Best Norfolk Grants for Nonprofits in Virginia

About Our Foundation

Our history, people and finances

Hampton Roads Community Foundation has a proud history. We began in 1950 as The Norfolk Foundation with total donations of $2,350. Despite the city-focused name, we were always regional -- giving scholarships and grants across southeastern Virginia to ambitious students and essential nonprofits. Over the past 75 years we have put almost $395 million into action through nonprofit grants and student scholarships awards.

Giving Together

We are pleased to introduce an opportunity for our region's small and mid-sized nonprofits to promote their work to our donors.

What is the Giving Together PRogram

The Giving Together program is a crowd-funding opportunity for our donor-advised fundholders within HRCF’s private donor portal. It allows our donor advisors to view submitted projects from a wide range of small to mid-sized nonprofit organizations during the last quarter of the year. Fundholders can make grants in any amount over $250 from their donor-advised funds to support those projects they select. Grants from participating donor-advised funds will be pooled together and distributed to the recipient organization in January. Due to space limitations, we will post 50 projects at a time. HRCF staff will select 50 projects to post initially. If a project is fully funded, it will be removed and a new one selected and posted. Your organization will be notified when your project is posted.

About Us

Building a better community

Part of the mission of the Suffolk Foundation is to facilitate and develop philanthropy which will allow charitable grant making to benefit the citizens in the City of Suffolk and the surrounding area. The Suffolk Foundation’s mission is to assist individuals, corporations, organizations, and other foundations in meeting their charitable goals.

Coach Ron Killmon PRLPT Fund:

The Suffolk Foundation manages the Coach Ron Killmon PRLPT Fund, supporting nonprofit organizations and projects that serve disadvantaged children and youth, and that emphasize values such as character, work ethic, and discipline. The Killmon Fund has $1,666 to award in 2025. Organizations and projects that meet the criteria for the Suffolk Foundation’s other grants may also be eligible for matching funds.

About Us

Building a better community

Part of the mission of the Suffolk Foundation is to facilitate and develop philanthropy which will allow charitable grant making to benefit the citizens in the City of Suffolk and the surrounding area. The Suffolk Foundation’s mission is to assist individuals, corporations, organizations, and other foundations in meeting their charitable goals.

Emergency Needs:

If your nonprofit has an urgent need that cannot wait for our regular grants timeline (i.e., funding in December), please contact us.

Teacher Residency Program Grants

Teacher residency programs are intensive experiences designed to those enrolled in an Educator Preparation Program (EPP). Residents complete a year-long clinical practice placement in a partner school division while completing the undergraduate or graduate-level coursework needed to become licensed teachers. The format for residency programs vary: Some provide short-term training while others pair a program participant with a mentor teacher for a year long co-teaching experience. Because of the need for integration between clinical experiences and coursework, residency programs are conceived of as holistic; required coursework and clinical experiences together comprise the duration of a residency. Programs in Virginia require that participants commit to teaching in a specific division for a certain number of years after completing the residency. Additionally, residency programs may offer tuition remission and/or an additional stipend. 

Provide a detailed description of the teacher residency program. Grant funds will support the preparation, planning, development, and implementation of a site-specific teacher residency model that develops highly effective educators prepared to deliver high-quality, evidence-based instruction from their first day in the classroom. Programs may include resident and mentor stipends or other strategic incentives designed to recruit, prepare, and retain high-quality teacher candidates and mentor teachers, particularly in high-need schools and shortage areas.

Teacher residency models should be intentionally designed to prepare educators to effectively implement High-Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM) through sustained, practice-based clinical experiences paired with aligned coursework and coaching. Residency experiences should provide candidates with opportunities to develop deep content knowledge, instructional decision-making skills, and the ability to use curriculum as the foundation for planning, instruction, assessment, and continuous improvement.

Goals, Objectives, and Outcomes

Describe the goals, objectives, and expected outcomes of the teacher residency program. Proposals should demonstrate how the residency will prepare candidates to:

• Deliver rigorous, standards-aligned instruction using High-Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM). 
• Implement evidence-based instructional practices, including the requirements of the Virginia Literacy Act and evidence-based literacy instruction. 
• Identify, evaluate, and effectively implement High-Quality Instructional Materials with fidelity while using student data to inform instructional decisions. 
• Develop strong content knowledge and instructional expertise through curriculum-based professional learning, coaching, and clinical practice. 
• Analyze student work and assessment data to improve instruction and accelerate student learning. 
• Create inclusive learning environments that effectively serve diverse PreK-12 learners, including students with disabilities, English learners, and students with low literacy levels. 
• Collaborate with mentor teachers, instructional leaders, and professional learning communities to continuously improve instructional practice. 
• Engage in reflective practice through observation, feedback, and coaching to strengthen instructional effectiveness. 

Budget Background Information: 

• Grant funds requested may not exceed $3,600,000. 
• Funding used for travel and travel-related expenses must be at state rates and in accordance with state travel regulations.
• Funding for tuition shall not exceed $12,500 per resident per academic year OR requested funding for tuition shall be discounted 35% per resident per academic year. 
• The budget and budget narrative should detail how the partner school divisions shall provide at least one-third of the dollar cost of each program, as required in the Appropriation Act. The local school division one-third contribution must be a cash match of funding.
• State funding should have a direct, measurable impact on the residents excluding professional membership and food/beverages.