For the ninth year, The Roanoke Women’s Foundation (RWF), a
component fund of Foundation for Roanoke Valley, has announced the recipients of its grant
awards, the largest total given to date.
The latest grants, a total of $288,000 awarded at a luncheon
held at Roanoke Country Club on November 20th, brings to $1,794,000 the total
in grants funded since the organization’s inception in 2004.
“In our ninth year, with 144 members, The Roanoke Women’s
Foundation has now contributed close to $1.8 million in total giving to area
organizations; a significant achievement during challenging economic times”
says Kandy Elliott, co-founder of the RWF.
Elliott and co-founder Ginny Jarrett established the RWF as a way for
women in the Roanoke and New River Valleys to pool their philanthropic goals
and resources in order to make significant gifts to the community.
“The growth of The Roanoke Women’s Foundation over the years
has been exceptional, and these latest awards continue the tradition that RWF
has built of making high-impact, transformative grants,” added Alan Ronk,
executive director of Foundation for Roanoke Valley.
RWF has funded 35 organizations and programs since it began. This year, 36 organizations applied for
funding from the RWF. Through a rigorous
grant making process, that number was narrowed to a group that was presented to
the membership for their vote. Based on
those results, the following grants were awarded in the 2013 grant cycle:
Children’s Trust - $75,000 to help child abuse
victims find their “forever” homes, either by returning the children to their
biological families or becoming adopted.
Funds will be used to expand the role of the Court Appointed Special
Advocate (CASA) program manager in order to serve 50% more children in the
program. CASA volunteers are often the
primary, consistent source of support for children. Without a CASA volunteer, child abuse victims
often spend years in the foster care system, moving from one foster home to
another. The Roanoke community ranks
high in the state in founded cases of abuse and neglect; the devastating
effects on children’s development reverberate in every aspect of their lives.
The RWF grant will further build the capacity of Children’s Trust to serve more
children in need.
Family Service of Roanoke Valley - $60,000 to fund a
technology upgrade to allow the agency to replace its aging computer network in
order to be able to implement the requirement for electronic medical records
(EHRs). Currently used software will not
be supported after the end of the year and EHR is strongly encouraged for all
health care providers (including mental health providers like Family Service). This
upgrade was necessary for HIPAA compliance and is expected to increase staff
productivity and ultimately strengthen client outcomes.
Free Clinic of Franklin County and Bernard Healthcare
Center - $50,000 to support a move to become a Rural Health Care Center in
order to strengthen the safety net and expand its services to the underserved
in Franklin County, one of the highest populations of uninsured in the
state. Funds from the RWF will serve as
seed money to cover start up costs for an on-site laboratory, medical equipment
for additional exam rooms, office equipment and partial salaries for a
Physician’s Assistant and office staff to be located in an already funded, new 7500
sq. ft. facility.
Rebuilding Together Roanoke - $60,000 to fund its
first full-time staff person who will work to increase the capacity of the
organization and ultimately work to further RTR’s impact on the community by
serving low-income homeowners in the Roanoke Valley. RTR works to maintain affordable home
ownership while also revitalizing the community. The newly hired Program
Administrator will be charged with identifying new funding sources, furthering
RTR’s permanent supportive housing program, and establishing new fundraising
activities in order to continue the growth of the organization’s operations. With a multi-year waiting list, the goal is
to increase the number of homeowners RTR can serve each year. In 2012, 93 homeowners were served with more
than 80% of those being 65 or older.
WVTF Public Radio -
$43,000 to offset significant funding cuts and to encourage new members to
support WVTF, especially from those listeners who have never contributed to
WVTF in the past. Currently, only 13% of
WVTF’s active listeners contribute to its work.
Government support has declined by 31% since fiscal year 2011 and
corporate underwriting support has been affected by the economic
recession. RWF funds will be used to
develop new marketing projects to attract the more than 160,000 unduplicated
weekly listeners to WVTF, 89.1.
The Roanoke Women’s Foundation is open to any woman who
makes the commitment to support the RWF for at least three years at a level of
$2,100 per year. Members have no other
obligation than to fulfill the annual contribution and to participate in the voting
process determining the recipients of the pooled fund grants. For more information, visit www.roanokewomensfoundation.org
or Foundation for Roanoke Valley’s website www.foundationforroanokevalley.org. Foundation for Roanoke Valley, the region’s
community foundation, currently administers over 260 named endowment funds on
behalf of the community.
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L to R: Glenn
Gleixner and Cindy Gray with WVTF Public Radio; Ed Murray and Kendall Cloeter
with Rebuilding Together Roanoke; Janice Dinkins-Davidson and Nancy Fralin with
Children’s Trust Roanoke Valley; Alise Culbertson and Rhonda Rousch with Free
Clinic of Franklin County; and (seated) Jenny Lee and Sharon Thacker with
Family Service of Roanoke Valley
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