In the August issue:

• Grantee of the Month: Community Partners in Caring
• Maximizing Giving with Both Group and Individual Membership
• New and Prospective Member Reception This Month!
• Sponsor Spotlight: Women Connect4Good
• At The Table Together: Addressing Food Insecurity in Our Community
• Meet the Newest Members of the Research Committee

A recent report reveals that people aged 60 and older will make up 25% of Santa Barbara County population by the year 2030. It is estimated that one in three seniors will have cognitive or physical disabilities, and yet, approximately 90% of seniors want to remain in their homes. Access to transportation and food often becomes a barrier to seniors who would like to age in place. 

A Women’s Fund grant of $62,500 to Community Partners in Caring (CPC) will expand transportation services for seniors and those with disabilities in south Santa Barbara County. The expansion will help give more people the opportunity to stay in the homes they love, surrounded by the memories they’ve built.

Growing older or living with a disability should never mean growing isolated. While the loss of mobility and the ability to drive can feel like a sudden roadblock after a lifetime of independence, it doesn’t have to be insurmountable. The CPC’s Volunteer Caregiving Program serves as a vital bridge to the world, turning a simple ride into a lifeline of hope. By connecting neighbors with neighbors, they help ensure that essential needs—like medical care, nourishing food, and the comfort of human connection—are always within reach.

Most clients come to CPC by referrals from numerous partner agencies, friends, doctors’ offices, or word of mouth. Fully 72% of the agency’s clients currently served in southern Santa Barbara County are women, with an average age of 78.6 years; 60% live alone and a majority are low-income.

Take Anna, for example. Anna had to give up her car keys last month after 65 years of driving, and her previously independent life has changed dramatically. How will Anna get to her medical appointments or buy groceries? How will she pick up prescriptions, get vaccinations, or meet her friends to play cards?

That’s where a dedicated volunteer from CPC steps in. Most volunteers are also seniors and become a friendly neighbor, helping hand, and listening ear, offering transportation and support at no cost. They drive clients to medical appointments, pharmacies, and grocery stores. They provide socialization through friendly visits and reassurance calls and can note any changes in cognitive function that may require referral to other agencies.

In addition to providing support to seniors and disabled people, CPC educates their community of volunteers, who are often seniors themselves, by providing training around issues related to aging, keeping them physically and mentally active, and supporting their sense of living purposefully. 

As Hilda Zacarias, Executive Director of Community Partners in Caring, says, “Community Partners in Caring strengthens community by strengthening how we treat one another. We aren’t just providing transportation; we are honoring a lifetime of independence and keeping our community whole.”

I recently received the 2025-26 Impact Report in the mail, and paging through, found a comprehensive list of our 110+ Women’s Fund groups and 120+ individual members. As many of you know, one ballot vote requires a contribution of $2,750. Groups reach this threshold collectively, while Individual Members (IM’s) make this contribution on their own.

What may surprise you is that many women participate in both membership classes!

Ann Lippincott (above left), a former veteran of the Research Committee, created and is a member of four different groups, each representing a part of her life. Before filling out her individual ballot, she chats about potential grantees with her groups; “melding the different perspectives to inform my decisions.”

Robin Masson (above right), current Research Committee member, decided to become an Individual Member last year after seeing “the impact of the drastic and unprecedented cuts in governmental funding on which so many of our local agencies depend.” Rather than leave her group to become an IM, she opted to do both, as her group members had become dear friends over the past decade, mixing social activity with Women’s Fund voting.

Ann and Robin continue to give so much to the Women’s Fund. Our hope is that what we give in time, heart, and contribution, we reap in community, friendship, and in knowing we’ve done the right thing. Ann shared this quote from her father, which helps explain the burden lifted off our shoulders by the Women’s Fund: “It is easy to give money away, but it is difficult to give money away well.”

- Contributed by Hannah Robinson

Interested in learning more about the Women’s Fund? Then don’t miss our New and Prospective Member Reception on August 26! This engaging and inspiring evening is your opportunity to hear:

• Remarks from Board Chair Carolyn Jabs on the difference our collective giving makes in the community
• Firsthand stories from past grantees sharing how our support transformed their work

When: Wednesday, August 26th, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Tours begin at 5:00; program starts at 5:30

Where: Alpha Resource Center
4501 Cathedral Oaks Rd, Santa Barbara

We’d love to know who’s coming, so please use these links to respond.

Members, RSVP here.

Members, RSVP for your guests here.

Not yet a member? Use this link instead.

It seems a perfect fit for one of the Women’s Fund’s major sponsors to be a champion of gender equity and women’s empowerment in both her personal and professional life.

Nancy D. O’Reilly, PsyD, is an author, global advocate for women’s leadership and gender equality, and the founder of Women Connect4Good, Inc., a 501(c)3 foundation dedicated to supporting women-led initiatives and amplifying women’s voices around the world, with a twist.

One of the foundation’s grantmaking decisions each year is determined – not by the staff – but by the young, college-bound women (ages 16-20) who participate in Women Connect4Good’s Connect4Impact program. Each year’s class benefits from mentoring and hands-on experience in leadership, civic engagement, and participatory grantmaking.

These young women undergo a series of exercises to qualify and engage with several “social nonprofits” that equip and empower women to lead. From this research, they invite a handful of organizations to submit funding proposals. Then, with a scoring rubric in hand, they rank participants and make the tough decisions about which organization will receive $10k in funding. These young women are philanthropists and activists-in-training for their own success and for the success of others. Women’s Fund members-in-the-making!

