In a time when many in our community are struggling with the cost of living or feeling a bit isolated, one local organization is proving to be like a beacon of light. Santa Rosa Women for Good has provided help for the community while also bringing a sense of belonging and community to the women involved. They come together to give back and while doing so they themselves feel embraced by a community of like-minded women.

The group started when board member Amanda Garland said yes to a question. Grapevine Giving Foundation was looking for local women who might be interested in starting a giving circle through their platform. Garland said she could do that.

“We call her the number one woman for good,” said Alex Hailey, board president and executive director of Women for Good.

Other women began to join her. There were four women at their first meeting in November of 2022. Hailey joined shortly after in the Spring of 2023. After a recent event their numbers climbed to 130 members.

“We’re growing by leaps and bounds,” Hailey said.

The Grapevine Giving Foundation processed all of their donations for the first few years. As the group grew and expanded they decided it was time to apply for their own nonprofit status. Santa Rosa Women for Good gained that status in January.

One of the great strengths of the group is that they are all coming together to do the work.

“So many of the women in our group were looking for a way to give back or make a difference,” she said. “I think so many of us feel that desire to get involved or make a difference, but you know we’re not millionaires or billionaires and we don’t have unlimited time and resources. However if a bunch of women each give $100 that very quickly adds up.”

That’s exactly what they’ve done. To date Santa Rosa Women for Good has raised and awarded $80,000 in grants to Sonoma County nonprofit organizations serving a variety of different needs, including youth and families, education, healthcare, food security, environmental stewardship, arts and culture and community wellness. The funds are raised by its members.

Hailey said the group is proud of the impact they’ve been able to make and that it has also evolved past the initial idea of raising grant money.

“It’s become a way for women to kind of get connected and to learn about local nonprofits,” she said. “Sometimes we go do tours of facilities, and we volunteer, usually at least once a month. We were at the (Redwood Empire) food bank on Tuesday and we do that quarterly.”

Building connection

Another important benefit the women in the group are experiencing is something more personal and sometimes unexpected. There is a camaraderie being built when they get together over their shared goal of helping the community. That feeling of being a part of something truly good along with being among a group that is warm and welcoming has endeared the organization to its members.

“Women and people in general just have a desire for connection, which can be really hard,” Hailey said. “We hear about the loneliness epidemic and people wanting to make friends and meet people and this group has really facilitated that for a lot of people. We have a lot of new members who come because they’re just looking to find a new friend or find nice people to kind of be in community with.”

Hailey said that idea of connection was one of the reasons she became involved with the group.

“At that time we were all kind of coming out of the pandemic,” she said. “I think for a lot of us, our world had gotten really small. I work from home, you know, we’re all trying to find ways to connect personally.”

She said when she got the invitation to check the group out she took a little bit of a leap of faith and decided to go to a meeting and just see what it was. It became clear really quickly to her that was just a bunch of really nice women who want to do some good together. “It was really lovely,” she said.

Hailey noticed that at every event they host someone new will show up. At first, they’re a little nervous or they’re not sure and they’re waiting to see what the catch is.

“And pretty much every single time by the end of the event, their shoulders are relaxed and I see them laughing,” she said. “I’ve had so many folks come and tell me they just felt so welcome and that really started from the beginning. That’s just the vibe that we’re going for, and it’s so important to us that that continues.”

Although they do have a place on their website to make a donation, Hailey said their biggest invitation is for local women to come check it out and consider being a part of the Women for Good community.

“We do a once-a-month coffee meet up,” she said. “It’s super casual. We do that on a Saturday morning.”

Easy to be involved

Hailey believes one thing that makes their giving circle a little different from some other types of organizations is that they want it to be easy and fit into people’s lives.

“There are no strings attached and there is no nagging in this group,” she said. “There’s no requirements. We never ask that anyone go to any events or donate or volunteer a certain number of hours or participate in any way besides what really brings good into their own life.”

She said they have members that she’s never met who maybe just donate and contribute that way. Other members might not donate but they love to volunteer.

“It’s really lovely,” she said. “We want people to find a way to engage and just support goodness locally and help make things better and more connected locally in whatever way makes sense for them.”

The group’s welcoming atmosphere regardless of one’s commitment level has been helpful for members like Leslie Jordan who has been in the group for three years. She doesn’t get to attend as many events as she’d like because of work and being a busy mom.

“But whenever I go they’re so excited to see me and there’s no pressure. You know, it’s like do what you can. We’re just glad you’re here,” Jordan said. “So, yeah, I would say it’s extremely inclusive, extremely open, and extremely like-minded women. It’s all ages too, it’s everything, it’s eclectic and I really appreciate that piece. It’s a really positive experience of community. You feel it when we’re together. It’s really a special group of women.”

