Rebuild NorthBay Foundation

At Rebuild NorthBay Foundation, we are committed to the long term disaster recovery for the north bay counties of Sonoma, Napa, Lake, and Mendocino. We are also determined to pay our lessons forward so no community must reinvent recovery.

Our vision is to rebuild the north bay better, safer, greener, and faster. We accomplish this mission through coordination, collaboration, and advocacy.

Our goal is to ensure rebuilders, businesses, and the pubic sector are supported through this entire long term process.

Our number one strategy is to ask, "What do you need and how can we help?" The answers are what guides our work plan.

Coordination, Collaborative and Strategic Partnerships:

Disaster recovery absolutely hinges on the ability to form partnerships with the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to tackle big problems. No single sector can get as much done as when we work together. For example, when we found the funding to replace the Hopper Ave Walls for Coffey Park (a neighborhood that lost 1400 homes), we worked with the neighborhood group. The residents chose the material, design and contractor. We managed the funds; they managed the project. The rebuilders saved $650K and they got a fire rated wall surrounding their homes. Similarly, we replaced a mile of common fencing for two other neighborhoods, saving rebuilders $475K and they chose the design and materials. We partnered with Habitat for Humanity to oversee the fund and volunteers.

We coordinate and convene in order to fill gaps in communication, rebuilder needs, etc. We are the fiscal sponsor for several organizations that are helping rebuild or supporting rebuilders.

Our board of directors is comprised of the top leadership in our region from the business, nonprofit, healthcare, education, tribal, and agricultural sectors. The diversity of perspective combined with the depth of talent of our board allows us to access information and resources. We are innovative because we are a brand new model for collaborative recovery post-disaster.

We operate with a very small staff of three people, but we have networks that extend locally, regionally, and nationally. We leverage our relationships into collaborative partnerships focused on getting big projects done for our community in recovery. We believe every effort to coordinate with multiple stakeholders to achieve goals is worth the staff time required because our rebuilding community is working very hard to remain in the north bay and we must meet with energy and commitment.

We are extremely proud of the work we are doing at Rebuild NorthBay Foundation. After an unprecedented natural disaster, RBNF has stepped into a critical role to help rebuild the North Bay better, safer, greener, and faster. We believe we can leap forward as a region while addressing previous issues – including a dearth of workforce and affordable housing. We intend to be a model region for rebuilding and believe this is possible as we work in lockstep with our public officials, private sector, nonprofit community, and (most importantly) our friends and neighbors who have lost everything, but found a resilient community spirit.
Our work is driven by the central question: “What do you need and how can we help?” Everything we do is in direct response to what the community has identified as unmet needs. We do not decide the agenda of Rebuild NorthBay Foundation: we listen to the community and then we work to create the change they want to see. We are creating positive changes in the lives of our community and will continue to do so until every last family is home.
We are especially proud to have kept our promises to the community during our one year in existence.
1. Website with Resource Library was launched on October 8, 2018. The board made a significant investment because they understood that information is an incredibly vital aspect of our recovery and rebuild.
2. Advocacy: We do not set the agenda nor do we advocate on our behalf. Instead, we support our public officials and elected officials through supporting their asks. We are proud of our work here and the impact on the entire region. Advocacy is very impactful, but only uses between 2-4% of our resources.
3. Collaboration: Additionally, we worked with community groups in the Coffey Park, Larkfield and Mark West neighborhoods to replace their common perimeter fencing and walls destroyed along with more than 1500 homes. Without the collaborative efforts of the public, private and nonprofit sectors – including Rebuild NorthBay as the leading convener -- these immense unmet needs would fall on the financial backs of our most affected residents: those who have already lost everything.
4. Disaster Preparedness: We collaborated with Friedman’s Home Improvement, Kaiser, Comcast, PG&E, CalOES, FEMA, County of Sonoma, and the County of Napa to compile and distribute 5,000 GO Bags across all four counties. The bags were distributed according to the wishes of each community, from seniors to the homeless population, to fire affected neighborhood and nonprofit groups, to Latino orgs, and more.
5. Incubate Innovation: In 2019, our Board approved an allocation of $50K in 2020 to support Taking Action to Reduce Wildfire Hazards"
The Taking Action Initiative is a regional and collaborative public-private effort focused on advancing climate adaptation and forest health strategies to reduce wildfire risks and related life and property losses.