Program manager graduates from Leadership Harrisonburg-Rockingham
Program Manager Kelsey Gerber recently graduated from the Leadership Harrisonburg-Rockingham program. This 10-month program, offered by the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Chamber of Commerce, develops current and future leaders through community awareness, engagement, and education.
Members of the 2025-26 Leadership Harrisonburg-Rockingham cohort.
Participants are nominated and sponsored by their employers, and selected for participation by a committee of LHR alumni.
Over the 10 months, the cohort learned about various aspects of the local community, including site visits and panel presentations from a number of prominent professionals.
Gerber appreciated the breadth of the content and the opportunity to network across diverse fields. Her fellow participants included representatives from the following industries and areas: construction, hospitality management, tourism, banking, transportation, higher education, and the nonprofit field.
“Through sessions on agriculture, local government, the arts, and more, I gained new perspectives on what makes our community unique,” she said. “Professional development topics like public speaking, active listening, and relationship building were all valuable skills I practiced in these sessions and are useful for my role at TCFHR. I thoroughly enjoyed making connections within my cohort and look forward to supporting one another in our future endeavors!”
For their required service project, Gerber and her team volunteered at a Christmas celebration meal for Mercy House clients.
Historic preservation projects to benefit from new grant funding
Audrey Driver lived most of her adult life away from her childhood home in northern Rockingham County, but she never forgot about her Shenandoah Valley roots.
Audrey L. Driver on the family farm north of Timberville with her pet skunks. She would go on to serve in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II and a distinguished career in psychiatric social services. Despite living most of her life in northern Virginia, she always retained strong ties to her Valley home and family history. (Photo courtesy of the family)
They were strong and grounded, woven from fond memories and family history. Don Driver, her nephew, and Becky Driver, her niece, recall their aunt’s stories of climbing the hill as a youngster, finding just the right apple in the orchard, and enjoying it while watching cows graze in the pasture.
Audrey too was fascinated by how Anabaptists in the Valley, some of them her ancestors, steered a careful course between incursions of Union and Confederate troops.
“Every family with a barn still intact from ‘The Burning’ has a story to tell about how that happened, Audrey included,” Don said. “She really enjoyed learning about that history and that family history.”
View the Driver home and barn on the National Historic Register’s website.
After Audrey Driver’s death at age 101 in 2024, the siblings were entrusted with a tall task. The result is of historic proportion itself. The recently established Historic Preservation Fund at The Community Foundation of Harrisonburg and Rockingham (TCFHR) honors her love of local history, genealogy, and education.
Executive Director Revlan Hill says the fund is the first among more than 350 managed by the foundation to specifically support historic preservation. “Working with Don and Becky as they described their aunt’s wishes and interests was a really wonderful process. They were thoughtful and careful but also creative in their approach, as they knew she would want them to be.”
Organizations can apply starting July 1; the application closes Sept. 1. The grant is open to nonprofits working in historic preservation with a focus upon the history of the Shenandoah Valley.
Learn more about TCFHR grants.
The first award will total about $20,000. Subsequent years, as much as $60,000 will be available.
The grants committee, which includes members of the Driver family and other community residents knowledgeable about local history, will review applications in the fall and make a decision by November.
“I know this particular committee is looking forward to seeing this first round of applicants,” said Ann Siciliano, senior director of scholarships and grants. “The Driver fund has the potential to make a significant difference in local projects devoted to preserving and sharing our Valley history.”
The foundation manages an annual application process for several other community grants, each with a specific restriction on the area of the support as prescribed by the donor.
The Driver barn, circa 1839, still stands on family property, a rare survivor of Union General Sheridan’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864. (National Historic Register)
Audrey Driver would be “so pleased” by how her bequest turned out, Becky said. “She told us generally what she wanted but really left the specifics to us.”
“The what was never an issue. The how was the challenge,” Don added. “Working with the Community Foundation became a logical and clear option, in part because of their connections already established with local organizations. Funding an endowment there all from which different nonprofit organizations supporting history and culture could be supported. She would be tickled, I’m sure.”