Jordan said the overwhelming common thread among the members of

Women for Good is the desire to serve the community. “And for me personally, I like showing my kids the importance of that through example,” she said.

Jordan is the executive director of a small local nonprofit called Free to Be and that organization was awarded a grant by Women for Good two years ago. Free to Be helps support youth with mental health and building confidence to make healthy choices.

Free to Be has a curriculum that they teach in local fifth-and sixth-grade-classrooms. They also have a teen program where they train teens to go in and talk to the younger students about these topics. “So it’s a very nice peer-to-peer-program where the younger kids are really listening,” she said. “It’s a special moment when that happens, when you see them light up and something clicks.”

Jordan’s mother Sue Bisbee founded Free to Be in 1989, and four years ago Jordan stepped in as executive director. She said they’ve shifted their focus a bit because concerns are different than they were in the late ’80s.

“I like to say when she started it, the risks of teens were a little more external,” Jordan said. “It was drinking and driving and teen pregnancies and things like that. Now it’s kind of become internal, it’s anxiety and depression, so we focus on a lot of the emotional health, internal things for the kids.”

She said after the pandemic a big focus has been on developing good coping skills. They also help parents with skills to adapt to the challenges their kids are facing these days as well.

Community giving

Santa Rosa Women for Good pools together funds raised by its members. Each quarter local nonprofits are nominated by group members and selected through a community voting process. Sonoma County nonprofits can also get in contact with Santa Rosa Women for Good to be considered for nomination.

Past grant recipients include women-led Wiley’s Wish Animal Rescue; and Positive Images, a Sonoma County—based nonprofit dedicated to supporting LGBTQIA+ youth, adults, and families.

Santa Rosa Women for Good awarded a $5,000 grant to Free to Be.

“That’s significant for a small organization, so I was very thrilled,” Jordan said. “It was wonderful.”

With that grant funding they’ve been able to invest a lot in their team leadership program. “It’s been a real focus,” Jordan said. “We do youth mental health first aid training, a team leadership retreat, things like that for them.”

Frances (Fran) Templin is another member of Santa Rosa Women for Good who works to support mental health in the community. Templin has been with the group for three years, since the day her nonprofit was being awarded a grant.

Templin is the founder of The Zane Templin Foundation, which was created in remembrance of her son, who took his own life in 2016. The organization works to support mental health awareness and suicide prevention in the community.

“My son Zane has been gone for 10 years now,” Templin said. “It’s very important to me that we get out there in the community and support anyone going through what we went through.”

The Zane Templin Foundation also supports other community organizations that do suicide prevention work. Their website lists close to 40 community organizations that the foundation has helped.

“We are big supporters of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, which hosts an Out of the Darkness community or campus walk every year,” Templin said. “This year it was at the Santa Rosa Junior College in April and the Santa Rosa Women for Good came out and supported the walk.”

The Zane Templin Foundation received its nonprofit status in 2021 and has raised over $200,000 with the annual walk. Templin said that they’ve helped over 80 families with the cost of therapy since they started the foundation.

Besides the grant, Women for Good members raised money for the Zane Templin Foundation individually by signing up with Team Zane on the Out of the Darkness walk. Members who raised $100 were then given a “You Matter” t-shirt to wear during the walk.

Templin spoke fondly of the women she’s come to know in Women for Good. “I love all the women involved,” she said. “They do so many different things in the community and they’re so kind. I truly love that women are helping women in the community with whatever they need.”

Growing the good

Women for Good recently hosted their first Grow the Good community celebration. It was a large event and she said they had invited a bunch of past grantees and nonprofits.

“It was a really nice event,” Hailey said. “Our goal really was just to celebrate them, celebrate what we have accomplished and unveil that we’re expanding our grant programs.”

Hailey said it was not a fundraising event but rather a celebration. She said they are hoping to raise more money in the future so that they might give out even bigger grants. That’s one of her favorite parts of her role in the organization.

“I get to help give large amounts of money away,” she said. “There’s nothing better than calling someone and telling them, you know, hey, guess what, we have $5,000 for your organization, no strings attached.”

Hailey said that the members of Santa Rosa Women for Good feel strongly that one woman can really have the power to make a difference and to have some transformative effect.

“We started with just one person, now we’re 130 women and that becomes a movement,” she said. “There’s a real movement for good happening.”

For information, visit.santarosawomenforgood.org