Dr. O’Reilly (pictured above) feels that supporting other women—like the work of the Women’s Fund—is not only important, but also a required practice for all women, and especially important for women in leadership. “By supporting each other, we will step into our power and claim equality for all—together,” O’Reilly said. “One woman alone can’t do this, but all of us together, supporting one another, can make it happen. This is where our greatest strength lies”.

A former crisis team leader, Dr. O’Reilly brings a deep understanding of women’s wellness, leadership, and connection to her work. She serves on the boards of the ERA Coalition and the National Women’s History Museum and frequently speaks on advancing equity, including recent appearances at the U.S. Senate and Roosevelt House. She hosts “Smart, Amazing Conversations with Dr. Nancy,” a podcast that celebrates the stories of changemakers making a difference in their communities and the world.

Dr. O’Reilly has also authored a number of books that have helped equip women for success, including In This Together (Adams Media/Simon & Schuster, January 2019) and Leading Women (Adams Media/Simon & Schuster, 2014). Her latest, Timeless Women Speak: Power, Purpose, and Feeling Your Best at Every Age, is a powerful update to her groundbreaking 2008 title, driven by new research from more than 1,000 women.

Thank you, Dr. O’Reilly, for helping the Women’s Fund maximize our support of women, children, and families in south Santa Barbara County through your generous sponsorship.

Learn more about Women Connect4Good, Inc., here: www.womenconnect4good.org.

- Contributed by Tish Lynn

Santa Barbara County has the highest poverty rate in California, per the Public Policy Institute of California. What are potential solutions to the growing crisis of food insecurity in our community? Please join us for our Grants in Action Roundtable to learn what the experts think.

You’ll hear our experts explore the economic, social, and health impacts of food insecurity and why so many struggle to access nutritious food.

• Learn how existing support systems are working to meet the community’s food needs, increasingly without government support
• Discover how schools, health-care systems, nonprofits, government agencies, businesses, and the philanthropic community can collaborate on lasting solutions

This is a unique, not-to-be-missed opportunity to listen in as our grantees and civic leaders problem-solve together to address food insecurity in our community. After the program, meet informally with the speakers in the New Vic courtyard to continue the conversation.

EXPERT PANEL:        

• Lacey Baldiviez Johnston, PhD, President, Food Bank of Santa Barbara County
• Van Do-Reynoso, PhD, Chief Customer Experience Officer, CenCal Health
• Rachel Lipman, Assistant Director, Economic Assistance & Employment Services, Department of Social Services, Santa Barbara County
• Angela Miller-Bevan, Executive Director, Unity Shoppe
• Eryn Shugart, PhD, Executive Director, Veggie Rescue
  
  
• Moderator: Susan Liles, Nutrition Services/WIC Director for the County of Santa Barbara Health Department

When: Wednesday, September 2, 2026 – 5:30 to 7:00 PM

Where: The New Vic Theatre
33 West Victoria Street   
Santa Barbara CA 93101

We look forward to seeing you at the table! RSVP now for this very special event, and feel free to invite guests.

• Members, please register HERE.
• Register a guest HERE.
• Members of the public, register HERE.

This year, the Research Committee welcomed four new members to its ranks. As always, they bring expertise across a range of fields and professions and, together they share a commitment to our mission and to advocating, on behalf of all our members, for responsible, sustainable and impactful grantmaking.

They are businesswomen, philanthropists and nonprofit advocates, who have seen the power of our grants in our community and wanted to volunteer their talents and passion to the challenging work of the Research Committee to bring a strong ballot of worthy agencies to our membership to vote on in 2027.

(from left: Mary Ellen Kullman, Julie LeVay, Beverly Herrera and Virginia Chounet)

They join continuing committee members: Luann Caesar, Becky Craig, Melissa Devor, Robin Masson, Michee Neely Saltoun, Lynne Quinlan, Kate Rees, Janis Salin, Pat Sherman, Maggie Silverstein, Katey Tarkington, Laurie Tumbler, Janessa Van Vechten, Barbara Wagner.

And here are the new team members!

Virginia Chounet is a mental health clinician who joined the Women's Fund because she believes “investing in children and families creates stronger communities. As the daughter of Cuban immigrants, I have unique life experience of the challenges families face. Giving back is both a privilege and a personal commitment.”

In her professional career, Mary Ellen Kullman, M.P.H., C.H.E.S., was Manager of Preventive Health Education for Southern California Edison, and served as Vice President of Medical and Educational Programs for the Arthritis Foundation (Southern California Chapter) before becoming Vice President of the Archstone Foundation for the past 25 years.

“I have spent most of my career working with foundations and nonprofits, so I thought my skills would match the needs of the Research Committee.”

Julie LeVay is a founding partner of Whaley LeVay, a national consulting firm offering a full range of institutional advancement and philanthropy services to not-for-profit institutions seeking stability and growth.

She has led numerous fundraising efforts for capital campaigns and program support in public and private universities, performing arts organizations and independent schools.

“After spending my career in philanthropy, I joined the Research Committee because it offers a great opportunity to put my skillset to good use for our community.”

Beverly Herrera began her career in real estate 31 years ago in the Bay Area, before joining Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties in Santa Barbara in 2022. Locally, she is an Ambassador for the ETC Theater Group. 

“I joined the Women’s Fund after I attended the Celebration of Grants in 2025. I was really moved by the collective power of giving through the organization and the difference it could make in people’s lives.”

Our thanks to these Research Committee “newbies” and the rest of the committee who are already hard at work…for us!

- Contributed by Tish Lynn

Thank you to our sponsors and underwriters whose generosity support our education programs and operations.
Learn more about them here.

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