Audrey Driver was one of six siblings, the oldest daughter with a streak of independence from an early age. One family photograph shows the young Audrey posing nonchalantly with three pets, skunks Mertie, Gertie, and Squirty. So bright that she graduated from high school early, Audrey joined the Marines during World War II, serving in California. The GI Bill helped her graduate from Bridgewater College, and she went on to a long career as a psychiatric social worker, starting in Charlottesville but eventually making her home in northern Virginia.
She lived for 56 years in an apartment in Fairfax, packed with books. A lifelong reader with eclectic taste, she devoured academic treatises on the theory of psychology along with murder mysteries and narratives of history.
Don and Becky say that their aunt would be especially pleased that the fund is endowed. That means a distribution from the invested funds can support organizations this year — and for years in the future.
“We think she’d be very happy with this, to know that this support could go on forever and impact future generations,” Don said.
Applications open for inaugural Rocco Fellows cohort
Local nonprofit leaders are invited to apply for a Rocco Fellowship, a new professional development program offered by The Community Foundation of Harrisonburg and Rockingham.
Applications are open through July 1 for the inaugural cohort. The program offers a group coaching experience over nine months for as many as 14 local nonprofit leaders, as well as publicity for their ongoing work and funding needs.
The Rocco Fellowship is open to individuals:
- demonstrating commitment to service and growth within the nonprofit sector;
- serving in a volunteer, part-time, or full-time capacity with a 501(c)(3) located in and serving Harrisonburg and Rockingham County; and
- with strong potential of creating or continuing to make significant impact in their field of choice.
The fellowship is tailored for local leaders seeking to transform challenges into opportunities for professional development and strategic advantage. Candidates should be interested in building their leadership skills, learning more about problem-based collaboration, and reflecting in meaningful and authentic ways on their work.
George Neighbors, principal with X-Roads Consulting, will coach the inaugural cohort of Rocco Fellows.
The cohort will meet monthly from September through May for two-hour sessions at TCFHR’s office in Harrisonburg.
Apply to become a Rocco Fellow.
“Our local nonprofit professionals are often working in challenging contexts, carrying heavy personal and professional loads as they offer important services that benefit our community,” said Lauren Jefferson, director of programs and marketing. “Coaching circles provide a way to both give and get support in a confidential format that fosters innovation, experimentation, and resilience. We’re really excited to invest in this dynamic learning opportunity for our nonprofit colleagues and see what long-term benefits emerge.”
The first cohort of Rocco Fellows will be coached by George Neighbors of X‑Roads Advisory, a Valley-based small business with a mission to empower leaders and teams to navigate change, grow with purpose, and build resilience.
Neighbors brings a proven framework for collective growth to this new initiative, drawing upon decades of experience with diverse organizations, including the Community Foundation of the Central Blue Ridge, the Center for Nonprofit Excellence, National Institutes of Health, USO, James Madison University, Blue Ridge Community College, and the City of Harrisonburg. He also brings experience working with leaders in national and global contexts.
“The environment I aim to create provides a safe space for peer dialogue and exploration where leaders share challenges, uncover blind spots, and co-create solutions,” Neighbors says. “In a world of rapid change, the power of shared wisdom is powerful, all the more so as it’s generated right here in our community when we come together.”
Unlike traditional one-on-one coaching, this group model leverages the collective lived experience, expertise, and abilities of the cohort. Participants determine the focus of each session, ensuring that the experience remains agile and responsive to real-time needs.
By fostering an environment where leaders can vulnerably share experiences and collaboratively problem-solve, TCFHR aims to build resilient leadership pipelines capable of driving sustainable change across our nonprofit community.
The fellowship is supported by the Rocco Legacy Endowment, which has also launched a new capacity-building grant, opening in the 2026 grant cycle on July 1, and a monthly networking event, Coffee and Conversations.
Longtime residents will remember Rocco Enterprises, a locally owned, fully-integrated poultry company run by the Strickler family from 1939 to 2001. Philanthropy, service, stewardship, and investment in both employees and the community were foundational pillars of Rocco’s corporate culture. Its innovative business strategies included awareness of the inherent power of mutual interdependence among its partners, and the promotion of creativity and intrapreneurship.
