CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Stepping Stone launched in 2022 with the goal of providing basic necessities, including diapers, clothing, cribs, car seats and strollers, for young children.

“We have a warehouse that stores all of our inventory that we distribute to families who have young children, between the ages of newborn and three,” Ashely Schneider told Cville Right Now. “So, not only do we have to keep the lights on at this warehouse, but we have to keep the inventory stock.”

After two years of relying on individual donors to fund the operation, Schneider found the Vibrant Community Fund and applied for a 2024 grant.

That money has helped Schneider continue and even expand Stepping Stone’s ability to help the community. She said the organization has helped over 4,000 children to date and has distributed, for example, a half-million diapers.

“It’s very crucial to being able to exist and keep doing our work at the rate we’re doing it,” Schneider said.

With a small annual budget, Stepping Stone is an example of a small organization that gives the Vibrant Community Fund good bang for its buck. Schneider doesn’t ask for much, and does a lot with the funds she receives.

That fits perfectly with the vision for the fund, said city human services planner Hunter Smith, who is the fund’s administrator.

“The trick for me is, ‘How do we distribute the money in the best possible way for the most organizations to receive the most amount,” Smith told Cville Right Now. “It’s not just trying to give everybody something. You really want it to be an impactful amount. That’s a real difficult needle to thread.”

Launched in 2013, the Vibrant Community Fund is a grant fund that awards city money to community organizations that serve the city’s population in four categories. The bulk of the applicants work in the areas of youth, family and education.

There are also categories for economic impact and jobs, public health and safety, and arts and culture.

Applications for the next round of funding, 2026, opened on Sept. 19 and close on Oct. 20.

The fund had $2.6 million to disperse in last year’s city budget, and – while Smith had hoped to see that total increase – it will have the same amount this time around. Any organization that requests $75,000 or more is evaluated during a site visit. Last year, Smith and team members did 22 site visits.

Unlike federal grant programs, Smith strives to make the application process approachable and navigable for smaller organizations, who frequently don’t have anyone trained in grant writing working with them.

Smith works in small groups, four people at a time, to review applications based on who they serve, what their strategies are and what their budget and revenue streams look like.

“The point of this is really to make sure that what the programs say they’re doing is being translated and we’re reviewing it from a regular person’s standpoint,” he said.

One of Smith’s goals has been to attract applications from more organizations, including some smaller groups doing valuable work in the city.

Over the last two years, the Vibrant Community Fund has allocated money for 10 new recipients.

One of those organizations is Heart & Soul Fitness, a non-profit gym that aims to make physical fitness available to anyone. The money Heart & Soul received this past year went to operating expenses and even funding to make shoes and clothing available to gym goers who might not have had their own.

It allows the gym to charge low monthly rates for members.

“Our primary focus is health and wellness for our community,” said president Nicole Hawker. “It’s much more about helping individuals to have a better quality of life.”

Launched in November 2022, Heart & Soul first applied for a Vibrant Community Fund Grant, unsuccessfully, in 2024. This past cycle, it applied and was awarded $88,000. The timing of the funding has coincided with the gym’s growth over the past year

Hawker said classes that used to have 3-5 members in them now have 10-12. Heart & Soul tracks membership and attendance, obvious data points, but also examines the impact being part of the gym has on members’ overall quality of life. For example, they can see the improved outcomes for people recovering from surgeries or battling illness.

“That’s what creates a more vibrant community,” Hawker said. “Living longer, better and healthier.”