For over two decades, Placer Community Foundation has inspired philanthropy to respond to critical community needs and build a thriving region where every person prospers. ​

Our roots go back to 1948 when the Auburn Community Foundation was created by the caring, forward-looking M.S. and Esther Beecher. Building upon this lasting gift, the story of Placer Community Foundation starts in 2005, when a few visionary residents from among our county’s communities did something brilliant for all of us. They imagined something that hadn’t been here before — a public foundation belonging to everyone, where generous people could go to get expert support and hear creative ideas that would help them to amplify and achieve their charitable intentions.

​

They pictured a prudently managed organization overseen by a diverse board of civic leaders, where donations could be invested together to grow, where anyone could become a donor, and where donors became true philanthropists—able over time to grant out even more than they had put in, and able at any moment to call on a team of professionals with a knowledge of the community’s needs and resources that truly runs deep.

Their idea was, and is, your Placer Community Foundation. The secure, well-managed public resource they envisioned is now a multi-million-dollar consortium of funds and, with your help, in a relatively short time the Foundation has grown so it can be deployed to tackle our region’s most urgent challenges and seize promising opportunities to improve lives throughout Placer County and beyond.

​

Thanks to the generosity of our donors and partners, in 2025 we granted millions of dollars to a diverse range of causes, including human services, education, housing, disaster relief, the environment, health, the arts, and economic development.