As 18-year-old Margaret Gomez was about to complete her final GED exam, she started having contractions. She rushed from the room before finishing, though would go on to reschedule and pass. In May 2006, Gomez spoke at graduation to her 50-person class. Her 2-year-old daughter, Julyza, and weeks-old son, Junior, were in the crowd.

It’s a familiar sentiment expressed by a local donor: The charity she supports is asking for money with increasing frequency. Yet nothing changes for the better, and now duplicate groups are popping up, all of them requesting funds to address the same problem. To her, the requests seem endless.

The #MeToo and #WeSaidEnough movements remind us that women’s voices, values and ideas must be heard and heeded — not only to take aim at a culture of harassment, but to empower future generations of women to achieve and succeed.

In Sacramento’s Oak Park neighborhood, community dance lives, thanks to identical twin sisters Heather and Holly Singleteary, co-founders of the BlyueRose Dance Project at the Instituto Mazatlan de Bellas Artes.

Shiloh London is an early riser of the extreme variety. She wakes up at 4 a.m., spends a few minutes in silence over black coffee, laces her sneakers and literally trains for a marathon. Afterward she connects with her running mates over coffee — all before a full day’s work.

How one nonprofit uses education to encourage action on behalf women and girls around the world.

B Street has built a community of almost 30,000 devoted subscribers and patrons, and has dedicated itself to producing more than 100 new plays — 60 of which are world, national or regional premieres. Yet despite its successes, we at B Street have never lost sight of our original mission to entertain and educate children about theater and playwriting.

Community foundations have a long tradition of helping to bring about thoughtful, effective change. As 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charities, they enable people to easily and effectively support the issues they care about, including education, youth, arts, social services, environment, recreation, public health and more.

When an earthquake struck Napa Valley in August 2014, destroying homes and businesses, injuring 200 people and killing one, residents rallied to support their neighbors, donating almost $11 million to the Napa Valley Community Foundation.

The Sacramento Blue Star Moms provide support to mothers with children in the military, ship care packages to deployed service members, support veteran organizations, promote patriotism, and remember our fallen and support their family members.