We have been honored with a Top-Rated Award for 2022 from GreatNonprofits. Read inspiring stories about us from clients, volunteers, and community members, and add your own.

Celebrating a win as the best of Marin County.

Each year, California Assemblymembers and state senators are invited to honor a nonprofit of the year for their district. Assemblymember Marc Levine chose Community Action Marin as the 2020 California Nonprofit of the Year!

Charity Navigator is a charity assessment organization that evaluates hundreds of thousands of charitable organizations and uses a transparency rating system to find and support nonprofits that align with one's passions and values.

Guidestar is an information service specializing in reporting on U.S. nonprofit companies through a rating system of Bronze-Platinum. It connects donors and grantmakers to more than 2.5 million nonprofit organizations.

Awarded to Community Action Marin by Legal Aid of Marin for dedication to providing vital services and ensuring equal opportunity to Marin residents; an inspiration to our community.

Community Action Marin and the County of Marin's Division of Homelessness and Whole Person Care are partners in the County-wide effort to end homelessness in our community.

Presented to an Executive Director who has demonstrated excellence in leadership and whose vision has inspired meaningful and lasting change benefiting the organization and community. The Heart of Marin recognizes and honors Marin County’s outstanding non-profit volunteers, leaders, and organizations.

[3/11/23] The San Rafael City Council has voted to ban camping at Albert Park over public health and safety concerns connected with a growing homeless congregation. The unanimous vote on Monday expanded a ban that prohibits camping at Boyd Park, city open spaces and parking garages. The action followed increasing community complaints and police calls related to illicit activity involving the homeless people living at the site.

[3/8/23] Tenants of San Rafael’s Canal neighborhood and their supporters amassed at City Hall this week to demand that officials urgently enact a rent control ordinance amid mounting fears of gentrification. “Some of us are still working to pay the back rent left behind by COVID,” said Veronica Duarte, a renter. “If you do not help us, the stress will go up.”

[2/24/23] A pandemic program offering rental assistance to low-income residents in Marin is set to wind down. Community Action Marin, a San Rafael nonprofit that took over the program from the county in the fall, has dispensed more than $1.8 million since mid-November. It has about $1 million left to distribute by the end of next month.

[2/9/23] The landlord of a large apartment complex in the Canal neighborhood of San Rafael faced a dilemma. So did its tenants, residents who were forced from their residences after a December fire at the Meridian apartments on Canal Street. The landlord faced a city order to pay relocation expenses for displaced tenants. Failure to do so meant the city would withhold permits the landlord needs to make fire-damage repairs and renovations to the complex.

[1/6/23] "Our community needs to go to work and get to school, we want to be able to provide childcare for those families' children. That's our primary objective but we have had any number of natural, out of our control situations where we do need to look at safety first." Chandra Alexandre, CEO, speaks to KQED about being open during recent storms.

[12/18/22] Marin County had its severe weather emergency shelter open most of the past week because of extremely cold temperatures, but fewer people used the shelter than in previous years. The shelter was opened on Tuesday night. Dr. Lisa Santora, Marin County’s deputy public health officer, said Friday that the county planned to keep it open through Monday morning.

[12/7/22] A shortage of available hotel beds is making it more difficult for Marin County to keep the homeless socially distanced when providing emergency shelter. This year, the county has returned to the practice of housing the unsheltered in a communal setting at the Marin County Health and Wellness Campus at 3240 Kerner Blvd. in San Rafael.

[11/22/22] For this holiday season, we asked local organizations making a difference in the community exactly how your contribution could help them. The response we got was overwhelming — 44 groups answered, detailing where a total of $853,600 would be allocated.

[11/18/22] Despite being one of the wealthiest counties in the country, Marin County is one of the least racially equitable in California across all indicators of well-being. It might surprise you to learn given Marin’s affluence that 37 percent of households struggle to meet basic needs – or that one in five families often can’t put food on the table. As more people age into poverty, it’s also true that one in three seniors is food insecure.

[11/4/22] A coalition of Marin nonprofits is asking San Rafael to urgently adopt a rent control ordinance for the Canal neighborhood amid concerns of gentrification. Executives of Canal Alliance, Legal Aid of Marin and Community Action Marin submitted a letter to city officials Wednesday saying that there is a “potential mass displacement crisis” at the 99-apartment complex at 400 Canal St.

[11/1/22] On Oct. 20, Redwood Credit Union celebrated International Credit Union (ICU) Day, "a day for credit unions to reflect on their history and commitment to their members and communities." One of the ways RCU honored the day was by donating 25 cents per card transaction to local nonprofit organizations that empower communities in Napa, Sonoma, Marin, Lake, Mendocino, and San Francisco counties, each time members used their RCU Visa debit or credit cards on Oct. 20.

[10/10/22] A severe teacher shortage has forced dozens of preschools in California to shut down some of their classrooms since the start of the school year. The funding for these subsidized classrooms is available, and plenty of children from lower-income families are waiting to enroll. But there aren’t enough teachers — a situation that could get worse as the state begins to pour billions of dollars into transitional kindergarten, threatening to destabilize the early education workforce.

[8/28/22] Bank of America has awarded a total of $155,000 to nine Marin County nonprofit organizations as part of its Charitable Foundation grant program. The nine Marin nonprofits awarded grants were: 10,000 Degrees, Agricultural Institute of Marin (AIM), Canal Alliance, College of Marin Foundation, Community Action Marin, Downtown Streets Inc., ExtraFood.org, Homeward Bound of Marin and YWCA Golden Gate.

