Gizmo, an online learning tool that helps students read bar graphs, is just one of
ExploreLearning’s programs. Photo: Courtesy ExploreLearning
How do you get kids to learn math and science? It’s a question that has vexed many a teacher, but Charlottesville-based ExploreLearning has some pretty good answers. Founded in 1999 by UVA math Ph.D. David Shuster, the company develops online learning tools that are now used around the country. The key, says EL’s Tammy Weisman, is to focus on the concepts that give kids the most trouble, and to teach them through visualizations and games. Gizmos and Reflex, the company’s two current products, are meant to offer livelier lessons than your average textbook.
One Gizmo, for example, is a game whose object is to click on a moving target. The larger goal, though, is to help students learn how to read bar graphs, with their own reaction times being what’s graphed.
Such online tools have proved popular with schools, and for EL that’s paid off with consistent double-digit growth. ExploreLearning is today a $30 million company, and was acquired in 2005 by what’s now called Cambium Learning Group. However, it’s still based near the Downtown Mall and employs close to 100 people locally (many of them software engineers and former teachers), with around 40 more employees around the country who sell the products and train schoolteachers in their use. Three of these “professional development” specialists are full-time in the Miami-Dade (Florida) school district alone.
Weisman says focusing solely on tech solutions from the time of the company’s founding—rather than seeing online learning as a supplement to textbooks and workbooks—has helped EL succeed in a challenging sector. “Our company has benefited from how digital content [has become] something that every child can be doing at their own computer,” she says. “We developed with the intention that this stuff always existed online, and it was highly interactive and visual. It could change and adapt to what kids are doing.”
For example, algorithms built into the products learn what math facts a user needs to learn, then focus the simulation or game on those facts until the student catches on. ExploreLearning’s new product, Frax, will take kids on a space adventure which, along the way, boosts their understanding of fractions—a major stumbling block for many kids. Frax is currently being tested in Albemarle County schools and will come out next year.
“We really do go deep into the content,” says Weisman. “We’re not a box of everything; we’re a collection of stuff that is really focused on the areas that kids struggle with the most in math and science.”
At Chancellor Street Preschool, every job is filled by a parent of one of the school’s 30 students. Photo: Courtesy Chancellor Street Preschool
At the Chancellor Street Preschool Co-operative, the business manager is a parent. The person who refills the supplies and maintenance closet with soap and toilet paper is also a parent. Parents administrate admissions and provide diversity outreach. Parents set the tuition, design the schedule and make strategic decisions about the school’s future.
“Every job is filled by a parent of one of the 30 children who attends the school. We have only three paid staff members: the teachers,” says Heather Swindler, a teacher whose two children are alumni. “Every parent has two jobs. They serve as a teaching assistance in the classroom a day or two each month, and they do an administrative or practical job for the school.”
Since 1972, the school has operated as an incorporated co-operative. It has a board of directors headed by two parent co-chairs who are elected by fellow parents each spring. “The flavor of the school can really change from year to year depending on who the parents are. Each kid is here for just two or three years. Each group of parents bring their own expertise and knowledge with them,” says Swindler.
“Parents bring fresh ideas, while teachers have institutional memory,” Swindler adds. Indeed, the school has a very high retention rate for teachers. “We’ve seen which ideas have worked out and which haven’t in the past. Yet I’m continually impressed by the innovative ideas that parents bring.”
For membership in the co-op, current families are given priority and then applications are considered in the order they are received, starting in October. The school has a nondiscriminatory policy and provides a few small scholarships based on financial need.
The curriculum of the school is play-based to encourage self-directed learning. The school rents its location in the education wing of St. Paul’s Memorial Church, but is unaffiliated with the church.
Tuition rates at the school are comparatively low. “Quality education is often expensive,” says Swindler. “Here parents don’t just contribute money, like they do in a regular private school, they also contribute their time, labor and expertise.” Swindler says that mothers and fathers are equally present at the school.
National data on how preschools and daycares spend their funding suggests that at an average childcare center serving preschool-aged children, 13 percent of funding is spent on classroom materials and food, 16 percent on administration costs, 14 percent on the preschool space and 56 percent on salaries and benefits for employees. A co-op distributes funding differently—and can charge less tuition—because of the labor of parents.
The one downside of the co-operative model is that not every parent has the capacity to contribute time and labor to a school, according to Swindler. “Also, we are a half-day school, so we don’t meet the needs of families with two parents who work full-time and don’t have any flexibility.”
On the flip side, Swindler says that parents who have decided to leave the workforce or work less while their children are young often benefit a lot from the community of the school. “If you are someone who had a high-powered job and you find yourself listening to baby talk all day and telling your child where not to put their fingers, the school is an opportunity to use your job skills again and connect with adults around an intellectual challenge,” she says.
Both parents and children benefit from having parents in the classroom. “As a parent, I got to see how my kids were at school,” says Swindler. “How they played with other kids. How they dealt with new tasks and challenges. It was a gift to be able to know the at-school version of my kids.”
In the last 20 years, the Omni Charlottesville Hotel has hired hundreds of refugees, such as Paw Zaw, Waseem Nasir, Liqaa Al Behadili and Joseph Sesay, who currently serve in areas of housekeeping, food and beverage and guest services. Photo: Eze Amos
Refugees flee violence and persecution to rebuild their lives—and careers—in new places, and over the years, the Charlottesville area has been the initial home for more than 3,500 refugees from 32 countries. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) helps them integrate into the workforce by partnering with local businesses.
Design Electric, a 250-person company that builds commercial, residential and industrial electric systems, and the Omni Charlottesville Hotel both have long histories with the IRC.
Casey Carwile, personnel director at Design Electric, says that workers who were recent refugees in 2000 still work at the firm and most work as electricians or electrician helpers. “There are inspirational stories,” says Carwile. “Two brothers from Russia came to work for us and both finished the entire electrician apprenticeship program in four years. Now they are lead men on a $14 million project at the university.” Recently, a third brother has come to Charlottesville and joined Design Electric as a pre-apprentice.
Carwile says the decision to hire refugees is a practical one. “We need to get our work done, so we need qualified, hard-working people. People from different countries and different backgrounds, we all work together.” Carwile says Design Electric has hired about 30 people through the IRC.
Language can be a barrier to employment and education for recent refugees, and Design Electric works with the IRC to provide language classes with an emphasis on the English required for electrician training.
