Racial Justice Grantmaking: Recommendations and Resources
Recently, we shared a letter from our CEO affirming our support for racial justice, and promising to continue the conversation as we work, as individuals and organizationally, to be better. With that in mind, we asked our team to share recommendations on how donors...
Supporting Racial Justice
As our nation grapples with channeling the sadness and outrage we feel over the killing of George Floyd and so many other black and brown lives taken too soon, our team has been connecting to share our grief, our frustration, and to focus our resolve for change. I am...
Redwood Alliance Conference Grounds: Providing Shelter for Sonoma County’s Unhoused Community
Story by Dani Burlison When shelter in place orders were implemented in California, Jim Blake had an idea that could prevent overcrowding—and prevent a potential increase of COVID-19 cases—at some Sonoma County shelters and addiction treatment facilities. Blake, the...
Sonoma Family Meal: Feeding Families, Supporting Restaurants
Story by Dani Burlison, Photos by Caitlin Childs During the 2017 North Bay fires, Heather Irwin came up with what she refers to as a “silly idea” to help feed displaced families. Irwin, a local reporter focusing on Sonoma County’s restaurants, started getting phone...
Meals on Wheels: helpings seniors with food and connection
Story by Dani Burlison For more than 50 years Sonoma County’s Council on Aging has provided valuable support to the region’s older adults. Of the many services they offer, the Meals on Wheels delivery program is an essential part of keeping one of our most vulnerable...
Emergency Grants Help Small Business Owners Stay Afloat Through COVID-19
Story by Dani Burlison, Photos by Erik Castro On the afternoon of April 22, New Jersey native Tom Singerline made his way through Dry Creek Valley on his way home to Santa Rosa. Singerline, who owns and operates Jersey Tom Wine Country Tours, was emotional as he...
CFSC’s Technical Guide for Nonprofits Using Zoom
Shelter in Place has radically changed the way we interact with one another, moving most if not all, of our interactivity with the outside world online rather than in-person. Adapting to this shift has been hard on many of us, forcing us to use tools we've never used...
Healdsburg Forever Makes $80,000 in Emergency Grants
Healdsburg Forever our a regional affiliate has recently made emergency grants totaling $80,000 to six nonprofit organizations providing essential safety net services—food, shelter, and health care—to the most vulnerable people in Healdsburg and Geyserville. The...
Adapting to Shelter in Place: The Living Room
Story by Dani Burlison, Photos by Erik Castro Since 1993 The Living Room has provided a safe place for unhoused women and their children to go during the day while overnight shelters are closed. In the early days, a mere handful of women dropped in, had a cup of...
Webinar Series for Nonprofit Organizations
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on local nonprofit organizations. Beyond our grantmaking work, Community Foundation Sonoma County offers educational resources for these nonprofits, which have been adapted for the current shelter in place orders. As...
Creating Homes Without Building
When Amy Appleton’s children became teenagers in 2011, she decided to spend some of her newfound spare time volunteering. Although she had a background in IT, she found herself working with the county’s unhoused population at the COTS (Committee on the Shelterless)...
Nonprofits and the CARES Act
Financial Resources for Nonprofits Community Foundation Sonoma County is responding to the current and continuing disaster with a commitment to helping to ensure our communities and their many wonderful nonprofit organizations remain resilient, sustainable and...
Affordable by Design
Sometimes called granny flats, in-law units, second units, casitas, or backyard cottages, Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) share several distinguishing features: they are 250 to 1,200 square feet and must have a kitchen or kitchenette, bathroom and sleeping area. ADUs...
Finding Common Ground for Housing
If you ask anyone in Sonoma County what the top issues are facing this community, there’s a very good chance that housing tops that list. Of course, this would probably be true of many cities in California—a high cost of housing—and not enough of it to go around—are...
Our COVID-19 Response: $805,000 in Emergency Grants to Support Sonoma County
Even with relatively few COVID-19 cases in Sonoma County so far, people are already suffering from the economic impacts of lost hours at work, and fears of a longer-term economic slowdown. Parents who have children in schools that are closing are struggling to find...