His Dream is Still Alive
By Giving List Staff   |   January 2, 2021

As a young person in 1963, E. onja Brown got on a bus at W. 138th in Harlem bound for […more…]

Women, a Smart Investment
By Giving List Staff   |   January 2, 2021

Women’s Economic Ventures (WEV) was founded in 1991 when women earned 56 cents for every dollar earned by a man. […more…]

Uniting the Boys & Girls Club
By Giving List Staff   |   January 2, 2021

During 2020, when so many of us were hunkering down as COVID-19 turned our lives upside down, two Santa Barbara […more…]

Empowered Leaders
By Giving List Staff   |   January 2, 2021

Nonprofit leaders make it their personal mission to serve others, and in doing so, too often lose sight of themselves. […more…]

Girls Take the Lead
By Giving List Staff   |   January 2, 2021

By her sophomore year of high school, Sarahi Larios Cruz had already experienced family disruption, racism and systemic inequity, but […more…]

Creating a Community of Heroic Youth
By Giving List Staff   |   January 2, 2021

In April of 1999, two high school seniors walked onto the campus of Columbine High School in Colorado with semi-automatic […more…]

Learning, Naturally
By Giving List Staff   |   January 2, 2021

Vanessa Scarlett, the science specialist at Montecito Union School, bubbles with excitement at the plans for a 2.5-acre parcel of […more…]

Santa Barbara’s Recipe for Academic Success
By Giving List Staff   |   January 2, 2021

The Santa Barbara Education Foundation is not your normal nonprofit supporting students. Rather it is like an educational Robin Hood, […more…]

The Promise of Higher Education
By Giving List Staff   |   January 2, 2021

The goal was audacious: provide every recent high school graduate in the south coast area of Santa Barbara with two […more…]

Black Youth Give Back to Santa Barbara
By Giving List Staff   |   January 2, 2021

Guy R. Walker is President and Founder of Wealth Management Strategies, a boutique financial advisory firm based in Santa Ynez, […more…]

We Are Family
By Giving List Staff   |   January 2, 2021

In the 1960s, the Perry Preschool in Ypsilanti, Michigan laid the groundwork for our understanding of the value of early […more…]

A Garden of Delights
By Giving List Staff   |   January 2, 2021

Bounded by the Pacific to the west and the Sierra Nevada to the east, California is home to over 6,500 […more…]

Bold Climate Action
By Giving List Staff   |   January 2, 2021

The double blow of the Thomas Fire and ensuing debris flow in 2018 left no doubt about the increasing threats […more…]

A Botanical Nirvana
By Giving List Staff   |   January 2, 2021

In Montecito, a land of spectacular architecture and pristine gardens, there lies a property like no other: Lotusland.  Set across […more…]

Pragmatic Environmentalism
By Giving List Staff   |   January 2, 2021

In 2011,long before Covid-19 forever changed how we think of nonprofit fundraising events, Santa Barbara-based Heal the Ocean held an […more…]

Much More than Lights and Sirens
By Giving List Staff   |   January 2, 2021

Firefighters do a lot more than fight fires.  On any given day, Montecito Fire’s 33 active duty firefighters wake up […more…]

A Child’s Voice
By Giving List Staff   |   January 2, 2021

America’s child welfare court system is imbued with incredible power. Judges routinely make decisions that indelibly alter the course of […more…]

Guiding Survivors Out of the Woods
By Giving List Staff   |   January 2, 2021

On the second day of her freshman year of college, Aspen Matis was raped.  When “mediation” with her attacker failed, […more…]

Fighting Hate for Good
By Giving List Staff   |   January 2, 2021

Dan Meisel was made for his current job running the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Santa Barbara-based Tri-Counties regional office.  Raised in […more…]

A Global Challenge
By Giving List Staff   |   January 1, 2021

It has always been important to recognize that injustice and discrimination occurs in the United States and not only in […more…]

A Class of Musicians Like None Before
By Giving List Staff   |   January 1, 2021

In 2017, the Music Academy of the West and its uniquely capable leader, Scott Reed, were the subject of a […more…]

We’ve Got This, Santa Barbara
By Giving List Staff   |   January 1, 2021

Celesta M. Billeci, UCSB Arts & Lectures’ Miller McCune Executive Director, is on her 12th Zoom call of the day. […more…]

Ignite Learning
By Giving List Staff   |   January 1, 2021

In 2017, Santa Barbara welcomed a new, exciting and wholly unique museum to its ranks: MOXI, The Wolf Museum of […more…]

The Arts, Back in Full
By Giving List Staff   |   January 1, 2021

Finally, after a five-year, $50-million capital campaign to renovate the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, in the spring of 2021 […more…]

How Beautiful Death Can Be
By Giving List Staff   |   January 1, 2021

While in her late 20s – some 17 years ago – Paloma Espino witnessed death for the first time.  She […more…]

Angels at the Wheel
By Giving List Staff   |   January 1, 2021

Slight and sinewy, Al Falcone clocks into his job as a driver with Easy Lift at 4:30 am. Over the […more…]