For Good. For the Long Run.

A version of this article appeared in the Spring 2026 issue of Santa Cruz Vibes Magazine.

In January 1982, a powerful storm dumped more than 25 inches of rain in three days on Santa Cruz County, triggering catastrophic flooding and mudslides. As roads washed out and homes filled with water, neighbors did what they have always done here: they showed up for one another with shovels, food, and offers of shelter. But people also wanted to help in ways that would support recovery long after the waters receded.

What they quickly discovered was that there was no single, trusted place to send monetary gifts and no central organization to steward donations for long‑term community recovery and resilience.

Before There Was a Foundation

For many of the people who helped shape the Foundation, the idea grew out of years of hands‑on community work.

John Brissenden arrived in Santa Cruz County in 1970 at age 22. Like many young people drawn here, he came with almost no money but with a longing for connection and a deep drive to do what he could to help the community. In the 1970s, Brissenden worked as a VISTA volunteer and helped launch childcare centers, after‑school programs, and parent‑led associations across the county.

“We were solving problems,” he recalls, “but it was all held together by relationships.”

Programs were built quickly, often in response to urgent needs — childcare for working families, services for seniors, safe places for kids to go after school. Brissenden was also one of the founders of beloved local organizations Life Lab and the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County. Many of those programs still exist today — and sustaining them has always required constant effort, creativity, and trust. At the time, there was no enduring structure to help good ideas last beyond the energy of the people who started them.

That gap was clear to others as well.

When local attorney Ian McPhail began inviting people into conversations about creating a community foundation, Brissenden immediately understood the potential. “Charming Ian McPhail,” he says with a smile. “He called me up and said, ‘We need something.’”

Building Something That Would Last

Early organizers were also clear that for a community foundation to succeed here, it had to reflect the whole county. They built a board that spanned geography, sectors, and lived experience from agriculture and education, Watsonville and the North Coast, long‑time residents and newer arrivals.

That inclusive, long‑view approach was deeply aligned with the values of leaders like Diane Porter Cooley, a founding board member, who said, “Community is about living life together. It’s about getting through hard times, floods, and fire; camping with girl scouts; serving meals and building clinics; helping kids and planting trees.”

Brissenden describes his role in those early days as “tying shoelaces together” — connecting people who might not otherwise work together, but who shared a commitment to the community. The Foundation became a place where those connections could deepen and endure.

A Familiar Question, Forty Years Later

More than four decades after its founding, the reason the Community Foundation exists remains clear.

In the winter of 2023, a series of back-to-back storms battered Santa Cruz County. Homes were destroyed. Families were displaced. Small businesses struggled to reopen. The Pajaro River levee breach compounded an already devastating season.

Once again, the question surfaced: Where can we turn to help — and to help in a way that lasts?

This time, the answer was clear.

The Community Foundation activated its Disaster Response Fund immediately. Donations poured in from caring community members, and $3.5 million grants flowed to trusted frontline nonprofits working to keep families safe, fed, and housed during short and long-term recovery efforts.

Compounding Crises and Collective Strength

The 2023 storms did not occur in isolation. Since 2020, Santa Cruz County has faced back-to-back crises: the COVID‑19 pandemic, the CZU Lightning Complex fires, the storms, and the long, uneven recovery that follows each one.

Layered on top of these challenges are new uncertainties —the rollout of H.R. 1, the budget reconciliation bill dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” passed in 2025, increased immigration enforcement, and mounting pressure on the social safety net at a time when many of our neighbors are already stretched thin.

These are not ordinary times.

“Time and again,” says Susan True, CEO of the Community Foundation, “neighbors step up to help one another through tough times with generosity, creativity, and resolve. Even as we respond to urgent needs today, our community remains committed to building a stronger tomorrow.”

Generations of Generosity

Today, thanks to the generosity of local people, families, and organizations over generations, the Community Foundation manages $283 million in charitable assets and provides customized giving solutions that resulted in more than $36.5 million in grants in 2025. Nearly $300 million in local grants and scholarships have been awarded since 1982.

Those numbers represent something simple and profound: trust and a community choosing, again and again, to take care of its neighbors.

Sustaining the Community

When asked what most impresses him about the Foundation today, Brissenden doesn’t hesitate. “It’s a convening place,” he says. “A place people can come for sustenance.”

Near the end of his interview, Brissenden’s big white labradoodle, Ben bounds into the room, demanding attention — a reminder that community work happens in real life, in real homes, with all its warmth and interruptions.

For Good. For the Future.

Born out of disaster, strengthened through decades of change, and sustained by extraordinary generosity, the Community Foundation exists for today — and for the long road ahead. Its purpose has remained constant: to help Santa Cruz County thrive for all who call it home, now and in the future.

Asked what he wishes for everyone in Santa Cruz County today, Brissenden pauses and then answers, “To feel some joy, to drop the anger for a little bit, drop the resentment that is pervading our country” he says. He adds, laughing, his warm hazel eyes sparkling with kindness, “and try and pick up a piece of litter once in a while.”

It’s a small wish and a large one, representing the spirit of why the Foundation exists: to help people care for one another, in crisis and in calm, for good and for the long run.