Assistance League of Northern Virginia

Philanthropic Programs
• Expand the number of children served by Operation School Bell's food, clothing and literacy programs and our Operation Hugs program by 5% per year.
• Ensure all programs demonstrate measurable outcomes against our defined objectives.

Membership Growth
• Retain our general membership.
• Increase membership by 10% annually.

Public Relations
• Expand our outreach to businesses and community neighborhoods through online, print and visual media.

Resource Development
• Increase total funding by 5% annually.

Leadership
• Develop new leaders to replace outgoing Board members and committee chairpersons.

Philanthropic Programs
• Develop output measures for Operation Hugs & Operation School Bell (OSB).
• Design and implement a plan for each program (Weekend Food for Kids, New Clothing for Kids, Literacy, Hugs) to increase the number of children served.

Membership Growth
• Develop and implement a plan for retaining members.
• Develop and implement a plan to attract new members
. Schedule recruitment sessions throughout the area to explain our programs and increase interest in ALNV

Resource Development
• Develop and implement a plan to increase our outreach to former and current donors, grantors and sponsors.
• Develop and implement a plan to increase outreach to corporate partners and community organizations.
• Develop and implement a plan to identify new potential grant opportunities.

Leadership
• Implement an effective succession plan for Board members and committee chairpersons.

Chapter Growth
• Meet regularly with our Advisory Council for advice on improving and expanding outreach opportunities.

Assistance League of Northern Virginia is an all-volunteer organization that is one of 120 chapters of Assistance League, a nationwide organization of over 22,000 members. Our chapter was established 2004. Since then, we have expanded our philanthropic programs to provide services and support to children in great need in our community, consistent with membership level and funding levels. Our financial resources are derived from fundraising events, grants, and corporate and individual donations. More than 85% of funds raised are spent on our philanthropic programs. We are able to accomplish our mission because of devoted members and business and community volunteers who perform the hands-on work for each of our programs.

In 2012, we began a very productive collaboration with Dominion Energy to support our Weekend Food for Kids program. That program was suspended during the pandemic and instead we provided grocery gift cards to help struggling families. In February 2022, we were able to resume our monthly food packing, and delivered 1660 bags each month. We will provide grocery gift cards during the summer months. Dominion Energy not only provided the facility where we pack the food but also trucks to help with the purchasing of food and employees to help package and deliver the food bags to six schools monthly.

We are continually seeking new collaborative relationships and/or financial support with other companies and organizations to facilitate expansion of not only our Weekend Food for Kids programs but also our New Clothing for Kids and Literacy for Kids programs. Local retirement communities provide hand-made items for our Hugs program. Also, we are always looking for new grant opportunities and soliciting for potential donors.

Because we had to suspend many of our programs during the pandemic, we redesigned our programs and found new recipients. For example, we began providing grocery gift cards instead of weekend food bags; and donated many new books because we could not provide in-person tutoring. See the accompanying accomplishments table for details on all that we have done in the past 4 fiscal years.

This past year, our philanthropic efforts touched the lives of more than 7,530 children at 11 elementary schools and a local medical clinic for low-income families. We accomplished this through the dedication of our members and the community who served over 10,500 hours this past year.

Operation School Bell - Weekend Food for Kids: Since the program began in 2010, the program has steadily grown from providing 500 food bags monthly to eligible children in one school to 1,800 monthly for a total of 11,310 bags to eleven schools before the pandemic hit. After schools closed due to the pandemic we provided 1031 grocery store gift cards to families in need at our schools from April through June 2020; more than 4800 gift cards in the 2020-21 school year; and about 3450 in the 2021-22 year. We were able to resume our weekend food program in February 2022. We continue to seek more funding and ways to develop more corporate partnerships, the critical drivers for expanding this program.

New Clothing for Kids: Since
2010, the number of items that we provide to schools has greatly increased as well as the number of schools that we support. During the 2019-2020 school year, we supplied 772 new items of clothing and 350 new pairs of shoes to students at five schools. We also provided 1,200 coupons for free haircuts to children at our schools. With students attending school remotely, we suspended our clothing and shoe donations during the pandemic but resumed them in 2021. This past year, we provided 1325 clothing items, such as pants, shirts, jackets, gloves and scarves; 192 pairs of sneakers, 500 child-sized face masks; 2300 toiletry kits (containing soap, shampoo, toothbrush and toothpaste) and several hundred pairs of underwear and socks and more than 100 hand-made winter scarves and hats.

Literacy for Kids: At two of our schools, our members meet with young students individualized weekly tutoring to help improve their vocabulary and reading comprehension skills we also provide new books to students at many of the other 9 schools we serve. We suspended in-person tutoring but greatly expanded our book donations during the pandemic. Earlier this year, we resumed tutoring at 1 school and also donated nearly 4000 books.

Operation Hugs - Pillow Program: Through this program, we reached out to help comfort children at a local clinic for children that serves low-income families. In 2018-2019, we provided over 792 handmade heart-shaped pillows containing child-friendly items. Since 1999, we have distributed over 11,000 of these delightful pillows. When the clinic couldn't accept the pillows, we delivered them to community organizations and schools. At a local clinic for low-income families, we furnished layettes (handmade baby blankets, hats, onesies and books) to mothers of young children and other handmade items.