Grantmakers › Virginia

Community First - America's Charities

Chantilly, VA · EIN 01-0914846. Reported 111 grants totalling $4,660,263 to 28 organizations across tax years 2021-2025, on Form 990 Schedule I.

28organizations funded
$30,096median reported grant
$4,660,263granted, 2021-2025
90%of grantees funded again the next year
15%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Community First - America's Charities, the IRS classifies it as a support organization for one specific institution (NTEE T11).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 28 distinct organizations, with 15% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 90% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $30,096. Half of what it reported fell between $10,925 and $55,351; the smallest was $5,161 and the largest $210,395. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
23 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
26 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
25 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
27 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
10 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association IncArlington, VA$677,890552025
A Wider Circle IncSilver Spring, MD$488,204552025
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington IncArlington, VA$464,325552025
House of RuthWashington DC, DC$456,934552025
Miriams KitchenWashington, DC$301,835552025
The Salvation ArmyBrookhaven, GA$288,784552025
Childrens Inn at Nih IncBethesda, MD$282,364552025
Food for Others IncFairfax, VA$261,772552025
Animal Welfare League of Arlington Va IncorporatedArlington, VA$244,415552025
The Shepherds Table IncSilver Spring, MD$164,758552025
Boy Scouts of AmericaBethesda, MD$161,155552025
Habitat for Humanity International IncArlington, VA$139,794552025
Make-a-Wish Foundation of the Mid-Atlantic IncBethesda, MD$138,370552025
Montgomery Hospice IncRockville, MD$104,691552025
Lorton Community Action CenterLorton, VA$101,581552025
Capital HospiceTemple Terr, FL$81,822552025
Habitat for Humanity International IncAlexandria, VA$64,074222022
Duke Ellington School of the Arts ProjectWashington, DC$43,464442024
Good Shepherd Housing and Family Services IncLorton, VA$38,621442024
Foundation for the National Institute of Health IncRockville, MD$33,995442024
Insight Memory Care CenterFairfax, VA$31,426442024
Melwood Horticultural Training Center IncUppr Marlboro, MD$30,824442024
Ahc IncArlington, VA$28,612442024
Generation HopeWashington, DC$7,913112023
Lydias House in SoutheastWashington, DC$6,374112021
Signature Theatre IncArlington, VA$5,666112021
The Child and Family Network Centers IncAlexandria, VA$5,439112021
Rebuilding Together DC AlexandriaWashington, DC$5,161112023

23 of 28 (82%) received money in more than one year over the 5 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 19 of 28 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Human Services
6 orgs
Education
4 orgs
Housing & Shelter
3 orgs
Arts & Culture
2 orgs
Health Care
1 org
Animal Welfare
1 org
Medical Research
1 org
Diseases & Disorders
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202126$1,424,900$36,573
202223$1,013,358$32,499
202324$817,633$27,063
202422$894,863$30,003
202516$509,509$25,764

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

44% of its giving went to organizations in Virginia. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.

Virginia
$2.1M
Maryland
$1.4M
District of Columbia
$822K
Georgia
$289K
Florida
$82K

Down to the city

Arlington, VA
$1.6M
Silver Spring, MD
$653K
Bethesda, MD
$582K
Washington DC, DC
$457K
Washington, DC
$365K
Fairfax, VA
$293K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund25 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc25 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc22 shared recipientsAmerica's Charities21 shared recipientsGreater Washington Community Foundation19 shared recipientsNational Philanthropic Trust19 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $30,096 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Virginia.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Related guides

Foundations funding education in VirginiaEvery funder in this groupFoundations funding arts & culture in VirginiaEvery funder in this groupFoundations funding education in District of ColumbiaEvery funder in this groupFoundations funding arts & culture in District of ColumbiaEvery funder in this group

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Community First - America's Charities's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2021-2025). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 16 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.

Address of record on the latest return: 14200 Park Meadow Drive 330S, Chantilly, VA, 20151.

EIN 01-0914846 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.