The Power of Endowments: One Gift. Generations of Impact.

Pictured: Ron and Helen Dunin

Endowments are one of the most enduring ways philanthropy can strengthen a community. By investing charitable resources for the long term, a single gift can provide meaningful support today while creating a lasting source of support for the future.

Ron and Helen Dunin’s story demonstrates that potential.

More than 20 years ago, they made a decision rooted in their love for San Luis Obispo County and their belief in its future. Today, their generosity continues to support individuals and families throughout the community.

A Life Rooted in Community

Ron and Helen arrived in San Luis Obispo in 1965 after making the journey from Great Britain. Here, they built a life and became deeply connected to the community they called home.

Ron served on the San Luis Obispo City Council beginning in 1977 and later served three terms as mayor. But their commitment to the community extended far beyond public service. Together, Ron and Helen believed everyone deserved the opportunity to build a stable, self-sufficient life.

When planning their estate, they chose to carry that belief forward. They left a portion of their estate to The Community Foundation San Luis Obispo County, establishing an endowed fund in their name to support individuals and families working toward that goal.

What One Gift Has Made Possible

The Dunins’ initial $500,000 gift established their endowed fund in 2004. Since then, the fund has awarded more than $1.4 million in grants and scholarships, while growing to a current balance of more than $3.1 million.

Initial gift: $500,000
Cumulative grants awarded: $1,405,097
Current fund balance: $3,136,738

In other words, the fund has already invested nearly three times the amount of the original gift back into the community and today holds more than six times its original value.

That is the lasting potential of an endowment.

How an Endowment Works

An endowed fund is designed to support a charitable purpose over the long term. Rather than spending the entire gift, the assets are invested and a portion is made available for charitable distributions.

This approach allows donors to establish a permanent source of support around what matters most to them, whether that is a particular nonprofit, scholarships, a specific area of need, or the broader needs of the community.

The Dunin Fund offers a powerful example. More than two decades after Ron and Helen made their original gift, their fund continues to carry out the purpose they envisioned.

Creating a Legacy with Purpose

Every donor’s vision for the future is different. An endowment can be established during a donor’s lifetime or through an estate plan and structured around the causes, organizations, or community priorities they want to support for generations to come.

Ron and Helen could not have known exactly what San Luis Obispo County would need decades into the future. What they did know was the kind of community they wanted to help build.

Their foresight created a charitable resource that continues to serve that purpose today.

The Community Foundation San Luis Obispo County works with individuals and families to create charitable plans that reflect what matters most to them and provide meaningful support to our community, today and into the future.

August 17, 2026August 19, 2026

A Shared Vision for Child Care Across the Central Coast

In San Luis Obispo County, there is an estimated one licensed child care space for every four children ages 0 to 5. Local research also found particularly limited options for infants and toddlers, while 81% of families seeking child care referrals needed full time care and 73% needed care in order to work.

The economic implications are significant. Research cited in The Community Foundation San Luis Obispo County’s 2024 Child Care Report estimated that meeting the low end of potential child care need in SLO County could generate more than $108 million in annual economic activity and support or create 425 jobs.

Behind those numbers are families balancing work and the availability and cost of care, employers building and retaining a workforce, child care providers navigating a challenging business environment, and communities seeking greater economic opportunity.

These challenges do not stop at county lines. Increasingly, neither do the solutions.

Six Counties, One Shared Vision

The Uplift Child Care Coalition brings together community foundations and cross sector partners across six Central Coast counties around a common goal: strengthening child care as both a child development priority and an economic development strategy.

By connecting leaders from philanthropy, early childhood education, economic development, local government, business, planning, and other sectors, the Coalition creates opportunities to share knowledge, identify promising approaches, and advance solutions with relevance across the region.

The Community Foundation San Luis Obispo County is proud to play a leadership role in this long term effort.

As Community Foundation CEO Christine Dawson explains:

“The Community Foundation is proud to be part of this long term regional effort to expand access to quality child care, strengthen families and the workforce, and advance economic mobility throughout the Central Coast.”

