What Weissberg Foundation does

The Weissberg Foundation is a private family foundation established in 1988 by civil engineer and Northern Virginia real-estate developer Marvin Weissberg, and is headquartered in Mclean, Virginia. The Foundation's explicit mission is to dismantle structural racism by funding, amplifying, and collaborating with organizations that build organizing, economic, political, and narrative power for Black, Indigenous, and Communities of Color, primarily in Virginia with supporting regional and national activity.

Its programmatic work is organized around four core pillars: Innovative Grantmaking (multi-year general operating support for power-building organizations across named funds including JustVA, DMV Power, Fund for Diversity in Theatre, and Equitable Justice), Investing for Impact (100% mission-aligned endowment deployment under a Racial Equity Investing lens, with up to 10% reserved for impact-first catalytic and program-related investments), Internalizing Racial Equity (applying racial-equity values to operations, vendors, and thought leadership), and Influencing Philanthropy (sharing learnings and co-funding with peer foundations). Two legacy programs — the Weissberg Program in Human Rights & Social Justice at Beloit College and the Weissberg Commissions at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company — predate the current racial-equity strategy.

The Foundation operates from its endowment under an IRS-compliant spending policy that treats the Required Minimum Distribution as a floor and targets 4-5% of assets to grants plus 1-2% to programmatic/operating expenses. Planned grantmaking grew from $2M in 2021 to $19.6M in 2025 (including a $10M surge authorization) and over $10M in 2026, and the corpus is professionally managed by Outsourced Chief Investment Officer Bivium Westfuller in partnership with a 10-member Board (5 family trustees, 5 independent trustees). The internal team is intentionally lean at roughly six staff members, led during this period by Executive Director Ricshawn Adkins Roane, who has announced an end-of-2026 transition.

Name

Weissberg Foundation

Legal name

Weissberg Foundation

Website

https://weissbergfoundation.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1988

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Weissberg Foundation is a private Virginia-rooted family foundation established in 1988 that funds, amplifies, and partners with organizations building organizing, economic, political, and narrative power of Black, Indigenous, and Communities of Color primarily in Virginia.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Philanthropic Grantmaking

NAICS

Grantmaking Foundations (813211), Grantmaking and Giving Services (8132), Social Advocacy Organizations (8133)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Private Foundations (BPAGAKAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Social Justice & Human Rights Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAN)

Keywords

• Family foundation grantmaking
• Racial equity philanthropy
• Power-building grants
• BIPOC-led organizing funding
• Virginia community foundations

Headquarters

HQ city

Mclean

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Endowment Investment Returns: The Foundation operates from its endowment, which is invested with a commitment to 100% mission alignment using Racial Equity Investing and Responsible Investment lens. The Board has adopted a spending policy that treats the IRS Required Minimum Distribution as a floor and intends to spend a minimum of 4-5% of assets each year on grantmaking in addition to 1-2% on annual distributions for programmatic and operating expenses.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

The Weissberg Foundation is a small family foundation that makes grants to BIPOC-led power-building organizations in Virginia advancing racial equity and justice. It centers its work on supporting grassroots groups using multi-year, general operating support and partners with donor collaboratives and pooled funds to extend its reach beyond what its own endowment can fund directly.

Product overview

Weissberg Foundation is a family foundation that operates four core programs: Innovative Grantmaking (supporting organizing, economic, political, and narrative power building for Black, Indigenous, and Communities of Color), Investing for Impact (100% mission-aligned endowment with Racial Equity Investing lens), Internalizing Racial Equity (internal operations aligned with racial justice values), and Influencing Philanthropy (sharing learnings to increase sector-wide resources for racial equity). The Foundation also maintains two legacy programs—the Weissberg Program in Human Rights & Social Justice at Beloit College and Weissberg Commissions at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Weissberg Program in Human Rights & Social Justice: Program at Beloit College that empowers students to take informed action to address complex global problems, established in 1998.
• Weissberg Commissions

Products and services

• Racial Equity and Justice Grantmaking Program A grantmaking program providing multi-year, general operating support grants to BIPOC-led power-building organizations advancing racial equity and justice in Virginia.
• Pooled Funds with Donor Collaboratives Collaborative funding vehicles that pool resources from the Weissberg Foundation with other donors to support grassroots organizing efforts that the foundation could not fund at scale on its own.

