Dave Matthews Band’s Bama Works Fund Donates $10 Million To Help Hometown Organizations In Charlottesville, VA

Dave Matthews Band’s Bama Works Fund has confirmed a new round of charitable giving with $740,000 in funds to address housing and food insecurity, arts education, clean air and other priorities in the Charlottesville, Virginia, area. This brings the fund’s total contributions for the year to local organizations in the band’s hometown community to $10 million. 

The end-of-year donations were awarded to 141 hometown organizations across the region through the fall grants round via Dave Matthews Band’s Bama Works Fund, which is housed at The Charlottesville Area Community Foundation (CACF), with donations “supporting vital programs that serve community members in Charlottesville, Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Nelson, and Orange.” This week’s announcement notes that “these grants reflect the fund’s deep commitment to supporting the band’s hometown community and meeting critical needs in the region at a time when families are struggling to make ends meet.”

The band’s recent gifts include $5.5 million to the redevelopment of public housing as part of an ongoing initiative that has raised nearly $30 million to-date, primarily from local donors, to expand and improve public and affordable housing in Charlottesville.

DMB also donated $1 million each to The Fountain Fund, the Salvation Army Center of Hope capital campaign and the Music Resource Center’s capital campaign. The Fountain Fund is a program that provides low-interest loans and financial coaching to formerly incarcerated people in the region. Once completed, the Salvation Army Center of Hope shelter will feature 114 beds, seven family suites, a children’s playroom, and an expanded community dining room. The Music Resource Center’s capital campaign will allow the nonprofit to transition into a new space and is a double matching challenge grant.

Other donations include a $300,000 impact investment to New Hill Development, which will provide capital to support the BEACON kitchen and food entrepreneurship throughout the region,” and a $100,000 impact investment to nonprofit donation-based thrift store Twice Is Nice, which “funnels proceeds back into the community annually via grants awarded to local

 nonprofits supporting a safe and secure life for seniors in need.” 

Dave Matthews has also committed $500,000 to help combat food insecurity in the region, which has provided holiday meals for nearly 2,000 families in Charlottesville and Albemarle County schools and is supporting emergency food assistance programs. 

The band’s philanthropic efforts also include planting 1 million trees a year globally as part of The Nature Conservancy’s conservation efforts, with the goal of reaching 7 million trees by the end of 2026.

“These investments represent more than funding—they represent partnership and a shared vision for a stronger community,” said Leslie Lynn Smith, President & CEO of the Charlottesville

 Area Community Foundation. “We are deeply grateful to Dave Matthews Band and the Bama Works Fund for their leadership and dedication to the area.”