Case Study #5: Funding events that increase belonging
The role of community foundations during Welcoming Week
The challenge: In a city that had never celebrated Welcoming Week before, this community foundation wanted to honor its 20-year legacy and look to new ways to engage the community in welcoming and belonging.
The solution: Launching a grant opportunity and spotlighting bridge-building events and organizations increased awareness of the need for belonging in Alexandria.
Why it matters: Even in diverse communities, building belonging requires intention and effort. Community foundations play an important role in making belonging a reality.
Background
Alexandria, Virginia is one of the most diverse communities in the United States. Nearly 25% of the population is foreign-born, and over 30% of residents speak a language other than English at home.
During its last strategic planning process, ACT for Alexandria — a community foundation — recognized that belonging was a rising priority for residents of this intercultural city. Community members raised important questions: Is Alexandria a place where everyone feels like they belong? How could ACT for Alexandria be intentional about focusing on that in their work?
This feedback helped set a vision for a just, vibrant, and equitable Alexandria where all who live and work there can thrive and belong.
In 2024, during the organization’s 20th anniversary, ACT for Alexandria celebrated the community’s efforts to build belonging through a program that awarded grants to local organizations hosting Welcoming Week events.
“Nobody in our community had participated in Welcoming Week before,” shared Brandi Yee, chief program officer of ACT for Alexandria. “It was a great chance for us to highlight the ways that we wanted to celebrate the diversity and experiences in our community.”
Granting process
The foundation opened an application process to award $20,000 in grants to community organizations for Welcoming Week events.
To ensure the selection process was inclusive and representative of the people living in the city, ACT for Alexandria created a grant review committee with representatives of different ethnicities, faiths, and spoken languages.
“We were trying to make sure that we were getting those different perspectives, alongside our ACT team, knowing that we don't have all the answers,” Brandi said.
The team considered Welcoming Week events that were unique in their approach to fostering connections. They also considered the geographic location of submitted events to ensure that activities were happening across the many different neighborhoods of Alexandria.
Goals and outcomes
Through this grantmaking opportunity, ACT for Alexandria aimed to fund events that brought together community members of all backgrounds. Funded organizations worked directly with community members to design the events, ensuring community investment and participation.
Ultimately, ACT for Alexandria received 29 applications and was able to fund 11 grantees, including several organizations they had not yet worked with before.
To further strengthen relationships and trust with the organizations they funded, team members from ACT for Alexandria participated in many of the events.
Event highlights include:
- A family storytime featuring the story of a refugee from Vietnam and a poetry workshop led by the City of Alexandria’s Poet Laureate
- A community baby shower for new and expectant mothers
- An intercultural hair celebration that discussed and demonstrated the cultural significance of traditional African hairstyles
- A cultural celebration hosted by Tenants and Workers United
Lessons learned
According to Brandi, having community members, not just foundation staff, be part of the grant review and selection process helped ACT for Alexandria build new and existing relationships with people and organizations they are excited to work with in the future.
Another important lesson was recognizing the power of extending Welcoming Week beyond just newcomers to also ensure that long-standing communities, such as Black residents who have faced systemic exclusion, also feel a sense of belonging.
“I can think of some of our African American neighbors who have been here for a long time, but still don't feel that sense of belonging or welcome,” Brandi shared. “We wanted to make sure that these events were accessible and targeted to all communities who don't feel like they belong.”
Furthermore, Brandi recognized that Welcoming Week was an important moment to publicly recognize the work being done to achieve inclusion in Alexandria.
She said, “We got an opportunity to write an op-ed for our local paper that highlighted this welcoming and belonging work. We are thinking about how we are using our relational and social capital to bring different topics to light in the community.”
Brandi encourages other community foundations to consider ways to partner and leverage their leadership to influence local welcoming and belonging initiatives.
Thank you to Brandi Yee, chief program officer of ACT for Alexandria, for sharing insights about their Welcoming Week activities.