Community Endowment Fund- Solidarity Program- Reshaping Futures Grants

The Community Endowment Fund's Solidarity Program offers Reshaping Futures Grants to support transformative racial equity initiatives in Charlottesville and surrounding counties. With grants of up to $500,000 over 1-5 years, the program emphasizes movement building led by Black and ALAANA communities. The next Letter of Intent call is expected in early 2027 (date TBD); a select number of LOI applicants are invited to co-develop a final application with Foundation staff.

The Community Endowment Fund (CEF) reflects the Foundation’s ever-growing commitment to regenerative philanthropy. A diverse and regionally representative, openly recruited Community Advisory Committee leads all CEF program development and funding decision-making.
The Community Endowment Fund, through our Solidarity program, currently offers three (3) application-based grant opportunities – Renewal, Reimagine, and Reshaping Futures grants – that support movement groups advancing justice and racial equity in Charlottesville and/or the surrounding counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Nelson, and Orange.
About the Solidarity Program
Our Solidarity program supports racial equity movement building in our region.
To achieve lasting, community-level change, “movement building” groups go beyond providing direct services and individual relief, and instead seek to alter or completely reimagine broken systems.
The most effective drivers of this sort of change are the social movements led by those most affected by racial inequities.
Solidarity Grants
The Solidarity program offers three (3) Community Endowment Fund grant opportunities — Renewal, Reimagine, and Reshaping Futures — designed to help build, strengthen, and sustain our local movement infrastructure. Each Solidarity grant is informed by learnings from our 2023-2024 pilot year, our grant-making history, and the collective wisdom and expressed needs of movement groups and thinkers from across our region and beyond.
Depending on the grant, support might include but isn’t limited to:
General operations, research and development, program experimentation and piloting;Strategic planning and restructuring, training, coalition building, and increased frontline/grassroots support;Advocacy, legal, and direct action campaigns and mobilization;Sabbatical support, conflict resolution/mediation, and other collective healing, joyful resistance, and reparative work;Narrative change storytelling and creative expression; andPopular education and community organizing.
What is the Reshaping Futures Grant?
Reshaping Futures Grants of up to $500,000 total over 1-5 years (eg $100,000 per year for five years) to support transformative approaches to advancing racial equity in Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Nelson, and/or Orange. Potential funding uses include support for general operations, programming, expansion/scaling, capacity building, experimentation and piloting.
After submitting an LOI, a select number of applicants will then be invited to partner with Community Foundation staff to co-develop and submit a final application for consideration by our Community Advisory Committee.

Eligibility

Tax-Exempt Local Charitable Status – Applicants must be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, school, governmental or religious entity, or a group fiscally sponsored by a mission-aligned 501(c)(3) organization, whose work directly benefits residents of Charlottesville or the counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Nelson, and Orange. Nonconcurrent Grantee or Applicant Status Unless serving as a fiscal sponsor, applicants may only submit one funding request to the Solidarity program per calendar year. Past Solidarity program and other Community Endowment Fund grantees must have also fulfilled all close-out requirements of their previous grant to be eligible to apply for Reshaping Futures.Power Building & Sharing The Solidarity program supports Black- and ALAANA-led initiatives that advance racial equity through movement building. We consider Black- and ALAANA-led as any of the following:Executive Director(s) or equivalent Staff majority Volunteer majority (if a volunteer-led group or initiative) Board majority Project team majority  Movement Building The Solidarity program recognizes that approaches to movement building vary and occur along a continuum. To be considered eligible for a Reshaping Futures grant, an applicant’s movement building approach must be Proactive or preferably Transformative.

Ineligibility

The Community Foundation is unable to accept Reshaping Futures Grant applications from fiscally sponsored businesses or for-profit entities at this time.

501(c)(3) nonprofits, schools, governmental or religious entities (or fiscally sponsored groups) serving Charlottesville and/or Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Nelson or Orange counties, led by those most impacted by racial inequity.