Periods of Impact
Catalyst has evolved alongside Sonoma Valley's changing needs. What began as an emergency response to the pandemic has become a permanent model for strengthening the Valley's nonprofit sector. Looking at our work across three time periods shows how our role has grown from crisis response to creating long-term solutions through both funding and strategic partnerships with nonprofits.
Pandemic Response
2020-2021
$1,470,770 invested
When COVID-19 hit, Catalyst formed to mobilize donors and coordinate nonprofits and community leaders to better respond to unprecedented needs.
Post-Pandemic
2022-2024
$1,628,995 invested
As the emergency subsided, Catalyst became a permanent fund to invest in ongoing research, innovation, and cross-sector collaboration.
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Present
2025-2026
$1,497,672 invested so far
Today, Catalyst is both a funder and strategic thought partner to its grantees. We invest in and help shape the ideas, research, and leadership that will shape Sonoma Valley's future.
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Our funding strategy has resulted in new and more effective ways of working across Sonoma Valley. See what we have created through the eras.
The Present Period
2025-2026
The Present Period opened with the need to adapt to the impact of unpredictable federal funding and policy changes at the local level. Our Food Security Initiative has scaled to recover and distribute the equivalent of 20,000 meals worth of food per month and has found a permanent home at Sonoma Family Meal, which we helped keep open under new leadership. We are investing in a generational strategy that will make it possible for more of our senior population to age in place, and we are investing in Sonoma Valley’s next generation of community leaders.
Amount Invested
Catalyst has invested $1,497,672 across 27 grants so far.
What We Are Funding
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A few months into the Trump administration, as new immigration policies and federal funding changes began affecting local nonprofits, Catalyst launched Frontline Grants. The program was open to any organization serving Sonoma Valley whose clients, or ability to serve them, were impacted by shifting government policies or funding uncertainty.
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In early 2025, Catalyst provided rapid-response grants to Sonoma Immigrant Services and Sonoma Valley Collaborative to strengthen outreach, education, and provider coordination for immigrant families. Efforts included Know Your Rights trainings, family preparedness planning, and agricultural worker outreach. As a result, our local immigrant-serving nonprofits and public agencies continue to coordinate their services, share information, and respond together as community needs evolve.
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Launched in the Post-Pandemic era, our Food Security Initiative continues to work towards creating a sustainable, local food security system that ensures no one goes hungry amidst the abundance of Sonoma Valley.
When SNAP benefits were paused in late 2025, we quickly centralized and discriminated information on how people could continue to access food locally and what people could do to help.In 2026, Elise Gonzalez, the Food Security Network Weaver who launched this initiative through Catalyst, transitioned to Sonoma Family Meal, where Catalyst continues to fund her position as she leads this work across Sonoma Valley.
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In 2022, the Catalyst directed Stollmeyer Funds to enable Sonoma Valley Collaborative push for pro-housing policies in local city and county plans, resulting in the most pro-housing plan ever in the City of Sonoma.
A second Reimagine Grant resulted in The Housing Affordability Roadmap, an action plan to address our community’s housing affordability crisis.
An outcome of The Roadmap was the creation of Sonoma Valley Commons in 2026, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating and preserving affordable housing in Sonoma Valley. Catalyst has provided the organization’s seed funding and funded The Future Collective’s creative agency to created the branding, website, and community engagement for Sonoma Valley Commons in its early stages.
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Early in 2025, our The State of Aging in Sonoma Valley white paper revealed a major demographic shift: one in three Sonoma Valley residents will be a senior in 2030. To support long-term planning, Catalyst Fund commissioned a Sonoma Valley Senior Needs Assessment that describes the needs that older adults have, identifies the strengths and challenges of the current system, and importantly, presents a series of recommendations.
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The Future Collective is a movement designed to cultivate a new generation of community leaders in Sonoma Valley. It evolved from a memorable event, MEET CATALYST, which brought together a network of influential people connected through friendship and various forms of cultural capital. What emerged was a shared desire to belong to something meaningful and ongoing while acting on behalf of a better future in Sonoma Valley.
