Tag Archives: philanthropy

Show Gun Safety – Modeling Safe Gun Use in TV and Film Brady | United Against Gun Violence

In the world of TV and cinema, being shot with a handgun often has the fallout of a stubbed toe […more…]

CADA and the Community: A Life-Changing Partnership Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse CADA

“I think our youngest client this year was 10 years old. Sadly, the age has been skewing lower. Three or […more…]

California Missions Foundation: Our Mission is Historic Preservation California Missions Foundation

The California Missions matter. Historic preservation keeps alive our history and it allows us to remember the stories and experiences […more…]

Providing Food, Shelter, and Clothing for the Most Vulnerable Catholic Charities

Until a person can eat, sleep, and have a roof over one’s head, their mental and physical energy is consumed […more…]

Providing Much Needed Help. Anytime. Anywhere. To Anyone in Need. Direct Relief

In November 2022, a tornado tore through Idabel, Oklahoma, demolishing dozens of buildings, including the Kiamichi Family Medical Center. It’s […more…]

Nature, Health, and Happiness in the Heart of Santa Barbara Elings Park

In every great city is a community park that serves as its beating heart. Elings Park in Santa Barbara has […more…]

Family Service Agency’s ‘Whole-Person’ Approach Provides Life-Sustaining Help Family Service Agency

Family Service Agency’s (FSA) work is the very stuff that powers a vibrant community from within and makes it whole. […more…]

Friends of VADA – Helping Students Achieve Their Highest Potential Friends of the Visual Arts and Design Academy (VADA)

Who are we? The Visual Arts and Design Academy (VADA) at Santa Barbara High School is a unique “school within […more…]

Hillside Provides Compassion, Community, and Care Hillside

Originally conceived in the late 1930s as a model residential facility for children with cerebral palsy, Hillside has evolved over […more…]

Inspiring a More Dignified and Humane World Holocaust Museum LA

On a recent morning at Holocaust Museum LA (HMLA), Betsy, a docent, was leading a tour group of 20 LA […more…]

Creating a Force for Ocean Health and Education Marine Watchdogs

On a cool September Sunday, a group of Marine Watchdog kayakers paddled into a sea cave on the rocky coastline […more…]

Your Neighborhood Eyes and Ears When Disaster Strikes M.E.R.R.A.G.

When a calamity befalls us, we are reassured that our First Responder protectors are on the job and doing their […more…]

Supporting High-Achieving, Low-Income Students the Santa Barbara Way Mission Scholars

Imagine a kid. He’s your son, and he has big plans. He wants to attend college and launch a startup. […more…]

National Disaster Search Dog Foundation Puts First Responder Boots – and Paws – on the Ground National Disaster Search Dog Foundation

In the wake of Maui’s tragic 2023 wildfires, relief organizations and the goodwill of the world at large poured into […more…]

One Goal: Prevent Cancer RUNX1 Research Program

Despite living with RUNX1 familial platelet disorder (RUNX1-FPD), Tim Babich lived a happy life with his wife, Monica. After the […more…]

Food is Medicine is Community Sweet Wheel Farms / S.B. Agriculture & Farm Education Foundation

The Community Farm is surely the jewel in the crown of communal self-reliance. Here we have a plot of food-producing […more…]

Keeping People and Their Pets Together Santa Barbara Humane

Santa Barbara Humane, founded in 1887, was one of the first animal welfare agencies in the country, opening nearly seven […more…]

SEE International Helps Save Sight Around the Globe SEE International

More than one billion people worldwide live with treatable vision loss due to a lack of quality eye care. While […more…]

A Community Philanthropic North Star

Jackie Carrera, President and CEO, Santa Barbara Foundation. (photo by Dean Zatkowsky) Santa Barbara Foundation’s latest report on the State of Nonprofits in Santa Barbara County, published in autumn of 2023, indicates that the total of such organizations has now soared past 2,000 – a significant number considering that the county’s total population is just a tad over 455,000. It might seem both difficult and daunting to navigate among nonprofits, given that there are multiple, often single-issue organizations, serving nearly every imaginable sector, all of which do important, impactful work.  That’s where the Santa Barbara Foundation (SBF) comes in, and [...more...]

Growing Up with Philanthropy

For Yvette Birch Giller, president and COO of Santa Barbara’s Mosher Foundation, philanthropy is a family affair. Working alongside both her father, Ed Birch, the Foundation’s chair and CEO, and her mother, Suzanne Birch, a trustee and education program specialist, Giller, after 13 years at Mosher, is preparing to take the reins from the man she calls her mentor, her role model, and her biggest cheerleader. Today, Giller finds herself at the nexus of the gradual sunsetting of Santa Barbara’s legendary philanthropic foundation trailblazers, and the dawn of a new generation of foundation leaders. And Giller has the benefit of [...more...]

Fulfilling Philanthropic Journeys

Tammy Johnson, Santa Barbara Foundation’s Vice President of Philanthropic Services since April of 2022, didn’t set out to work in philanthropy. The daughter of a 35-year Southern California Gas Company employee, Johnson grew up in La Puente in the San Gabriel Valley, attending the public school system through high school. It was there that a guidance counselor pointed her toward what she thought might be her career. “He encouraged me to think about journalism because I was a school leader always doing the announcements over the PA, and I was a pretty strong writer,” Johnson recalls. “But I was still [...more...]