This Giving Tuesday, the Santa Barbara Independent is encouraging our readers to participate in Giving Tuesday by highlighting area nonprofits and their great work. Below, you will find a sliver of the nonprofits doing good work in the Santa Barbara community.
We encourage our readers, if able, to contribute this season to a nonprofit listed below or your favorite nonprofit.
Alzheimer’s Association, California Central Coast Chapter
The Alzheimer’s Association leads the way to end Alzheimer’s and all other dementia – by accelerating global research, driving risk reduction and early detection, and maximizing quality care and support. The California Central Coast Chapter serves San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties.
Apples to Zucchini Cooking School
On school campuses, in parks, and in our own teaching kitchen and garden, our Chef Educators teach students of all ages and backgrounds how to prepare delicious, nutritious, and affordable plant-forward meals with the goal of building a healthier, more resilient community. Please join us!
Cancer Foundation of Santa Barbara
The mission of the Cancer Foundation of Santa Barbara is to ensure superior cancer care for all citizens of Santa Barbara County regardless of means. The Cancer Foundation is the leading fundraising and grant making institution in Santa Barbara County dedicated to cancer care and the largest contributor to Sansum Clinic and Ridley-Tree Cancer Center, the leading provider of outpatient cancer care on the central coast.
CommUnify
CommUnify provides education and supportive services for low-income Santa Barbara County residents. We are committed to alleviating poverty in our county. Our 17 programs empower our clients to attain financial stability and enable them to become healthy, educated, self-sufficient members of our community so they may retain their dignity.
Community Environmental Council
CEC advances rapid and equitable solutions to the climate crisis. We build on-the-ground momentum to reverse the threat of climate change. We transform the systems that fuel it. We safeguard the community from its impacts. And every day, we move people to create a more resilient Central Coast.
Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse
Since 1949, the Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse has provided compassionate care to youth, adults, and families in recovery from substance abuse, and helped prevent this disease by providing behavioral health counseling, education, mentoring, and youth development activities.
Direct Relief
Direct Relief is a humanitarian aid organization, active in all 50 states and more than 80 countries, with a mission to improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergencies — without regard to politics, religion, or ability to pay.
Domestic Violence Solutions for Santa Barbara County
We provide safety, shelter, and support for individuals and families affected by domestic violence and collaborate with community partners to raise awareness regarding the cause, prevalence, and impact.
Explore Ecology
Explore Ecology educates and empowers the next generation of environmental stewards. We connect children to the natural world by bringing outdoor experiences to local schools. 30,000 students learn and grow with us in school gardens and on field trips to the Watershed Resource Center and Art From Scrap each year.
Gateway Educational Services
We believe in creating equity through education. Our goal is to improve academic success for students falling below their grade level. We focus on reading and math intervention with a 1 to 1 service model. Gateway has served students since 2009 in Santa Barbara County.
Grassini Family Vineyards
Each year, the Grassini family selects a local non-profit partner for the Grassini Gives Back holiday charity event. In addition to producing award-winning wine, giving back to the community is incredibly important to the Grassini family, making this annual fundraiser a true highlight of the year for the whole community.
Immigrant Hope Santa Barbara
Our mission is to empower our community by educating adults, providing support in finding a possible pathway to legal residency, and sharing the hope of the gospel.
Jodi House
Jodi House empowers brain injury survivors to not merely survive but thrive. By providing survivors and caregivers with the resources and support they need, Jodi House ensures that no one in our community has to face brain injury alone, regardless of the ability to pay for services.
League of Women Voters of Santa Barbara
“We envision a democracy where every person has the desire, the right, the knowledge, and the confidence to participate.” Always nonpartisan, we educate and advocate on the climate emergency, voting rights, housing, homelessness, redistricting, criminal justice reform, and more. Our all-volunteer nonprofit league is dedicated to “making democracy work.”
Legal Aid Foundation of Santa Barbara County
Legal Aid Foundation of Santa Barbara County is a non-profit law firm that provides free legal assistance to Santa Barbara County residents. Our mission is to provide high-quality civil legal services to low-income and other vulnerable residents in order to ensure equal access to justice. We change lives through direct representation, legal advice and information, and community education.
Los Padres ForestWatch
Los Padres ForestWatch protects wildlife, wilderness, water, and sustainable access throughout the Los Padres National Forest and the Carrizo Plain National Monument. We achieve this through education, advocacy, and, when necessary, legal action for the benefit of our communities, climate, and future generations.
Mickey Flacks Journalism Fund
To promote social justice and protect the environment, SBCAN — in partnership with the Santa Barbara Independent — support research and reporting on environmental and social justice issues. Your tax-deductible donations to the SBCAN Mickey Flacks Journalism Fund will help ensure that these issues will continue to be researched and reported on in the Santa Barbara region.
New Beginnings
Our mission is to provide quality, affordable counseling, shelter, case management, and education that strengthen our community and provide our clients with the ability to lead healthy and productive lives.
New House Santa Barbara
New House dedicates itself to providing a clean, sober, and healthy environment that allows men with alcohol and other drug problems to begin their journey of recovery and to reclaim their dignity, self-esteem, and sense of purpose.
Planned Parenthood California Central Coast
To improve our communities’ sexual and reproductive health outcomes through health care, education, and advocacy.
plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-california-central-coast
Rancho Palomino Santa Barbara
We provide educational experiences led by Indigenous cultural artists. Activities for all ages preserving community access to farming, through ranching trades including horsemanship, native culture, and archery.
Santa Barbara Agriculture and Farm Education Foundation
To educate, promote and increase awareness on how our food is grown, propagated and distributed to minors, underserved, unrecognized and fragile Santa Barbara populations. To donate our Sweet Wheel Summerland Farm’s food to those in need supporting individuals and other charitable organizations with natural and organically farmed products.
Santa Barbara Historical Museum
Our mission is to inspire meaningful connections to Santa Barbara history.
Santa Barbara Meals on Wheels, Inc.
Santa Barbara Meals on Wheels is dedicated to delivering affordable, freshly prepared meals 365 days a year to elderly and home-bound residents of our community, providing both nutrition and personal interaction in support of their effort to live independently, with dignity, as long as they are able.
SB ACT
The Santa Barbara Alliance for Community Transformation (SB ACT) exists to equip the community to lovingly engage the marginalized while actively working for the betterment of their physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental needs.
SBHS Computer Science Academy
The CS Academy’s mission is to introduce as many SBHS students as possible to computer science and demonstrate its relevance to their academic and career interests. Through innovative courses, extracurricular activities, and industry partnerships, this Career Technical Education (CTE) program prepares students to pursue a career in this dynamic field.
Santa Barbara International Orchid Show
SBIOS has presented 75 years of Orchid Shows, promoting beauty, art, culture, and conservation of the world’s most exotic flower in three-day extravaganzas each March with regional, national and international exhibitors and vendors. The survival of S.B. County’s beloved icon – the U.S.’s largest orchid show – depends on your donation today!
ShelterBox USA
To provide families with life-saving shelter and the essential tools and supplies that will enable them to rebuild their homes and transform their lives after disaster.
TV Santa Barbara
The Mission of TV Santa Barbara, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is to empower people to make media that matters.
Unite to Light
Unite to Light believes that access to clean and affordable light and energy are critical to improving health, education, and prosperity. They focus on projects that help children study at night, equip midwives with tools to save lives, and offer relief to those suffering from disasters and experiencing homelessness.
Wildling Museum of Art and Nature
The Wildling’s mission is to inspire our community and visitors to enjoy, value, and conserve wildlife and natural areas through art. We provide artistic, educational, and field experiences of nature for that purpose.
Wood Glen Hall
It is the mission of Wood Glen to operate a nonprofit retirement residence that provides affordable quality care and support services to ensure that California’s central coast seniors may live their later years with security and dignity and as independently as they are able.
Worldhealer, Inc.
Worldhealer believes community based practices promote sustainable systemic and behavioral change. Every individual in this world can improve their quality of life, realize their dreams, and pave the way for future generations.