Sonoma County Resilience Fund Overview
Sonoma County has seen unbelievable hardship, and through it all, we continue to build tremendous resilience. Through wildfires, floods, and a global pandemic, the community has come together time and time again to face incredible odds. In addition, we acknowledge that climate change will continue to cause disasters and extreme weather in our community far into the future, so our investments today must be impactful for decades to come. These funds were raised through the incredible generosity of thousands of donors in Sonoma County and beyond, including support from these key early donors and organizations.
The Sonoma County Resilience Fund is the only long-term recovery fund in Sonoma County dedicated to supporting residents impacted by disaster. Since the 2017 wildfires, we have made more than $19 million in grants to support nonprofit organizations working on the front lines of disaster recovery.
These grants are focused on helping those affected, healing the long-term effects of trauma, housing solutions for our community, and preparedness for the next disaster. With the knowledge that the impacts of disaster are long-term but that resources often dry up within the first year, the Resilience Fund was established to support medium- and long-term community resilience.
Through 2026, CFSC will continue to invest in these areas of impact with an updated approach for each strategy:
- Preparedness: Strengthening systems-level preparedness efforts for those most vulnerable to the impacts of disaster and extreme weather.
- Housing: Supporting solutions that increase the affordable housing supply and decrease housing instability at a community level.
- Healing: Addressing the persistent effects of mental health crises induced by disaster-related trauma
- Helping: Providing support for relief and recovery work at household and community levels in the wake of future disasters and/or extreme weather.
Equitable Resilience Approach
While we all feel the effects of disaster, marginalized and low-income communities are disproportionately impacted by the crises as they tend to have fewer financial and social resources to adapt and recover. These populations are not inherently vulnerable but experience greater and longer-lasting effects due to past and current systemic marginalization and exclusion.
Locally, The Portrait of Sonoma reports that “Undocumented workers in the county have been hit particularly hard by wildfires and the pandemic, as many work in industries that have disproportionately been impacted by both. Fires, smoke, and heat waves have decimated the county’s vineyards for multiple years in a row, drying up a crucial source of income for many immigrant workers.” Undocumented workers’ ineligibility for federal recovery funds commonly available to disaster survivors has also compounded the suffering caused by wildfires and other disasters.
During Covid-19, ‘essential workers’, most of whom were low-wage workers, were exempted from stay-at-home orders, making them more at risk of exposure to the virus. In November 2020, The Press Democrat reported that “Latino residents represent a large portion of working-class individuals and families. Low-wage workers are more likely to lose pay or their jobs if they stay home sick. They are more likely to live in multigenerational households or crowded roommate situations because of the county’s housing shortage and pricey market — and are therefore less able to isolate away if they are exposed.” In addition, language barriers and/or past experiences with government make it difficult for some to seek and obtain government services. During the heart of the pandemic, Latinos made up 72% of the cases for which race and ethnicity information was available, while representing only 27% of Sonoma County’s population.
Our grantmaking strategies are informed by social and climate justice, which are orientations that take a systems perspective, focusing on root causes and historical systems of oppression. Climate justice also recognizes that the communities hit hardest by climate change are generating innovative and transformative solutions that come from their lived reality and traditional knowledge.
CFSC seeks to lift the voices and perspectives of communities who experience the greatest impacts of disaster and who have been systematically excluded from decision-making by investing whenever possible in approaches that are driven by these communities. We recognize the potential challenges embedded in an approach that seeks to support initiatives that are both system-changing and community-driven, especially given that the voices of the community are often left out of large systems-level decisions, but we are prepared to hold this balance and bring the two ideals together whenever possible.
By 2026, CFSC will have fully distributed the remainder of the current balance in the Resilience Fund. CFSC will also develop and advance a proposal for the next phase of the Resilience Fund, which will be structured around available resources as well as community input into current local needs.
Grants Made to Date
And Counting (Updated December 2024)
| Organization | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Petaluma People Services Center | to support legal arbitration costs for mobile home residents |
| Ceres Community Project | to support the Women's Leadership Collaborative |
| Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County | to support Sonoma County community organizations in developing emergency plans |
| Legal Aid of Sonoma County | to support the Disaster Law Project |
| Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County | to support COAD (Community Organizations Active in Disasters) Winter Storm Response |
| Nuestra Comunidad | to support the Resilience Hub |
| Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County | to support Sonoma County community organizations in developing emergency plans |
| Tides Center | to support Generation Housing |
| Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County | to support current and future disaster response activities |
| SHARE Sonoma County | to support the underserved and unhoused in Sonoma County |
| Community Partners | to support the HIVE |
| Feathervine | to support a regional resilience convening |
| Raizes Collective | to support the Promotora Cooperative |
| Becoming Independent | to support mental health programming |
| Humanidad Therapy & Education Services | to support staff health and wellness |
| La Luz Center | to support staff health and wellness |
| Corazon Healdsburg | to support staff health and wellness |
| La Familia Sana | to support staff health and wellness |
| Nuestra Comunidad | to support staff health and wellness |
| Latino Service Providers | to support staff health and wellness |
| River to Coast Children's Services | to support staff health and wellness |
| Raizes Collective | to support staff health and wellness |
| Sonoma Ecology Center | to provide general operating funds for Sonoma Valley Collaborative |
| California Indian Museum & Cultural Center | to support staff health and wellness |
| University of California, Berkeley School of Law | to support the follow-up events and finalization of the recommendations on the Sonoma County Ag Pass |
| Santa Rosa Junior College Foundation | to support the SRJC Fire Tower capital project |
Criteria
Projects funded by the Resilience Fund will meet the following criteria:
- Focus on equitable solutions and prioritize communities facing the most acute impacts of disaster, extreme weather, and/or Covid-19
- Engage in partnerships and build cohesion among stakeholders for collective impact
- Encourage change on a systemic level
- Foster both short- and long-term impact
- Strengthen community-driven initiatives whenever possible
How To Apply
This grant program is open by invitation on a rolling basis throughout the year. If you have a program or project that strongly fits the Resilience Fund grant program criteria, please contact José Castro Gambino at jcastro@sonomacf.org.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Sonoma County Resilience Fund?