The regional approach reflects the complexity of the issue. Expanding access requires attention not only to the number of available spaces, but also to the child care workforce, facilities, land use and local policies, the needs of working families, and the role employers and communities can play.

Our local research identified many of these same priorities, including strengthening the child care workforce, supporting child care businesses, addressing land use barriers, engaging employers, and more fully integrating child care into economic development strategies.

Building Momentum Together

The Coalition has translated that shared understanding into resources and strategies communities can use.

Partners have developed a Best Practice Portfolio, resources outlining the roles different sectors can play in building child care capacity, and a Shared Vision for Child Care that organizations throughout the Central Coast can endorse and help advance.

This summer, more than 60 participants representing all six counties gathered for the Uplift Child Care Coalition Showcase Event to exchange ideas, share what has been learned, and help shape the next phase of the work.

The breadth of participation reflects an important shift. Child care is increasingly being considered not only as a service for families, but as an issue connected to workforce development, economic mobility, land use, and the long term vitality of our communities.

From Shared Vision to Action

One area of focus ahead is the Child Care Facilities Action Network, or CCFAN, which addresses a practical barrier to expanding child care: creating and expanding the physical spaces where care can take place.

Our local research identified restrictive zoning, permitting requirements, fees, and other land use policies among the challenges that can slow the development of new child care spaces.

Through CCFAN, Child Care Facilities Specialists will participate in nine months of peer learning, fieldwork, land use surveys, coaching, and engagement with planning departments. Participating cities and counties will have opportunities to assess existing policies, learn from practices across the region, and identify opportunities to make child care development more feasible.

This is the value of a regional coalition: communities do not have to solve the same problems independently. They can share what works, learn from one another, and build on collective experience.

Add Your Voice

There is significant work ahead, and The Community Foundation San Luis Obispo County is proud to continue alongside the partners moving it forward.

The Uplift Child Care Coalition reflects an approach we believe is essential to addressing complex community challenges: bringing together people with different expertise, connecting local experience to regional opportunity, and creating the conditions for collective action.

Across six counties, that work is building a stronger, more coordinated vision for child care and for the children, families, workforce, and communities that depend on it.

Organizations and community leaders throughout the Central Coast are invited to be part of what comes next.

Learn more about the Uplift Child Care Coalition

Read the Shared Vision for Child Care

Join us in endorsing the Shared Vision

August 17, 2026August 19, 2026

More Than a Scholarship: Investing in Students for the Journey Ahead

Access to education can open a door. Sustained support can help a student make it all the way through.

That distinction is at the heart of the new People’s Self Help Housing Scholarship Fund, established in partnership with the Emily & Dene Hurlbert Trust, People’s Self Help Housing, and The Community Foundation San Luis Obispo County.

Education has long been important to Dene Hurlbert and his late wife, Emily. Together, they believed that financial circumstances should not determine a person’s ability to learn, grow, and build a more secure future.

Today, through the Emily & Dene Hurlbert Trust, Dene is carrying that shared belief forward by investing in students who may face significant barriers to higher education.

Supporting Students Through Completion

The scholarship will support residents of People’s Self Help Housing communities and participants in its education programs who are pursuing college, vocational training, or workforce reentry, with a particular emphasis on first generation college students.

Importantly, the scholarship is designed to provide multi year support.

For students navigating tuition, books, transportation, housing, and other expenses, receiving a scholarship for one year can make college possible. Knowing support can continue as they progress toward a degree or credential can provide greater stability and help students remain focused on completion.

As Itzelt Santos, Senior Education Manager at People’s Self Help Housing, explains:

“For students living in our affordable housing communities, higher education carries significant financial barriers, but thanks to Dene’s support, our students will have the chance to succeed. Scholarships help first generation students stay enrolled, persist toward graduation, and step into their careers with little or no student loan debt. That solid financial foundation opens the door to long term stability and success.”

The goal is not simply to help students enroll. It is to help position them to persist, graduate, and move into their careers with a stronger financial foundation.

