The California Alpine Club Foundation

Local Foundation Makes a Difference

The California Alpine Club Foundation gives small grants annually to organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area and around Lake Tahoe (where the Club’s Echo Summit Lodge is located) that support conservation and environmental education endeavors. Established with an endowment from late Club member Henry Hillman of San Francisco, the California Alpine Club Foundation was incorporated as a State of California 501(c)(3) non-profit in 2004 (Tax ID is IR-2010-59), and relies on CAC member donations and other financial gifts to supplement the endowment’s interest.

PLEASE MAKE A SECURE ONLINE DONATION HERE

All donations to the Foundation are fully tax-deductible. If you would like to make a donation by mail please send a check payable to ‘CACF’, to California Alpine Club Foundation, P.O. Box 2180, Mill Valley, CA 94942.

Donate Your Boat or Vehicle to CACF

When you donate your car to the California Alpine Club Foundation, your gift also helps our work of giving small grants annually to organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area and around Lake Tahoe (where the Club’s Echo Summit Lodge is located) that support conservation and environmental education endeavors.

Donate now by calling 855-500-7433 or www.careasy.org/nonprofit/california-alpine-club-foundation. Our partners at CARS will handle the rest—including picking up your vehicle from any location, no matter its condition. CARS accepts trucks, trailers, boats, RVs, motorcycles, and more

CACF Donations Are Tax-Deductible

Donations to CAC’s California Alpine Club Foundation—a 501(c)(3)—are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. However, the California Alpine Club—a 501(c)(7) non-profit—also gladly accepts donations that apply directly to the Club’s operating budget and but are not tax-deductible.

Meaningful Results

In 2018 Slide Ranch received a grant to help provide outdoor education for a class of 25 low-income children.

CAC member Arlin Weinberger of San Rafael has served as CACF Board President since 2008, along with up to five other Club members. Together, the Board considers grant nominations and determines CACF awards throughout the year. Any Club member can make nominations to the Board by contacting any CACF board member.

Pantoll & Bootjack Campground Hosts on Mt. Tam

The CAC Foundation usually gives small grants (up to $2000), yet we made an exception in 2012 and awarded $10,000 to help Mount Tamalpais State Park establish a host campsite (for an RV) near the Pantoll Ranger Station on Mt. Tamalpais. CACF paid for the water, electricity, and sewer connections so that the on-site campground host may help campers, sell firewood, and collect fees at this popular destination. After more than four decades, fifteen historic campsites were re-opened at Bootjack Campground in October 2013, so on-site host services are especially important.

Making Connections, Building Our Future

The California Alpine Club Foundation is especially interested in outdoors-oriented education programs for children. An introduction to a wilderness opportunity can change a child’s life, and become a lifelong interest. Families that play together, stay together … and we support educational and volunteer experiences for kids, and their families, that are proven, local to our membership community, and with goals that are amenable to the  California Alpine Club Purposes. To see a complete list of CACF grant recipients, visit the CAC + CACF Affiliates page. Please support these venerable organizations and local conservation projects where you live. The future of outdoor California belongs to us!

CACF Awards Nine Grants in 2022

1. Sugar Pine Foundation; 2. Pt Reyes National Seashore Association; 3. Gallinas Watershed Council; 4. Marin Audubon Society;  5. Tahoe Rim Trail Association; 6. Pacific Trail Association;  7. Tahoe Institute for Natural Science;   8. Eldorado National Forest Interpretive Association; 9. Alpine Watershed Group.

CACF Awards Eleven Grants in 2021

1. Slide Ranch; 2.Friends of Corte Madera Creek;  3. Marin Audubon Society;  4. Pt Reyes National Seashore Association;  5. Bay Shore Studies; 6. Gallinas Watershed Council;  7. Watershed Alliance of Marin;  8. Tahoe Institute for Natural Science;  9. Tahoe Rim Trail Association;  10. Alpine Watershed Group;  11. PCT Angels

CACF Awards Twelve Grants in 2020
1. Slide Ranch; 2. Pt Reyes National Seashore Association; 3. Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed; 4. Marin Audubon Society; 5. Watershed Alliance of Marin; 6. Mountain Play Association; 7. West Point Inn; 8. Alpine Watershed Group; 9. Pacific Crest Trail Association; 10. El Dorado National Forest Interpretive Association; 11. Tahoe Rim Trail Association; 12. Tahoe Institute for Natural Science

CACF Awards Eight Grants in 2019

1. Slide Ranch: to bring a class of 25 to the ranch; 2. Pt Reyes National Seashore Association: to purchase new camp mattresses for Clem Miller Environment Education Center; 3. Marin Audubon Society: to purchase native plants to help restore the levee at Bahia; 4. Tahoe Institute for Natural Science: for nature camp scholarships, and camp field materials; 5. Tahoe Rim Trail Association: to help rehabilitate trails at Echo Summit and Desolation Wilderness; 6. Pacific Crest Trail Association: for expenses at the Trail Skills College; 7. Eldorado Nation Forest Interpretive Association: to purchase trail maintenance tools and education outreach events; 8. Alpine Watershed Alliance: for water quality monitoring equipment.