“As we carry forward the Strickler family’s legacy of stewardship, service, and community involvement and investment, we are deeply committed to equipping nonprofit leaders with the tools, networks, and resources they need to thrive in an ever-changing landscape,” said TCFHR Executive Director Revlan Hill. “The endowment honor Rocco’s history and traditions by strengthening the organizations that make our community stronger, more compassionate, and more vibrant for generations to come.”
TCFHR launches new programs to strengthen organizational leadership and capacity-building
New programming at the Community Foundation of Harrisonburg and Rockingham will strengthen local nonprofit leaders and their organizations through professional development, capacity-building, and collaboration.
The Rocco Fellowship, a coaching program for nonprofit leaders, launches its first cohort in September 2026. The fellows, selected through a competitive application process, will participate in nine monthly group sessions led by an executive coach.
Learn more about the Rocco Fellowship.
A new capacity-building grant will be offered in fall 2026. This funding is focused on increasing the knowledge, processes, and/or efficiency within a nonprofit organization through funding for organizational assessments, board development, strategic planning, explorations of mergers/collaborations, feasibility studies, or other processes. Investments of software or technological products will also be considered.
Learn more about the Rocco Capacity-Building grants.
A monthly networking and informational event, Coffee and Conversation, has been running since fall 2025, with an average of 15 nonprofit leaders, staff, and board attending each session.
These three initiatives were informed by a survey of nonprofit leadership in summer 2025 that identified the following learning formats as particularly desirable and beneficial — small group discussions with a facilitator, a cohort-based program to collaborate and learn from peers, and specific time and resources to solve problems and challenges.
“The Rocco Legacy Endowment provided the spark for this work, centered around elevating collective discourse, centering our nonprofit leaders in their challenging work, and nurturing our shared values of ethical stewardship, reflective practice, and growth through collaboration,” said Lauren Jefferson, director of programs and marketing. “We look forward to supporting, celebrating, and encouraging those who lead in our local philanthropic space.”
The endowment honors the legacy, values, and spirit of Rocco Enterprises, a locally owned, fully-integrated poultry company run by the Strickler family from 1939 to 2001. Philanthropy, service, stewardship, and investment in both employees and the community were foundational pillars of Rocco’s corporate culture. Among its business practices, Rocco prioritized recognition of inherent power of mutual interdependence, the promotion of creativity, and the innovative concept of intrapreneurship.
Programming carries on the objectives of the Rocco Forum on Philanthropy, a biannual speaker series offered from 2008 through 2024, and the Excellence in Nonprofit Leadership program, which started in 2017 and provided annual professional development workshops.
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library of Harrisonburg and Rockingham: Spring 2026 update
As of mid-May, we have 3,514 children enrolled and 2,308 children have graduated from the program. In May, Virginia surpassed the 87,000 enrollment mark. The addition of Manassas makes 31 of 38 Virginia cities and 90 of 95 Virginia counties covered by an Imagination Library program!
More than 40 million books have been gifted since inception. View the DPIL 2025 Annual Report with more global stats and highlights.
Great Community Give
Generous donors helped raise $36,858 during the 9th annual Great Community Give last month. These funds are going to our Imagination Library Endowment, which we are actively growing to make sure this program remains a permanent part of the Harrisonburg-Rockingham community. We teamed up to send handwritten notes of appreciation to 16 of the major donors who gave during GCG.
WSIG Partnership
WSIG 96.9 FM, a country music station of Harrisonburg Media Group, has partnered with us to promote DPIL. The station is running Public Service Announcements and promoting registration and support on their website.
First Fridays at Gift & Thrift
Lauren Jefferson, Gift and Thrift manager Sue Nelson, and Kelsey Gerber at the check presentation after the May First Fridays event. (Courtesy of Gift and Thrift)
DPIL was the beneficiary of Gift & Thrift’s “First Fridays of the Valley” event in early May. We set up a table in the Booksavers section with registration cards, donation slips, and book samples. Ten percent of the day’s proceeds were donated to DPIL, totaling $1,324!
Birthday Donation
Rebecca Porter sings at a Storytime event at Massanutten Regional Library for Dolly Parton’s 80th birthday. (TCFHR photo)
In May, we had a surprise visit from Rebecca Porter, the singer/songwriter who coordinated the “Back Through the Years” celebration for Dolly’s 80th birthday. She hand-delivered a $650 check from the ticket proceeds of this event! We always appreciate being included in events like this and are grateful for this partnership.
