Relief. Recover. Rebuild. by Dan Baldwin, President/CEO Community Foundation for Monterey County This guest commentary was originallly published in the Monterey Herald on March 30, 2023 The past three weeks have been a nightmare for the people of Pajaro. Awakened after midnight on March 11 and told to evacuate, they were offered shelter in evacuation centers in North Monterey County...
Inspired to give by his late wife, Elke, Gordon Schacher started The Elke Junger Making A Difference Fund on the concept of making a difference, one individual at a time. “One day, Elke came home and said, ‘I’ve just been at Target, and a man outside asked me for money. Instead, I asked him what he needed. He said a...
Trusted local foundations have already granted a combined $1.8 million for storm and flood relief and recovery since January Aptos & Monterey, CA – The Community Foundation for Monterey County (CFMC) and Community Foundation Santa Cruz County (CFSCC) each activated funds to support storm and flood relief efforts when the first winter storms hit in early January. Both the Monterey...
The Southern Monterey County Foundation (SMCF) granted $23,815 in its most recent round of grantmaking to 14 organizations serving King City and points south. The SMCF is an affiliate fund of the Community Foundation for Monterey County that has granted $192,000 since 2014 to projects and programs benefiting Southern Monterey County communities. An advisory board of local community members provides...
“Giving adds another dimension to our life. We want to give people hope and opportunity that they wouldn’t otherwise have.”– Steve and Marti Diamond Steve and Marti Diamond both started from humble beginnings. At age 15, Steve was awarded an academic scholarship to Tulane University in New Orleans. He earned a B.S. in theoretical mathematics and an M.D. followed by...
The Community Foundation for Monterey County (CFMC) created the Monterey County Storm Relief Fund on January 10 to assist communities impacted by the 2023 winter storms. The fund is a trusted repository for donations and 100% of gifts to cfmco.org/StormRelief are used for grantmaking to support storm relief and recovery throughout Monterey County. More than $2 Million Granted from Storm...
CFCV Grants $15,000 for Storm Relief – Adds to $22,500 Granted in 2022 The Community Fund for Carmel Valley (CFCV), an affiliate fund of the Community Foundation for Monterey County, is a way for residents to strengthen their communities. Last year, the fund granted $22,500 to eight local nonprofits to support a variety of programs, from youth camps to home...
By Dan Baldwin, Community Foundation for Monterey County President/CEO Noise. That seems to be the dominant feature of our daily lives in recent months. Noisy tweets. Noisy talking heads. Noisy battles in the media. Noise over standing and kneeling. People arguing over what constitutes patriotism, even while hundreds of thousands of DACA students who want desperately to be part of...
By Dan Baldwin, Community Foundation for Monterey County President & Chief Executive Officer I’ve spent the last couple of weeks trying to wrap my mind around the events in Charlottesville, and the aftermath, which is ongoing. Normally, this space is reserved for addressing topics of direct relevance to our work at the CFMC, so the question becomes how marchers in...
By Dan Baldwin, Community Foundation for Monterey County President & Chief Executive Officer We think of housing as an inalienable right. We get up. Work. Go home to a house or apartment we might own or rent. Whatever we can afford. For many folks in Monterey County, it’s not that simple. The unfortunate reality in many parts of California, and certainly...
By Dan Baldwin, Community Foundation for Monterey County President/CEO There’s talk of doing away with the Johnson Amendment, a law that prohibits nonprofits, including churches, from endorsing political candidates. Divides Church and State, Clamps Partisan Endorsements In place since 1954, the Johnson Amendment has created a bright line in the separation of church and state. Ministers, and other religious leaders, are not...
By Dan Baldwin, Community Foundation for Monterey County President/CEO Presidential elections typically answer more questions than they ask. However, the 2016 election seems to have put a lot of the country in a wait-and-see holding pattern on just about every aspect of governance as we’ve come to know it. Health care. Foreign policy. Immigration. The environment. The economy. As...
Monterey County Giving by Dan Baldwin, President/CEO Community Foundation for Monterey County Year-end always seems to prompt thinking about what was accomplished over the past 12 months. Our lives run at such warp speeds, that we move from one item to the next to the next, and so on. Every now and then we just need to take a breath and...
Dan Baldwin, President & CEO, Community Foundation for Monterey County (photo by Bradley Zeve, Monterey County Weekly) Disasters don’t create character; they reveal it. The Soberanes Fire has made clear that the residents of Monterey County are resilient and caring. Certainly, one of the reasons we choose to live here is our wonderful outdoors, including the rugged and beautiful landscape of...
Inspired to give by his late wife, Elke, Gordon Schacher started The Elke Junger Making A Difference Fund on the concept of making a difference, one individual at a time. “One day, Elke came home and said, ‘I’ve just been at Target, and a man outside asked me for money. Instead, I asked him what he needed. He said a...
Trusted local foundations have already granted a combined $1.8 million for storm and flood relief and recovery since January Aptos & Monterey, CA – The Community Foundation for Monterey County (CFMC) and Community Foundation Santa Cruz County (CFSCC) each activated funds to support storm and flood relief efforts when the first winter storms hit in early January. Both the Monterey...
The Southern Monterey County Foundation (SMCF) granted $23,815 in its most recent round of grantmaking to 14 organizations serving King City and points south. The SMCF is an affiliate fund of the Community Foundation for Monterey County that has granted $192,000 since 2014 to projects and programs benefiting Southern Monterey County communities. An advisory board of local community members provides...
“Giving adds another dimension to our life. We want to give people hope and opportunity that they wouldn’t otherwise have.”– Steve and Marti Diamond Steve and Marti Diamond both started from humble beginnings. At age 15, Steve was awarded an academic scholarship to Tulane University in New Orleans. He earned a B.S. in theoretical mathematics and an M.D. followed by...
The Community Foundation for Monterey County (CFMC) created the Monterey County Storm Relief Fund on January 10 to assist communities impacted by the 2023 winter storms. The fund is a trusted repository for donations and 100% of gifts to cfmco.org/StormRelief are used for grantmaking to support storm relief and recovery throughout Monterey County. More than $2 Million Granted from Storm...
CFCV Grants $15,000 for Storm Relief – Adds to $22,500 Granted in 2022 The Community Fund for Carmel Valley (CFCV), an affiliate fund of the Community Foundation for Monterey County, is a way for residents to strengthen their communities. Last year, the fund granted $22,500 to eight local nonprofits to support a variety of programs, from youth camps to home...
The Community Foundation for Monterey County (CFMC) created the Monterey County Storm Relief Fund on January 10 to assist communities impacted by the 2023 winter storms. The fund is a trusted repository for donations directed specifically for storm relief and recovery throughout Monterey County and 100% of donations to cfmco.org/StormRelief will be used for grantmaking. This winter’s storms have caused...