Patti Shifflette, human resources director with the Omni Charlottesville Hotel, says that in the last 20 years, the Omni has hired hundreds of refugees. The practice has helped the hotel maintain staffing levels in a city with very low unemployment. But Shifflette feels the greatest benefit has been the creation of a diverse workforce. “Diversity is a strength that positively impacts our culture in the workplace and brings a high level of respect amongst all members of our staff. Our guests appreciate being able to meet and converse with staff who come from all areas of the world,” says Shifflette. “Refugees bring with them a strong desire to work and make a new home for their families, which brings to Omni a strong work-ethic and desire to succeed.”
Newly hired refugees tend to have entry-level positions, and the hotel often pairs a new refugee with another employee who speaks the same language. Initial job training is designed to be accessible even for those who do not have strong English language skills. As an employee’s language skills improve, she has the opportunity to move into positions suited to her individual strengths and skills that “offer higher compensation and growth potential,” says Shifflette.
To some extent, economic growth relies on population growth and the related increase in labor. Refugees and immigrants contribute significantly to the American economy. According to the Economic Policy Institute, first-generation immigrants are 13 percent of the U.S. population, but comprise 16 percent of the labor force and 18 percent of small business owners. Refugees and immigrants also bring diverse skills that help businesses gain flexibility in a fast-changing global economy.
The benefits of working alongside refugees can also be more personal. “When one of our refugee employees becomes a U.S. citizen, it’s one of the proudest moments, and that feeling of pride and excitement spreads throughout the hotel,” says Shifflette. “Being born and raised in the U.S., it has made me realize what many of us take for granted.”
In 2017, renewable energy generated 18 percent of U.S. electricity, doubling its share from 2008. Here in Charlottesville, a growing cluster of companies is developing and building projects that draw power from the wind, sun, waves and more. And the bulk of those booming businesses, according to many in the industry, owe their existence today to a single key company that began just 18 years ago.
Starting with a greenlight
When the Berlin Wall fell, Sandy Reisky sensed opportunity. From Munich, where he worked in finance, “he rented a jackhammer, drove to Berlin, and took as many pieces as he could,” recounts Jonathan Baker, Reisky’s longtime friend and fellow UVA alum. “He fashioned them with a little stand and sold them to whomever he could. This was before eBay and before the web, so this took hustle!”
Apex Clean Energy’s Sandy Reisky started thinking green in 1989, when he sold parts of the Berlin Wall and donated the profits to clean up East German pollution. Photo: Jackson Smith
Even in 1989, Reisky was thinking green. He donated half his profits from selling parts of the wall to clean up East German pollution. In 2000, he followed up by starting his own company to develop wind energy projects.
When he decided to found Greenlight Energy, Reisky says, “Charlottesville seemed like the most logical place.” It was Reisky’s home, and here he found a supportive network of investors and a vibrant community of entrepreneurs and creative workers.
“To my knowledge, Greenlight Energy was the first renewable energy company in Charlottesville,” says Matthew Hanztmon, who served as its managing director. “Greenlight [showed] that a nationally competitive energy company could successfully grow and compete with a base in Charlottesville.”
Let a hundred powers bloom
BP bought Greenlight in 2006, but its core talent stayed here and kept starting businesses.
“Out of the Greenlight headwaters flowed Element Power, Apex [Clean Energy], HelioSage, Columbia Power, Axio Solar, Greenlight Biofuels, Hexagon Energy, and Lumin,” says Baker, who invested in Greenlight and served on its board of advisors.
After Greenlight, Reisky founded or co- founded Axio, for utility-scale solar, which he sold to SunEdison in 2011; Columbia, which develops technology to generate power from ocean waves; Greenlight Biofuels, acquired in 2015 by Valley Proteins; and Apex Clean Energy, founded in 2009.
Reisky is chairman and chief strategist at Apex, which builds wind and now solar projects nationwide, then sells them to utility companies, sells those projects’ generated power or operates the plants under contract to organizations such as the U.S. Army and IKEA.
Firefly and ReThreads owner Melissa Meece participates in C3’s Better Business Challenge, a year-long program that presents energy-smart ideas to local businesses in a friendly competition. Photo: Eze Amos
Power to the people
C3 sparks business opps through climate consciousness
As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
Back in 2012, the city of Charlottesville committed to a 10 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2035. It’s a commendable goal, but its success hinges on daily decisions by residents and businesses. To that end, in October 2017, Grey McLean founded Charlottesville Climate Collaborative. C3 seeks to educate and empower individuals, businesses, schools and other communities in Charlottesville and Albemarle County to make environment-protecting changes.
McLean envisioned Cville Renewable Energy Alliance, the trade association trying to put Charlottesville on the map as a hub of the renewable energy industry. But C3, he says, is a broader effort to meet local goals. That begins with giving people practical steps to take.
“When it comes to this issue, people say, ‘I know I should do it, I agree with it,’ but people are busy, and it takes time to research this and understand the economics,” McLean says. “We are trying to make it as easy as possible; to tell people, ‘Here are the top five things you can do. If you want to take action, here’s a resource for you to take action.’”
C3’s largest initiative is the Better Business Challenge, a year-long program that presents energy-smart ideas to local businesses and creates a good-natured competition among them as they implement money- and environment-saving actions. The Better Business Challenge was last held in 2014 by Teri Kent (founder of Better World Betty and now C3’s director of programs and communication). Local businesses switched to LED light bulbs, changed thermostat settings, evaluated water fixtures for leaks and took dozens of other practical steps. Seventy-eight businesses participated in 2014, and Kent hopes to see that number double in 2018. The competition is open to schools, nonprofits and congregations as well as businesses, and registration is ongoing. Participants compete for awards and enjoy connecting with one another socially; they also stand to see substantial savings.
“So often in the business community, where the conversation starts isn’t with the climate but with, ‘How can we help you improve the financial operations of your business?’” McLean says. “These changes make sense on their own. That’s where we meet businesses. Solar, LEDs and energy efficiency make sense in their own right. We provide help in these areas so that it becomes a no-brainer.”
C3 seeks to connect with individuals and families as well as organizations. Later this summer, it will launch its pilot model for the Home Energy Challenge, an initiative that connects neighbors, through house parties and an online platform, around the goal of reducing energy costs and environmental impact.
As C3 deepens its roots and extends its influence, it holds to an often-unsung priority: learning. C3 has met with environmental leaders, small business owners and faith leaders.
