By Kaci Patterson

Kaci Patterson is founder and chief architect of Social Good Solutions and of the Black Equity Collective.

When the pandemic upended daily life across California, it wasn’t state agencies or five-year strategic plans that kept many neighborhoods afloat. It was community organizations — often underfunded and overextended — that mobilized within days to fill gaps that official systems couldn’t.

The numbers tell part of the story. Food distribution through members of the California Association of Food Banks jumped 74% between 2019 and 2020, and direct distribution more than doubled as pantries scrambled to convert their operations into drive-thru and walk-up services almost overnight.

But the real measure of that response shows up in the details. In Ventura County, the Mixteco Indígena Community Organizing Project turned to Radio Indígena, a station already trusted by local farmworkers, to share COVID safety guidance in Indigenous languages that official channels had overlooked. In Fresno, groups such as Centro Binacional took complicated clinical vaccine information and translated it into terms everyday residents could actually use.

In South Los Angeles, the Black Barbershop Health Outreach Program — which had already spent more than ten years building trust with Black-owned barbershops to screen men for chronic illness — shifted almost immediately after the shutdown began to start distributing masks and hand sanitizer to seniors.

No funder drafted a strategic plan for any of that. It happened because people who knew their communities best stepped up, the way they typically do when crisis hits.

Yet that pattern points to a deeper problem. For decades, government agencies and philanthropic funders have poured money into short-term services rather than into the organizations that deliver them. Grants tend to be restrictive, project-specific and rarely cover what it actually costs an organization to operate.

The consequences of that underinvestment are now impossible to ignore. Nationally, 95% of nonprofit leaders say staff burnout is a serious concern, and nearly a quarter report losing more employees than usual over the past year, according to the Center for Effective Philanthropy. In California, a survey by the National Council of Nonprofits found that four out of five organizations are struggling with job vacancies, with tight budgets cited as the biggest obstacle to filling them.

This is what happens when community-based work is treated as an emergency measure instead of essential infrastructure — something to call on only when disaster strikes, rather than something worth building up beforehand. Lasting change requires steady funding and real decision-making power for the communities doing the work, not another temporary relief fund or a grant that expires after 12 months.

The very same organizations that ran vaccine clinics and emergency food distribution during the pandemic are the ones running after-school programs and caring for seniors year-round. Yet they continue to be viewed as short-term partners rather than a permanent part of the region’s safety net.

While the pandemic may feel like a distant memory to some, new strains are emerging, and the inequities are becoming harder to overlook — including much closer to home. When the Eaton Fire swept through Altadena in January 2025, evacuation notices for the historically Black community of West Altadena reportedly went out hours later than warnings issued elsewhere in the area. The California Department of Justice is now investigating whether race, age or disability played a role in that delayed response.

Adding to these challenges are federal funding cuts and a broader retreat from giving tied to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives — cuts that are hitting organizations serving Black, Indigenous, immigrant and other historically under-resourced communities especially hard.

As California heads toward its next gubernatorial election, this issue is largely absent from the political conversation. Candidates are focused on affordability and public safety, but few are asking whether the state is prepared to fund community organizations as genuine infrastructure, rather than treating them as outside vendors delivering services on the state’s behalf.

Government and philanthropic institutions should be providing sustained, flexible funding that allows these organizations to build capacity before the next crisis arrives — with the communities they serve given a real voice in how those resources are spent.

The next governor will have to decide whether California is finally ready to treat community care as a cornerstone of public health, or whether the state will keep relying on overstretched service providers to hold things together — and mistake that survival for resilience.

Original source: CalMatters

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Since its launch in 2022, the CIELO Fund’s total investment through research, grantmaking, narrative change initiatives and scholarship programs sits at $1.4 million. That accounts for nearly 100 grant awards to organizations in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

“As families across Riverside and San Bernardino continue to face rising costs for essentials like housing, food, childcare, eldercare and education, the CIELO Fund’s grantmaking this year is intentionally focused on supporting organizations that are directly addressing these pressing community needs,” said Jesse Melgar, founder and chair of the CIELO Fund and board chair of IECF.

“Our commitment remains unchanged,” he said. “It’s to build a future where equity and opportunity are not the exception, but the expectation for everyone who calls our region home.”

In an effort to better understand the challenges facing the region, including its Latino residents, the CIELO Fund has commissioned several reports from leading California universities. Last year, the fund partnered with the UC Berkeley Possibility Lab and Institute of Governmental Studies to run a poll on the community’s ability to access essentials.

The results were illuminating, showing that nearly 80% of Latino voters report difficulty finding affordable housing, while some 70% expressed difficulty finding healthy, affordable food. Meanwhile, 65% and 63% reported difficulty finding affordable eldercare and child care, respectively.

Finding good jobs figured prominently, coming in at 61%.

Overall, the findings guided the Leadership and Grantmaking Committees grant decisions this year.

Michelle Decker, IECF president and CEO, said the organization is incredibly proud of the impact the CIELO Fund has achieved in such a short time.

