Partnering for Impact: $60K in Rapid Response Grants Awarded in Record Time

Episcopal Impact Fund's community support is fueling urgent aid for six frontline organizations.

(L-R) Good Samaritan Family Resource Center, Global Communication, Education and Art, Project Avary, and Lyon-Martin Community Health Services

“Serving our neighbors is a gift that nourishes our souls. We’re deeply grateful for the opportunity to do this work for the unhoused of our community.” –Mario Paz, Executive Director, Good Samaritan Family Resource Center

Just over a month since launching the Partnering for Good Rapid Response Fund, we’ve received a large number of applications from frontline organizations across the Bay Area—all facing urgent funding challenges.

Thanks to the incredible generosity of our community, we’ve already awarded six Rapid Response Grants totaling $60,000. These funds are helping extraordinary organizations sustain essential services during some of their most difficult moments.

The Episcopal Impact Fund Partnering for Good Rapid Response Grant supported the following organizations and their initiatives:

• Global Communication Education & Art (GCEA) is a community-based organization focused on effectively supporting African immigrants by providing tailored services like housing support, legal assistance, employment help, and cultural integration initiatives. Due to the heightened fear and uncertainty amid federal deportation threats, GCEA is committed to asylum seekers and underserved immigrant families. The Rapid Response Grant funds will support the creation of Know Your Rights workshops while shoring up housing navigation, job placement, and mental health supportive services.

• Good Samaritan Family Resource Center delivers emergency basic needs—housing, food, diapers, hygiene supplies, and utility support—to low-income, primarily Latino immigrant families in San Francisco. But with major funding cuts and rising need, hundreds of families are being forced onto waitlists. The Rapid Rapid Grant funds will be deployed immediately to expand service capacity and provide trauma-informed, culturally responsive care.

• Lyon-Martin Community Health Services stands apart as the only integrated healthcare resource by and for Transgender, Non-Binary, Gender Non-Conforming, and Intersex communities in San Francisco, amidst efforts to roll back the rights of trans people nationwide. The building that houses their clinic is up for sale, jeopardizing our lifesaving services at a time when federal funding cuts and legal attacks are putting clinics like Lyon-Martin at even greater risk. The Rapid Response Grant will help secure and renovating a new permanent home on Valencia Street.

• North Marin Community Services, the anchor human services nonprofit serving Northern Marin, serves over 13,000 of our neighbors annually with needs ranging from emergency food and rental assistance to early childcare education. Through their partnership with Legal Aid of Marin (LAM), the Rapid Response Grant funds will support expanded services to help address critical gaps in Marin County’s immigration legal services infrastructure, with the goal of expanding access to North Marin’s low-income immigrant community.

• Project Avary supports children of incarcerated parents, a deeply underserved group facing high rates of poverty, trauma, and systemic invisibility. In February 2025, they learned that a federal grant they’d relied on for years was abruptly removed without warning. The Rapid Response Grant provides immediate, targeted support to sustain core programming, where youth unpack grief, celebrate identity, develop communication and leadership skills, and build lasting connections with peers and mentors who share and understand their experience.

• Tiny Village Spirit (TVS) provides Contra Costa youth ages 18–24 with transitional housing, community, and wraparound support in a healing-centered environment. Residents will have access to private tiny homes, shared communal spaces, and onsite services focused on mental health, employment, and life skills. Recently, TVS experienced a devastating theft that resulted in the loss of building materials that could have delayed the opening of the new Richmond tiny home village. Rapid Response Grant funds supported the urgent completion of two communal gathering spaces for meals, therapy, and workshops.

We are honored to stand with these resilient organizations as they continue to meet urgent needs and uplift our communities with compassion and courage.