Helping Nonprofits from a Foundation of Trust

When COVID-19 changed our world, it also changed how Healdsburg Forever, a regional affiliate of the Community Foundation Sonoma County, has raised and granted funds to nonprofits serving the Healdsburg and Geyserville area communities since 2003.

“When COVID hit, we had to pivot from the open, competitive grant application process we had always used,” says Dave Ring, who leads the Grants Committee with fellow board member Claire Burdett. “It was incumbent on us to figure out a grantmaking strategy and approach that would concentrate larger grants on the organizations that would have the maximum impact on the most vulnerable people in our community.”

Two fundamental shifts allowed the team to step up to these unprecedented community needs.