PG&E Foundation Awards $500,000 to Five California Nonprofits, Completing Five-Year $2.5 Million Nature Program
The PG&E Corporation Foundation announced on October 30 in Oakland, California, that it is awarding a total of $500,000 to five community-based nonprofits in Northern and Central California, $100,000 each, for habitat restoration, environmental education and local food systems. The 2026 recipients are the final group under the foundation's Better Together Nature Positive Innovation Grant Program, completing the five-year initiative.
The five organizations represent each of PG&E's five service regions. The Noyo Center for Marine Science in Fort Bragg, on the North Coast, removes invasive urchins and replants bull kelp to restore Mendocino Coast kelp forests, while also supporting red abalone recovery. Sacramento Splash, for the North Valley and Sierra region, gives students in grades 2-5 from underserved Sacramento County schools hands-on learning at the Historic Nicolaus Dairy in Elk Grove, and expects to reach about 7,000 students from 231 classes in the 2026-27 school year. Friends of Sausal Creek in Oakland, for the Bay Area, will expand its paid youth stewardship program, providing year-round green job skills training while restoring the 2,600-acre Sausal Creek watershed. Point Blue Conservation Science, based in Bolinas for the South Bay and Central Coast region, brings K-12 students, community college interns and residents together in San Benito County to plant native vegetation and restore streamside habitat. The Black Urban Farmers Association in Stockton, for the Central Valley, has run a pesticide-free urban farm since 2015 and will expand to a permanent one-acre site.
Since its launch in 2022, the program has invested $2.5 million in 25 organizations, focusing on land stewardship, air quality and water stewardship. PG&E said funding for the initiative comes from PG&E shareholders, not customers. Carla Peterman, President of PG&E Corporation and Chair of the foundation's board, said what inspires the foundation most is seeing local organizations turn their deep understanding of their communities into meaningful action. Mackenzie Wieser, Chief Executive Officer of Sacramento Splash, said the organization has helped children connect with the natural world for 27 years, and that with PG&E's support about 7,000 students will experience its farm-based program in the 2026-27 school year.
With the 2026 grantees selected, the program's application period has closed. The PG&E Corporation Foundation is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, separate from PG&E and sponsored by PG&E Corporation.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：加州海峡群岛 Anacapa 岛外的巨藻林，PG&E 基金会本轮受助组织 Noyo Center 的工作包括恢复加州海岸海藻林。Eric T Gunther 摄，Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 3.0。 / A kelp forest off Anacapa Island in California's Channel Islands; restoring California kelp forests is among the work funded in this grant round. Photo by Eric T Gunther, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