Led by Kim Jones, The Future Collective is integrating community organizing into how a growing network of people spend time together socially, and nests acting on behalf of the broader community in the intimacy of relationships.
In 2025, The Future Collective launched an event series, LET’S GET DEEP, designed for emerging community leaders to deepen their understanding of key community issues and build relationships through discussions on the future of Sonoma Valley.
The Future Collective helped launch Sonoma Valley Commons and is now focusing on the future of Sonoma Valley’s economy.
The Post-Pandemic Period
2022-2024
Once the immediate crisis of the pandemic passed, Catalyst asked a harder question: what would make the Valley ready for the next one? Catalyst became a permanent fund to do this work. This period opened with a big capital push in Winter 2023 to fix the physical things nonprofits had put off for years: vehicles, security systems, dishwashers, roofs. It closed with a strategic decision to organize giving around issue-based categories, including the launch of our Food Security Initiative, which continues through the Present period.
Amount Invested
During the Post-Pandemic period, Catalyst invested $1,628,995 across at least 46 grants.
What We Funded
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The Winter 2023 Capital Grants Program put $500,000 into 13 Sonoma Valley nonprofits, funding the kind of deferred, unglamorous infrastructure that organizations had put off for years but are integral to their mission, including a reroofed food pantry at FISH, a wheelchair-accessible van for Becoming Independent, a new vehicle for Sonoma Overnight Support's food pickups, security upgrades at the Boys and Girls Clubs' Maxwell Clubhouse, a commercial dishwasher for Vintage House's senior meal programs, and furnishings for Hanna Center's new mental health hub.
→ SEE THE FULL LIST OF GRANTS
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From 2022-2024 we were the advisors for The Dave and Vicki Stollmeyer Family Fund of the Marin Community Foundation. Through this generous fund, we awarded grants in Sonoma Valley in the areas of affordable housing, preserving the history and rural character of the valley, early childhood education and immigrant support.
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Reimagine Grants support innovation and seeding of new ideas that result in significant positive social impact and help solve key community challenges in Sonoma Valley. These grants fill a gap in funding for nonprofits that want to innovate and reimagine how we can solve complex local issues in our community. The program complements other local grant funding by supporting complex, unusual, and perhaps risky ideas. So far, Catalyst Reimagine Grants have resulted in:
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Launched in the Post-Pandemic era, our Food Security Initiative In 2023, we conducted a study of the local food security system that revealed that, amidst the abundance of Sonoma Valley, nearly 8,000 community members—one in five residents—do not have enough to eat.
We launched The Food Security Initiative to address this problem. With the study recommendations as our guide, Catalyst designed a series of pilot programs to reduce barriers, increase food supply, and decrease hunger. The long-term goal of this work is a sustainable, local food security system that relies on the abundance of local food, the creativity and expertise of the Valley’s nonprofits, and leverages the connections and resources of public agencies and regional partners outside of the Valley. This work as so far increased food distribution to people in need by over 20,000 lbs per month.
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Sonoma Overnight Support's (SOS) meal program transitioned to Sonoma Family Meal (SFM) over the course of about a year, and Catalyst guided every stage of it, not just funding the handoff but shaping how it happened behind the scenes.
In mid-2024, we funded a capacity-building consult for SOS's leadership and succession planning, followed by two grants that fall to pilot and then expand a community refrigerator at the Unity Kitchen, still under SOS at the time.By May 2025, Catalyst was supporting both organizations at once, staff time at Sonoma Family Meal to build a business plan for continuing meal service, and staff time at SOS to manage the transition itself. That summer, a $250,000 unrestricted grant to Sonoma Family Meal made the handoff official, explicitly supporting its acquisition of SOS's assets and its move into operating the Unity Kitchen. Catalyst has continued guiding that work into 2026 with another $100,000 to support the Unity Kitchen's business plan and leadership.