Named customers2 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Loeb & LoebcoreOthersThe Foundation's legal counsel led by Diara M. Holmes (Co-Chair of Non-Profit and Tax-Exempt Organizations Practice) and Partner Kimberly Eney. Founded in 1909, Loeb & Loeb is a premier law firm with approximately 450 lawyers across eight offices in the U.S. and Asia.
• Talooka StudiominorOthersVisual identity studio based in Washington, DC providing design solutions. Talooka Studio is a Black and Women-owned studio that designed the Foundation's website.
• The Meyer FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in the pooled Fund for Black-led Organizations in Virginia launched in 2022, providing multi-year general operating support and capacity-building support to Black-led organizations.
• Greater Washington Community FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in the pooled Fund for Black-led Organizations in Virginia launched in 2022, providing multi-year general operating support and capacity-building support to Black-led organizations.
• Robert Wood Johnson FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerInvited funders to invest in the pooled Fund for Black-led Organizations in Virginia in 2022 as part of the initiative led by if, A Foundation for Radical Possibility.
• if, A Foundation for Radical PossibilitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLed the invitation to funders in 2022 to invest in the pooled Fund for Black-led Organizations in Virginia.
• Beloit CollegeminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHome to the Weissberg Program in Human Rights & Social Justice, established in 1998, which empowers students to take informed action to address complex global problems.
• Woolly Mammoth Theatre CompanyminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerRecipient of the Weissberg Commissions program honoring Marvin Weissberg, supporting art influenced by the DMV region and/or focusing on racial justice.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• The Meyer Foundation: Washington-area family foundation with a parallel focus on racial equity and supporting BIPOC-led nonprofits in the DC/Virginia/Maryland region. Direct co-funder with Weissberg on the Fund for Black-led Organizations in Virginia, making it the most operationally comparable peer.
• Libra Foundation: Family foundation focused on racial justice, criminal legal reform, and economic equity with multi-year general operating support. Operates a pooled fund (the Black-Led Movement Fund) highly comparable to Weissberg's JustVA and DMV Power Funds.
• Hill-Snowdon Foundation: Family foundation with a near-identical model: small staff, multi-year general operating support, focus on power-building for BIPOC-led organizations, and explicit racial equity lens. One of the closest operational analogues to Weissberg in size and approach.
• Surdna Foundation: Family foundation with an explicit racial equity, multi-year general operating, and power-building grantmaking model closely aligned with Weissberg's approach. Comparable governance (family + independent trustees) and similar mission-aligned investment philosophy.
• if, A Foundation for Radical Possibility: Values-aligned family foundation explicitly focused on racial justice and movement building, with a comparable trust-based, multi-year general operating grantmaking approach and a small staff footprint similar to Weissberg's. Led the funder convening for the pooled Fund for Black-led Organizations in Virginia.
• Greater Washington Community Foundation: Regional community foundation serving the DC/Virginia/Maryland area with pooled funds, racial equity grantmaking, and cross-funder collaborations. Co-funder of the Fund for Black-led Organizations in Virginia alongside Weissberg and the Meyer Foundation.

Broad incumbents

• Open Society Foundations: Global foundation with deep commitments to racial justice, narrative and political power building, and program-related investments that mirror Weissberg's Investing for Impact strategy. Operates at far greater scale and geographic breadth, but shapes the sector's racial-equity funding norms.
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Nationwide health-focused foundation that has co-invested in Weissberg's pooled racial-equity fund. Far larger in scale and broader in scope, but comparable as a funder collaborating on BIPOC-led power-building and racial justice initiatives in the DMV.
• Ford Foundation: One of the largest U.S. foundations with a long-standing racial equity and mission-related investing program that parallels Weissberg's 100% mission-aligned endowment approach. Operates at vastly greater scale and broader geography but shapes the sector playbook Weissberg references.

Emerging players

• Borealis Philanthropy: Philanthropic intermediary that designs and manages pooled racial-equity funds (e.g., the Racial Equity to Accelerate Change Fund) with foundations including Weissberg's peers. Functions as a vehicle for the kind of pooled funds Weissberg is increasingly participating in.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/WeissbergFdn
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/weissberg-foundation

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Weissberg Foundation