Stories - Share the Spirit

These East Bay organizations were featured in the latest holiday season drive. Read more about them and learn how you can still help.

Please take a moment to help these East Bay organizations this holiday season. Their dedication and hard work have directly helped those in need in the Bay Area community. Read more about them and how you can help:

2025

Where Bay Area human trafficking survivors turn for help

Donations to Love Never Fails will help the nonprofit provide 75 teens and adults who are trafficking survivors and vulnerable individuals to access safe, restorative housing and IT workforce training alongside wraparound services like case management, mentoring, therapy and life ...

2025

Unlocking higher education for low-income, first-generation tutors and students

Donations to Elevate Tutoring will enable the nonprofit to provide 400 hours of free STEM tutoring and mentorship to up to 200 K-12 Alameda County students. Funds will also support tutor fellowship scholarships and wraparound resources, including workshops, culturally competent ...

2025

Trinity Center in Walnut Creek was ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ for homeless couple

Donations to Trinity Center Walnut Creek will help the nonprofit to pay for space to expand its Workforce Development Program, set to accommodate up to 200 people in the upcoming year, alongside clerical support and paying for participants’ employment-related needs, ...

2025

Spectrum Community Services brings companionship, valuable help to Tri-Valley seniors

Donations to Spectrum Community Services will provide about 1,670 home-delivered meals to low-income, homebound seniors in the Tri-Valley area, offering them nutrition, human contact, and a way to stretch their budgets farther to pay for things like housing and medications.

2025

Reaching to those who want to teach amid Bay Area educator ‘shortage’

Donations will help Early Childhood Education Substitute Teacher Empowerment & Placement (ECE STEP) to expand its East Bay operations, training and supporting 6 substitute teachers to fill roughly 30 vacant classrooms and enable about 600 low-income children to receive high-quality ...

2025

Paws In Need helps families pay for critical pet care

Donations to Paws In Need will help the nonprofit to keep animals safe, healthy and out of shelters by providing low-cost spay and neuter services for owned and community animals; one-time urgent veterinary care help for pet owners in financial ...

2025

Nonprofit offers enrichment for the neurodivergent

Donations to the Social Justice Sewing Academy will support The Social Connection’s mission to provide innovative social, educational, and vocational opportunities for neurodivergent adults in the East Bay. The program will serve at least 150 individuals over the next six ...

2025

Mercy Brown Bag Program delivers health and hope to East Bay seniors

Donations to the Mercy Brown Bag Program enable the nonprofit to buy food for low-income older adults, providing a full month of nutritious groceries at its Fruitvale store, which serves an average of 2,200 hungry seniors each month.

2025

Meet the Bay Area nonprofit creating housing for people with special needs

Donations to Sunflower Hill will support the nonprofit’s programs at its Hagemann Ranch garden in Livermore, offering 10 months of programming for one of the 10 classes that meet regularly at the garden. The program provides fresh produce to 1500 ...

2025

Las Trampas helps those with developmental disabilities advocate for themselves

Donations to Las Trampas will cover salaries, onboarding and training for increased staffing at the nonprofit, enabling 20 more adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities to come off the waitlist and access inclusive day services, personalized living support and skill-building ...

2025

Immigration Institute of the Bay Area makes citizenship goals a reality

Donations to Immigration Institute of the Bay Area will help fund 250 legal immigration consultations and cases including naturalization, DACA, Employment Authorization Document and U visa.

2025

How a new East Bay nonprofit is caring for caregivers

Donations will help Caregiver OneCall serve about 125 caregiver families in Alameda and Contra Costa counties with 24/7 support calls, caregiver wellness kits, respite-focused activities and resource navigation support.

2025

Hijas del Campo helps to uplift farmworkers in east Contra Costa County

Donations to Hijas del Campo will enable the nonprofit to buy and distribute 500 food bags to 378 low-income farmworker families in Contra Costa County for two months, prioritizing access for people who face barriers to traditional food assistance.

2025

Goodness Village In Livermore helps the formerly homeless rebuild their lives

Donations to Goodness Village help to cover staff costs needed to provide 24/7 care at this permanent supportive housing community for formerly unsheltered people, which helps the 28 residents currently living there to live with stability and belonging, heal from ...

