Your Community Foundation: What We Do

As Santa Barbara County’s community foundation for 95 years, SBF cares for the wellbeing of all people who live, work, invest, visit, and play here, along with the beautiful natural environment that is central to our quality of life, economic health, and vitality.

As part of our mission to mobilize collective wisdom, we engage with all sectors of the community to provide Leadership in Action.

We build empathetic, inclusive, and resilient communities by engaging actively in Strategic Grantmaking and Supporting Our Social Sector.

And we mobilize philanthropic capital when we act as trusted Partners in Philanthropy, ensuring that donors achieve their charitable goals.

Through extensive research, listening, inclusive relationships, and community participation, we developed and act on the following strategic priorities for impact:

Basic needs for our most vulnerable populations

• Behavioral health

• Health care

• Food

• Shelter & safety

Working families’ special concerns

• Child care

• Workforce development

• Workforce housing

Support for our social sector

In these pages, you’ll find stories and statistics that demonstrate the impact in 2022 of our initiatives to build resilient communities throughout Santa Barbara County.

$51.1M in contributions, stewarded

$642.5M $27.6M