Venable Foundation Annual Report | FY2021

The ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to strain our communities. While 2021 brought some progress, it also presented new challenges and exacerbated preexisting issues. The Venable Foundation remains committed to addressing the needs within our communities. Through essential funding to our nonprofit partners, we support a wide range of civic, cultural, and charitable endeavors. This year, we doubled down on our priority areas, which have been re-articulated to allow for even greater transparency. We identified Workforce Development and Youth Impact as separate funding areas for the first time. While we have historically provided grants in these docket areas, this is the first time we have explicitly made them areas of focus. Nonetheless, inequities continue to affect our communities. The Foundation has been working to reduce these disparities and create more opportunities for success by providing funding to organizations addressing food insecurity, combating injustices, and providing legal services on a range of issues, from domestic violence survivors to immigration. In what has become a yearly tradition for the Venable Foundation, we continued the practice of awarding deeper funding beyond our average grant size. Understanding that the pandemic has exacerbated existing academic achievement gaps for students, these 2021 Impact Grants targeted education-focused nonprofits that are working with schools to engage students more deeply and make Venable has long supported the economic and social vitality of the firm’s communities. The Venable Foundation, funded annually by equity partners, was established to promote the health and well-being of the communities where our clients and employees work and live. By helping individuals and organizations meaningfully connect with opportunities, resources, and each other, we ensure that our firm’s impact reaches far beyond our day-to-day business operations.