About Us
Since 1945 The Community Foundation for Monterey County has focused on improving the quality of life in Monterey County. With an initial focus on historic preservation and then environmental stewardship, the focus of the Foundation changed in 1981 to connecting community members, nonprofits and other partners to strengthen our region through philanthropy.
Today, we are the largest grantmaking foundation of any kind on California’s Central Coast with nearly 300 individual funds and over $127 million in assets as of the end of 2009. Together with our donors, we average more than $7 million in grants annually to more than 200 nonprofit organizations in the areas of community and social services, arts and culture, health, education, the environment, animal welfare, historic preservation and more.
There is no limit to what the Community Foundation can do. We have grown fast and tried to be agile in adapting to ever-changing community needs and new trends in charitable giving. Thanks to the thousands of donors who have come to trust the Foundation as a flexible, objective agent for community development, we are proud of our past and confident in our future.
Mission
We improve the quality of life in Monterey County by raising, managing, and distributing charitable funds to qualified organizations and by creating positive connections between donors and their interests.
Vision
The Community Foundation for Monterey County is:
- A model of civic leadership and caring to all donors and to the agencies and causes we support
- A living example of diversity, fairness, and inclusiveness
- A catalyst in encouraging charitable giving
- The recipient and partner of choice for anyone able to make significant charitable gifts
- An effective manager of a permanent and growing endowment
- A magnet for gifts of any size to support our established programs
- A leader in promoting practices that strengthen the governance and management of the agencies we serve
- Both wise and sensitive when allocating funds, with a focus on the underserved
Confirmed in Compliance with National