This inspired Charlottesville Area Community Foundation's long standing partnership with Catchafire, and in its first year, the partnership led to fourteen times return on investment.
In the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matter Movement and the pandemic, the Foundation moved to center their grantmaking around equity. They make sure that nonprofits led by people of color have equitable access to the resources needed to properly serve their communities.
Nonprofits are utilizing Catchafire’s on-demand capacity building support to address their immediate needs, while creating organizational sustainability for years to come.
In February 2023, the Community Foundation staff added a full-time community manager from Catchafire. A local resident, this individual is dedicated to supporting grantees with platform success through the completion of their projects through a variety of personalized outreach, one on one meetings with nonprofits, and in-person networking events.
Since adding the community manager to their program, the Community Foundation has seen 3x its ROI and double the matches.