Hampton Roads Community Foundation Blog

With $2,350 in donations The Norfolk Foundation (now Hampton Roads Community Foundation) formed to benefit Norfolk and a 50-mile radius. That was 66 years ago when seven Norfolk civic leaders had the great idea to establish the first community foundation in Virginia. It was the 1950s when community foundations were spreading across the country doing good work in specific geographic regions. Although the community foundation is regional, it retains a big footprint in Norfolk.

Meet Raven Bland, Norfolk's first Youth Poet Laureate, and a Hampton Roads Community Foundation scholarship recipient.

In 1991 the Feldman Chamber Music Society board took a visionary leap of faith by starting a Dover Quartet performed in 2016. $70,000 endowment at the Hampton Roads Community Foundation.

Housing First looks to alter the traditional practice of moving homeless people into crowded shelters and transitional housing before locating permanent housing.

The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is looking forward to the impact its latest round of grants will have on southeastern Virginia. Grants were awarded in April 2016 from field-of-interest funds created by our generous donors. This round of Community Grants focused on environmental and facilities grants.

We are sadden by the recent passing of internationally renowned musician Prince at age 57. We’re also surprised to hear Prince left no will with provisions for how he would like his estate (worth millions) as well as his music and other intellectual property (also worth millions) to be used going forward.

The Hampton Roads Community Foundation and United Way of South Hampton Roads have teamed up to improve dental care and access for low-income residents of the South Hampton Roads region of Virginia.

Florence Smith’s respect for good doctors came to her naturally as the only daughter of Dr. Hy Smith and his wife Julia. Hy Smith was a Civil War surgeon who treated Yellow Fever victims in the 1870s and ‘80s and later had a medical practice i Norfolk, Virginia. He passed away in 1915.

In April 2014 James W. Lewis moved into permanent housing in Chesapeake, Virginia and became the inaugural Housing First client of the Virginia Beach-based Judeo-Christian Outreach Center. His new home came with services designed to help him remain there.

The Community Leadership Partners is a fun and effective Hampton Roads Community Foundation giving group whose forward-thinking members pool their resources to tackle community needs. Since 2010, the Partners giving group has put $1 million into action in southeastern Virginia helping more than 45 Hampton Roads nonprofit organizations do their best work – including these 2015 grant recipients: An Achievable Dream, Club Sandwich, Girls on the Run South Hampton Roads and Tidewater Wooden Boat Workshop (pictured in the short, time-lapse video above). Grants typically focus on positively impacting area children from low- or moderate-income families.