Children’s Books Needed!
Do you or someone you know have children’s books that aren’t being used? Along with stocking the Little Free Library, we plan to hand books out again at the Rockingham County Fair to promote this program and childhood literacy (it’s so fun to see our little visitors light up when we tell them they can pick out a book to take home!).
We are exploring options of how to replenish our stash, like setting aside some funds to purchase children’s books or partnering with local thrift stores to donate back DPIL books. If you have books you would like to donate, or know someone who does, books can be dropped off at the Little Free Library at any time. If you have a box or boxes of books, please drop them off during our office hours Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.. and Fridays from 9 a.m.-noon.
Rockingham County Fair Aug. 10-15
We are already preparing for the 2026 Rockingham County Fair indoor vendor fair, August 10-15! Tabling last year was a fun way to not only share about TCFHR but also promote the Imagination Library. As you can imagine, cardboard cutout Dolly was a BIG hit. Mark your calendars and plan to visit us!
Great Community Give 2026 generates $2.87 million for area nonprofits
April 22 marked an historic Great Community Give for 156 nonprofits in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, as more than 7,800 donors contributed $2.87 million.
“We were amazed and excited and gratified by the response,” said Lauren Jefferson, director of programs and marketing at The Community Foundation of Harrisonburg and Rockingham. “This is not a feat any one of us could have achieved alone, so let’s give credit to our hardworking nonprofit leaders, their staff, and the donors who stepped up to make this happen.”
View the 2026 photo album.
The ninth annual giving day opened at 6 a.m. with a record-high $600,000 in the coffers already, thanks to a two-week early giving period that helped build momentum. By the end of the event, at 8 p.m., GCG exceeded the goal of $2.5 million by more than $376,000.
Donations came in from 46 states and seven countries: Indonesia, Nigeria, Canada, New Zealand, Mexico, Norway, and the United Kingdom.
“We were only missing Alaska, North Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming, which could be a fun challenge for next year,” Jefferson said.
Forty-three organizations took home additional cash prizes by winning Power Hours, Leaderboard prizes for most dollars or most donors in an hour, or the Golden Ticket drawings. For equity, NPOs competed against other organizations with similar revenue balances.
Nonprofit organizations doubled the number of active peer-to-peer fundraisers, and doubled the number of matches and challenges — two best practices that contributed to the day’s success.
A group of 45 sponsors contributed a prize pool of more than $80,000.
“One hundred percent of the money given by the sponsors goes back into our local nonprofits,” Jefferson said.
Photos by Rachel Holderman
Ninth annual Great Community Give to benefit 158 nonprofits
Staff and volunteers gather on the porch of The Community Foundation of Harrisonburg and Rockingham to celebrate raising more than $10 million in the Great Community Give’s eight-year history. (Photo by Rachel Holderman)
Nonprofits in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County are gearing up for the ninth annual Great Community Give. The sunrise-to-sunset online giving day will be Wednesday, April 22, with the early giving period opening April 7.
The goal is to raise $2.5 million, just over $285,000 more than last year’s total of $2.2 million.
From April 7-22, donors can bring cash or checks directly to their favorite nonprofits, or give online at www.greatcommunitygive.org.
More than $80,000 provided by business and individual sponsors is also available in the prize pool. On April 22, the final day, nonprofits compete for hourly prizes as well as several thousand dollars in “leaderboard” prizes for most dollars raised and most donors.
The Great Community Give is hosted by The Community Foundation of Harrisonburg and Rockingham, which provides administrative support and covers the costs of the digital platform.
Since the first event in 2018, more than $11 million has been raised. [View photos of the 2025 record-setting event!]
This year, a record number of nonprofit organizations working in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County have registered to participate. The 158 participants represent the areas of youth and senior services, general human services, mental health, animal welfare, environmental interests, transportation and food insecurity, and many more.
We know that now more than ever, our local nonprofit leaders, their staff, and volunteers are doing hard and challenging work, and they need funds to continue these invaluable services and programs. A donation during Great Community Give to your favorite nonprofit is a way of showing support and honoring their impact.
