Eileen M. Ellsworth was the President and CEO of the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia from 2005 until early 2024. During her tenure Ellsworth raised a total of $130 million in private philanthropy, grew the cumulative discretionary grant-making levels from $8.2 million in 2005 to $92.5 million in 2024, and grew the Permanent Fund for Northern Virginia from $60,000 in 2005 to $26.8 million in 2024.
She created numerous innovative giving opportunities to help strengthen Northern Virginia and support the people who live here, including the Child and Youth Development Fund, the Safety Net Fund, the Education Fund, the Military Personnel and their Families Fund, the Latino Engagement and Achievement Fund, the Environment Fund, the Ross Roberts Fund for the Arts, the Aging Fund, the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Fund, the Loudoun Impact Fund, the Future Fund, the Healthy Kids Fund, the Innovation Fund, the Mental Health Fund, the Afghan Relief and Resettlement Fund, the COVID-19 Response Fund for Northern Virginia, and the Business Women’s Giving Circle.
In 2020 under her leadership, the Community Foundation launched Insight Region, a center for data driven community research, which is helping the entire region define, and then act upon, the greatest opportunities we have and the biggest challenges we face.
An attorney by training, Ellsworth was a trial attorney in private practice in Connecticut and New York for 13 years and later the General Counsel of Best Software in Reston, VA.
She lives in Oakton with her husband Robert Weil.