“Right now we are doing a lot of listening,” says Kent. “We are asking, ‘What issues are you already tackling? And if climate were to be a part of that, if you were to take action on climate, what would that look like? Where can climate fit into what you are already doing?’”—Joanna Breault
Meanwhile, Baker, along with Hantzmon and other Greenlight alumni, founded solar developer HelioSage in 2008. “Most of HelioSage’s early partners were from the Greenlight team,” he says. Panasonic-backed Coronal Energy bought HelioSage in 2015; today, Baker is Coronal’s chief talent officer.
Hantzmon, a Columbia co-founder and HelioSage COO, has now founded Hexagon Energy, which aims to develop green energy projects via multiple sustainable technologies.
Other local players include solar developer SunTribe; Lumin, whose “smart panel” helps homeowners and utilities monitor their energy use; and Fermata Energy, working to smooth out peaks in the electric grid with the power stored in parked electric cars.
In 2017, SunTribe Solar began installing more than 1,000 solar panels on three different buildings at St. Anne’s-Belfield School. Photo: Skycladap.com
Green shoots and gray clouds
“Energy-related businesses play a vital part in our economy,” says Jason Ness, the city’s business development manager. These companies offer well-paying jobs at multiple rungs of the economic and educational ladder, with career possibilities that help retain valuable employees, he says.
“We employ nearly 300 employees in the clean energy space,” says Charity Pennock, director of the Charlottesville Renewable Energy Alliance. “We’ve developed over $6.5 billion in clean energy projects. And those projects are providing power to the equivalent of 750,000 homes.”
But despite renewable energy’s growth in Charlottesville, the industry faces local and national obstacles.
Good credits
Four federal incentives make it easy to adopt solar power
Businesses that install solar power systems stand to see a substantial bump to their bottom lines over time. But the initial installation can be pricey. To mitigate this hurdle, both city and federal governments offer incentives.
The city of Charlottesville offers a credit on real estate tax bills for five years after installing solar. The credit is a portion of the total cost of certified solar energy equipment, facilities or devices that are attached to real estate within the city of Charlottesville. Claiming this credit involves arranging an inspection by the city’s building inspector and filing an application.
Thanks to a grant from the city of Charlottesville, LEAP (Local Energy Alliance Program) and the UVA Community Credit Union offer commercial property owners access to low-interest loans for energy efficiency or renewable energy projects. Rates are as low as 0 percent.
In addition, there are two federal programs that can benefit businesses considering environment-protecting measures. One is the Solar Investment Tax Credit, a 30 percent credit for solar systems on residential and commercial properties. This dollar-for-dollar reduction was extended in 2015, and the program is guaranteed to continue through 2021.
The other federal program that helps offset cost is the USDA Rural Energy for America Program. Charlottesville and Albemarle County businesses (as “rural small businesses”) may be eligible for a grant for up to 25 percent of the cost for purchasing, installing and constructing renewable energy systems.—Joanna Breault
Pennock says local businesses have to work hard to draw talent to a relatively smaller market than most energy hubs. Knowing that there are other companies here is a big plus in attracting employees, she says.
Beyond talent, Reisky notes tough competition for real estate. “Office space in downtown has run at over 95 percent occupancy and has only trended upward,” he says. Apex, currently spread across three buildings throughout the city, will soon consolidate in a newly built headquarters on Garrett Street.
“On the national level,” Reisky says, “wind and solar have been the dominant sources of new electricity for the past several years. A combination of low prices and extraordinary public demand for clean energy has driven this shift. While the trend lines are clear, we can’t be complacent.”
The Trump administration has slapped new tariffs on cheap foreign-made solar panels, and current federal wind and solar tax credits will likely expire in 2020. “The challenge over the next two to three years,” says Hantzmon, “is to navigate this change through a combination of innovative financing structures as well as increased efficiency in wind turbines and solar panels.”
Apex Clean Energy develops, constructs, and operates utility-scale renewable energy facilities, such as this wind farm. Photo: Courtesy Apex Clean Energy
Eyes on the future
Rich Allevi, SunTribe’s co-founder and director of operations, says these “artificial headwinds” pale compared to local obstacles.
Residents assume that the city’s progressive bent means it’s doing more to battle climate change than it actually is, Allevi says. “We know the desire is there, but our community needs to put pressure on the local government and challenge them to make a strong commitment towards carbon offset.”
The University of Virginia has set goals to cut emissions 25 percent from 2009 levels by 2025, says its sustainability director, Andrea Trimble. Photo: Eze Amos
In 2012, Charlottesville pledged to cut municipal carbon emissions 10 percent by 2020, and 10 percent community-wide by 2035, says Kristel Riddervold, the city’s environmental administrator. Despite sustainability initiatives such as solar installations on municipal buildings, the city won’t know its progress toward those goals until it completes a new greenhouse gas inventory in midsummer. By comparison, the University of Virginia set goals to cut emissions 25 percent from 2009 levels by 2025, says Andrea Trimble, UVA’s sustainability director. At the end of 2016, those cuts totaled 11.6 percent, despite a growing university. That same year, she says, “We launched UVA’s first sustainability plan, with 23 goals and specific actions.”
But last summer, the city joined the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, Riddervold says. “I know that there are a number of communities both within the commonwealth and across the country that have very recently set aggressive goals,” Riddervold says, “and that’s going to be a very good point of reference for us to use.”
Riddervold says local green energy companies are working with her office to shape more ambitious targets. In Charlottesville, city buildings contribute less than 3 percent of carbon emissions, she says. “So if we’re really going to be serious about community emissions or energy reduction, it’s going to take all the sectors to see what that means on their side. Having a robust [renewable energy] industry in Charlottesville is a big deal in that regard.”
When local green energy companies push Richmond for friendlier regulation, everyone wins, Riddervold says. “What makes it easier for them to do business in Virginia is going to make it easier for businesses, residents and nonprofits to access solar [power], for example.”
Home sweet home
The city could eventually gain even more private- sector partners in pursuing its climate goals. “I expect to see additional startups begin to appear,” Matthew Hantzmon says. “The same ingredients that drove the growth of Greenlight and Hexagon are also attractive to a new generation of companies.”
“The university helps attract tremendously talented individuals, and many people who attended UVA or one of Virginia’s other great colleges or universities want to stay here after graduation,” says Sandy Reisky. “Apex’s roots in Charlottesville have been absolutely vital to our growth.”
