24 Local Nonprofit Organizations Awarded $561,000 in Pasadena Community Foundation Capital Grants Funding

Pasadena Community Foundation announces funding to 24 Pasadena area nonprofit organizations as part of its annual Capital Grants Program, the foundation’s largest annual grant investment. This year, the grant awards total more than one-half million dollars in support of facility improvements and equipment purchases at local organizations. 

PCF is especially proud to award $50,000 Capital Campaign Grants to Mount Wilson Institute (MWI) and to  Cancer Support Community San Gabriel Valley (CSCSGV). PCF’s funding will help MWI launch the Second  Century Campaign to make the mountain site more welcoming, accessible, and safe for its 95,000 annual visitors. 

“As the site of the most significant astronomical discoveries of the first half of the 20th Century,  Mount Wilson Observatory is part of everybody’s cultural legacy,” says the MWI Board of Trustees. “We are incredibly grateful to the Pasadena Community Foundation for this generous grant. It will support the  Institute’s mission ‘to manage and promote the Observatory for scientific research, historic preservation,  education, public engagement, and the arts.’” 

In Sierra Madre, CSCSGV is settling into its new permanent facility, and PCF’s Capital Campaign Grant provides funding to install solar panels, one of the final projects of the organization’s Be the Key Capital  Campaign. 

“We are thrilled to receive a $50,000 Capital Grant from the Pasadena Community Foundation toward solar panels,” says CSCSGV’s Executive Director Patricia Ostiller. “PCF’s gift will yield benefits for decades to come thanks to the utility savings that can be directed to our programs. PCF’s partnership with  CSCSGV and other nonprofits in the area is priceless and precious to us. We couldn’t do what we do  without PCF being a crucial part of the ‘wind beneath our wings’.” 

The remaining $461,000 in PCF’s Capital Grant funding will support a broad range of projects at 22 Pasadena-area nonprofits, including: 

• CHAPCare: Improving optometry care for low-income and uninsured children.  • Frostig Center for Educational Therapy: Replacement of playground equipment and ground cover. • The Gamble House: Mitigation of a persistent water intrusion problem. 
• Pasadena Community Orchestra: Purchase of sheet music, percussion instruments, and music stands. 
• Ride On LA: Conversion of space at Hahamongna Park for an adaptive, therapeutic horse-riding program for at-risk youth and people with disabilities. 
• Ronald McDonald House Pasadena: House revitalization and repainting.  
• Soul Force Project: Purchase of a professional camera package to amplify its mission of promoting social justice through global arts and music. 
• Sycamores: Refurbishment of the Art/Rec room at the El Nido Campus. 
• Union Station Homeless Services: Renovations of 15 Euclid Villa family apartment kitchens. • Villa Esperanza: Support of the second phase of its Hope Moves Forward campus improvement project. 

2023 Capital Grant Awards 

$50,000 Capital Campaign Grantees 

• Cancer Support Community Greater San Gabriel Valley 
• Mt. Wilson Institute 

Capital Grantee Organizations 

• AbilityFirst 
• Abode Communities 
• Amigos de los Rios 
• Community Health Alliance of Pasadena (CHAPCare) 
• Five Acres – The Boys & Girls Aid Society of Los Angeles County 
• Foothill Family Service 
• Frostig Center for Educational Therapy 
• Gamble House Conservancy 
• The Gooden Center 
• Grandview Foundation 
• Pasadena Audubon Society 
• Pasadena Community Orchestra 
• Impact House 
• Ride On LA 
• Ronald McDonald House Pasadena 
• Soul Force Project 
• St. Vincent de Paul – St. Elizabeth Conference 
• Sycamores 
• Union Station Homeless Services 
• Villa Esperanza Services 
• YMCA Pasadena-Sierra Madre
• Young & Healthy 

Founded in 1953, Pasadena Community Foundation (PCF) is a tax-exempt public charity created by and for the people of the greater Pasadena area. Managing nearly $145 million in charitable assets, PCF works with individuals, families, and organizations to establish philanthropic funds, create, and build endowments, and to  distribute charitable gifts to nonprofit organizations. In 2023, PCF will award more than $2 million in grant funding to more than 100 Pasadena-area nonprofit organizations.