The Progressive Fund is honored to sponsor these terrific community efforts! As part of our commitment to help people build power and launch new services in our region, we host important and dynamic efforts while they work to get off the ground.
100% of your donation goes to these causes or if giving to our general fund, straight into the community.
To donate by check, make payable to: Smith-Barbieri Fund, PO Box 9574, Spokane, WA 99209
Note the designation of your choice (below) on your checks.
Thanks for your generosity to our community!
Donate to the Smith-Barbieri Progressive Fund and every dollar goes into the community to reduce poverty, expand affordable housing and build a more knowledgeable and powerful constituency. No overhead is deducted. Our focus is on funding smaller and startup nonprofits and projects to add capacity to the social service sector in the Inland Northwest. DONATE NOW
Next Chapter: Home & Leadership Development is a two-program approach to lifting up BIPOC and underrepresented community members to elevate their opportunity to thrive in the next chapter of their lives. Next Chapter: Home provides home goods and furnishing for newly housed persons free of charge. A shopping-type experience is provided to individuals exiting homelessness who are working with a local nonprofit, have secured housing, and are working with appropriate resources to continue building a healthy and sustainable future. Next Chapter: Leadership Development provides a board development and leadership course for BIPOC persons, those who have experienced homelessness and under-represented community members at no charge. Course work includes an in-depth study of organizational practices, financial oversight, human resource best practices, and nonprofit board strategy. Please DONATE HERE!
Growing Neighbors has been connecting neighbors and caring for nature since 2016 and continues to creatively collaborate with a wide variety of community partners to help neighbors of diverse backgrounds grow and share healthy food and relationships. We seek to embody love and help neighbors use their gifts to meet each others’ needs by increasing equitable food access and sustainable, active, and communal living. We are cultivating an ecosystem where neighbors treat every member of the environment more like family. Our primary practice is starting and expanding community gardens. We also support food sharing, education, and waste reduction in many ways including free meals, farmers’ markets, Little Free Pantries, food deliveries, community composting, and cooking and gardening-related classes. DONATE NOW!
Trans Spokane is a community-organized, trans-led social and support group for transgender individuals in the Spokane-CDA metropolitan area. Our primary objective is to provide a platform for fostering social connections among trans individuals. We achieve this goal through weekly in-person and virtual meetings, a dedicated discord channel exclusively for local trans individuals, and outreach events. DONATE NOW!
The West Central Development Project seeks to move the needle on poverty with a focus on building long-term capacity for change rather than providing short-term alleviation of need through charity. We are engaging people and concerned organizations in the West Central neighborhood, identifying the assets of the neighbors themselves, their stories and skills.
At the heart of this work are people in poverty developing leadership skills to improve their community together.
The tools we use focus on building and strengthening relationships. Building a relational framework within the community connects these assets to actions for the common good and improving the West Central quality of life. We focus on using the skills of Asset Based Community Development and community organizing. For instance, community residents identified affordable housing as a vital component of quality of life and, with the help of The Spokane Alliance, they have acted to return derelict houses to the market and move relevant legislation forward. The point is for the residents of the community to use their own assets and leadership capabilities to effect positive change for themselves and their neighbors over the long term. DONATE NOW!
New Story/Spokane is a local, openhearted collaboration of folk in the Inland Northwest who are working to Prosper together by caring for Planet and People through the telling of a new story of humanity. The stories we tell about the world shape how we live in it. This New story stands in contrast with the six traditional stories of humanity which promote fear, consumption and the domination of others. This new story, also known as the Seventh Story, promotes nonviolence in how we deal with each other while advocating for a more sustainable lifestyle that values the common good and collaboration between all groups, as we work to build a more just and inclusive society. DONATE NOW!
VILLAGE COHOUSING WORKS
We are proud to have served as Village Cohousing Works fiscal sponsor and provided their initial funding. Over the past two years VCW has grown and now have their own 501c3. VCW is committed to harnessing the power of community to positively change lives with practical, permanent housing. They aim to bring affordable housing to the underserved rural north county, in the form of community-centered construction that prioritizes those who have experienced or are vulnerable to homelessness. VCW envisions a model that offers residents the opportunity to gain equity in the context of stable and meaningful relationships. Please DONATE at their new link!