The city’s appeal motivated Rich Allevi to start SunTribe here in 2015. “Charlottesville is on track to become the renewable energy hub of the Southeast,” he says. “With a vibrant culture, access to the outdoors, and the family-oriented community, the choice was obvious.”
To the source
Here’s who’s shaping the local renewable energy surge
Apex Clean Energy is headquartered on Fourth Street, but works in more than 20 states. The company started in 2009 as a developer, builder and operator of clean energy projects—big solar and wind farms—that it often sells to local and regional utility companies. To date it’s installed 2,226 megawatts of clean power: enough, it says, to light up both Maine and Vermont. And Apex says it has 13,000 more megawatts in development. Three of its current projects are right here in Virginia—one, a solar project south of Lynchburg, will power 15,000 homes when it’s completed next year.
SunTribe Solar serves enterprise and government customers, installing and maintaining solar arrays on the ground, on roofs and atop carports. It’s a local company, focused on Virginia and Washington, D.C., with 60 megawatts of energy in development. One big client is the University of Virginia, for which SunTribe designed, engineered and constructed 140 kW of roof-mounted solar power. A smaller local project: Blenheim Vineyards’ 17 kW array on the roof of its tasting room. Entering its third year, SunTribe says it’s Virginia’s fastest-growing large-scale solar provider—to the tune of 408 percent growth year-over-year.
Fermata is bringing V2G technology to market—that’s vehicle-to-grid, meaning that electric vehicle batteries can actually provide storage capacity to the energy grid when the vehicles aren’t in use. Fermata was founded to serve commercial and municipal-government clients that have electric vehicle fleets, like the city of Danville, which since 2016 has operated three Nissan Leafs under Fermata’s demonstration project. CEO David Slutzky, a former Albemarle County supervisor, heads the company.
Sigora Solar is the local go-to for residential solar systems: Since its founding in 2011, Sigora has installed solar on 740 homes in Virginia, D.C. and Maryland. And it has bigger clients, too: In 2016, the city of Charlottesville hired Sigora to install 121 solar panels on the roof of the Smith Aquatic and Fitness Center. Its workforce of around 50 is, the company says, constantly expanding, and it plans to open offices in other states by the end of the year. Meanwhile, company founder Andy Bindea is now running a sister company, Sigora Haiti, which is leapfrogging the traditional electricity infrastructure in a country that’s never had reliable power. Sigora Haiti currently provides power to 10,000 people.
Columbia Power, founded in 2008, is a patent-holder on a system that captures energy from ocean waves. Its projects are still in the pilot phase, but the company foresees selling its system to utilities and the Department of Defense. A “wave farm,” the company says, can be similar to a wind farm in capacity—between 25 and 250 megawatts—but the devices can be installed more densely, thus requiring a smaller area. Two Columbia employees in Charlottesville complement a nine-person R&D headquarters in Oregon.
A Coronal Energy project in Troy, Virginia. Photo: Courtesy Coronal Energy
Coronal Energy offers design, financing, engineering and management of solar projects for customers including businesses, universities, utilities and government. Its Charlottesville location is one of five North American offices, and it has an exclusive partnership with Japanese tech giant Panasonic, which has been in the solar energy business since the 1970s (yeah, we didn’t know that either). It’s big: Coronal’s portfolio includes 2.3 gigawatts of solar energy in 40 states, including a trio of North Florida projects developed with the U.S. military that together generate enough power for 18,000 homes.
Founded less than two years ago, Lumin is a startup with a bright idea: a “Smart Panel” that can be installed between a home’s circuit breaker and its appliances, then synced with the homeowner’s phone to give detailed information about when and how the house uses juice. The device also makes it possible to, say, turn lights off remotely or use appliances when power’s the cheapest. With six employees and just three panels installed to date, the company is definitely in its infancy—but says it plans to have installed 100 Smart Panels by the end of June.
Altenergy has been creating solar solutions for both residential and commercial projects since 2005, when its founder, Paul Risberg, left his career at the New York Stock Exchange to apply his talents to solar energy. Now, 13 years later, Altenergy has offices in Virginia, Idaho, Washington, D.C., and Maryland, and boasts a list of awards in contracting and installing. One of its major initiatives, the Solarize Campaign, helps bundle costs for multiple families in a neighborhood looking to nab clean energy.—Erika Howsare
Cristine Nardi asks us to imagine Charlottesville without the nonprofit sector. No Paramount Theater or Discovery Museum on the Downtown Mall. No WNRN to listen to in the car. No Thomas Jefferson Foundation to open the doors of Monticello. No Jefferson School to preserve the legacy of the African-American community. No University of Virginia or UVA Health System.
“The nonprofits in our community reveal what we really care about and believe in in Charlottesville,” Nardi says. “They are the embodiment of our values. It is often said that more people volunteer than vote. It’s off-the-couch, into-the-community engagement. I would go so far as to say that the work that nonprofits do is one of the key factors in what makes us a unique community.”
Cristine Nardi, the executive director of the Center for Nonprofit Excellence, says the work of nonprofits is a key factor in what makes our community unique. Photo: Eze Amos
Nardi, the executive director of the Center for Nonprofit Excellence, is an inspiring advocate for the nonprofit sector, which she describes as “the third leg of the stool” of the economy. “You’ve got the private sector, the public sector and the nonprofit sector. The nonprofit sector does what the public sector can’t do and what the private sector won’t do, or what it isn’t really designed to do.”
What is a nonprofit?
According to the Center for Nonprofit Excellence’s “Starting a Nonprofit” toolkit:
“A nonprofit organization is one that exists for the public good, rather than to benefit individual owners. Any generated income or property owned by a nonprofit, whether profit or not, is used to support the mission of the organization.
Nonprofit organizations can be unincorporated associations, but in Virginia most take the legal form of non-stock corporations. As a non-stock corporation, the nonprofit is a separate entity from its members so it can own its own property and bank account and offer limited liability for its members. It is run by a board of directors and owned by the public, not by its founder(s).”
Nonprofits improve the quality of life for everyone in Charlottesville, from kids who learn to cook meals at the PB&J Fund to women who receive counseling at the Women’s Initiative to art-lovers who attend the Charlottesville Ballet. “It’s important to realize that we all have a role in the nonprofit sector here,” says Nardi. “We all benefit from the services nonprofits provide and many of us contribute to the work being done as volunteers, board members and financial supporters.”
