Deer Creek Farm, a retail boutique in Rocklin that offers unique gifts, home decor and a working garden, is not your typical shop. The shop employs aged-out foster youth (18 and older) and at-risk teens as part of a mentoring program with Compassion Planet, a Rocklin-based nonprofit organization that works to bring stability into the lives of young people by equipping them for future success.

When you gather a group of people interested in bettering their neighborhood, I am pretty confident good things will come your way. While most neighbors are interested in preventing crime, some are interested in clean public bathrooms or more street lighting. All of these personal agendas make for a diverse to-do list. When it becomes personal, the vested interest grows stronger within the group.

Nehemiah Corp., a social enterprise nonprofit that has spent two decades developing programs that help low-income people afford homes, is winding down most of its operations, the company has announced.

In response to Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s new investment in the arts and creative economy, this is my open letter to Sacramento as a whole. To the creators. The developers. The decision-makers. The people.

The Sol Collective Arts and Cultural Center, a nonprofit that provides a space for artists and activists, is on track to buy the building it now rents on 21st Street near Broadway in Sacramento. Donors have pledged $70,000 toward a down payment of $100,000, says Estella Sánchez, the group’s executive director.

We are witnessing the development of a new and radically different philanthropic archetype: They are young, eager to solve the intractable problems that continue to plague our society and willing to chart a new course in how to achieve those goals.

It’s a big job, fundraising for a cause as well as for a new construction project. You dream big — you’ve always been good at that. But how do you navigate the twisted way from the dream of a shiny, new headquarters to the steel and concrete reality of one?

In May 2015, a pediatrician at Kaiser Permanente Roseville Medical Center pioneered a life-saving idea. It was remarkably simple, relatively inexpensive and would help address a public health crisis. Nurses would ask every mother of a newborn leaving the hospital if her baby had a safe place to sleep. If not, Kaiser would send the parent home with a free, portable Pack-N-Play.

If recruiting and empowering millennials and gen-Xers challenged the status quo, there’s no telling what will happen in coming months as Bray’s bold new vision for United Way unfolds.

The beauty of the diversity of a foundation such as the Sutter Yuba Community Foundation is that there is an unlimited scope of possibilities for assistance, as opposed to a foundation that grants funds for a specific purpose only.