Most people want to make a difference. The question is usually where to start. The world feels large, the problems feel enormous, and the gap between wanting to help and knowing how to help stops a lot of people before they take the first step.
But the most powerful giving is often the most local: the nonprofit serving families two blocks from your house, the organization feeding seniors in your zip code, the community foundation connecting donors and nonprofits across the county where you live, work, and raise your family.
That’s the conversation I had with Connie Harris, CEO of the Solano Community Foundation, in this episode of Turning Point. We recorded it on Giving Tuesday, and we talked about what local philanthropy actually looks like, why it matters, and what happens when a community decides to invest in itself.
Listen to the full episode here.
Give Where You Live
The principle is simple. When you donate to a local nonprofit, your money doesn’t disappear into a national overhead structure. It stays close to home. It funds the counselor at the local shelter, the meals at the community center, the after-school program serving kids in your neighborhood. And it supports organizations whose staff live in the same community they serve and show up for it in ways remote organizations can’t replicate.
Connie Harris has dedicated her career to building that kind of local giving infrastructure in Solano County. She understands both the incredible need in our county and the remarkable capacity that already exists to meet it when residents are connected to the right opportunities.
Give Local Solano, a platform the Foundation coordinates, connects donors directly with local nonprofits doing meaningful work across Solano County. It makes giving simple, transparent, and rooted in the community you’re already part of. Visit givelocalsolano.org to explore the nonprofits serving your community and find the cause that resonates with you.
Community Foundations Do More Than Move Money
Community foundations aren’t simply pass-through organizations that collect and distribute donations. They build infrastructure, identify gaps in local services and help fill them, train nonprofit leaders, and convene the conversations that connect donors, organizations, government agencies, and residents around shared challenges.
As Connie described, the Solano Community Foundation connects donors with nonprofits, provides training and technical assistance to local organizations, manages grant programs, and builds the coordinated response capacity that lets Solano County move quickly when crisis hits.
That capacity was tested during COVID-19 and again during wildfire relief efforts. The Foundation’s ability to mobilize resources, coordinate organizations, and direct funding where it was most urgently needed showed what a well-built community foundation makes possible, especially in the hard times.
This kind of infrastructure matters to me both as a council member and as someone who has built community organizations. I co-founded Solano Impact Care, which relies on exactly the kind of collaborative ecosystem the Foundation helps build. And I created Hazel’s Tranquility Place, a nonprofit serving formerly incarcerated women and their children that depends on community support, partnership, and sustained giving. Both are part of the same local giving ecosystem this episode is about.
Every Contribution Matters. Really.
This is the message most people need to hear. The belief that your contribution is too small to matter is one of the biggest barriers to local giving. It keeps people who genuinely want to help from ever taking the first step, and it simply isn’t true.
Connie is direct about this. Whether it’s ten, twenty-five, or one hundred dollars, collective giving becomes a powerful force for change. A thousand people giving twenty-five dollars each creates twenty-five thousand dollars for a local nonprofit that might be running entirely on grants and community donations. That money funds programs, retains staff, and keeps doors open for families who have nowhere else to turn.
Give Local Solano makes that collective impact visible. Donors can see the organizations they’re supporting, the work those organizations do, and the cumulative impact of our community’s giving. That transparency builds trust, and trust builds a lasting giving culture.
As I wrote in Volunteerism in Action on Turning Point, community investment doesn’t require resources most people don’t have. It requires showing up with what you do have: time, skills, twenty-five dollars on Giving Tuesday, or a share on social media that introduces someone to an organization they’d never have found on their own. Each of those adds up.
Why This Conversation Matters for Fairfield
Fairfield has an active nonprofit sector doing important work in education, housing, public health, youth development, and community services. But nonprofits everywhere operate on the margin between sustainable and underfunded, and the difference is often whether residents treat supporting local organizations as a regular practice or an occasional impulse.
I’ve worked to shift that culture in District 1 through the organizations I’ve built, the conversations we have on Turning Point, and the advocacy I bring to the policy decisions that shape how public resources flow toward community needs.
In Keeping the Dream Alive with the Matt Garcia Foundation, I wrote that legacy is built through sustained action rather than single moments. The same is true of philanthropy. The communities that thrive are the ones where giving is a habit, not an event, and where residents support the organizations serving their neighbors consistently, not only when a crisis makes the need visible.
Listen to this episode of Turning Point with Connie Harris here, and visit solanocf.org to learn more about the Solano Community Foundation.
Three Ways to Start Right Now
One: Visit givelocalsolano.org and find a nonprofit doing work in Solano County that resonates with you. Give what you can. Then tell someone else about it.
Two: Support the community organizations I’ve built in this county. Visit solanoimpactcare.org and hazelstranquility.org to learn how your contribution directly serves Solano County residents in need.
Three: Follow @imkpatrice on social media for more conversations about what genuine, sustained community investment looks like.
For campaign and election information, visit ElectKPatriceWilliams.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Who is Connie Harris and what is the Solano Community Foundation?
Connie Harris is the CEO of the Solano Community Foundation, a community foundation that connects donors with local nonprofits, provides training and capacity building, manages grant programs, and coordinates community response during crises. Learn more at solanocf.org.
2. What is Give Local Solano?
Give Local Solano is a platform coordinated by the Solano Community Foundation that connects donors directly with local nonprofits doing meaningful work across Solano County. Visit givelocalsolano.org to explore and give.
3. Does the size of my donation really matter?
Yes. Collective giving is powerful. Ten or twenty-five dollars from many community members creates significant resources for local nonprofits that operate on tight margins. Give Local Solano makes that collective impact visible and transparent.