But how do nonprofits fit into the business community? How do they contribute to the economic success of a city?
Nationally, the nonprofit sector contributed $878 billion to the economy in 2012, or about 5.4 percent of GDP. According to a study by Americans for the Arts, the nonprofit arts and culture industry alone generates $166.3 billion in economic activity every year: $63.8 billion in spending by organizations and an additional $102.5 billion in event-related spending by their audiences.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the nonprofit sector employs about 11.4 million people. That’s 10.2 percent of the American workforce. And most nonprofits, like most businesses, are small: 82.5 percent have annual revenue of under $1 million.
A study from the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies states that, “America’s nonprofit sector employs the third largest workforce of any of the 18 industries into which statistical authorities divide the American economy. What is more, it is adding employment at a rate that exceeds that of the country’s business sector. Yet, due to the way national economic data are kept, these facts are unknown to most policymakers—as well as to most leaders in the nonprofit sector itself.”
Behind the numbers
Many people assume that nonprofits are funded mostly by charitable giving. But fees for service account for almost half of nonprofit revenues. (In this sense, they are not unlike other kinds of businesses.) According to 2015 numbers from the National Council of Nonprofits, fees for service provide 47.5 percent of funding for nonprofits nationally, while government grants and contracts account for 32.5 percent, individual giving 7.8 percent, payouts from investments 4.8 percent, grants from foundations 3 percent, bequests 1.5 percent and grants from corporations 1 percent.
It’s difficult to measure the economic impact of the nonprofit sector in Charlottesville. There is economic activity itself, but there are also social benefits that have economic consequences. For example, an appointment at the Charlottesville Free Clinic prevents a costly visit to the ER. How do we qualify that very real but tricky to enumerate value?
The nonprofit sector’s contribution to employment in Charlottesville is enormous, due in large part to the university and the health system. According to a database compiled by the JHCCSS, nonprofits employ about 4,000 people in Albemarle and 3,900 in Charlottesville.
In 2011, the Arts & Economic Prosperity IV study found that the arts and culture industry in Charlottesville and Albemarle, which is largely but not exclusively nonprofit, generated $114.4 million in annual economic activity. As well, it resulted in $31.2 million in household income for local residents, $9.2 million in local and state government revenues and 1,921 equivalent full-time jobs.
To better understand the economic role of nonprofits, the Community Investment Collaborative provides a useful and concrete example of how an organization raises money and how that money benefits the economic life of the city. Founded six years ago, CIC helps under-resourced entrepreneurs start and grow small businesses by providing workshops, mentorship and microloans.
Aleen Carey. Photo: Sanjay Suchak
A seat at the table
We spoke with Aleen Carey, board chair of City Schoolyard Garden, to get an inside look at what it’s really like being on the board of a nonprofit.
What does a board chair at a nonprofit do?
There are different types of boards, some are more hands-on and others function more as governing bodies. When I joined CSG, we were a small volunteer organization and did not have a huge staff, so board members literally got our hands dirty to help keep the gardens and the organization growing.
As we’ve grown in scope and budget, we’ve added staff and our board has become more concentrated on governance. We focus on the strategy for CSG as a whole. The executive director manages the staff and the day-to-day execution of all of our programs and outreach. It’s a huge job! Board members fill in anywhere the staff needs our support to pull off events and engage with the students that we serve.
As the chair, I prepare an agenda for and lead our bi-monthly board meetings. I also sit on the executive committee with the chairs of our individual committees, which include philanthropy, governance and finance. I collaborate constantly with the executive director to ensure she has everything she needs to be effective.
I also volunteer my time with the kids in the garden. I am not a green thumb, but it’s fun to interact with the students. We work to offer the kids positive experiences growing their own food, learning about the land and becoming strong leaders, but when I spend time with them, I’m the one who learns.
Why do you do it?
When I retired from the classroom five years ago, a friend suggested I join the CSG board to maintain the positive relationships with students that had made my teaching career so fulfilling.
I’m so very proud of what this organization has done and what it means for our students and their families. Students learn about plants, agriculture and food, but they also gain valuable knowledge about themselves and their place in their community. I’ve helped first-graders plant peas each spring as the slaves did at Monticello. I’ve been led on intricate garden tours by fourth-graders who know every inch of plot they planted. I’ve observed, in absolute awe, as middle and high school students address the Charlottesville School Board. Those are just a few of the moments that have filled my heart over the years.
Thirty-five percent of CIC’s operating budget comes from individuals, 22 percent from local and regional foundations, 21 percent from corporate support from area banks and businesses, 16 percent from local and state government and 6 percent from earned revenue.
Since its founding, the CIC has worked with 278 entrepreneurs who developed 267 businesses, of which 155 were startups and 112 were existing businesses. These businesses have created 131 new full-time equivalent jobs, 120 of which still exist. CIC has made 42 microloans totaling approximately $380,000.
“CIC businesses have generated nearly $6.5 million in wages from new jobs created, a return of investment of $4.84 for every dollar CIC has spent,” says Executive Director Stephen Davis. “This is just the economic impact from wages. We conservatively estimate that new businesses have generated over $15 million in economic activity since CIC launched.”
Stephen Davis. Photo: Sanjay Suchak
Davis says that the impact of CIC goes beyond the hard numbers. “I would say our impact is in helping individuals build stronger businesses, and thus livelihoods for their families,” says Davis. “We have individuals from different educational, socioeconomic and racial backgrounds working together to pursue their dreams. While we hope their businesses are successful, the impact of these relationships from different parts of our community and region far outlast and outweigh anything we could measure.”
The Albemarle Housing Improvement Program is a nonprofit that delivers critical home services, from emergency repairs to major housing rehabilitations, to individuals and families in Charlottesville and Albemarle who don’t have the resources to do them on their own.
“In fiscal year 2017, AHIP reinvested $1,579,209 in local business through the purchase of goods and services,” says AHIP Executive Director Jennifer Jacobs. “Most of this, about 70 percent, were local supply houses and subcontractors. Most of the funds we raise go right back out into the community in the forms of goods and services that transform into home repairs for our neighbors.” AHIP has 30 employees, which includes three construction crews who in 2017 helped 266 people in 123 households.