—Lauren Jefferson, TCFHR director of programs and marketing
Last year saw a rise in first-time donors and in local residents fundraising on behalf of organizations, but there’s still room to grow.
The county’s total population is around 140,000 residents, and last year’s donor count was a little more than 7,600.
“Tell your friends and family, become a fundraiser for your favorite organization, and help us spread the word,” Jefferson said. “Growing this event takes all of us. We have several wonderful media partners, but we also know that grassroots efforts make a huge difference.”
Foundation re-accredited under rigorous national philanthropic standards
The Community Foundation of Harrisonburg and Rockingham recently received accreditation with the nation’s highest standard for philanthropic excellence. Community Foundations National Standards® establish legal, ethical, effective practices for community foundations.
With their re-accreditation, TCFHR joins more than 500 foundations across the country who have met these rigorous requirements for donor services, investment management, grantmaking, and administration. The process is voluntary and reconfirmed every three years.
“This is critically important to our donors, who value transparency, integrity, and accountability,” said Revlan Hill, the foundation’s executive director. “When people make a charitable bequest or establish a fund, they are putting their trust in us. They are counting on us to manage the investment wisely and honor their charitable wishes. The National Standards accreditation says our house is in order.”
The standards set consistent expectations for the board and staff, ensure policies are in place for financial stability and sustainability, and affirm commitments to best practices of the field.
One of those practices is an annual audit by an independent firm specializing in public audits; TCFHR received an “unmodified” audit opinion for FY2025.
Documentation was reviewed by a community foundation expert from a panel appointed by the Community Foundations National Standards Board, a supporting organization of the Council on Foundations in Washington, D.C.
TCFHR grows beyond $100 million in assets
Caption: Eugene Lantz, the first fundholder at The Community Foundation of Harrisonburg and Rockingham, shares that the foundation has reached $110 million in assets, with Executive Director Revlan Hill. (Photos by Rachel Holderman)
The Community Foundation of Harrisonburg and Rockingham met a major milestone in late 2025, closing out the year with approximately $110 million in charitable assets under management.
Passing the $100 million mark is considered significant for community foundations, said Executive Director Revlan Hill, as the number of assets link directly with charitable impact.
“The more assets a community foundation has, the larger the investment pool and the larger the return for charitable giving,” Hill said. “This milestone reflects our residents’ generous spirit and their vision for making a difference, as well as a growing awareness of how working with the foundation for charitable giving leverages more financial support for the community.”
Hill attributes the success of the foundation to “our generous community, partnerships with local financial advisors, an historically strong board of committed residents, and the hard work of all of our staff, past and present.”
The foundation started in 1998 with a $50,000 fund started by Eugene Lantz and his brother-in-law Wallace Hatcher to honor CD and Vergie Lantz. The story goes that the two men drew up their plan on a back of a napkin while meeting at a restaurant with their financial advisor.
At a celebration last week, Hill asked Lantz to share the $110 million number with those gathered.
“It was a really nice full circle moment,” she said. “There’s no way we would be where we are today without Eugene and Wallace. They believed in us, just as our founders Lawrence H. Hoover Jr., Phillip C. Stone Jr., Andrew M. Huggins, and John L. Vincie III did in those early years. This moment is also a tribute to our Keystone supporters who provided early financial support so that we could continue to grow.”
Since its founding in 1998, the foundation has distributed than $92.3 million in grants and scholarships.
Most of that sum has stayed in the local area, Hill notes, pointing to data from Fiscal Year 2025, when $8.3 million in total was granted to scholarships and nonprofit organizations. More than $3.6 million, or 44% of grants, stayed in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, with $1.3 million, or 16% benefiting the greater Shenandoah Valley, and $1.7 million, or 21%, for organizations in the state. About 20% of grants go outside Virginia.
The organization now manages 352 funds representing individuals, families, and businesses.
Unlike other investment firms, the fees charged help to support programs that benefit the community, including
- nonprofit resourcing and support;
- the local Dolly Parton Imagination Library program supporting literacy development;
- the management of a large scholarship program (more than $1.9 million granted in FY2025);
- a competitive grant process ($701,500 back into local communities in FY 2025);
- endowments supporting local food pantries, vocational education, and general community needs;
- the Great Community Give, and much more.
