Central Valley Community Foundation

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Central Valley Community Foundation We do whatever it takes to create a just and thriving Central Valley. Our Vision is the Central Valley: No barriers. Just opportunity. All people.

Weddings. Quinceañeras. Baptisms. Retirement parties. 💐 For 100 years, Merced has marked life’s biggest days inside the ...
09/30/2026

Weddings. Quinceañeras. Baptisms. Retirement parties. 💐 For 100 years, Merced has marked life’s biggest days inside the Women’s Clubhouse at West 22nd and N Streets.

Since opening on April 7, 1926, it’s hosted dances, shows and community gatherings. Today it’s especially loved by Hispanic and Hmong families as a space that’s both beautiful and affordable. 🏛️

In 2024, the Merced Women’s Club gifted the building to the Merced County Historical Society. Now, with support from the Merced Opportunity Fund and CVCF, a $250,000 matching grant is funding upgrades, with care for its history. ✨

Got a clubhouse memory? Tell us below 👇

09/16/2026

Measure S didn’t start in a boardroom. It started with 34 community meetings where 4,500+ residents said what their streets needed, and 32,000 neighbors signing to put it on the ballot.

The part people ask us about most is local control — and it’s written into the policy itself:

✅ Dollars go straight to your city and the County, and have to be spent here
✅ 65 cents of every dollar goes to neighborhood street repair, worst streets first
✅ Three layers of oversight: Fresno Council of Goverments (every city council) in public meetings, an 11-person Citizens Oversight Committee, and an independent audit every year
✅ A public database so anyone can see what got fixed and what it cost

Roads are how you get to a job, a clinic, a classroom. This one was built by the people who use them.

Reshare to tell your pals about how Measure S is puts the control in your hands.

In 2017, residents from three Fresno neighborhoods did something remarkable: they ran the largest grassroots budgeting e...
09/15/2026

In 2017, residents from three Fresno neighborhoods did something remarkable: they ran the largest grassroots budgeting effort in our history and used it to demand real investment in their own community. Follow Transform Fresno to learn more.

That work paid off. A $70 million state climate grant, leveraged into $195 million in combined investment, has helped bring a new Fresno City College campus, new parks and trails, affordable housing, and community gardens to Southwest Fresno.

The impact reached beyond Southwest Fresno too - funding street beautification in Chinatown and a reimagined Mariposa Plaza downtown.

“People in our community came together and did heroic work to take advantage of this opportunity for Fresno,” said Ashley Swearengin, CVCF President.

Read the full story 👉 link in bio



Newspaper clippings courtesy of The Fresno Bee. Additional photos courtesy of the Fresno City & County Historical Society. All rights reserved.

Our region is becoming a clean energy powerhouse but that growth hasn’t yet translated into lower energy costs for the p...
09/02/2026

Our region is becoming a clean energy powerhouse but that growth hasn’t yet translated into lower energy costs for the people who call this place home. A new S2J2 brief breaks down what’s driving high energy burdens across Fresno, Kings, Madera & Tulare counties, and why community benefits from clean energy projects matter.

Full report link in bio. 🔗

08/31/2026

We want to do something, but we don’t know how to go about it.” That’s how FISH Fund started. Nearly a decade later, one of its founders puts it a different way: “I feel like I’m seeing the next generation of donors growing in front of my eyes.”

FISH (Fund by Indian Subcontinent Heritage) was founded by a group of Central Valley doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and parents who shared a common heritage wanted to give where they live. Their first gala raised $20,000 for the Marjaree Mason Center. Last year, it raised $120,000 for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Fresno County. 100% volunteer-run, open to the whole community, and now teaching its founders’ own kids that giving isn’t an obligation, it’s a joy.

This is FISH Fund’s story, and it’s one of Sixty Stories That Shaped Us, our yearlong series honoring 60 years of Central Valley generosity.

📖 Read their full story — link in bio.

For more than 100 years, this Fresno mansion has kept our history safe.Today, those memories are in the hands of Elizabe...
08/17/2026

For more than 100 years, this Fresno mansion has kept our history safe.

