The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia
Legal name: The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 510232459
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- McLean, VA, US
- Phone
- 703-879-7640
- Rating
- 87
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Community Foundations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $18,553,916
- Expenses
- $12,821,521
- Assets
- $118,701,726
- Liabilities
- $454,077
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
24 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- RENEE B YANCEY (PRESIDENT AND CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- RENEE B YANCEY (PRESIDENT AND CEO): $232,854 total reported compensation
- DENISE BELLOWS (DIRECTOR OF INSIGHT REGION CENTER): $127,500 total reported compensation
- TARA NADEL (VP OF MARKETING AND EVENTS): $122,400 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To build a community that works for everyone.
What it reported doing in 2024
Donor advised funds: the community foundation offers donor advised funds (dafs) to donors in the region. A daf is a type of charitable giving fund that is established by a donor to support a cause or causes that the donor cares about. Dafs allow donors to remain involved in active charitable giving by retaining "advisory privileges: to recommend how the community foundation should make grants from that fund. For the year ending june 30, 2025, the community foundation held 155/ separate donor advised funds that awarded $7,090,486 in total grants.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 73% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 82% of its reported program spending out as grants.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 83
- Transparency & Controls: 84
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 86
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 87%; rating input score 87
- Program expense ratio: 89.5%; rating input score 89
- Fundraising efficiency: $14.71 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 94.4%; rating input score 94; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 74.9%; rating input score 75; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 30.9%; rating input score 89; 89th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 9.26; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 95; 95th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 4.6%; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 7.9% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 7.7% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 10.9% per year; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 6 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 87% of revenue deployed · 89.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 19 of 19 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $11.5M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $233K · 24 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 35 of 36 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 13 filing years from 2011 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 222 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 218 filed related-organization links
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 49/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 54/100.