Sonora Area Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Sonora Area Foundation supports human services, education, arts, health, public benefit, environment and animals in California.
FUNDING AREAS: Human services, education, arts, health, public benefit, environment, animals
IP TAKE: The SAF board meets frequently throughout the year to review new grant requests, enabling nonprofit to submit applications as needs arise in a variety of issue areas.
PROFILE: Established in 1990, the Sonora Area Foundation (SAF) is a community foundation based in Sonora, California. Irving Symons and his sister, Elaine Symons Baker, of Tuolumne County created this foundation with their initial generous gifts. Irving Symons was a former director of California State Chamber of Commerce and appointed by Governor Ronald Reagan to the State Board of Transportation. SAF funds local efforts for human services, education, arts, health, public benefit, environment and animals.
The Sonora Area Foundation has a pool of discretionary funds and awards grants regularly to nonprofits and public agencies. For each of its funding interests, SAF supports projects that respond to challenges in the county, that are collaborative and that have strong community support. Most awards are single-year grants; however, SAF considers multi-year requests as well. It does not typically support endowments, annual fundraising campaigns, political causes or debt obligations. However, SAF does consider competitive requests for pilot and demonstration projects, new and expanded programs and nonprofit capacity building. In addition to grants, SAF also awards scholarships to local students.
Grants range between about $1,000 and $5,000. Learn more about this funder’s local giving on the awarded grants page of the SAF website. Grantmaking focuses on the Sonora region and Tuolumne County in California. Past local grantees include Habitat for Humanity Tuolumne County, Groveland Community Services District and Groveland Trail Heads.
This foundation accepts unsolicited grant applications from nonprofits for some programs and issues periodic requests for proposals. The foundation board reviews applications in the months following these deadlines. There is no specific grant application form to fill out, but SAF provides details of what to submit in letter form on its website. Grant applications are due by the end of the months of January, March, May, July, September and November. Direct general questions to the staff at 209-533-2596 or via online form.
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