We’ve been working to keep our donors informed about ways to support those affected by the conflict in Ukraine. We want to thank all of you who have donated to organizations working in Eastern Europe. Together, our fund holders have contributed nearly $225,000 towards humanitarian relief efforts—a truly incredible display of generosity. If you are interested in giving to these efforts, you can find our Ukraine giving guide online here.
Today, we’re turning towards Sonoma County, where growing economic uncertainty is stretching local nonprofits to their limits. They’re working hard to help an influx of new clients who need support physically, mentally, and financially.
The sharp rise in the cost of living has led to financial stress among low-income families struggling to make ends meet. Many of our neighbors are experiencing food insecurity and lack the resources to pay the soaring gas costs necessary for transit to work while still covering the growing costs of rent, utility bills, medical fees, and other urgent financial needs.
To help address this crisis, our Community Impact Team recently granted over one million dollars to 50 local nonprofit organizations dedicated to supporting our local community. These grants, made through our Julia L Grant Fund for Basic Human Needs and our Sonoma County Resilience Fund, are helping to address critical shortfalls in our community’s support network.
We’re proud that our grants are helping these organizations do more good in the community, but many of these organizations need more resources. Below is a list of giving opportunities for organizations working to provide immediate relief for those struggling through difficult times. If you are interested in recommending a grant to these or any other nonprofit, we are here to help.
To make a grant through your donor-advised fund at Community Foundation Sonoma County, please access these Giving Opportunities through our Giving Center or reach out to your Philanthropic Advisor for assistance. If you would like to contribute to our Basic Human Needs fund, we can also help.
Alternative Family Services
Alternative Family Services (AFS) supports vulnerable children and families in need of stability, safety, and wellbeing by providing thoughtful, informed foster care, adoption, and mental health services in Sonoma County and Northern California. AFS works to liberate children and families from neglect, trauma, abuse, and violence.
Grants made to AFS will help provide food, critical supplies, and rent assistance to Sonoma County foster families and youth.
➡ Click here to give through your DAF
➡ or Give directly
California Indian Museum & Cultural Center (CIMCC)
CIMCC is led and staffed by local Native peoples and has long-standing relationships and trust with Native communities in Sonoma County. In 2018, after the North Bay fires, they began providing aid and other recovery programs for Native peoples, forming a long-term recovery center, and continuing this work throughout the pandemic.
Today, CIMCC is developing a resilience hub to serve Native peoples at their facility in Santa Rosa and is partnering with Bay Area nonprofit The Cultural Conservancy (TCC) to distribute fresh produce bags from TCC’s Native farms to vulnerable Native elders and families. They also offer rental and utility assistance to Native community members most in need. Grants made to CIMCC will help sustain their resilience hub.
➡ Click here to give through your DAF
➡ or Give directly
Child Parent Institute (CPI)
CPI is working to end child abuse and strengthen the health of children, parents, and families in Sonoma County, offering trauma-informed programs ranging from parent education to child and family counseling and diaper and rental assistance. Because of the worsening economic crisis, more families are seeking support than ever before. Through their Basic Needs and Diaper Project programs, CPI assists with food, gas, diapers, rent, utilities, and clothing, helping hundreds of families with critical financial support and free diapers.
Grants to CPI will support their Family Resource Assistance team to meet these critical needs.
➡ Click here to give through your DAF
➡ or Give directly
Committee On The Shelterless (COTS)
COTS is a leader in the fight to solve homelessness in Sonoma County—with programs ranging from temporary shelter to longer-term affordable housing, financial assistance, food service, and other holistic case management services.
Grants made to COTS will help provide direct relief to clients in the form of rental assistance, transportation to and from job interviews, moving expenses, and meals through their Mary’s Table program.
➡ Click here to give through your DAF
➡ or Give directly
Disability Services and Legal Center
The Disability Services and Legal Center has been Sonoma County’s primary resource for adults, children, veterans, and seniors with disabilities and their families since 1976. DSLC is one of California’s 28 centers for Independent Living that promotes independent living philosophy through education, community partnerships, and advocacy.
Grants to DSLC will support their Basic Needs Program—helping low-income clients in need of financial assistance to secure housing. Additional funds will provide grocery gift cards, assisting individuals and families in settling into housing safely.
