Women's Fund of Northern Santa Barbara County
The Women’s Fund of Northern Santa Barbara County responds to the community’s most urgent needs by making substantial gifts in Northern Santa Barbara County.
Members and supporters of the Fund translate their values into action to serve as a catalyst for change on behalf of women, children, and families. The Women’s Fund educates and inspires women to become leaders in philanthropy, emphasizing the power of collective giving and the rewarding personal experience that active philanthropy provides.
The group, with its "power of the purse" and familiar “W” logo, asks foundations, service clubs, and businesses, as well as its members, to underwrite its administrative costs in order to return all member dollars to the nonprofit community.
In addition to membership funds, the Roy and Ida Eagle Foundation, through Trustee Sonya Schroeder, has generously supported the Fund, as has the Orfalea Fund.
Women’s Fund Grants
Women's Fund members Magge Daane, Georgia Shore, and Lawnae Hunter.
From its beginnings as a giving circle of 16 local women in 2007, the Women’s Fund of Northern Santa Barbara County has grown to over 200 members, awarding a total of $529,500 to 26 nonprofits in North County in just five years.
The Women’s Fund is pleased to announce the following 2012 awards:
- Community Partners in Caring: $10,000 for volunteer expenses, especially mileage reimbursement, for door-to-door transportation to low income seniors living in Santa Maria, Lompoc, and Santa Ynez Valley.
- Child Abuse Listening Mediation (C.A.L.M.): $20,000 for its Great Beginnings Program that focuses on prevention and early intervention through home visitation and center-based services to the parents with infants or young children through age five who are at risk for poor mental health outcomes and/ or abuse in the Santa Maria, Lompoc, Guadalupe, New Cuyama, and Santa Ynez Valley.
- Alzheimer’s Association: $20,000 for its Santa Maria Family Service Program designed to train and support caregivers of patients with Alzheimer’s in Santa Maria, Guadalupe, and Lompoc to deal with the stress and the overwhelming workload.
- Planned Parenthood: $10,000 for two core community education programs which focus on the prevention of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV/AIDS prevention in Santa Maria.
- VTC Enterprise: $10,000 capital grant for its Sensory Integration Program to purchase specialized equipment to enhance sensory integration for adults who have deficiencies in this area, causing distress and confusion, making them act out.
- Valley Haven: $10,000 capital grant to bring a bathroom to code and wheelchair accessible as part of licensing requirements to move into a renovated building, providing these Lompoc seniors extended hours and an additional day in a safe environment.
Previous Grant Recipients