When an earthquake struck Napa Valley in August 2014, destroying homes and businesses, injuring 200 people and killing one, residents rallied to support their neighbors, donating almost $11 million to the Napa Valley Community Foundation.

The Sacramento Blue Star Moms provide support to mothers with children in the military, ship care packages to deployed service members, support veteran organizations, promote patriotism, and remember our fallen and support their family members.

We are Families NOW. That’s Families NOW, not tomorrow, not next week. We remove the systemic barriers that cause our children to languish in foster care. We show up, and we speak up at the tables where child welfare policies and funding decisions are made, and in the halls where legislation is passed.

When you really think about it, what are the two pieces of finance that can impact someone the hardest? The answer, we think, is budgeting and credit.

So why is it that we don’t learn about these topics in school?  

On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act. I was on the phone with my dad; we were witnessing history together. Not since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the bill that would eventually become Medicare and Medicaid had we experienced such a monumental healthcare shift.

During the school year, 13 students from Washington Elementary School in Stockton, meet once a week at the 5.7-acre Boggs Tract Community Farm, where the children grow seedlings into vegetables in one small patch of land.

In providing more than shelter, we are cognizant that we are not just helping animals, but also helping people who love animals. That requires us to be as compassionate, caring and patient with people as we are with animals.

Without their owners, some domestic animals may be able to survive in a new humanless environment, but for others the situation is much more bleak.

Visitors to the museum hear personal stories of internment at the permanent exhibit Uprooted! Japanese Americans During WWII.

Oftentimes, the most fiscally-successful companies of today are those that have embraced a culture of giving back to the community that helped them grow, encouraging their employees to do the same. But the first hurdle is deciding what form of philanthropy to support.