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The District of Columbia was created in 1790 on a site selected by George Washington along the banks of the Potomac River. The new capital of the United States incorporated parts of Maryland and Virginia, including the existing towns of Alexandria and Georgetown. Pierre L’Enfant, a 36-year-old French architect and urban planner, created an ambitious plan that included wide boulevards and monumental public spaces.

Washington’s evolution into a major city took much longer than its promoters had hoped. At the start of the Civil War, the city’s population was just 75,000, and its cultural and social amenities paled in comparison to those of major U.S. cities. Those conditions began to change with the growth of the federal government during the Civil War and continued through two World Wars and the New Deal. Later, the expansion of other industries, especially technology and telecommunications, fueled additional growth.

A Region of Diversity
Washington has always been a diverse city that offered community and opportunity for newcomers. Prior to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, Washington’s African American community was perhaps the most dynamic in the nation, with the area around U Street, NW, a vibrant center for arts and entertainment. Many of the city’s neighborhoods and businesses that were devastated by the riots that followed the assassination of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 are in the midst of a renaissance – often sparked by community-based nonprofits.

The Lincoln Memorial (JasonHawkes.com)

With nearly six million residents, Greater Washington (including Baltimore) is now the nation’s fourth largest metropolitan area, with a diverse economy, low unemployment, and world-class cultural institutions. The region’s continued growth and cultural richness is spurred in part by ongoing immigration: Washington is the seventh largest gateway city for new immigrants, with one of every six residents in the region foreign-born. Nearly half arrived in the last decade.

A Nonprofit Capital
Washington figures prominently in the history of philanthropy and the nonprofit sector in the United States. Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic university in the U.S., was founded in 1789. After a bequest from a British scientist, the Smithsonian Institution was created in 1846. Howard University, one of the oldest and most prominent historically black universities, opened in 1867. Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross in Washington in 1881, and Alexander Graham Bell founded the National Geographic Society in 1888.

Today, Greater Washington boasts one of the largest concentrations of nonprofit organizations in the country, accounting for more than 11 percent of total employment in the region (compared to a national average of 8.2 percent). The region’s locally-focused nonprofit sector — more than 4,000 organizations strong — has grown rapidly in recent decades, and includes some remarkable success stories. To learn about some of these organizations, visit www.touchdc.org.

Rowhouses on Capitol Hill (Washington, DC Convention & Tourism Corporation)

The list of prominent nonprofit organizations founded in Washington illustrates one of the tensions inherent in the region and its nonprofit sector. Washington is two cities -- a national capital whose monuments and museums draw millions of tourists each year and whose nonprofit institutions are national in scope, and a diverse and rapidly growing region of neighborhoods, playgrounds, schools, places of worship, and community organizations that is home to millions of people.

Like most communities, Greater Washington is a region of stark contrasts: growing affluence alongside persistent poverty, a lack of affordable housing amidst a housing construction boom that is bringing new vitality to the city’s downtown, and concerns over access to healthcare and education. The region’s governments, businesses, grantmakers, and community-based organizations are working together to address these needs.

Millions of Americans and most people who attend the 2005 Independent Sector Annual Conference have visited the monumental city Pierre L’Enfant designed on the banks of the Potomac. Also get to know the other Washington, DC -- a city of revitalized neighborhoods rich in architecture, history, and local flavor. Behind its monumental façade, the region offers lessons from the past and present alongside glimpses of the future.

Thanks to Richard Moyers, program officer at the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation and member of the 25th Anniversary Conference Host Committee, for writing this article