Loudoun Nonprofit Wins $25K Grant To Provide Coronavirus Relief

LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA —The Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties awarded a $25,000 grant from the Community Emergency Relief Fund to the Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington to support a collaboration between Catholic Charities’ Loudoun office and Loudoun Cares. The grant is the first one awarded as part of the foundation's Community Emergency Relief Fund, which was started to provide financial relief and other services to local residents during the coronavirus crisis.

Using the grant money, Catholic Charities and Loudoun Cares will rotate staff to respond to requests for financial assistance through a newly established COVID-19 Emergency Fund and Helpline. Loudoun residents who need help paying rent as a result of lost wages from the coronavirus crisis, for example, can call a new COVID-19 Emergency Fund and Helpline at 703-669-5040 beginning Thursday.

Trained staff from Catholic Charities and Loudoun Cares will work together to complete an intake process and assess the needs of each caller. Eligibility requirements to receive financial assistance from the COVID-19 Emergency Fund and Helpline can be found on the Catholic Charities website. Eligible callers may be able to receive up to $500 in financial assistance.

Catholic Charities and Loudoun Cares also will help callers identify additional government, nonprofit, and faith-based resources that may be able to help them. Both organizations have experience helping people access financial assistance and community services through Catholic Charities’ Emergency Assistance Program, and Loudoun Cares’ Information and Referral Helpline.

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The Community Foundation created the Community Emergency Relief Fund in mid-March to accept and disburse funding to address COVID-19 emergency response and relief efforts in Loudoun and northern Fauquier Counties. The Visit Loudoun Foundation also has established a Tourism and Hospitality Relief Fund to provide financial relief to tourism and hospitality workers experiencing income losses. The Loudoun Chamber Foundation launched a challenge campaign for its members to match gifts into the Tourism and Hospitality Relief Fund.

“Working together, these organizations pooled their resources to make sure we all are able to maximize the impact of the funding we have available. We ask our community to keep giving to the fund, if you can. The fund is designed for response, relief and recovery,” Amy Owen, president of the Community Foundation, said Wednesday in a statement.

The Community Foundation is still accepting gifts to the Community Emergency Relief Fund and the Tourism and Hospitality Relief Fund.

Since its founding in 1999, the Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier has made grants totaling more than $7 million to the local community.

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