➡ Click here to give through your DAF
➡ or Give directly
Food For All – Comida Para Todos
An entirely volunteer effort that sprung from the Covid-19 pandemic, Food for All continues to help hundreds of families in the Sonoma Valley access critically needed food and hygiene supplies. The organization is guided by diverse community members who wanted to support families who could not drive to food distribution sites during the onset of the pandemic. Today they offer food deliveries to families, elders, and the sick. Through partnerships with local farmers and donations, they provide culturally relevant food items and hygiene products twice a month to families.
Grants to this organization will support food distributions in the Sonoma Valley, including Stay at Home Boxes delivered to families who need to isolate because of Covid.
➡ Click here to give through your DAF
➡ or Give directly
Latino Service Providers
Latino Service Providers is a bridge across generations for the Latinx community focusing on health, culture, and social issues. Their Youth Promotor Internship seeks to address the mental health, emergency preparedness, civic engagement, and environmental education inequities in Sonoma County’s Latinx community through paid internships to bilingual and bicultural students ages 16-25.
These internships are part time, but between school and the internship, these youth are unable to take on additional jobs, creating financial hardships for themselves and/or families. Funding is currently needed to provide their interns with stipends to help support their economic needs, including rental assistance, access to healthy meals, and school materials.
➡ Click here to give through your DAF
➡Give directly
Nuestra Comunidad
Nuestra Comunidad is helping Sonoma County residents prepare for emergencies and major disasters, focusing on assisting bilingual and monolingual Spanish-speaking families with emergency preparedness resources.
Due to rising inflation and an increasing need for financial assistance, Nuestra Comunidad’s Essential Needs Program disperses gift cards to community members in need. For families struggling to make ends meet, extraordinary housing costs often leave no room for people to budget for emergency preparedness. Nuestra Comunidad’s Essential Needs Program helps families purchase groceries, stock up on emergency supplies, and cover utility bills.
➡ Click here to give through your DAF
➡Give directly
Operation Access
Operation Access believes that everyone deserves quality healthcare, which is why they offer outpatient surgical procedures and diagnostic services free of charge. Their team of volunteer doctors, nurses, and other medical staff donate their time, knowledge, and experience in general surgery, gastroenterology, gynecology, orthopedics, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, and urology.
In Sonoma County, Operation Access connects local health clinics with patients needing specialty medical services. Grants to this organization will help provide surgeries and specialty medical procedures to uninsured people in Sonoma County.
➡ Click here to give through your DAF
➡ or Give directly
Reach for Home
Reach for Home is dedicated to ending homelessness in Northern Sonoma County. Since 1980, Reach for Home has transformed lives by helping those struggling with or at risk of losing housing to find permanent housing. Their clients face challenges with housing affordability and availability, alcohol and substance use, psychiatric and mental health conditions, and physical disability or chronic health problems. They incorporate case management and wraparound services into their housing programs to address these complex needs.
A grant to Reach for Home helps homeless families return to permanent housing and self-sufficiency.
➡ Click here to give through your DAF
➡ or Give directly
SHARE Sonoma County
SHARE Sonoma County is helping solve Sonoma County’s housing crisis by using existing housing to create immediate, affordable, permanent housing through its highly successful home matching program. SHARE’s Home Matching Specialists connect people in need of affordable housing with seniors (over 60) who have vacant rooms, junior dwelling units, and cottages they could rent out for a modest fee or in exchange for care or home services.
Their unique wraparound program offers support beyond the initial match, tracking each active client as part of their Stepping Stones program, helping to alleviate problems that might surface, and keeping clients successfully housed for the long term.
➡ Click here to give through your DAF
➡ or Give directly
Verity
Verity’s commitment to our community is to eliminate all forms of violence with a specific emphasis on sexual violence. Many survivors of sexual assault require access to emergency shelter; unfortunately, immediate access to shelters isn’t always an option. Verity’s Basic Needs Assistance Fund aims to change this. With the Fund, Verity can cover the costs of an emergency stay in a hotel room for a survivor and accompanying children, can cover relocation costs to reunite a trafficked youth with a supportive network outside of Sonoma County, or help cover urgent rental costs for a survivor who is unable to return to work quickly. In all cases, a Verity caseworker assists survivors in securing more permanent housing.
Grants to Verity will ensure that children, youth, and families who seek safety from or are recovering from sexual violence of any sort can meet their basic necessities.
➡ Click here to give through your DAF
➡ or Give directly
