A Season of Giving

News item December 13, 2022 by American Riviera Bank

American Riviera Bank is celebrating this charitable giving season with two focuses, Giving Tuesday and Employee Directed Donations, where donations directly support local organizations in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties. Giving Tuesday and the Employee Directed Donations are the two initiatives aimed at providing assistance to the causes and organizations that are most important to the Bank’s clients and employees.

Giving Tuesday

In honor of Giving Tuesday 2022, American Riviera Bank donated $80,000, which is in addition to its regular Bank Sponsorship program that runs throughout the year. In an effort to expand the impactful reach ARB’s clients have on the community, the Bank includes its clients in the decision-making process. The Bank sent a survey to all bank clients asking them to vote on the causes they want to support. From this survey, funds are allocated to organizations throughout Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties. This year’s recipients included:

Santa Barbara County¶

• Foodbank of Santa Barbara: Serves the community as a leader and expert in improving the nutritional health of the county through increased food security.
• Hospice of Santa Barbara: Providing care for anyone experiencing the impact of serious illness or grieving the death of a loved one.
• United Boy and Girls Club: Provides a safe environment where kids can learn, play, and grow.
• Transition House: Dedicated to the solution of family homelessness in the Santa Barbara community.
• Domestic Violence Solutions: Provides safety, shelter, and support for individuals and families affected by domestic violence and collaborates with community partners to raise awareness regarding the cause, prevalence, and impact.
• Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation: Advocates for families living in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo counties that have a child with cancer by providing financial, educational, and emotional support.
• Unity Shoppe: Dedicated to providing residents impacted by temporary conditions of poverty, natural disaster, or health crisis with resources, including groceries, clothing, and other essentials, that reinforce human dignity and encourage self-sufficiency and independence.
• Women’s Economic Ventures: Dedicated to creating a just and equitable society through the economic empowerment of women.
• CASA of Santa Barbara: Assure a safe, permanent, nurturing home for every abused and/or neglected child by providing a highly trained volunteer to advocate for them in the court system.
• Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara: Inspires, encourages, and supports Santa Barbara County students to and through college, graduate, and vocational school by providing information, advising, and scholarships.

San Luis Obispo County¶

• Woods Humane Society: Helps find homes and provides vet services for dogs and cats in need.
• Jack’s Helping Hand: Provides programs that meet the unique challenges of children who have cancer, are medically fragile, or have special needs in our community.
• Hospice of SLO County: Supports the community in working with those near the end of life and the people who love them by providing in-home support, caregiver respite, grief counseling, support groups, community response and education.
• El Camino Homeless Organization: Provides meals and a safe and secure overnight shelter to meet the immediate needs of families and individuals in our community who are facing hunger and homelessness.
• Transitions – Mental Health Association: A nonprofit organization serving San Luis Obispo and North Santa Barbara Counties, Transitions-Mental Health Association is dedicated to eliminating stigma and promoting recovery and wellness for people with mental illness through work, housing, community, and family support services.
• Boys & Girls Club of the Central Coast: Provides a safe environment where kids can learn, play, and grow.
• California Women for Agriculture: Promotes leadership within local communities, advocacy on key local, state and federal issues, public service and outreach, agriculture literacy in our schools and promotional initiatives to preserve and educate those living in our increasingly urbanized California landscape.
• CASA of SLO County: Assure a safe, permanent, nurturing home for every abused and/or neglected child by providing a highly trained volunteer to advocate for them in the court system.
• Cancer Support Community: Providing complimentary cancer support for patients and families on the Central Coast.
• The Land Conservancy:Works cooperatively with both landowners and government agencies to find positive, mutually beneficial solutions. Our goal is to help prevent poorly planned development, protect drinking water sources, restore wildlife habitat, and promote family farmlands and ranches.
• Estrella Warbirds Museum: Aviation museum dedicated to the restoration and preservation of military aircraft, vehicles, and memorabilia.

Employee-Directed Donations

Employee Directed Donations are the second charitable initiative the Bank focuses on during the season of giving. Each year, a theme is chosen that allows employees an opportunity to identify diverse causes throughout the region. Past themes have included children, health, organizations offering COVID services, and animals. Annually, American Riviera Bank employees nominate organizations that have a personal meaning to them within the theme. This year’s theme is literacy, as is evident by the list of organizations below. Employee Directed Donations are a special part of our commitment to the community not only because our employees select the nonprofits but also because funds are available through American Riviera Bank’s Board of Directors who relinquish Board fees in order for funds to benefit these employee-supported organizations. This year’s literacy nonprofits include:

Santa Barbara County¶

• Storyteller Children Center Inc.: Therapeutic preschool that provides high-quality early childhood education for homeless and at-risk children in Santa Barbara County, as well as comprehensive support services for their families.
• Animals-Reading-Fun Therapy Dogs of Santa Barbara: An innovative literacy program that gives students an opportunity to improve their reading skills and inspire them to become life-long readers by reading aloud to specially trained therapy dogs.
• The Friends of The Goleta Valley Library: Raises charitable funds through membership dues, donations, a permanent book sale in the lobby of the library, and special events such as the yearly Signed and Rare Books Silent Auction.
• Children's Creative Project: Brings together young people and professional artists to develop artistic perception, creative expression, aesthetic valuing, an understanding of artists and the creative process, and historical and cultural arts heritage.
• RiteCare Childhood Language Center: Provides children the building blocks for a lifetime of improved communication and confidence.
• Assistance League of Santa Barbara: The 10th of 120 chapters of National Assistance League, the first nonprofit, nonsectarian organization begun in the West to help those less fortunate.
• Library on the Go: Outreach van provides library services and programs to neighborhoods in Santa Barbara, Montecito, and Summerland.
• Transition House: Dedicated to the solution of family homelessness in the Santa Barbara community.
• First 5 Santa Barbara County: Supports the health, early learning, and well-being of children prenatal through age five and their families.

San Luis Obispo County¶

• Literacy For Life: A nonprofit organization that has been serving San Luis Obispo County for decades. We are committed to empowering adult learners and their families to develop their English language communication skills, in order to lead a fuller and more productive life.
• San Luis Coastal Education Foundation: Works to foster a collaborative community of learning in which the best ideas are surfaced, supported, and shared. We are future-focused, working to elevate all students and prepare them to compete in a rapidly changing and dynamic world.
• Assistance League of San Luis Obispo County: Supports the vision and talents of its member volunteers engaged in charitable service to the communities throughout the County.

American Riviera Bank is proud to be an active sponsor, donor, and active supporter of nonprofits throughout the year. During the holiday season, when the spirit of giving is alive throughout the community, the Bank is thankful that it can support the interests and philanthropy of its clients and employees.