“Through thoughtful grantmaking and deep partnerships, the fund is helping to uplift and empower Latino-led and Latino-serving organizations across our region,” she said. “We look forward to building on this momentum and continuing to support our communities that need us most.”

The 2025 grantmaking included unique media partnerships to elevate positive regional narratives through original and effective programming, including continued support to KVCR’s IE Latino Voices segment, which it helped co-design and launch in 2023. It also supports an innovative partnership with the Los Angeles Times’ Latino vertical, DeLos, to support special coverage of the Inland Empire.

Additionally, this year, the CIELO Fund is partnering with the UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Institute to commission a data profile on the Latino community’s experiences with vital conditions, which will be released later during Latino Heritage Month.

About Families Inc., The Garcia Center for the Arts, Imperial Valley Equity & Justice Coalition, Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, My Baby My Way Foundation, San Bernardino Community Service Inc., TODEC Legal Center, Undocumented Student Services Center, CSUSB, Veterans Success Center and We Are One United were among the 40 grantees awarded.

Also noteworthy: For the first time ever, the committee will support two organizations in neighboring Imperial County as part of a rapid response fund to organizations doing frontline work.

After launching in 2022 as a Signature Fund celebrating the IECF’s 80th anniversary, the CIELO Fund has remained steadfast in its mission is to “uplift and invest in organizations, initiatives and ideas that are led by — and serve — Latinos in the Inland Empire.”

The CIELO Fund Leadership and Grantmaking Committee comprises a dedicated group of community leaders from the Inland Empire, including Liliana Andriani, Angel Jewelers; Tomás D. Morales, CSU San Bernardino; Diana Z. Rodriguez, San Bernardino Community College District; Sergio Bohon, Wells Fargo Advisors; Silvia Paz, Alianza Coachella Valley; Elizabeth Romero, UC Riverside; Neftali Galarza, Office of the Riverside County Superintendent of Schools; Marco Robles, Latino Leader; Helen Iris Torres, Hispanas Organized for Political Equality; Luz Gallegos, TODEC Legal Center; Angel Rodriguez, San Bernardino Community College District; and Marisa Valdez Yeager, CSU San Bernardino.

Learn more about the CIELO Fund at iegives.org/funds/cielofund.

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A county investment to the Inland Empire Community Foundation established the program that offers “flexible, affordable loans” to local nonprofits, officials said. The loans seek to address the financial stress organizations often experience when traditional funding is difficult to acquire.

Established by a one-time allocation from the county, the IECF will manage the revolving loan fund that will start with $2.5 million for loan capitalization and $500,000 for startup and administrative costs during the initial two years, according to the county. After the first phase, interest earnings and loan repayments will replenish the fund to sustain it as a lasting resource for local agencies.

“The revolving loan fund represents an exciting opportunity to empower local nonprofits and significantly enhance their ability to serve our communities,” Dawn Rowe, San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors Chairman and 3rd District Supervisor, said in a statement. “Because these funds revolve back into the program, we can continually reinvest in even more organizations, magnifying the long-term positive impacts across our county.”

According to the county, nonprofits often face difficulty getting timely funding because of delays in reimbursement from state or federal grants. As a result organizations often have to postpone facility upgrades, equipment purchases or the hiring of critical personnel.

The revolving loan fund provides a financial buffer that can enable nonprofits to quickly qualify for larger state and federal grants by providing the upfront capital needed for matching-fund obligations or to do “necessary capacity-building projects,” according to the county statement. As a new perpetual resource, organizations’ loan repayments to the loan fund create new lending opportunities that sets the stage for continuous growth and resilience in the nonprofit sector.

“By directly investing in our nonprofit community, we’re ensuring critical services reach residents when and where they’re most needed,” Board of Supervisors Vice Chair and 5th District Supervisor Joe Baca Jr. said in a statement. “These loans will allow organizations to expand and improve services, creating stronger communities throughout San Bernardino County.”

Loans will be awarded based on an applying organization’s operational strength, financial stability and repayment capacity, officials said. Priority goes to nonprofits that significantly improve the delivery of services and address pressing local challenges, particularly in underserved and low-income communities. The funding priority is for services to the county’s most underserved “vulnerable populations,” such as seniors, children 5 years old and younger, foster children and youth, people experiencing homelessness and residents of low-income communities.

“We are delighted and grateful that the county has approved this investment for our nonprofits,” Inland Empire Community Foundation CEO and President Michelle Decker said in a statement. “A revolving loan fund for working capital to help nonprofits grow is an innovative idea and new for the Inland Empire, so the board has done something special and we look forward to partnering with county to help build nonprofit capacity to meet more needs of county residents.”

The county will also provide technical assistance to loan fund applicants and loan borrowers, officials said.

The IECF intends to actively market the loan fund in an effort to attract further private investment to make the fund more robust, according to the county.

Information on loan terms, how to apply and other loan details were not immediately available.

The IECF was founded in 1941 and is the oldest philanthropic organization serving Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

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