The Sonoma County Resilience Fund is a long-term disaster recovery fund for our community.
The Resilience Fund was first established in October 2017 to address the mid to long-term needs of Sonoma County to recover and rebuild from the devastating fires that struck our community. Since the 2017 firestorm, our community has faced back-to-back disasters, flooding and the Kincade wildfire in 2019, and the impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic and the LNU Lightning Complex wildfires in 2020.
The fund continues to be a source of long-term aid for Sonoma County throughout these latest disasters, supporting our community’s recovery by making grants to nonprofit organizations that are helping individuals impacted by disaster, healing the long-term effects of trauma, creating housing solutions for our community, and improving emergency preparedness.
Does the Foundation provide financial resources to individuals? Can I apply to the Resilience Fund?
Community Foundation Sonoma County provides Resilience Fund grants to federally-designated 501(c)3 charitable organizations; we are unable to provide grants directly to individuals.
For immediate information on resources, dial 2-1-1 or visit 211sonoma.org for county-wide resources.
Individuals impacted by disaster are also encouraged to contact the following agencies:
Catholic Charities of Santa Rosa
- Phone: (707) 528-8712
- Address: 987 Airway Court in Santa Rosa
Community Action Partnership – CAP Sonoma
- Phone: 707-544-6911 | email: DRHA@capsonoma.org
- Address: 141 Stony Circle, Suite 210, Santa Rosa
How was the Resilience Fund created?
Community Foundation Sonoma County established a fund to receive donations for disaster recovery on the second day of the wildfires in Sonoma County. As of March 20202, over 7,500 donations have been received totaling over $22 million dollars. We have made over $15 million in grants to support the community’s long-term recovery so far.
The Resilience Fund is unique because funding focuses on the medium- to long-term recovery and rebuilding efforts. When a disaster strikes, on average 73% goes to immediate relief, leaving significantly less for recovery and rebuilding, a process that can take up to 10 years. Long after attention has shifted away from Sonoma County, the Resilience Fund will provide support that addresses our community’s most pressing needs.
What impact is the Foundation expecting to make with the Resilience Fund?
The Resilience Fund was established to support the most vulnerable people in our community; individuals and families who were struggling to make ends meet before disaster struck, and who now have greater challenges to living a healthy, safe, stable life in Sonoma County. The purpose of the Resilience Fund is to ensure that financially vulnerable people impacted by disaster are able to heal, rebuild, and thrive. Our long-term vision for the Resilience Fund is everyone in Sonoma County is thriving and stronger than ever.
The Foundation works toward that vision by focusing grant funds in several core areas: Helping individuals impacted by the fires, Healing the long-term impacts of trauma, creating Housing solutions for our community, and improving Sonoma County’s emergency preparedness.
View our recent grants here.
In addition to grant funding, the Foundation is engaged in a number of community leadership activities to advance the goals and vision of the Resilience Fund and to foster connections between the nonprofit organizations that respond to disaster.
How did the Foundation decided to focus on (1) Helping individuals impacted by the fires, (2) Healing the long-term impacts of trauma, and (3) Housing solutions for our community?
The Resilience Fund is the only long-term disaster recovery fund in Sonoma County. To identify where our support is needed most now and into the future, our grantmaking team engaged in a comprehensive community needs assessment, including meetings with hundreds of local nonprofit leaders, surveys to over 450 nonprofit organizations across Sonoma and Napa counties, and interviews with foundations in New Orleans, Houston, San Diego, and other areas impacted by disasters.
Read more on our Reports page.
What is the Foundation's grantmaking process?
The grantmaking process is proactive and by invitation only. Foundation staff consult with local leaders, practitioners, and experts in the field to better understand issues and opportunities to address those issues. When an organization is identified as a potential fit with the Foundation’s goals, the organization is invited to submit a grant application. Program staff assess the alignment of the organization’s project with the goals of the Resilience Fund, the organization’s capacity to effectively implement the project, and the likelihood the project will making a lasting impact in the community well beyond the grant term among other things. A committee that includes representative from nonprofit, business, nonprofit and philanthropic sectors review grant requests and the Board of Directors makes final funding decisions.
Can people still make donations to the Resilience Fund?
Yes! Foundation staff are actively engaged in raising additional funds to support the long-term recovery and rebuilding process. You can quickly and easily support the nonprofit Resilience Fund in the following ways:
- Donate online to the Sonoma County Resilience Fund.
- Mail a check to Community Foundation Sonoma County, 120 Stony Point Rd., Suite 220, Santa Rosa, CA 95401. Please indicate “Sonoma County Resilience Fund” in the memo line.
- Transfer stock or securities; contact a Philanthropic Advisor to begin the process.
To learn about more ways to give, contact us.
If you have questions about applying to the Resilience Fund grant program, please contact:
