CFSCC Community Grants

The CFSCC Community Grants aim to inspire philanthropy by funding nonprofits in Santa Cruz County that address local needs. This year, $1.2 million will support initiatives focused on youth education, seniors, and human services. The grants prioritize unrestricted funding to ensure organizations can address pressing issues while promoting equity and inclusion. With a commitment to empowering diverse leaders, the foundation seeks to create lasting positive impacts across the community.

NOTE: We have a commitment to making multiple-year unrestricted awards to nonprofits addressing our priority funding areas. Because of that, we’ll only be inviting requests from organizations where we have funds available to fund them. If your nonprofit does not receive an invitation and has not applied for a recent Community Grant, but you feel your work lines up well with our top priorities, contact us.
Our Grantmaking Overview
Our Grantmaking is guided by a set of eight principles we apply in awarding funds. Our approach is to provide flexible funding to organizations addressing pressing local issues and creating lasting positive impact. We prefer making grants to support the general operations of nonprofits. We continue to work with leaders of color to make sure that our grant funds are addressing historic and current inequities.
This May we'll award $1.2 million through our Community Grants cycle. The majority of these funds are restricted to children and seniors and are focused on education, youth development, end-of-life care, historic preservation, and human services.
Our Priorities
Our Community Grants are made from endowed funds that have been given to the Foundation over four decades. This year, those funds will provide funding to support:

• 41% for Youth & Education
• 35% for Seniors, End-of-Life Care & Historic Preservation
• 9% for Health & Human Services
• 7% for Arts, Culture & History
• 3% for Environment
• 3% for LGBTQ+ specific causes
• 2% for Women & Girls initiatives