The Pandemic Response Period
2020-2021
Catalyst formed during the Pandemic Response period to meet a crisis no single organization could solve alone. Giving moved in three stages as the pandemic itself changed shape: Respond grants met urgent, fast-moving needs from fall 2020 through spring 2021. Recover grants helped organizations retool and reopen as the Delta and Omicron surges brought new operational challenges through 2022. Reimagine grants looked further out, helping organizations rebuild services, address community divides, and grow new local leadership.
Amount Invested
During the Pandemic Response period, Catalyst invested $1,470,770 across 51 grants.
What We Funded
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During the Respond phase, Catalyst Fund awarded $706,688 across 18 grants.
Early on, Catalyst funded urgent nonprofit needs as they responded to new critical issues arising from the pandemic, including food insecurity, children and families struggling with remote education, business closures, Covid-prevention and health information, eviction threats, social isolation and vaccine navigation.
Nonprofits had to quickly retool and redesign how and what services to provide as CDC guidelines changed frequently. We supported quick pivots to do things differently and allow operational changes to keep up with evolving situations. These quick, trust-based grants had the added effect of bolstering front-line staff and volunteers’ spirits during a time of extreme mental stress.
SEE THE FULL LIST OF GRANTS
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During the Recover phase, Catalyst Fund awarded $427,233 across 20 grants.
Grant support was provided for continued hybrid programming and staged reopening costs as the Delta and Omicron variants kept social distancing and safety protocols in place through the summer of 2021 and into the following winter. Our local demands for food support remained high. Nonprofits continued operational pivots to stay abreast of evolving CDC guidelines and client demands. Grants also provided a unique opportunity for staff support to avoid burnout for those on the frontlines.
SEE THE FULL LIST OF GRANTS
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During the Reimagine phase of the Pandemic Response era, Catalyst Fund awarded $211,062 across 6 grants.
These grants are helping organizations: build their services back better; respond to the community divides that opened up during the pandemic; create new service delivery systems; and develop emerging new community leadership. This grant cycle continues to the Present era.
SEE THE FULL LIST OF GRANTS
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From 2022-2024 we were the advisors for The Dave and Vicki Stollmeyer Family Fund of the Marin Community Foundation. Through this generous fund, we awarded grants in Sonoma Valley in the areas of affordable housing, preserving the history and rural character of the valley, early childhood education and immigrant support.
What Catalyst Investments Have Helped Create
Our funding strategy has led to the creation of new and more effective ways of working across Sonoma Valley. Here are a few of the outcomes that we are most proud of.
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The Food Security Initiative collects and distributes over 20,000 meals worth of food that would have otherwise gone to waste to Sonoma Valley residents in need. It expands access, increases choice and reduces waste, and improves the food security system by investing in coordination and collaboration.
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Sonoma Valley Commons is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating and preserving affordable housing in Sonoma Valley. Its efforts are locally based and led by community residents, business owners, and civic leaders, including local planners, philanthropists, and housing experts who live and work here.
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The Empowerment Academy is a free after-school enrichment and teen gathering space on the Sonoma Valley High School campus. Jointly operated by the Sonoma Valley Education Foundation, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma Valley, and the Mentoring Alliance, it offers peer tutoring, life skills workshops, and career readiness training.
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Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma Valley expanded its mental health services to include family counseling groups and staff wellness support alongside its existing youth programming, building a more resilient, connected community for kids, caregivers, and staff alike.
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The Vintage House's Senior Navigator program gives Sonoma Valley's older adults a single, coordinated way to find and reach essential services, reducing the barriers and confusion that often come with piecing support together alone.
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The Future Collective is a movement designed to cultivate a new generation of community leaders in Sonoma Valley. The network has been a strategic partner to Sonoma Valley Commons, creating its branding, storytelling, and community engagement, and is now focused on creating a more regenerative and diversified economic future in Sonoma Valley.