A Collaborative Approach to Student Success

The fund was also designed around another important idea: financial assistance is most effective when students have the support to navigate the journey ahead.

Each partner brings a distinct strength.

Through the Emily & Dene Hurlbert Trust, Dene provided the vision and initial investment. The Community Foundation will administer the scholarship and steward the fund over time. People’s Self Help Housing will identify eligible students and provide educational navigation and support, drawing on the relationships it has already built with residents and students.

Together, the partners can offer something more comprehensive than financial assistance alone: scholarship support paired with people who understand the students, their goals, and the barriers they may encounter along the way.

An Investment Others Can Build Upon

Dene seeded the fund with a larger vision: to create a scholarship others can invest in alongside him, expanding the number of students who can receive sustained support over time.

Each additional contribution can help extend that opportunity to another student and strengthen a resource designed to grow with the community.

It is a meaningful way to carry forward something Emily and Dene believed in together while inviting others to share in that vision.

A scholarship can help make education accessible. Multi year support, trusted guidance, and a community invested in a student’s success can help turn that opportunity into a degree, credential, career, and greater economic stability.

Support the People’s Self Help Housing Scholarship Fund

August 17, 2026August 19, 2026

Rooted in Generosity: A Family Tradition of Giving

For Jeanne Helphenstine, generosity began long before she opened a donor advised fund. It began on her family’s ranch, around a dinner table, and with a simple belief passed from one generation to the next: no one should go hungry.

Jeanne’s grandparents, Allan and Yolanda Righetti, were Swiss Italian immigrants who operated a dairy farm on 143 acres off Orcutt Road in San Luis Obispo. Life on the Righetti Ranch was grounded in hard work, gratitude, and caring for neighbors. Those values became part of the family and eventually shaped the way Jeanne thought about giving back to the community she calls home.

Years later, Jeanne found a meaningful way to carry those values forward with her mother, Barbara.

Giving Together

Jeanne encouraged her mother to consider making a charitable gift through The Community Foundation San Luis Obispo County, recognizing both the tax advantages of charitable giving and the opportunity to make a meaningful local impact.

Jeanne and Barbara each established their own donor advised fund at the Foundation. Soon, philanthropy became something they shared.

Each year, mother and daughter talked about what was happening in the community, learned about local organizations, discovered new causes, and decided where they wanted their giving to make a difference. Agriculture and food security were natural priorities given their family history, while the arts also held a special place in their hearts.

For Jeanne, those conversations became as meaningful as the grants themselves.

“Giving became something my mother and I looked forward to each year. We learned from each other, supported what mattered most, and stayed connected to our community in the process.”

Their donor advised funds provided a simple way to organize their philanthropy. More importantly, giving together created time to reflect on what they valued and how they wanted to contribute to the community they loved.

A Tradition That Continues

Jeanne’s commitment to community extends beyond her philanthropy. Throughout her career in real estate and through her volunteer leadership, including her service on the Foundation’s Real Estate Foundation Board, she has remained closely connected to San Luis Obispo County.

That involvement has also informed her giving. As Jeanne has learned more about the challenges and opportunities facing local nonprofits and families, her philanthropy has evolved with her.

Yet the values behind it remain remarkably consistent.

The land that supported her grandparents’ dairy farm is an important part of Jeanne’s family history. But the Righetti legacy extends beyond those 143 acres. It lives in a belief that we care for our neighbors, share what we have, and remain connected to the community around us.

For Jeanne, philanthropy became something she and her mother shared. Today, that tradition continues, carrying forward the values of a family deeply rooted in this community.

Make Giving Part of Your Family Story

A donor advised fund can create a meaningful way for families to give together, explore the issues they care about, and pass charitable values from one generation to the next.

The Community Foundation works alongside individuals and families to make giving thoughtful, flexible, and connected to the communities and causes that matter most to them.

Sometimes the most meaningful thing we pass from one generation to the next is not what we have, but what we believe.

Righetti Family Ranch