PEPP is an educational/hands-on training program consisting of required courses of study undertaken in 160 hours of classes which are conducted Monday-Friday for 20 days. Curriculum delivery involves practical construction math, job safety, equipment and tool use, life skills, and financial literacy. Students participating in the program are individuals who are, or soon will be, reentering the community from local or state corrections facilities. Ongoing, student recruiting focuses on underrepresented and non-traditional populations in the Spokane community. Program staff, working with each student, identify and attempt to mitigate barriers to completion of the program as well as barriers to a successful and fulfilling construction career upon graduation from PEPP. This includes such potential barriers as the need to be relicensed in the State of WA in order to hold a valid driver’s license; childcare, past-due child support, housing, etc. PEPP staff have established a network of social service personnel who are ready to work with PEPP students and assist them in reducing/eliminating barriers that might keep them from moving forward in employment.
All students are issued eye and ear protection, a hardhat, high visibility vest, gloves, boots, and a tool belt complete with basic construction hand tools. Students who successfully complete the program leave with the safety equipment and tools they were issued. Students receive a participation stipend of $100.00 per week. Successful completion of the program includes certifications in first aid, OSHA 10, traffic control and a forklift qualification credential. DONATE NOW!
SHADES OF MOTHERHOOD
The Progressive Fund is proud to have served as fiscal sponsor for Shades of Motherhood. The Shades of Motherhood Network‘s mission is to center Black mothers and birthing people through education, empowerment, and community so that we can use our voices, art activism, cultural care and awareness, advocacy, and data collection to eradicate health inequities. This is conducted through free events, trainings, and outreach. In these ways, we provide free support and services to the community. We will continuously collect data and stories about the need for our work and the impact of our work. Please DONATE at their new link!
MANZANITA HOUSE
The Progressive Fund is proud to have been the fiscal sponsor for Manzanita House. Manzanita House is devoted to creating space where all immigrants have a place at the table to freely and fully participate in community. Our mission is to embrace, equip, and empower immigrants through access to culturally informed essential services, and facilitate connections to grow deeper roots and thrive in Spokane. Donations to Manzanita House help to support access to low-cost immigrant legal aid community outreach events and education, such as Arabic language classes, asylum clinics and resource fairs. Please DONATE at their new link!
The Progressive Fund is honored to have served as Compassionate Addiction Treatment’s fiscal sponsor beginning before they opened their doors. CAT offers services for people with substance use disorders, including opioid use disorder, methamphetamine use disorder, alcohol use disorder and stimulant use disorder. Now that they’re up and running as their own nonprofit, please DONATE at their new link!
The Progressive Fund was honored to support FEAST as they embarked on their nonprofit journey! Now that they’re up and running as their own nonprofit, please DONATE at their new link! Congratulations FEAST!
Solace is an app that provides information and resources to guide transgender people through whatever process of gender transition they desire. Originally conceived and launched as a nonprofit technology, it has since been folded into the Euphoria Corporation, where the founders’ commitment to providing the app 100% free of charge remains intact. More information and download links can be found here.
Note: Donations for Solace are no longer being accepted as they transition to a for-profit entity.
The Progressive Fund was honored to support this dynamic organic organization as they embarked on their membership drive and the Carl Maxey Center! Now that they’re up and running as their own nonprofit, please DONATE at their new link! Congratulations Friends of the Black Lens!
Or send a check to:
Smith-Barbieri Progressive Fund
PO Box 9574
Spokane, WA 99209
To designate a donation toward a specific project, please make a note of it in the memo line of your check or select the button when making your online donation (when available). Donations received without designation will be used toward our core missions.
The Foundation Trustees, Sharon Smith and Don Barbieri, personally donate to the Foundation to cover all overhead costs including the Executive Director salary and our nonprofit incubation (sponsorship) program. The Trustees draw no salaries or fees and receive no personal benefit from the Foundation.
Donations made personally by Smith and Barbieri may at times be invested to endow the Foundation for future projects and long-term sustainability. All investments are made in ESG (environmental, social, and governance) funds such as those managed by Trillium Asset Management.
Donations and grants made by the Foundation are chosen carefully by the Foundation Trustees, Sharon Smith and Don Barbieri, and Executive Director, Lerria Schuh, to align with the Foundation’s core missions.
All donations to the Smith-Barbieri Progressive Fund are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. All gifts are acknowledged and the Foundation will provide a receipt for tax purposes.
Have a question or want more info? Please contact us!
Thank you!
The Smith-Barbieri Progressive Fund is a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Our Tax ID number is 91-1914985. Donations to the Smith-Barbieri Progressive Fund are tax deductible as allowed by law.
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