The Santa Barbara Foundation

Mission

To every day use every tool at our disposal to facilitate the building of philanthropy, strengthen the nonprofit sector, and identify and strategically address important community opportunities and needs.

Our History

The Santa Barbara Foundation was established in 1928 by Max Fleischmann and a forward thinking group who wanted to enrich the lives of people from Santa Maria to Carpinteria.

For more than eight decades, the Santa Barbara Foundation has been at the center of civic activity, a vibrant expression of its engaged citizenry, a solver of problems, a partner in philanthropy, and a critical supporter of community organizations and efforts.

There is hardly a nonprofit organization or essential community project that has not benefited from the work of the Santa Barbara Foundation.

As we have grown, our goals have remained the same – turning community dollars into community change. Today, thanks to the unwavering generosity of our community, our assets have grown to exceed $300 million and we are the largest grantmaker in our county.