Tag archives: nonprofit

Local Music Lovers Rally to Support Angels
By Richard Mineards   |   November 25, 2025

By Maria W. Long This fall, our vibrant city transformed into a haven for music lovers. Weekend after weekend, legendary performers filled local venues, offering residents an abundance of unforgettable concerts. Among the season’s standout events was an all-star tribute to the late Brian Wilson and the music of the Beach Boys, held at the […]

Brilliant Things Beginning
By Steven Libowitz   |   October 21, 2025

Three years ago Jonny Donahoe first brought Every Brilliant Thing to Center Stage as a benefit for New Beginnings – the longtime Santa Barbara nonprofit that has often employed the arts and entertainers to raise money and draw awareness to its mission of serving its underprivileged clientele with mental health services and more.Donahoe’s audience-conversant one-man […]

Hillside
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 26, 2025

The halcyon days of Hollywood moviemaking have been showing up in unusual places recently, including as the setting for the Music Academy of the West’s grand opera production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. This iteration of Don Giovanni  – a morality tale centered on the legendary libertine whose unbridled desire and hypocrisy eventually led to his […]

Rock Solid: Good Charlotte and the Heart of Montecito Takes Center Stage at One805LIVE!
By Zach Rosen   |   August 19, 2025

When Benji Madden talks about first responders, it’s not just rock star lip service – he’s speaking from the kind of backstage, on-the-road experience that comes with decades of loud guitars and even louder emergencies. “As a touring musician, we rely on first responders all the time,” Benji says. “Your worst nightmare is for someone […]

The United Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Barbara County
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 5, 2025

The United Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Barbara County’s mission is to enable all young people – especially those most in need – to reach their full potential as productive, caring, and responsible citizens. The clubs, now five strong stretching from Carpinteria to Santa Ynez – including locations on Santa Barbara’s west side and […]

‘Wild Night’ is Calling
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 29, 2025

Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network (SBWCN) rescues, rehabilitates and returns to the wild sick, injured, orphaned and/or oil-impaired wild birds, reptiles, amphibians and small mammals in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Over the years, the organization has grown from a grassroots effort that saw volunteers caring for animals in their homes to a nonprofit that […]

NatureTrack
By Steven Libowitz   |   June 24, 2025

Summer is often a slower season for NatureTrack, the nonprofit organization which was founded with the goal of creating opportunities for people of all ages to foster a lifelong fascination with nature. That’s because the main thrust of NatureTrack’s day-to-day activities is providing K-12 students with outdoor field trips in Santa Barbara County. NatureTrack takes […]

Friendship Center Annual Legacy Award Luncheon
By Joanne A Calitri   |   June 10, 2025

The Friendship Center Montecito held its annual Legacy Society Award Luncheon on Wednesday, May 28, at the University Club. This annual event has returned from its lockdown-related hiatus. The organization honors those who have committed to allocate funding via their estate to support the FC endowment. FC Board Finance Chair and Legacy Leadership Committee member, […]

Los Padres Council Scouting America
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 27, 2025

The clichéd image of a random Boy Scout helping grandma across the street to earn points toward a merit badge is a thing of the past with the reinvigorated launch of Scouting America – a new identity that reflects the organization’s commitment to inclusivity and welcoming all youth, including girls, into its programs.  “We’re all […]

C.A.R.E4Paws Happy Tails Celebration and Fundraiser Event
By Joanne A Calitri   |   May 13, 2025

The C.A.R.E4Paws organization held a “Happy Tails Celebration and Fundraiser” event on Sunday, May 4, at the Cabrillo Pavilion. The event focused on celebrating the organization’s establishment 16 years ago this May, its mission, and the work it does for pets and their owners on the Central Coast.   Starting with a silent auction during […]

Savie Health
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 22, 2025

Fictional detective Harry Bosch, the star of more than a dozen best-selling books by Michael Connelly and two TV series on Amazon Prime, operates with a credo he adopted early in his career: “Everybody counts, or nobody counts.”  That’s basically the same philosophy behind Savie Health, the nonprofit free clinic in downtown Lompoc. It’s the […]

REACH
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 15, 2025

REACH is a small local organization that provides comprehensive transformative support and development opportunities to first-generation college-bound students as they navigate the transition from high school to postsecondary education. The name is an acronym that stands for Resilience, Education, Adventure, Community and Health, but the word itself perfectly describes what the organization does, which is […]

Parkinson Association of Santa Barbara
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 8, 2025

April is always a big time of year for the Parkinson Association of Santa Barbara (PASB). That’s when the very local, very grassroots nonprofit organization puts together its symposium, an annual event that’s at once a community builder, educational offering, and social gathering.  Which makes it not all that different from the ongoing activities of […]

SBC Search and Rescue
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 1, 2025

Santa Barbara County Search and Rescue (SBCSAR), established decades ago by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department to provide vital emergency search and rescue services for Santa Barbara County and surrounding areas, is an important first responder team for the community. The all-volunteer group of dedicated and highly trained search and rescue professionals is committed […]

Faith of a Child Foundation
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 21, 2025

Just over a dozen years ago, the Sonrise Baby Home in Uganda was started by a young woman named Damali Mirembe. She was one of many orphans raised by an American Vietnam War veteran on disability who had, years ago, moved to Uganda to help the orphaned children there. When they grew he put them […]

1st Annual Gilded Gala for the SB Museum of Art
By Joanne A Calitri   |   March 18, 2025

In what will turn out to be setting the bar for galas in our town, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s 1st Annual Gilded Gala Fundraiser was held on Friday, February 28 at none other than the Rosewood Miramar Beach. The gala’s mission is to raise funds for the SBMA’s “…dawn of a new era, […]

YouthWell
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 4, 2025

There was no doubt that top staff at the nonprofit YouthWell would show up at the sold-out Arlington Theatre last week to hear social psychologist Jonathan Haidt talk about The Anxious Generation, his new book that examines why, after more than a decade of stability and improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the […]

Youthful Vision — Big Impact: Chloe Voigt and YOUTHCLUSIVE Present ‘SpongeBob the Musical’
By Dalina Michaels   |   March 4, 2025

A new generation of young creatives is shaking up the local arts scene, and at the helm of this exciting movement is none other than Chloe Voigt, a 14-year-old high school freshman with big dreams and a passion for theatre. As the founder and leader of YOUTHCLUSIVE, a new nonprofit theater company dedicated to giving […]

Freedom to Choose
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 18, 2025

Last Sunday night, actor Clarence Maclin spoke to a sold-out Arlington Theatre audience at SBIFF’s Virtuosos Awards about why he had spent years co-writing and then acting in Sing Sing, the feature film up for Best Picture at next month’s Academy Awards. The movie depicts his earlier life, when he was sentenced to 17 years […]

White Buffalo’s Roots of the Future: Celebrating the Culture in Agriculture
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 11, 2025

Eighteen months ago, White Buffalo Land Trust (WBLT) celebrated the culmination of its year-long pilot of the organization’s Artist in Residence program. The program represents the dipping of a toe into expressing – through fine art – the Trust’s work to restore the ecosystem by practicing, promoting, and developing systems of regenerative agriculture at Jalama […]