most impacted by the pressing issues facing our region today.”

Bugg told Charlottesville Tomorrow that she hopes the community advisory committee can also help raise up new voices in the foundation overall.

The committee will meet four to six times per year and each member will receive a $1,200 annual stipend. Click here for more details about the program.

CACF manages a fund of more than $300 million, the value of which changes based on market conditions. At one point in 2021, the fund was worth more than $400 million. For context, the 2023 budget for the city of Charlottesville is about $212 million.

From January 2020 through June 2021, the fund gave grants worth more than $41 million. Some of the grants are directed by individual donors, and some are made by the foundation — those community-based grant programs that community advisers can weigh in on total about $2 million.

Full disclosure: Charlottesville Inclusive Media, which includes Charlottesville Tomorrow, received a $5,000 grant through CACF’s Enriching Communities program in 2021.

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