Today, those memories are in the hands of Elizabeth Laval, great-granddaughter of Pop Laval, one of the Valley’s most celebrated photographers. Under her care, the Fresno City & County Historical Society Fresno City & County Historical Society keeps growing: an archive spanning more than 170 years, hands-on history days for local students, and youth-led projects like the Sikh Youth Oral History Project, where students are trained to record their own elders’ stories.

The Society calls it “capturing the present for the generations to come.” Soon, even more of that history will have a new home like the Chinese American Museum Project, featuring objects from Fresno’s Chinatown from more than 60 years ago, is finally getting a permanent space to share with the public.

Read the full story 👉 link in bio



Photos courtesy of the Fresno City & County Historical Society. All rights reserved.

Your nonprofit doesn’t need a massive endowment to start investing. It needs a plan. 💡Join us Tuesday, August 25 for “Ma...
08/13/2026

Your nonprofit doesn’t need a massive endowment to start investing. It needs a plan. 💡

Join us Tuesday, August 25 for “Making Every $ Count”: Investment Insights for Nonprofits - a hopeful, 45-minute conversation about how even a small reserve fund can grow and strengthen your mission long-term.

Hosted by Claudia Ruiz-Alvarez, with insights from investment experts at SEI and LPL Financial, this session is built for nonprofit leaders and finance staff of organizations of any size, even the small ones.

Whether you’re managing $5,000 or $5 million, this webinar will help you think differently about what your reserves can do for you.

📅 Tuesday, August 25
⏱️ 45 minutes
🔗 Link in bio to register

A hairdresser’s chair became a classroom. A backyard became a community hub. And one woman’s grief became a mission to h...
08/11/2026

A hairdresser’s chair became a classroom. A backyard became a community hub. And one woman’s grief became a mission to help her neighbors thrive.

Meet Nia Hodge, founder of Another Level Training Academy (ALTA) in Southwest Fresno — where healing circles, health fairs, and cultural programs are helping families move from surviving to thriving by convening people and create place-based community.

Read her full story 👉 link in bio



Photos courtesy of Another Level Training Academy

08/07/2026

🎉 IT’S OFFICIAL - Better Roads, Safe Streets is on the November ballot!! 🎉

Governor Newsom signed AB 1923 into law, a bill from Senator Anna Caballero and Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria that makes sure the voices of the 32,000 Fresno County residents who signed petitions for this measure will be heard at the ballot box.

Thank you to Governor Newsom, Senator Caballero, Assemblymember Soria, and the hundreds of community advocates who stood up for Fresno County voters’ right to decide.

This is a huge step forward — and there’s still work ahead to earn the support we need this November. But tonight, we celebrate. Join us at Beers, Birria & Ballots, TONIGHT at 6:30 PM at Tioga Sequoia in downtown Fresno. Family friendly, all are welcome. 🍺🛣️

08/05/2026

150+ Fresno County residents showed up to Herndon & Clovis last week with one message: Let us vote.

Better Roads, Safe Streets qualified for the ballot with more than 32,000 signatures - real, verified support from across the county. Instead of letting voters decide, three County Supervisors ordered a 30-day study that could’ve been requested back in January, a move supporters say is designed to delay this measure until 2028.

This isn’t about whether you support the measure. It’s about whether Fresno County voters get to make that call themselves.

State legislators are already stepping in - Assemblymember Soria and Senator Caballero are urging the state to protect ballot access for Fresno County voters, citing the overwhelming local support behind this effort.

Help us keep this moving. Share this video, tag someone who needs to see it, and follow along at the link in bio for how you can help. 🧡💙
📍 Learn more: betterroadssafestreets.com

Paid for by Fresno County Residents for Better Roads and Safe Streets, Sponsored by Nonprofit Community Organizations and Labor Organizations.

Committee Top Funders:
Central Valley Community Foundation
North Coast States Regional Council of Carpenters
Fund for a Better Future

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1260 Fulton Street, Suite 200
Fresno, CA
93721

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Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

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