About Santa Barbara Vintners Foundation
To build and support wellness within Santa Barbara County's vineyard and wine community.
Focus Areas
healthcare accessemergency financial assistanceworker wellness and basic needs (clothing, boots, backpacks)scholarships and education supportcommunity partnership and event fundraising
Who They Fund
vineyard and wine community (Santa Barbara County)seasonal vineyard/farmworkersfarmworker familieslocal winery employees and crews
Funding Style
direct serviceemergency financial assistance
About Santa Barbara Vintners Foundation
The Santa Barbara Vintners Foundation centers its giving on wellness within Santa Barbara County’s vineyard and wine community, pairing partner nonprofit grants with direct support for workers and students. In the most recent grants list, the largest award went to Direct Relief for $200,000, followed by $175,000 to Community Health Centers-cent and another $175,000 to Direct Relief for general support. Those grants sit alongside the foundation’s active programs for beneficiary partnerships, crisis assistance, and a scholarship for a member of the local winegrowing community. The foundation’s work is place-based and tightly connected to the county’s wine sector. Its active grant programs include a Santa Barbara Wine Community Crisis Fund for rapid financial relief in medical emergencies, natural disasters, or unexpected life events, and a Viñador Scholarship that awards $5,000 annually for higher education. The overall pattern shows support for both immediate needs and longer-term stability for vineyard workers, farmworker families, winery crews, and the broader wine community. Recent recipients include local health and human services organizations that serve that workforce and its families.
What Santa Barbara Vintners Foundation Funds
Healthcare access is a clear part of the foundation’s grantmaking. It gave $200,000 to Direct Relief in 2024 and $175,000 to Direct Relief in 2025 for general support, and it also awarded $175,000 to Community Health Centers-cent in 2024. The foundation also supports community health organizations that serve the Central Coast wine workforce. In 2025, it gave $93,000 to Community Health Centers of the Central Coast Inc in Nipomo for general support. Beyond health access, the foundation has a scholarship program for the winegrowing community. The Viñador Scholarship awards one $5,000 scholarship each year to a member of the Santa Barbara County winegrowing community pursuing higher education. It also runs a crisis fund for people working in the Santa Barbara County wine industry facing urgent personal or disaster-related expenses.
How Santa Barbara Vintners Foundation Gives
Grant sizes cluster tightly around a few large awards: the p25 is $181,250, the median is $187,500, and the p75 is $193,750. The recent grant list shows repeated support to the same organizations across years, including Direct Relief and Community Health Centers-related recipients, which suggests ongoing relationships rather than one-off gifts. The foundation operates as a local funder tied to Santa Barbara County’s wine community. Its programs include partner grants, an annual scholarship, and a crisis fund, and both the scholarship and crisis fund accept unsolicited requests.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$268K
Total Assets
$691K
Total Revenue
$764K
Total Expenses
$361K
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $181K and $194K, with a median of $188K.
25th Percentile
$181K
Median
$188K
75th Percentile
$194K
Geographic Reach
Local1 state funded
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
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