Join CCJFG in Welcoming Our Newest Steering Committee Member!

California Criminal Justice Funders Group is honored to welcome our newest Steering Committee member: Sabina Gonzalez-Eraña, Senior Program Manager with The California Endowment. We are excited to learn from and alongside Sabina. Learn more about her below!

Sabina Gonzalez-Eraña, Senior Program Manager with The California Endowment

Tell us about your background and what brought you to this work?

My natural calling is as a community organizer because this is the work that gave me hope for this country as an immigrant who came here fleeing violence at the US-Mexico border. I’m drawn to immigrant justice and racial justice work as a means for my own survival, and as a collective project to build life-affirming institutions. And while Philanthropy was never my first choice, I’ve found a beautiful community of grantmakers walking the same path, trying to resource our relatives and loved ones on the frontlines of movement. That is what keeps me in this role. 

What are the values that keep you grounded in the work?

There are many values I hold close in this work. Maybe the most important are courage, community, and relationship. However imperfectly, I aim to stay grounded in bringing as many resources to our frontline organizers and grassroots leaders who are truly focused on building a liberatory culture, economy, and society.

What is strengthening you at this moment?

My proudest accomplishment in the last two decades in this work is my chosen family, the community of people who ground and guide me in all things personal and professional. This community is what strengthens me, always, and ensures that I don’t stray from the path or get caught out there in any kind of nonsense.