CACF Awards Eleven Grants in 2018

1. Marin Audubon Society: To help acquire wetlands at Black Point; 2. Slide Ranch: To provide outdoor education for a class of 25 low-income children; 3. Pt Reyes National Seashore Association: To purchase 25 sleeping bags for outdoor youth programs; 4. Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed: To purchase water quality monitoring equipment; 5. Watershed Alliance of Marin: For creek surveys and advocacy work; 6. Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs: Supporting its August conference; 7. Pacific Crest Trail Association: To support the Tahoe Trail Skills College; 8. Tahoe Rim Trail Association: For trail projects in Desolation Wilderness; 9. Tahoe Institute for Natural Science: For outdoor education supplies and vehicle maintenance; 10. Center for Sierra Nevada Conservation: Towards restoring National Forest lands damaged by off-road vehicles; 11. Eldorado National Forest Interpretive Association: For signage to protect Wright’s Lake shoreline.

CACF Awards Eleven Grants in 2017

1. Marin Audubon Society: To buy native plants for wetlands restoration in Corte Madera. 2. Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed: For a wildlife camera. 3. Pt Reyes National Seashore Association: To buy sleeping bags for scholarship students on summer backpacking trips. 4. Slide Ranch: To help fund schoolchildren’s trips to Slide Ranch. 5. Watershed Alliance of Marin: For educational materials on the health of Marin’s creeks. 6. West Point Inn: For constructing a new information sign outside the Inn on Mt. Tam. 7. Eldorado National Forest Interpretive Association and Desolation Wilderness Volunteers – For “Leave No Trace” materials, and tools for campsite restoration. 8. Center for Sierra Nevada Conservation: For boulders to protect certain areas. 9. Pacific Crest Trail Association: To support the Tahoe Trail Skills College (50 participants). 10. Tahoe Rim Trail Association: To support an online outreach and education program. 11. Tahoe Institute for Natural Science: For educational supplies, a portable projector screen and field trip supplies for outdoor education programs.

CACF Awards Eight Grants in 2016

1. Pt Reyes National Seashore Association: For outdoor clothing for scholarship students on overnight backpacking trips. 2. West Point Inn: For weather station on Mt Tamalpais. 3. Slide Ranch: To enable a class of 25 to participate in environmental education programs. 4.Tahoe Rim Trail Association: To purchase 20 trail and bike counters. 5. Eldorado National Forest Interpretive Association: For visitor information projects. 6. Center for Sierra Nevada Conservation: For all-terrain heavy-duty tires for the vehicle used in trail restoration projects. 7. Pacific Crest Trail Association: To support the three-day Tahoe Trail Skills College. 8.Tahoe Institute for Natural Science: For snowshoes to be used on school outdoor education field trips.

CACF Awards Eight Grants in 2015

1. Tahoe Rim Trail Association: To support youth backcountry camps this summer for kids 12 to 17. 2. Eldorado National Forest Interpretive Association: To purchase three backpacks loaded with backcountry emergency supplies and for trail maintenance supplies for Desolation Wilderness volunteers. 3. Pacific Crest Trail Association: To contribute to the Tahoe Trail Skills College, the three-day training for 40 to 50 volunteers, helping with the cost of meals, kitchen supplies, and printed materials. 4. Tahoe Institute for Natural Science: To print materials for natural history field trips for local schools and purchase related items. 5. Pt. Reyes National Seashore Association: For youth backpacks and backpacking stoves to be used in five Summer Camp programs. 6. Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed: To pay for tree removal and a replanting project with White Hill Middle school.7 Slide Ranch: To enable a class of 25 children to participate in environmental programs. 8. Marin Audubon Society: To purchase over 500 plants to restore tidal marshlands next to the Corte Madera Ecological Reserve.

CACF Awards Eight Grants in 2014

1. Pacific Crest Trail Association:  To support a three-day training session on trail maintenance. 2. Tahoe Rim Trail Association: To support volunteer workdays with tools and equipment. 3. Eldorado National Forest Interpretative Association: Funds for tools and training for two trail crews. 4. Tahoe Institute for Natural Science: To purchase 35 pairs of snowshoes for outdoor education programs. 5. Slide Ranch: To bring 25 children to the ranch to hike, explore, plant, and harvest food. 6. Pt. Reyes National Seashore Association: To supply tarp shelters for the children’s summer camp program. 7. Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed: To purchase plants and supplies for its habitat restoration project with White Hill Middle School. 8. Marin Audubon Society: Donation towards the purchase of wetlands adjacent to the Corte Madera Ecological Preserve.

CACF Awards Nine Grants in 2013

The California Alpine Club turned 100 years old in 2013! In our centennial year, the CAC Foundation awarded nine grants totaling $15,300 to local organizations in the San Francisco Bay and the Lake Tahoe areas. These grants went to:

1. Tahoe Institute for Natural Science for three bird-banding trips for local school children. 2. Tahoe Rim Association for trail signs, gloves, and hard hats for volunteers, and to offset first aid training fees. 3. Pacific Crest Trail Association to help support a three-day volunteer training event (meals, facility rental, printed materials). 4. Eldorado National Forest Interpretive Association for a Junior Ranger Program. 5. Point Reyes National Seashore Association for six large tarp shelters for summer camp. 6. Marin Audubon Society for a power wagon (motorized hand cart) for hauling water to habitat restoration sites. 7. Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed for removal of eucalyptus trees. 8. Slide Ranch for 25 low-income students to participate in Slide Ranch’s environmental education programs. 9. San Bruno Mountain Watch for the Adaptive Management Research project at the Native Plant Nursery.