The West Marin Fund has selected four nonprofit-led collaborations to receive a total of $600,000 for projects aimed at expanding social services, preventing youth substance use, and preserving local history across coastal Marin. The grants, awarded through the Collaborative Impact Grants program, will provide $150,000 over two years to West Marin Community Services, the Bolinas Community Land Trust, Marin Healthy Youth Partnerships, and the Bolinas Museum.
Now in its third round, the program supports projects that bring organizations together to address needs across the region. Valeria Brabata, the fund’s director of programs and impact, said the grants are designed to help small groups take on problems they could not solve alone.
“West Marin’s organizations tend to be small, and solving some of the region’s issues can be hard for any one organization to do,” she told the Light. “These grants promote collaboration and allow for more risk-taking. They allow organizations to go beyond what they normally do to solve big problems.”
The program uses a participatory grantmaking model, offering the public a role in a process typically shrouded in mystery. A grant review committee consisting of local representatives reviews proposals and makes recommendations, while the fund conducts due diligence, provides technical assistance, and gives final board approval.
This year, the fund received 10 letters of intent involving 51 partners; it then invited six groups to submit full proposals. The money comes from the county, the Marin Community Foundation, the Sarlo Family Foundation, and the West Marin Fund.
One grant will support West Marin Community Services’ effort to bring services closer to residents in Bolinas and Tomales, where transportation barriers and limited infrastructure can make it difficult for people to access food, housing, health care, and other safety-net supports. The project will expand bilingual outreach and increase the agency’s presence at schools and community hubs.
Another will support a Bolinas-Stinson social-services strategic alliance led by the Bolinas Community Land Trust. The alliance will bring together local and regional organizations to assess community needs, map existing services and gaps, and create a more coordinated framework for reaching low-income households, elders, and undocumented residents. The effort is meant to complement, rather than duplicate, the expanded work of West Marin Community Services.
A third grant is going to Marin Healthy Youth Partnerships for Resilient West Marin, a regional strategy to reduce youth substance use. The nonprofit will work with the West Marin Coalition for Healthy Youth, local school districts, West Marin Community Services, the San Geronimo Valley Community Center, and other partners to better understand local patterns of substance use and adapt prevention strategies to West Marin’s communities.
The Bolinas Museum will receive funding for “Where Land Meets Story,” a region-wide oral history project with the Dance Palace, KWMR, and the Bolinas Film Festival. The project will record and share the experiences of West Marin residents, with a focus on elders, ranching and agricultural families, Indigenous people, artists, immigrant communities, and longtime residents whose stories are often underrepresented in formal archives.
In its first two rounds, the Collaborative Impact Grants program awarded a total of $1.125 million to projects led by Petaluma Health Center, the Point Reyes National Seashore Association, Innovative Health Solutions, the West Marin Housing Collaborative, the Magnolia Project, West Marin Community Services, the San Geronimo Valley Community Center, and the Community Land Trust Association of West Marin.