The Virginia Community Foundation aims to build a permanent endowment through charitable gifts from various donors. Its mission is to generate investment returns from these gifts to support charitable purposes benefiting residents in the greater Virginia area.
The foundation focuses on broad goals pertaining to supporting community needs and opportunities within the greater Virginia area. Specific causes they support include parks and recreation, arts and culture. The grant criteria highlight the importance of impact, measurable results, addressing community needs, collaboration and partnerships, utilizing an asset-based approach, and sustainability of projects. Projects should aim to make a significant and lasting difference in the quality of life for a substantial number of people, address current community needs or opportunities, promote cooperation among organizations, maximize local strengths, talents, and resources, and demonstrate potential for continuation beyond the foundation's funding.