News
Philanthropy Can Build on New State Support in the Border Region
By Tuyen Nguyen, Program Director, Stop the Hate Border Region
Nonprofits across San Diego and Imperial County are doing incredible work in our communities to stop hate in its tracks. Working alongside California’s Stop the Hate (STH) grantees in the Border Region since the program’s launch in 2022, I’ve been fortunate to spearhead Catalyst’s work with 27 local program partners. Every day, these organizations are doing the hard work to reduce instances of hate crimes, repair harm, and build a greater sense of hope and belonging in San Diego and Imperial Counties.
In a challenging funding and political climate, Stop the Hate funding has helped nonprofits expand their work to support and empower our diverse communities. And with a recent State budget augmentation to this program, I’m pleased to share that an additional $793,890 was awarded to Border Region grantees. This infusion of resources has provided a little bit of hope and time to navigate unparallelled uncertainty, and will help to keep life-changing and life-saving programs running in the coming months.
Insights from three years of partnership
With Catalyst serving as the Regional Lead for the Border Region, we’ve seen STH grantees stretch resources, adapt, and respond to urgent community needs in real time, but many of our partners will soon need to make difficult decisions about scaling down services. For example, even with the additional budget award, Trans Family Support Services (TFSS) was only able to sustain their STH-funded mental health and wellness outreach through October of this year. We’re working with TFSS to find alternative sources of funding to continue supporting youth and families impacted by hate and discrimination against the trans community.
Even in this precarious environment, we’ve also seen ways the Stop the Hate grant program has shifted the landscape for local nonprofits and positioned them for even greater impact in the San Diego/Imperial region:
1. A flexible scope of work enabled organizations to pivot and provide leadership in response to evolving community needs.
Historically, Universidad Popular (UP) has provided highly effective, timely responses to the needs of immigrant communities in North San Diego County. With flexibility to interpret the scope of their work through Stop the Hate funding, UP has expanded its role beyond immediate community response and began convening and coordinating efforts across diverse organizations and community groups.
Co-Director of Universidad Popular Flower Alvarez leads a recent Know Your Rights community session in collaboration with other local service providers.
As lead coordinator of the North County Immigration Response Convening, UP now hosts monthly cross-sector meetings to boost engagement, build regional capacity, strengthen collaboration, and strategically organize among a network of groups and organizations working to protect the well-being of immigrant communities. Joint efforts to conduct Know Your Rights workshops, emergency preparedness, and community planning convenings have also helped to connect and support far more community members than any one participating organization could reach on its own. Together, UP and partners are nurturing a welcoming community where everyone belongs.
2. The grant created critical new infrastructure, but partners need additional resources to leverage the work that’s been done.
Jewish Family Service of San Diego (JFS) built out a brand-new program that effectively fills gaps of support between police intervention and nonprofit services in San Diego. Their Jewish Community Emergency Response Team (JCERT) is a first-of-its-kind effort to provide an immediate, compassionate response and connection to resources in the wake of an antisemitic incident or crime.
With STH funding, a program manager was brought on to conduct community-wide, cross-sector conversations, lead the design of the program, and develop a specialized training course for JCERT responders. The process laid the groundwork for local nonprofits and law enforcement agencies to more effectively coordinate and respond to antisemitic incidents for years to come. While there is no longer a JCERT coordinator on staff, this final infusion of STH funding has enabled the organization to provide training for their existing team through December 2025. JFS plans to expand trainings and partnerships in the community when additional resources can be secured.
3. Partners are equipped with new skills and connections to expand efforts over the long-term.
Through the grant, organizations like Pillars of the Community and Karen Organization of San Diego were trained on a variety of community safety, healing, and peace building models. These trainings have helped to inform their ongoing programs and equipped staff members with practical strategies like protective accompaniment, de-escalation and conflict resolution strategies, and trauma-informed response.
Pillars of the Community and Karen Organization staff completed a community safety training to bolster ongoing services with vulnerable community members.
Both organizations are continuing to train their teams on these methods internally, in addition to sharing their knowledge and expertise with other Border Region grantees. Karen Organization and Pillars of the Community are continuing to seek funds to build upon these skills and expand the reach of globally recognized peace-building strategies in our region.
Looking to the (near) future of anti-hate efforts in the Border Region
Our Stop the Hate partners have done the important work of creating belonging for years and will continue to do so in the future because it’s vitally important to the well-being of our communities. Yet as we approach the completion of this program in June 2026, we know there will be an ongoing need to counteract and prevent hate in our region.
I’ve personally seen how this partnership has strengthened STH grantees, and my work in the coming months will focus on identifying opportunities for collaboration and long-term capacity-building to advance their work. Ultimately, the scope and reach of organizations working to stop the hate in San Diego and Imperial County depends upon future investment, and both smaller grassroots nonprofits and more well-established service providers are in need of additional resources to continue their work.
Beyond monetary value, additional support during this challenging period gives our partners some much-needed assurance that their efforts are recognized and valued by the broader community. We encourage funders to make commitments, however small, to STH partners and other local nonprofits building belonging in our region. Our folks on the ground need to know that you are walking with them.
Interested in exploring ways to support and leverage the successes of anti-hate work in our communities? Let’s connect.