Bama Works Fund Announces $1 Million Partnership with Emergency Fund
The Bama Works Fund of Dave Matthews Band at the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation is pleased to announce a $1 million commitment to a special Community Recovery & Catalyst Grants program. In lieu of its fall grant round, Bama Works Fund is partnering with the Community Emergency Response Fund to offer a grant program for nonprofits to recover, sustain, and build their organizations. Grants will address the impacts of COVID-19 and longstanding racial inequities in order to build an equitable, vibrant region.
Bama Works and the Community Foundation will leverage this partnership, along with gifts from the University of Virginia Health System, Twice is Nice Fund at the Community Foundation, and the Enriching Communities grant program, to increase funds available for grantmaking. These four grant programs, which typically hold grant rounds in the fall, are combining into one effort this year to maximize resources for community recovery.
Established in 1998, the Bama Works Fund has made grants in Charlottesville and the seven surrounding counties for two decades, creating a significant impact on hundreds of organizations in the area. Since 1998, the Fund has made thousands of grants, totaling more than $30 million. This spring, Bama Works Fund announces $536,000 to eighty-five organizations. For a full list of recipients, click here.
The Bama Works Fund made a critical early donation, helping to establish the Community Emergency Response Fund in March. Since that time the Fund has raised more than $5 million from more than 800 contributors. Of that, $4.56 million went toward the COVID-19 Helpline, providing direct aid to more than 5,000 households across the region, impacting an estimated 18,000 people. In addition, $847,000 funded grant awards to twenty-eight nonprofit organizations.
“The pandemic has had a significant impact on our nonprofit sector and has laid bare longstanding racial inequities in our communities,” Brennan Gould, president and CEO of the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, said. “We are extremely grateful to partner with Bama Works to support the array of organizations who make our region just, caring, and vibrant. Our initial response to the pandemic would not have been possible without the generosity of Dave Matthews Band. This special grant round is part of their long legacy of generosity and commitment to the Charlottesville area.”
Dave Matthews Band’s philanthropy through the Bama Works Fund has consistently helped the Charlottesville region recover in times of crisis. In September 2017, Dave Matthews Band organized and headlined the Concert for Charlottesville in response to the white supremacist–led violence that took place the month before. Money raised from the concert was the primary source of funding for the Heal Charlottesville Fund, which distributed more than $1.5 million throughout the community to support survivors and those impacted by the tragedy.
In 2018, Dave Matthews Band and Red Light Management announced a catalyzing gift of $5 million toward the redevelopment of public housing in Charlottesville. Through a resident-led process, this transformative project is working to fund and replace all 376 units of public housing while generating additional affordable housing to revitalize underserved neighborhoods.
More details about the Community Recovery & Catalyst Grant round, including guidelines and application details, can be found here.