Across Sacramento County, nonprofits are doing the hard, essential work of keeping people housed, fed, and connected to the support they need. They show up every day for neighbors navigating food insecurity, housing instability, and the kind of compounding challenges that rarely fit neatly into a single program or service.
Sustaining that work — and growing it — takes more than good intentions, or even good programs. It takes strong internal systems, skilled leadership, and the organizational foundation to serve more people without sacrificing quality or burning out the people doing the work.
That’s the idea behind the Sacramento Countywide Nonprofit Partnership Initiative (SCNPI), a 20-month capacity-building program launched by the Sacramento Region Community Foundation in partnership with the County of Sacramento. Through training, one-on-one technical assistance, peer learning, mentorship, and flexible grant funding, SCNPI is designed to help mid-sized nonprofits build the organizational infrastructure their missions demand.
We’re proud to announce the ten organizations selected for the inaugural cohort.
- AcademySTAY opened its 32-unit transitional housing campus in Sacramento’s Del Paso Heights in October 2024, providing housing and wraparound support exclusively to foster youth ages 18 to 24 who are pursuing college or vocational training. Having scaled from startup to fully operational residential campus in 18 months, AcademySTAY will use SCNPI to build the internal systems — data and evaluation, financial controls, HR, and grants management — needed to match the pace of its growth. It will also focus on opening new funding streams to serve more young people before they reach the edge of homelessness.
- Alchemist CDC has built a connected system of programs spanning food access, workforce development, entrepreneurship, and community space that helps Sacramento residents move from immediate crisis toward long-term stability. Through SCNPI, Alchemist will strengthen the internal infrastructure — leadership, financial management, and cross-team coordination — that allows those programs to work together more seamlessly, and will deepen its commitment to incorporating community voice and lived experience into program design.
- Elk Grove Food Bank Services has been a cornerstone of food access in the Elk Grove community for more than 50 years, serving over 21,000 individuals in 2025 alone through a client-choice warehouse, senior mobile distributions, home delivery, school-based programs, and services for individuals experiencing homelessness. Through SCNPI, the organization will strengthen data infrastructure, expand outreach and mobile distribution capacity, and build the fundraising and financial systems needed to sustain and grow that work.
- Orangevale-Fair Oaks Community Foundation operates the Orangevale-Fair Oaks Food Bank and HART (Homeless Assistance Resource Team), together serving tens of thousands of residents across Orangevale, Fair Oaks, Citrus Heights, and Folsom — a number that grew from 30,570 individuals in 2023 to over 46,000 in 2025. Through SCNPI, the organization will build the operational systems, data capacity, and leadership development needed to move from a reactive model to a more proactive, strategic approach that can keep pace with growing community need.
- Rancho Cordova Food Locker serves more than 1,500 households each week through a dignified, grocery store-style model where guests choose foods that reflect their own needs, cultural preferences, and dietary requirements. The organization is now transitioning into a community food hub, a more expansive model integrating edible food recovery, wraparound service connections, and welcoming physical space. Through SCNPI, the Food Locker will build the fundraising, data, and program infrastructure this next chapter requires.
- Rebuilding Together Sacramento has spent more than 35 years preventing homelessness from the front end — not by placing people into housing, but by keeping them in their homes through critical repairs, safety modifications, and accessibility improvements for low-income homeowners. Through SCNPI, the organization will expand outreach, improve data and impact measurement, and strengthen donor engagement and grant readiness so more of these upstream interventions can happen sooner, for more people, across Sacramento County.
- Refugee Enrichment and Development Association (REDA) Inc. provides culturally responsive services to refugee and immigrant communities across the greater Sacramento Valley, addressing housing instability, food insecurity, education, mental health, and the broader challenges of building stability in a new country. With waiting lists exceeding 300 individuals for several programs, REDA will use SCNPI to build fundraising capacity, invest in technology and operational infrastructure, and expand staffing to better meet the full scope of need facing the communities it serves.
- Sacramento Cottage Housing, Inc. provides permanent supportive housing and individualized wraparound services to approximately 300 individuals and families each year across its two communities, Quinn Cottages and Serna Village, with housing retention rates of 95 to 97 percent. Through SCNPI, Cottage Housing will focus on succession planning, board governance, and staff development — the organizational resilience that allows the deep, relationship-based work of breaking cycles of homelessness to continue well into the future.
- South County Services has spent five decades serving the rural communities of South Sacramento County, including the Delta region towns of Galt, Isleton, Walnut Grove, Courtland, and Hood, where geographic isolation and limited transportation create barriers for residents. Through SCNPI, the organization will strengthen its financial systems, diversify revenue, and improve program systems to extend its reach across a wide and underserved geography.
- Three Sisters Gardens addresses food insecurity as a question of community power and self-determination, donating over 41,000 pounds of organic produce in 2025 and paying young people to learn agriculture, food systems, and green career pathways through its Youth Leadership Development Program. At a critical growth moment — with a new South Sacramento farm site poised to double annual harvest — Three Sisters Gardens will use SCNPI to build the HR systems, board governance, and fundraising infrastructure needed to sustain and scale that momentum.
These ten organizations reflect the breadth and depth of community-based work happening across Sacramento County — from rural Delta communities to urban neighborhoods, from food pantries to transitional housing to urban farms. What they share is a commitment to the people they serve and a readiness to invest in the internal infrastructure that makes lasting impact possible.
SCNPI is made possible through the partnership between the Sacramento Region Community Foundation and the County of Sacramento. It builds on the Foundation’s more than 40 years of investing in the nonprofits that strengthen the capital area and on the County’s commitment to building a more resilient, connected nonprofit ecosystem.