Though nonprofits that provide social services often have a more difficult task in quantifying their economic contribution, their work often saves a significant amount of public money while helping build a more productive workforce, both now and in the future.
Piedmont CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) provides trained volunteers and professional staff who advocate for the best interests of abused and neglected children and youth. “Research shows that kids with CASA volunteers spend less time in foster care, which saves local, state and federal dollars,” says Piedmont CASA President Alicia Lenahan. “Research also shows that a meaningful relationship with at least one supportive adult can make the difference in the life of a victimized child. That can help break the cycle of abuse and neglect.”
The work of Piedmont CASA, says its president, Alicia Lenahan, helps save local, state and federal dollars by helping kids spend less time in foster care. Photo: Sanjay Suchak
Making connections
The CFA Institute, the global association of investment professionals that sets the standard for professional excellence and credentials, is a not-for-profit organization that started in Charlottesville 50 years ago as a two-person office in Monroe Hall. Now, it employs 600 people and has eight offices around the globe, though it is headquartered here in a former Martha Jefferson Hospital building. In 2016, the CFA Institute generated $261 million in the region.
The CFA Institute has launched strategic partnerships with local nonprofits including the Senior Center, Habitat for Humanity and Charlottesville High School, to help improve the financial health of the community. It also works with the Center for Nonprofit Excellence to promote financial best practices to help nonprofits grow and be more financially stable.
Tech Dynamism is a local technology consulting firm that often provides services for nonprofits. “Our company was founded to serve the communities we live in. Our work with nonprofits aligns with that mission,” says Dave Alley, manager of business development at Tech Dynamism. The company worked to develop the N2Work tool, which helps job seekers find employers and the resources they need to successfully find and maintain employment, with the Charlottesville Works Initiative and Piedmont Virginia Community College. “N2Work is a mobile-friendly platform enabling employers to create job postings and peers to guide job seekers through a dynamic assessment linking job seekers with resource providers,” says Alley. Helping people find, and keep, jobs helps the economy grow. “A rising tide does truly lift all boats,” says Alley.
In an article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Sean Stannard-Stockton argues that nonprofits diversify the economy in important ways. During the last recession, when private companies were cutting jobs, nonprofits actually increased employment. Nonprofit employment is often counter cyclical to the for-profit sector because when the economy is up, for-profit business is up, but when the economy is down, there is more unemployment and more community need to which nonprofits must respond.
Stannard-Stockton suggests that there is only one meaningful difference between for-profit businesses and nonprofits. “When a nonprofit operates, it creates financial value in a very similar way [to a for-profit company],” he writes. “It also employs people and acquires goods and services from other companies. This financial value adds to economic growth and advances standards of living in an identical manner to for-profit activity. The only significant difference is that nonprofits reinvest all of their financial surplus back into their organizations.” Whereas for-profit businesses give some of the surplus to owners or investors.
Nardi sees another difference. “It’s a difference of mission,” she says. “One is motivated primarily by profit and the other is motivated by social good.”
Making an impact
The exact number of nonprofits in Charlottesville is hard to pin down. The CNE has 257 members, but not every area nonprofit chooses to be a member. Some are big. Some are small. They serve different demographics and many kinds of needs. Their funding models vary, as do their economic impact. Here are 10 that reflect the diversity of nonprofits in our town.
On Our Own Charlottesville
What does it do?
On Our Own offers free peer support services and evidence-based therapeutic intervention for persons with mental health challenges and/or substance use disorders. “Our mission is to provide mutual support, self-help, advocacy, education, information and referral services,” says Executive Director Erin Tucker.
How about money?
Staff and volunteers see 30 to 50 people per day, six days a week. “Our services are free to our members, which is helpful so that folks can access mental health services quickly,” says Tucker.
Charlottesville Community Bikes
What does it do?
A nonprofit bicycle shop that works to promote environmentally sound transportation, recycle bicycles and make cycling accessible. Programs include open shop time—when people can fix their own bikes with help from experts—bicycle maintenance and repair classes, a kids’ bike rodeo and adult education.
How about money?
“Between adults and kids, we give away over 150 bikes per year,” says Executive Director Melissa Wender. The nonprofit relies on donations—sometimes money, other times used bikes and bike parts.
City of Promise
What does it do?
Serving Westhaven, 10th & Page and Starr Hill neighborhoods, City of Promise focuses on the potential of each individual it serves and works to provide support so that potential can be realized, despite obstacles.
How about money?
The organization serves 175 to 300 children and young people each year. “We rely upon individual donations and foundation grants to fund our programs, says Executive Director Denise Johnson. “Most of this support is local, but after August 12, City of Promise received donations from across the state and around the country.”
Wild Virginia
What does it do?
Works to empower citizens to take action to protect Virginia’s wild forests and waters. The George Washington National Forest is a source of water to both the James and Potomac rivers.
How about money?
278 volunteers and 503 members. “We fundraise by signing up paid members and are grateful for ongoing grant support,” says Executive Director Misty Boos. “Also, each spring we host the Wild and Scenic Film Festival, three nights of inspiring environmental films.”
African American Teaching Fellows
What does it do?
Committed to recruiting, supporting, developing and retaining African-American teachers in local schools, AATF currently has 14 teachers in schools in Charlottesville City and Albemarle County, and a total of 21 teachers statewide,” says Executive Director Tamara Dias.
How about money?
“Research indicates that it costs about $20,000 to hire a new teacher due to teacher turnover in public schools. The 21 educators that we have statewide correlate to a savings of more than $400,000,” says Dias.
The Emergency Food Network
What does it do?
Provides food for three days of balanced meals, once a month, to individuals and families in Charlottesville and Albemarle. “Each month, we supply food to 116 seniors, 732 adults and 681 children, on average,” says Office Manager Cari Brown.
How about money?
EFN is an all-volunteer organization, with no government or commercial support. This independence has allowed EFN to provide assistance with no questions asked other than place of residence—no income limitations, no work or reference requirements.
Charlottesville Free Clinic
What does it do?
Through a strong network of volunteer providers, the CFC provides physical, mental and oral health care to uninsured members of the community who would otherwise have no access to care.
How about money?
In 2017, the CFC saw 2,913 patients for 9,608 visits. The CFC used the skills of 673 volunteers to make this possible. More than $3 million in prescription medications were distributed at no cost to patients. The value of donated professional medical care is significant—close to $400,000 each year.
Allegheny Mountain Institute
What does it do?
