Annual Report 2024-2025
HUMANS ARE GOOD.
We see it every day.
YEAR IN REVIEW
“Humans are Good.” It’s on the cover of this year’s Annual Report. It was the theme of the inaugural Community Foundation Gala in March. And it hangs on a banner in the NVCF office, so team members can look up anytime and see our North Star.
Not that we need a reminder. Every day, we get several of them.
It’s the donors who make all this philanthropic work possible. It’s the partners we work with in the community. It’s the people we help, the causes we all support.
We are continually amazed by the benevolence in our community. It allows us to do so much.
In the past 12 months, we’ve been busy with …
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Awarding grants for recovery work for the Park Fire, Thompson Fire, Camp Fire and Dixie Fire.
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Opening a response fund after a horrific school shooting involving two kindergartners near Oroville.
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Creating a fund to help the community have a say in whatever happens next at Bidwell Mansion, which burned in an arson fire.
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Managing the CARE Team, a vital and effective teenage suicide prevention and response program in Butte County created by NVCF.
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Bringing safe drinking water to homes in Glenn and Tehama counties where wells have run dry.
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Convening community meetings in Colusa County to identify economic development projects and seek grants through the state government’s California Jobs First initiative.
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Handing out a record number of scholarships to help young people in our area achieve their goal of attending college.
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Opening dozens of funds for citizens in Butte, Glenn, Tehama, Colusa and Plumas counties, each of which represents someone’s dream to help make our world a better place.
The best part of this work is watching good people spring to action when there’s a need. That’s what a community foundation is all about.
MESSAGE FROM THE CEO
Before the nation knew our name, we were a gentle idea, a little dream.
When I was hired 20 years ago to rebuild our community foundation, we were holed up in a tiny office gifted to us at the edge of town. There was no staff and a handful of clients, but enough hope for all of the world. There was no money for rent or payroll, but enough faith in humanity to sustain this dream.
This faith wasn’t born from imagination. It came from witnessing human kindness and compassion in every corner of the world.
NVCF was built around this truth – that humans are good.
BY THE NUMBERS
July 1, 2024-June 30, 2025 (preaudit)
$9,435,054
GRANTS, CHARITABLE PROJECTS AND SCHOLARSHIPS MADE IN FISCAL YEAR
$10,279,149
11.17%
Money raised in fiscal year for social good
Fiscal year
investment return
$40,104,696
Net assets, end of year
7.18%
10-year average
investment return
HIGHLIGHTED STORIES
DONOR HIGHLIGHT
Aaron Rodgers
Chico native Aaron Rodgers has been named MVP of the National Football League four times.
This year he landed another type of MVP award – Most Valuable Philanthropist – when he was named the North Valley Philanthropist of the Year at our inaugural Community Foundation Gala.
DONOR-ADVISED FUND HIGHLIGHT
Brian and Karen Sweeney
Brian and Karen Sweeney each moved from the Bay Area to Chico for college, met, got married, started a family and never left.
Now they hold a donor-advised fund at NVCF that allows them to give back to the community, with a goal of lifting up others and preserving the sense of place that attracted them to the area more than 40 years ago.
LEGACY GIFT HIGHLIGHT
Donna Murrill
Donna Murrill’s benevolent heart and her love for community will live on long after her passing in 2022.
The longtime Durham resident, a 35-year employee at the Butte County Department of Health, decided to leave part of her estate to charity, with a significant portion for NVCF’s wildfire recovery efforts. She was evacuated twice as a result of the Camp Fire, saw the work NVCF was doing to help fire survivors and decided to donate to help future fire victims.