[8/23/22] One action included in the plan is to expand existing training programs to provide more openings for residents displaced by the pandemic.“The Marin Builders Association has one for the trades. The hospitals have them for health care. Community Action Marin just started one for Vivalon drivers,” said Mike Blakeley, CEO of the Marin Economic Forum, a nonprofit, public-private partnership designed to foster local economic growth

[8/11/22] Chandra Alexandre, chief executive officer of the nonprofit Community Action Marin, urged the commission to approve the plan.

[8/5/22] The organization that coordinates the benefits of Medi-Cal recipients in Marin has awarded more than $2.7 million in state grant funds to local entities as part of an effort to reconfigure the Medi-Cal system. Chandra Alexandre, the chief executive officer of Community Action Marin, said the changes underway will allow her organization to bill Partnership for work it’s already doing: providing housing navigation and housing deposits to low-income residents. She said she will use the money she is receiving to hire a billing specialist and a service coordinator.

[8/4/22] Partnership HealthPlan of California, or PHC, has awarded more than $8 million in a second round of state Department of Health Care Services grant funding for community organizations through the CalAIM Incentive Payment Program.

[7/25/22] On May 20, more than 80 people attended the first-ever Step Up Marin!, hosted by social services agency Community Action Marin. The event, held at Las Palmas Center at Hamilton Field Novato was a celebration of steps toward racial and economic equity made in Marin County.

[6/23/22] The Fairfax Town Council, Marin County Board of Supervisors and San Rafael City Council all deserve recognition and appreciation following their respective approvals to extend a residential eviction moratorium through Sept, 30. This policy deserves replication across additional jurisdictions in Marin County to provide timely relief and housing stability to renters throughout our community who continue to experience negative economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic... by Chandra Alexandre and Lucie Hollingsworth

[5/9/22] Marin County is one of the most beautiful places on Earth and yet there’s a portion of the population that isn’t often seen or heard. The non-profit organization Community Action Marin is highlighting community voices this spring to strengthen power in communities of color and across low-income populations.

[4/13/22] Facing a pressing need for vehicle operators in an expensive county, Vivalon — which services older adults and people living with disabilities — and San Rafael-based Community Action Marin have launched a partnership to create a local and free commercial driver’s license training academy.

[3/28/22] With societal inequities coming into sharper focus during the pandemic, vulnerable residents in Marin should be at the center of a countywide COVID-19 recovery strategy, a new report says.

[1/27/22] Marin County is well known for its affluence, and yet alongside the wealth, poverty is a constant presence. According to the most recent census figures, 6.9% of the county’s residents live below the poverty line, and for them, trying to get ahead is a perpetual struggle.

[12/22/21] A report from Advancement Project California ranked Marin County as the second worst in California in terms of racial inequity. CBSN Bay Area's Len Kiese spoke with Community Action Marin's CEO Chandra Alexandre about how the pandemic has made things even tougher.

[12/5/21] Ebrahim Safapay might be 93, but if a guest admires his shrine of family photos, he’s liable to gingerly stand up and offer his comfortable seat. It has the best view of the images of his three children and late wife.

[12/3/21] The CEOs of Community Action Marin and San Francisco-Marin Food Bank discuss the fact that hunger and poor access to healthy food are realities for people of low income in Marin, despite the county’s general affluence. They remind readers that good food is a human right and invite Marin residents to gather together and take #FiveMinutesforFood during the holidays.

[12/1/21] Community Action Marin, the largest social services provider in the county, is asking its Marin neighbors to step up for equity through a wide-reaching year-end campaign, hoping to open residents' eyes to the inequality in its midst.

[11/4/21] As we approach the holiday season, Community Action Marin's Five Minutes for Food initiative, part of its overall Good Food for All campaign and commitment to food security, invites Marin County residents to reflect on the meaning and importance of healthy, nutritious, and good food for all.

[10/1/21] This profile of Community Action Marin in The Giving List, offers an overview of the organization’s mission and programs, and invites concerned citizens to donate to support their efforts in Marin County.

[5/17/21] Marin County is struggling to distribute $16 million in state and federal rental assistance under tight deadlines and burdensome application requirements to help Marin residents who are struggling to pay rent and may be facing the risk of eviction.

[5/1/21] Community Action Marin has opened an office at the school district’s Bayside Martin Luther King Jr. Academy in Marin City. The partnership will allow the social service nonprofit to be more accessible to Marin residents.

[4/23/21] Chandra Alexandre, the CEO of Community Action Marin, writes about the challenges of the past year such as police brutality, the U.S. Capitol insurrection, and voter suppression efforts nationwide, and calls for a reexamination of our social values as a caring community.

[3/2/21] Marin County is preparing to put more than $5.6 million in federal grant money to work addressing homelessness as part of the $4 billion allocated in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act to help prevent an outbreak among people experiencing homelessness and very low-income households. It will be spent on street outreach, emergency shelter and rapid rehousing. Community Action Marin’s new two-person team will focus on homeless individuals in North and West Marin.

[7/5/20] Community Action Marin organized a caravan of Marin residents on the occasion of July 4 to highlight the Black Lives Matter movement and the importance of racial and economic justice in Our America. Caravan participants focused on the important of building collecting power, and holding candidates accountable for the issues that systematically and unfairly impact Black and underserved communities.