Remembering Ted Eliot
(Pictured: Ted Eliot and Jean Schulz at an event in August 2017) Last week we lost a remarkable community leader and dear friend, Ted Eliot. Ted served for nine years on the Community Foundation Sonoma County Board and then transitioned to serving on our Sonoma Valley...
Grants Spotlight: Early Childhood Development
As grantmakers, we aspire to do more together because we know that when we can leverage funding and make collective grants, we can create impact on a larger scale than would be possible by making grants alone. This principle is at the heart of a new grants program we...
Announcing: $700,000 grant to Sonoma Land Trust to protect critical open space land at Sonoma Developmental Center
We are so pleased to announce this wonderful news: Thanks to the vision of a family that cared deeply about the future of Sonoma County, the Sonoma Land Trust has received a $700,000 grant from Community Foundation Sonoma County and our regional affiliate the Sonoma...
HEALING SPOTLIGHT: Resilience Collaborative
Over the course of eight days this fall and winter, 115 community members from all walks of life—doctors, social workers, teachers, counselors, waiters, yoga instructors, chaplains—gathered to learn skills to help our community heal. Dr. Bo Greaves, who retired from...
HEALING SPOTLIGHT: Wildfire Mental Health Collaborative
Long after the chaos of a disaster is resolved, the ongoing effects become clear. Over the fall, nearly one year after the October 2017 fires, Sonoma County was in a critical stage of post-disaster recovery. This phase of the recovery process, when some people are...
HELPING SPOTLIGHT: Legal Aid
Over the past 15 months, Legal Aid of Sonoma County has been instrumental in helping thousands of fire survivors navigate the complex legal issues related to their recovery. They have done this work, thanks in part, to a grant from our Resilience Fund, which allowed...
HELPING SPOTLIGHT: Catholic Charities
Dreama Goldberg was seven months pregnant and just beginning to decorate her son’s nursery when the fires swept through Coffey Park, burning the rental home she shared with her husband Bobby, and his 7-year-old daughter Kamala. They had lived in their three-bedroom...
HELPING SPOTLIGHT: Bill Chaplin
When the fire swept through the Mark West Springs area of Santa Rosa on October 9 2017, Bill Chaplin was sleeping with his windows open. He woke up to his house, a place he had worked hard to keep, after years of homelessness, filling with smoke. “The entire horizon...
Here for the Long-Term
Our Resilience Fund 2018 Report It is hard to believe that more than a year has passed since the fires swept through Sonoma County on the night of October 8, 2017. In looking at the devastation: 5,130 homes and 24 lives lost, property damage...
Sonoma County Flood Update
We are closely following the flooding happening throughout the county, and want to share some updates with you about a number of nonprofits who are supporting the relief effort, or who themselves have been impacted. This is an evolving situation, as we learn more we will update this website. While the scope of the disaster remains unclear, we are seeing reports that over 2,000 buildings have been flooded in the Guerneville area. Many people in our community will be needing support to recover. The following is an initial list of organizations in the west county who have been impacted by the floods, or are responding to support flood victims. United Way of the Wine Country has launched a Flood Recovery and Wellness Fund. The purpose of the fund will be to support flood survivors to get back on their feet. All funds raised will be used to support flood relief through agency partners in the region. Flooding this week caused an estimated $155 million in damage. There is damage to an estimated 2,600 properties. About 1,900 homes were affected, with 1,760 sustaining major damage. In addition, an estimated 578 businesses were impacted, forcing many to consider whether to reopen. Lisa Carreño, […]
Announcing $1 million in Healing Grants for Fire-Related Trauma
Community Foundation Sonoma County is pleased to announce a $1 million investment in community-wide healing efforts through grants to mental-health focused projects. Listen to our CEO Elizabeth Brown announcing our healing grants on The Drive with Steve Jaxon: Long...
Nonprofit Spotlight: Community Child Care Council of Sonoma County
The night of October 8 changed thousands of lives in a near instant. For Cary and Josiah Rich, the fire meant the loss of not only their beloved apartment and all of their treasured keepsakes, but their home-based child care business as well. As Cary describes her...
Donor Spotlight: Brooke Clyde
Growing up in Santa Rosa, Brooke and his sister Lisa learned about philanthropy as young children. Their mother, Jeannie Schulz, is renowned for her support of local causes, especially for her commitment to the arts and environment. “Obviously my mom has been a major...
Sonoma County Vintners Foundation Donates $520,000 to Local Nonprofits
The Sonoma County Vintners Foundation is donating $520,000 in grants to more than 50 local nonprofit organizations that address the community’s critical needs. Grants were made through the Sonoma County Vintners Foundation community grants program, with funding from...
From Burnt Homes to New Foundations: How One Company is Giving Back to Fire Recovery
In the days after the October 2017 wildfires, emergency officials knew that the cleanup process would be a long haul. They also knew they needed to start working immediately to identify a partner that could immediately take in the hundreds of thousands of tons of...