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Providing help and hope in the East Bay

Welcome to
Share the Spirit!

Last Thanksgiving, the East Bay Times launched the 2023 Share the Spirit campaign. This special annual drive during the holiday season is our way of giving back to Bay Area by shining a light on its most vulnerable residents. We have so far raised more than $500,000 for the 2023 campaign thanks to the readers of the East Bay Times and people like you.

This year will mark our 35th year of Share the Spirit. We are a non-profit that has been managed and produced by the East Bay Times since 1989. With your help, our community will become an even better place.

Sincerely,

Sharon Ryan
Publisher of the East Bay Times

2024 grant application is now open!

If you are a non-profit organization seeking for funding from this year’s Wish Book holiday campaign, you can apply now. Applications are due August 13 or when the limit of 150 applications are reached. Please click below to learn more and begin the process.

How Share the Spirit works

Our mission is to spotlight Bay Area non-profits that assist seniors, alleviate homelessness, provide food and many other laudable causes to people like you.

Every September, Share the Spirit selects about 20 local non-profit groups in need of assistance. Those selected would have their stories and needs published in print and online in the East Bay times from Thanksgiving until the end of the year. Readers would then be encouraged to help fulfill these wishes by donating here

Non-profits who would like to be considered for a grant from Share the Spirit can learn more at our Grants page. The application process for a grant opens in late July.

2023

A look back at those we helped last season

2023

Stepping out of the darkness and into the light

Donations will help the Bay Area Rescue Mission provide 20,000 meals for those in need of food during a six-week period. Meals are served 365 days per year to residents in the nonprofit’s shelters and to unhoused people in the area and those on the verge of being homeless.

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2023

Berkeley organization provides community for people with disabilities

Donations will help BORP Adaptive Sports and Recreation provide instructor payments for 150 in-person and online fitness classes, providing 2,000 hours of fitness for individuals ...
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2023

Richmond nonprofit gives a boost to immigrant families looking to better their children’s lives

Donations will help Brighter Beginnings’ fund its “adopt a family” program and provide vouchers to 300 families for food, furniture, clothing, educational toys and many other unmet ...
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2023

“Dad, you came!” This Contra Costa nonprofit is helping struggling families thrive

Donations will help the Child Abuse Prevention Council purchase $100 grocery gift cards for 60 families during the holiday season to use for a special ...
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2023

After years in the foster system, a young woman gets a room of her own

Donations will help First Place for Youth provide housing, counseling, education and employment support to 140 young adults ages 18-25 in Contra Costa and Alameda ...
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