Gift Of Giving: CA Charities That Need Your Support To Wrap 2024

CALIFORNIA — The holidays are all about giving, particularly to the less fortunate. California is full of nonprofits working to make the holidays - and the rest of the year - brighter for all kinds of vulnerable populations, from the unhoused to farmworkers to animals to sick children to our oceans and forests.

We've selected 10 California nonprofits that we feel do admirable work to make our state a better place.

1. American Red Cross

The Red Cross is so much more than a national blood donation site. They also provide disaster relief, first aid training, and free fire alarm installations.

2. California Animal Welfare Association (CalAnimals)

CalAnimals was formed in 2018 as a merger between two statewide animal welfare associations: the California Animal Control Directors Association and State Humane Association of California. They support the success of animal welfare and sheltering organizations through a number of programs, including legislative advocacy and Animal Control Officer training.

3. California Farmworker Foundation

The California Farmworker Foundation helps the state's farmworkers by providing a variet of services, including health screenings, English-language classes, job training and immigration clinics.

4. The California Fire Foundation

The California Fire Foundation provides emotional and financial assistance to firefighters, the families of fallen firefighters, and survivors of fires.

5. Feeding America

Since 2020, Patch has partnered with Feeding America, which supports 200 food banks and 60,000 local meals programs across the country to help the roughly one in six Americans dealing with food insecurity. Find out how you can donate in your community or find a food pantry near you.

6. Homeboy Industries

This East Los Angeles-based nonprofit is the largest gang intervention rehab and re-entry program in the world. Homeboy Industries helps former gang members with employment, re-entry, substance abuse, and more.

7. The Ocean Cleanup

The Ocean Cleanup is developing and scaling technologies to rid the world's oceans of plastic, which kills marine species and releases toxins into the oceans. The Ocean Cleanup says its goal is to "put itself out of business once the oceans are clean."

8. PATH

PATH provides job training, case management, medical and mental health care, benefits advocacy, employment training, and much more to the unhoused.

9. Save the Redwoods League

The Save the Redwoods League has protected more than 200,000 acres of redwood forests and created 66 redwood parks and reserves by purchasing redwood forests and the surrounding areas. Just five percent of the original coast redwood range remains, but the league is trying to regenerate logged forests to increase the number.

10. Shriners Hospitals for Children

Shriner's are a network of nonprofit hospitals that treat children with orthapedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft palates for free.