2025 CORE Grants Have Been Awarded to 61 Southern Arizona Nonprofits

The CORE Grant increases our ability to meet growing demand while remaining true to our values of inclusion and access. This funding directly supports outreach for both our long-standing owner-train service dog program and our new facility dog program, which places expertly trained dogs with professionals in settings like schools, courts, and health clinics. The CORE Grant allows us to connect with more people and communities who need these services, while protecting our Pay-As-You-Can model that ensures no qualified service dog applicant is turned away.

— Scott Mobley, Executive Director, Ability Dogs of Arizona

Receiving the CORE Grant from the Community Foundation of Southern Arizona is an incredible turning point for Borderlands Theater. This support is a statement of belief, appreciation of our mission and provides crucial funding that allows us to grow sustainably and broaden our impact. For the communities we serve, this grant means continued access to culturally relevant theater, expanding our youth education program Barrio Stars, and community storytelling initiatives that affirm identity and celebrate heritage.

— Jonathan Heras, Educational and Development Director, Borderlands Theater

Receiving a 2025 CORE Grant will significantly enhance our ability to hire staff for The Coalition Space, which is essential for our growth and development. Currently, we rely solely on a dedicated team of volunteers, along with one paid cleaning person, to keep our operations running smoothly. With the addition of paid staff, we will be better positioned to focus on improving The Space and expanding our services to the community. One of our exciting plans includes potentially offering free public hours, which would allow community members to access our facility as a welcoming third space for gathering, meeting, and creating.

— Shannon Riggs, Board President, Historic Fourth Avenue Coalition

This CORE Grant will ensure that more people can engage in the transportation decision-making processes that are happening all around them all the time—decisions about fare-free transit, what a regional half-cent sales tax for transportation should fund, what our streets look and feel like, etc. At the end of the day, this grant will help ensure that what gets prioritized and funded matches the needs and desires of the people who are most negatively impacted by our current transportation system.

— Emily Yetman, Executive Director, Living Streets Alliance

Receiving a CORE Grant is a profound investment in the strength and resilience of the Native communities NAAF serves. In the GuVo District of the Tohono O’odham Nation, systemic barriers to education, healthcare, and economic opportunity continue to limit access to essential resources. This flexible funding allows NAAF to expand vital programs, enhance food sovereignty efforts, and strengthen community-driven initiatives that promote long-term sustainability. With the support of this grant, NAAF can continue fostering culturally grounded solutions that empower Native youth, families, and elders.

— Robb Schrimshaw, Grants Manager, Native American Advancement Foundation

Trust-based philanthropy provided by this CORE Grant will allow Sky Island Alliance to continue work to rescue springs, keep wildlife connected and thriving, and tell the story of our beautiful borderlands to a national audience. This funding comes at a crucial time as we have faced federal grant freezes and losses in 2025, and our public lands and the wildlife and plants of the borderlands face unprecedented threats from drought and the current federal administration actions to build additional border wall and undermine our federal agencies that manage public lands.

— Louise Misztal, Executive Director, Sky Island Alliance

Receiving a CORE Grant means that Step Up to Justice can dedicate staff resources to program development and the delivery of critical legal services to those who need them most. It signifies that CFSA believes in our mission and trusts our experienced team to allocate funds where they are needed. CORE funding is more than financial support—it is an endorsement from the Foundation that signals to other potential donors and the broader community that Step Up to Justice provides essential services and is a nonprofit worthy of their trust and investment. As a relatively young organization, the Foundation’s support means everything to us.

— Michele Mirto, Executive Director, Step Up To Justice

The CORE Grant gives us an opportunity to strengthen our collaboration with Pima County Library, the University of Arizona, and other partner organizations to reach out to families and youth of all backgrounds and to increase participation of Hispanic/Latine and Indigenous communities in particular. We'll increase targeted promotional efforts, work to diversify our volunteer base, and look for ways to provide additional visibility for authors representative of our city in additional community spaces. This funding will allow us to explore adding Spanish language programs to our festival events as well.

— Abra McAndrew, Executive Director, Tucson Festival of Books