Cultivate healthy communities through food and education. “The newly launched AMI Farm at Augusta Health is a joint venture of AMI and Augusta Health to raise awareness about the importance of healthy eating and sustainable growing practices,” says Executive Director Sue Erhardt.
How about money?
Supported by a variety of sources, including grants, foundation support, fundraisers and produce sales. “We offer most of our workshops and community classes at no charge,” says Erhardt. “AMI purchases from many suppliers in the region to buy garden supplies, compost, animal feeds, equipment and more.”
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Blue Ridge
What does it do?
Create and support positive, long-term mentoring relationships for youth facing adversity. Participants are between the ages of 6 and 18 and services are free. More than 70 percent of kids in the program say they have increased educational expectations, and a reduction in attitudes toward risky behavior such as smoking, drinking, and truancy.
What about money?
Each year, an average of 250 volunteers work one-on-one with a young person. “Each mentor commits to spending at least one hour a week, for a minimum of a year, with their Little,” says Executive Director Athena Gould. “That’s 91,250 hours of time invested in those that need us the most.”
Georgia’s Healing House
What does it do?
Provide a safe, therapeutic and structured home for women in the early stages of recovery from alcohol and drug addiction and mental health challenges. The 12-bed residence offers women support, accountability, mentoring and transitional services toward independent living. Since it opened in 2015, 79 women have been served.
How about money?
Many of the women served have been incarcerated or homeless. “The cost of residential substance abuse treatment typically averages between $400-500 per day,” says Heather Kellams, who does fundraising, community relations and programming. “The cost of being housed in the Albemarle County Regional Jail is $87.17 per day. Our cost is approximately $35 per day, which is cost effective for our community.”
Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention. At least, it was for Margaret Murray Bloom, who as a local event planner (and a woman tired of hauling around a purse all day) needed a solution to keep her hands free.
“I developed the idea from a true pain point,” Bloom says. “I never knew where to put my phone, wallet and keys. My pockets weren’t big enough for those items and purses never served me well.” So she came up with the Murray Belt, a crossbody belt with “stations” for all the essentials.
It looks a bit like something Wonder Woman or Rey in Star Wars might wear (that is to say, badass), with its thick strap and mobile, removable pouches. But why create a crossbody version? Where a waist belt fails, Bloom says, is in wearability: It doesn’t flatter most figures, has a tendency to pull your pants down and generally isn’t compatible with dresses. Plus, it isn’t particularly secure in a crowd.
“The Murray Belt solves a lot of these problems while giving quick and easy access to core items like your phone,” she says.
Bloom says the belts, which are currently being manufactured at a factory in New York City, are set for an official launch this summer, but she’s already looking toward the next iterations, with a range of textiles to suit different wearers.
“The outdoor collection will be breathable, the production collection will be durable, the utility collection will be water-resistant, the traveler collection will be lightweight, the luxury collection might include leather,” she says.
Late in the evening of Halloween 2008, the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakomoto published a white paper to an obscure email list. The paper described a new system of exchanging value, named “Bitcoin,” which wouldn’t require the involvement or intervention of a third party. At the time, the paper was largely ignored. But nearly 10 years later, Bitcoin is worth $150 billion, and a nascent ecosystem of cryptocurrencies and supporting applications has sprung up around it. What happened?
Modern currency fundamentally requires trust in central banks and governments. No one would accept dollars, euros or rubles in exchange for their labor unless they trusted they could spend that money on rent, groceries and gas. But for some people, the idea that a third party can indirectly control the value of their labor this way is irksome. At least for Nakomoto, that motivation seems to have been enough to invent an alternative.
But if currencies require trust, where does Bitcoin’s come from? The paper’s key innovation was to create trust with mathematics and data structures rather than institutional hegemony. Collectively these structures are called a blockchain, so named because transactions are organized into digitally signed groups called blocks, which are then linked together in ways that make it difficult to forge or alter the transactions in them.
In the decade since Bitcoin’s introduction, thousands of cryptocurrencies have been created—and most have languished—each with their own ideas about blockchains. Some have staying power and legitimacy, such as Bitcoin’s more sophisticated sibling, Ethereum. But countless others have proven to be nothing more than meretricious Ponzi schemes that bilked investors of billions.
In such a volatile and unregulated environment, how can one separate the wheat from the chaff? Several entrepreneurs in Charlottesville are coming up with their own answers to this question.
Ryan Adams. Photo: Andrew Shurtleff
Ryan Adams, a longtime technologist and Charlottesville business leader, and part-time blogger for Bitcoin Up Erfahrung, started Mythos Capital to research and explore the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Adams describes Mythos as a “crypto-asset investment company,” whose goal is to determine which visions of blockchain’s future will ultimately survive the test of time and invest in them.
Adams believes that “the playing field is simply too crowded” right now. Eventually, he thinks, “different cryptocurrencies may each take different roles for the distinct responsibilities of money,” in the same way that people use gold bars, credit cards and dollar bills differently.
Others in Charlottesville are coming up with novel ideas for how blockchains could be useful. Seth Baxter and Worth Becker, co-founders of consulting company Neuralux, are working on a new venture called EconomyX to explore how the transparency of blockchains could be used to help investors in private equity markets conduct due diligence. And Moonlighting, a freelance jobs marketplace headquartered in Charlottesville, is promoting its own Moonbit cryptocurrency as a way to help its freelancers get paid.
Blockchain has use potential far greater than just exchanging money; it can be used to preserve historical records, pay parking tickets, even vote. But blockchain technology comes with many trade-offs and regulatory challenges, and there’s a long way to go for any of these ideas to be usable at scale. At one point last year, if you wanted to buy a $5 slice of pizza using Bitcoin, you would pay $50 in transaction fees, wait about an hour for your transaction to clear and consume as much energy as your house uses in a week. That’s a very expensive inconvenience for a cryptocurrency that wants to supplant cash. It’s also a long time to wait for your pizza.
It’s difficult to predict where we’ll be in another 10 years, or if the current blockchain ideas will even be around. Perhaps, much like the internet, it will take many iterations on the core technologies before any of them can achieve ubiquity. But one thing is certain: Lots of people are paying very close attention.
John Feminella is the co-founder of analytics startup UpHex and an adviser at Pivotal. He lives in Charlottesville and enjoys solving difficult technology problems.
