The Loudoun Impact Fund is a "giving circle" that brings together individuals and businesses interested in grantmaking administered through a joint effort of the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia and the Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties.

"It's a powerful way to amplify our own charitable giving," said Bill Tyrrell, co-founder of The LifeCentre in Leesburg and volunteer co-chair of the giving circle. "Working together, the Loudoun Impact Fund was able to award grants ranging from $5,000 to $15,000. That's not something my wife, Jen, and I could have done on our own."

Participants make a gift of $1,000 per individual or $5,000 per business to join the giving circle. Members review proposals submitted from area charities and decide together which charities to grant. More than $540,000 in grant requests were received.

"The process includes our collective common sense, as well as vetting and due-diligence oversight of staff at the Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties," explained AHT President & CEO and giving circle co-chair David Schaefer. "I appreciate that dialogue and in-the-field knowledge."

Both Schaefer and Tyrrell made personal as well as business gifts into the giving circle through The LifeCentre and AHT. In 2017, AHT's annual charity golf tournament dedicated the entirety of its proceeds to the Loudoun Impact Fund adding $32,000 to the pool. Additional corporate donors included Fortessa/Integrus Holdings, Backflow Technology, Madison Wealth Management, and AllsTrapack.

Loudoun Impact Fund members decided 2017 grantmaking would address youth, disabled, and elderly charitable needs.

2017 Grants Awarded:
$7,000 to seed a Loudoun County Stroke Comeback Center, in partnership with ARC/Paxton Campus, serving stroke and brain trauma survivors with after-insurance care and therapy
$10,000 to INMED to support a nine-month after-school program for at-risk youth
$5,000 Children's Science Center's STEM partnership with Loudoun County Public Schools for low-income youth
$10,000 A Place To Be for therapeutic day programs for individuals with special needs and disabilities
$10,000 Loudoun Hunger Relief, in partnership with Healthworks, providing low-income elders with on-site fresh foods and vegetables
$15,000 Loudoun Abused Women's Shelter (LAWS) Child Advocacy Center to support added staffing for abused youth services
$5,000 Loudoun Education Foundation to help staff its Backpack Coalition providing food to low-income youth
$10,000 Loudoun Literacy and its school-based literacy program for low-income children and families
$5,000 Fenwick Foundation to launch a dental-care program for elder residents in two Medicaid based nursing/rehab centers in Loudoun County
$12,000 Loudoun Volunteer Caregivers to support its financial management, transportation and volunteer-based services for elders
$10,000 Women Giving Back providing clothing and supplies for low-income children
$7,500 All Ages Read Together for its low-income early childhood reading programs

The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia works throughout Loudoun, Fairfax, Prince William, Alexandria, and Arlington Counties. The Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties serves Loudoun County and Fauquier County from Upperville to Marshall. Each organization is one of 30 community foundations in Virginia and 800 across the U.S. designed to promote philanthropy through donor-advised funds, community investment funds, scholarship funds, memorial funds, and giving circles. For more information visit www.cfnova.org or www.CommunityFoundationLF.org