Jan 20, 2023 2 min read

The Washington County Community Foundation (WCCF) has initiated a new project aimed at identifying broad community needs, as well as the specific needs of individual nonprofits, on an ongoing basis.

Community Snapshot, a web-based community needs and resource database, is one of the outcomes of an independent study conducted in 2021 which evaluated the WCCF’s engagement with donors, community leaders, and nonprofit partners. The results of that survey made clear that constituents were looking to the WCCF to lead the effort to assess community needs and to help identify nonprofits working to address those needs.

The Community Snapshot website will be organized in seven broad categories which align with the foundation’s funding areas: arts and humanities; community improvement and economic development; education; environment and animal welfare; health and fitness; human needs; and religion and faith-based issues. Visitors to the website will get a view of the community’s overall needs through narratives on these seven broad focus areas, or they can zoom into the most pressing needs of a particular nonprofit serving our area. WCCF is convening focus groups in these seven areas, and community members interested in participating should visit www.wccf.net.

“To the best of our knowledge, never before has a comprehensive community-wide needs assessment been conducted for Washington County, nor has there ever been a centralized location for community data,” according to Betsie Trew, president and CEO of WCCF. “Once it is fully operational, the Community Snapshot project will provide an ongoing web-based resource to inform our community leaders and donors about the overall needs of our community as well as the specific needs of our local nonprofits.”

Nonprofits interested in being included in the Community Snapshot should register at www.communitysnapshot.org.