2025

From unredeemable to trusted mentors, Academy of HOPE gives former inmates a soft place to land

Donations to Options Recovery Services will be used to enhance the Academy of Hope, a reentry program that provides up to 24 former inmates at a time in Alameda County with training and support to pursue certification as addiction therapists, ...

2025

For children exiting foster care, this local organization offers a critical lifeline

Donations to First Place for Youth will help fund their programs that assist young people who grew up in foster care with safe, stable housing and support to succeed in work, school and life.

2025

Finding shelter, and a community, when she needed it most

Donations to Winter Nights Family Shelter will enable the nonprofit to provide financial assistance to around 10 homeless households for urgent needs, like car repairs, past-due rent or utilities and other essential expenses alongside deposits needed to secure leases — ...

2025

At the Bay Area Rescue Mission, a mother finds reasons to live

Donations will help the Bay Area Rescue Mission provide 75,000 hours of case management, life skills classes, trauma-informed counseling and vocational training to women living at its Muriel E. Mayes Center for Women and Children and going through its one-year wrap-around ...

2025

Animal Fix Clinic brings hope to those who fear losing their pets

Donations to Animal Fix Clinic will allow them to expand their operations from 4 days per week to all seven days. This would provide services to an additional 500 animals.

2025

An East Oakland teen’s grades plummeted during COVID’s worst days. Then he met a soccer coach.

Donations to Oakland Genesis Academy will enable the nonprofit to provide soccer coaching and play opportunities alongside academic support to 275 boys and girls from low- and moderate-income families in Oakland’s underserved East and West Oakland communities.

A look at those we’ve helped throughout the years

Since 1989, Share the Spirit has helped those in need in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties and the rest of the Bay Area by publishing their “Stories” — an in-depth account of their hopes and struggles — in the East Bay Times during the holiday season. Readers responded generously with donations that helped these people and the organization involved. Here are some of those Stories from past campaigns:

All
2021
2022
2023
2024

2024

Share the Spirit 2024: Thank you to these contributors!

East Bay Times readers are again responding generously to the annual effort to help their neighbors in need whose stories are being told in print and online this holiday season. Through January 20, 2025, readers have donated $503,729 to provide much-needed ...

2024

Amid fentanyl crisis, Bay Area health center sees more folks turning away from deadly drug

Donations will help Bay Area Community Health support 350 clients dealing with substance use disorders by offering a variety of services, including testing for opioids, HIV and hepatitis C and providing access to treatment; providing training and access to naloxone ...

2024

How Battle Tested Kids is providing mentorship to the next generation

Donations will help Battle Tested Kids to offer camp to 150 underserved youth, and to support and fund three paid internships for at-risk youth wanting to pursue careers in sports, social media management, photography, web design, entrepreneurship or marketing. Goal: ...

2024

Berkeley organization is a bright light for people with disabilities

Donations will help Easy Does It Emergency Services to provide 150 hours of repair services, plus wheelchair loaners, to seniors and physically disabled adults and expand service into Albany, El Cerrito and Richmond. Goal: $15,000

2024

In the Tri-Valley, Open Heart Kitchen leads to miracles

Donations will help Open Heart Kitchen to operate its Open Heart Refuge shelter, providing overnight shelter for 20 people for 40 nights. Funds raised will help pay for shelter coordinator salaries and program supplies like cots and breakfast items. Goal: ...

2024

When a family’s world falls apart, Concord nursery looks after their kids

Donations will help the Bay Area Crisis Nursery to provide 250 hours of childcare and emergency shelter services to young children ages 0-5 living in poverty with families facing homelessness, domestic violence, medical needs, and other emergencies. Goal: $10,000

2024

Immigration Institute of the Bay Area reunites families across borders

Donations will help the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area provide immigration legal services in the form of legal consultations and legal representations to the low-income immigrant communities in the Contra Costa and Alameda counties. Goal: $20,000

2024

Opportunity Junction inspires self-confidence and career skills for job seekers

Donations will help Opportunity Junction to support 350 Contra Costa County residents and their families. The nonprofit aims to provide students with 50 Thanksgiving meals and 270 $50 holiday gift cards. The remainder will fund paid internship experiences for program ...

These East Bay organizations were featured in the latest holiday season drive. Read more about them and learn how you can still help.

Please take a moment to help these East Bay organizations this holiday season. Their dedication and hard work have directly helped those in need in the Bay Area community. Read more about them and how you can help:

Previous Stories

A look at those we’ve helped throughout the years