In the fall of 2011, the executive directors of the Sacramento Philharmonic and the Sacramento Opera sat in their respective offices staring bleakly at financial reports that were telling each of them what they already knew:

Dorothy Hillbrant, who has stage III ovarian cancer, became one of about 30 local drivers for the American Cancer Society’s Road to Recovery Program, which has provided free rides to treatment for patients and their caregivers for about 30 years.

Kim Sturla’s biggest challenge isn’t caring for thousands of animals at a time. It’s trying to get people to think about a pig’s life in the same way they would think about a dog’s. 

Since August 1999, Lial Jones has served as director of the Crocker Art Museum. During her tenure, she has led a capital campaign that successfully raised more than $120 million to finance the Teel Family Pavilion, a 125,000-square-foot addition that opened in October of 2010.

A growing movement of collaboration is uniting local nonprofits with faith-based organizations in an effort to maximize community impact by increasing manpower and financial support.

Banning together 12 years ago, a group of local women sought out to help foster youth establish healthy lives after emancipation.

A little more than six years ago, the El Dorado Community Foundation tapped William Roby to become its new executive director. Roby had been working for the foundation for only a year as its program director, but the board was seeking a fresh personality to lead the organization. Since then, Roby has concentrated on one goal: getting the foundation to a point of fiscal sustainability so it can pay its own way.

I don’t remember life without sexual abuse and torment. It was my reality. Believing in anything else was foolish.

Alyssah Schafer was born with a congenital heart defect and has never been able to run or compete in sports. Over time, her friends drifted away, and the girl became depressed. But then she met a mustang named Montana at All About Equine, a horse rescue and rehabilitation organization in El Dorado Hills.  

Claudette was single and pregnant. She felt hurt, angry and confused, so she made an appointment at Sacramento’s Alternatives Pregnancy Center.