Anna Hargrave
31, deputy director of The Community Foundation for Montgomery County
When Anna Hargrave attends board meetings for The Community Foundation of Montgomery County, she often finds herself sitting with parents of childhood playmates.
That’s because the 31-year-old with the big brown eyes and wide smile has lived in the county almost her entire life. A Springbrook High School graduate, she grew up in Silver Spring influenced by parents who were committed to serving their community. Her father, Thomas Hargrave, served as president of the YMCA of Metropolitan Washington, and her mother, Meredith Higgins, often brought her daughter along to serve breakfast to the homeless and volunteer for various causes.
These days, it’s Hargrave who’s serving her community as deputy director of The Community Foundation, working one-on-one with its more than 260 donors.
Hired as a donor services associate in 2006, Hargrave assumed her current role in late 2010. She focuses on uniting government agencies, businesses, philanthropists and nonprofits, and she makes sure that donors are giving in a way that’s fiscally smart and emotionally satisfying. For example, she might pair a dentist’s widow with an organization that provides free dental care for kids.
“What’s special about Anna is the way she takes her talent and her love for this community and uses it to engage philanthropists in conversations about why they should give where they live,” Executive Director Sally Rudney says. “Anna really pays attention to who donors are and what they’re about.”
Before joining the foundation, Hargrave worked with various social service organizations in the area, including the Jewish Social Service Agency in Silver Spring, and the Montgomery Youth Works program at MontgomeryWorks in Wheaton.
Hargrave, who lives in Silver Spring with her husband, Jimmy Hernandez, says she loves “learning what inspires people, and what pulls on their heartstrings.”
Amy Reinink’s work has appeared in The Washington Post, Entrepreneur and Women’s Running. She lives in Silver Spring.