T-shirt printing company Custom Ink nets "a few hundred million in revenue," according to founder Marc Katz (below). Photo: Courtesy CustomInk
Custom Ink has been operating out of Charlottesville for nearly a decade, but the company has only recently put its name up for all to see.
The custom design and printing firm, which has shown staggering growth over the last 15 years, focuses on its online audience. Wherever you are in the country, if you want a bushel of unique printed T-shirts, CustomInk.com is your huckleberry.
The city in which Custom Ink’s first and largest production facility is located has always been of less importance.
Company co-founder and CEO Marc Katz launched Customink with several college buddies in Northern Virginia in 2000. The idea was to take the largely fragmented custom T-shirt business—serving clubs, social groups, sports teams, bachelorette parties, nerds, goofballs and hipsters—and give it a single home on the web. Inc. Magazine ranked Customink, little more than a web portal at the time, the 55th fastest growing U.S. business in November 2005.
During the next 12 years, the company, which became Custom Ink in 2017, has grown more than 100 times over in terms of employment. While the privately held business doesn’t divulge specific sales figures, Katz says it’s doing “a few hundred million in revenue and growing.” The Washington Business Journal pegged that estimate at $230 million in 2014 and $300 million the next financial year. Katz told the journal he thought Custom Ink could eventually be a billion-dollar company.
“We are a category leader, and yet we have single digit market share because it is such a large, fragmented business,” Katz says. “It’s competitive, but we think we add a lot more to the industry.”
Always focused on letting customers print T-shirts on hundreds of styles and colors with custom or house-designed graphics, Custom Ink also offers bespoke towels, hats, bumper stickers, holiday ornaments, drinkware and promotional products. Much of the swag is printed right here in C’ville.
Custom Ink launched its first production facility, where it does design, printing and more, in Charlottesville in 2011, around the same time it started opening brick-and-mortar stores throughout Virginia. The local plant opened with just 30 team members but expanded in 2014, tripling its floor space and seeing local employment spike to 185.
Then, earlier this year, Katz and his team christened their first storefront in Charlottesville, setting up shop at Barracks Road. Custom Ink today operates 16 stores nationwide—in Virginia, Texas and Nevada—and plans to open another Virginia location later this year. The brick-and-mortars, Katz says, offer a fun experience that might get lost on the web—customers can stroll into the design center and work directly with a Custom Ink team member. The C’ville location uniquely offers same-day digital printing.
Launching the Charlottesville store is a move intended to not only grow sales but also connect Custom Ink to the community, Katz says. For folks who might not have known the fastest growing T-shirt printer in the country was anchored in C’ville, it’s a shining light of its services.
“Sometimes, if I was out with friends or my wife, I wouldn’t have mentioned [Custom Ink],” says Collin Wilson, manager of the new Barracks Road store. “But now that we have a storefront, I’m a little more forthcoming. It’s actually a natural progression, moving from an online presence only to giving customers an opportunity to come in and touch and feel what we have to offer.”
Grafton Boone, a production manager at the Charlottesville printing plant, says Custom Ink has been laying the groundwork in C’ville for years. “When we first moved down, it was like, ‘Hey, this doesn’t feel like Custom Ink,’” he says. “Now we are a part of the community.”
Long before the shop next to SweetFrog on the north side of the Barracks Road Shopping Center, Custom Ink’s been joining local fundraising initiatives and working with community groups like the Greene County Little League.
Now, people with a belly full of froyo can stroll by and see what’s going on at the nationwide dot-com.
“Business has been great,” Wilson says. “It’s been a lot of fun opening the store, seeing the interest from the community that comes along with that.”
Katz agrees—he couldn’t be happier to see the Custom Ink storefront bringing more local recognition to his nationally-focused company. But, big picture, the Charlottesville presence is much more than just a sign on a shopping center marquee.
“There’s a lot of market potential still out there, and we are very much thinking about the future,” he says. “We want to keep the growth growing, and I would expect Charlottesville will be an important part of the picture on an ongoing basis.”
Spring is traditionally a time of year when the real estate market begins to heat up and people look to move homes. In the Charlottesville area, we have the benefit of a robust economy, stunning natural resources and excellent entertainment. But with our high quality of life comes our seemingly ever-increasing cost of housing.
According to the 2017 Nest Realty Annual Market Report, housing prices in the Charlottesville area have risen each of the last five years to a median value of $295,000 and an average price of $369,551 for 2017. That is compared to a median price of $275,000 and average of $341,534 for 2016. With costs rising across the area, could it actually make more sense to rent, rather than buy? Some argue that renting is tantamount to throwing money away. Others point out that renting a home and investing in other assets, such as stocks, is a more lucrative alternative, with greater liquidity and very little overhead requirements.
Ultimately, the answer to the question of whether to rent or buy a home depends on the needs and circumstances of an individual, or family, and several other complex factors: your level of current retirement savings, how long you intend to own or rent the home and the stability of your job and lifestyle. But, there are other important things to consider.
One oversight people make when deciding if they should rent or purchase a home is in understanding the structure of a mortgage payment. The biggest misunderstanding: Much of the overall interest on a mortgage is paid in the beginning of the contract.
Using the average Charlottesville-area sales price of $369,551, let’s look at the numbers. With a 10 percent down payment and a 4.5 percent annual interest rate for a 30-year loan, the mortgage would cost $1,685.21 per month. No shock there, but dig a little deeper to learn that, for nearly the first 10 years, over $1,000 per month is going directly to interest. For the first month one would pay $1,247.23 in interest and $437.98 in principal. After three years you would still be looking at $1,184.06 in interest and only $501.16 in principal payment. It then takes until November 2032 (more than a decade!) for the value of the equity payments to exceed the interest payments. Including taxes, insurance, closing costs and the other expenses associated with real estate (such as repairs and maintenance), these timelines greatly extend. All this is to say that the ideas of renting as a way of “throwing money away” and buying as “a way to build equity” are both drastic understatements.
David Posner is local investment executive specializing in utilizing socially responsible options for long-term financial goals.
Remember when there was so much talk about supporting the coal industry in West Virginia and it turned out that coal only employed about 12,000 people in a state with a population of 1.8 million? When we make decisions about our community, it’s important to know where we invest our labor force. The university, hospitals, schools and the public sector employ a lot of people in Charlottesville and nearby counties. A surprisingly large number of people work at grocery stores. Some of these big employers are national companies, but more than a few of them have their roots here.
