News

Feb

11

2022

FID Receives Grant for Street Outreach & Housing

Friends In Deed has received a $25,000 grant from the S. Mark Taper Foundation to support their local Street Outreach and Housing program…

Jul

15

2021

Annual “Back-To-School” Event

We are so happy that the students will be able to return to the classroom in the Fall. After a year of remote learning and less contact than normal with their friends, the students can look forward to the classroom experience.  This means it will soon be time for our annual “Back-To-School” event. We will be distributing …

May

10

2020

Podcast

Rabbi Grater was recently a guest on the Pasadena Podcast.  It is a great 45 minute conversation about Friends In Deed, what we do, homelessness, and more. If someone wants to know more about Friends In Deed, this podcast would be a great thing to have them listen to.

May

9

2020

Impact Report

Check out the Impact Report PDF.

Dec

9

2019

Legacy Society

Friends in Deed has been helping our most vulnerable neighbors for 125 YEARS! We are looking forward to continuing and expanding our services as we strive to alleviate the effects of poverty and homelessness. You can help make that possible by joining our Legacy Society at Friends in Deed, and earmarking some of your assets …

Friends in Deed Chosen as a
2021 California Nonprofit of the Year

NONPROFIT HONORED BY SENATOR ANTHONY PORTANTINO

Pasadena, Calif. – Friends In Deed is proud to announce it has been named 2021 California Nonprofit of the Year for Senate District 25 by Senator Anthony Portantino.

Friends In Deed is one of more than one hundred nonprofits throughout California that will be honored by their state senators and assemblymembers for their tremendous contributions to the communities they serve, particularly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Senator Portantino’s 25th District encompasses portions of the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys.

Friends In Deed, a social services agency founded in Pasadena in 1894, is an interfaith organization that provides supportive services to meet basic human needs for homeless and at-risk community members. Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater, Executive Director, says, “Friends In Deed is committed to providing compassion, connection, and dignity for clients experiencing times in their lives when they need assistance most. We are humbled by this distinction and thank Senator Portantino for all his support in the 25th District. We live by our slogan of ‘doing together what we cannot do alone,’ and this past year has pushed us to be creative to make sure all our neighbors are taken care of throughout the pandemic and well into the future.”

Friends In Deed has five core programs, including a Food Pantry providing 2,500 households over 635,000 pounds of food yearly; The Women’s Room, a day shelter for homeless and at-risk women, offering free services like over 500 laundry loads and almost 600 showers for guests annually; a weather-activated Bad Weather Shelter providing a warm meal and refuge from the cold, wind, and rain in the winter months; a Street Outreach and Housing team working to end homelessness on the streets of Pasadena with about 20 people successfully housed each year; and an Eviction Prevention and Rental Assistance program offering emergency rent, case management, or rental assistance resources to approximately 280 households each year.

“The pandemic and shelter-in-place orders of the past year and a half have put nonprofits – usually hidden in plain sight – in the spotlight,” explains Jan Masaoka, CEO of the California Association of Nonprofits (CalNonprofits). “California Nonprofit of the Year is an opportunity for our elected officials to celebrate the good work they see nonprofits doing in their districts, and for everyone to appreciate the collective impact of nonprofits in our communities.”

Like many nonprofits, Friends In Deed depends entirely on philanthropy through development, grants, and fundraising efforts to do their work in the community. To learn more about how you can support Friends In Deed and its programs, click here.

If you missed any articles about Friends In Deed from local newspapers when they were first printed, you can find them here. Besides articles, you will find Guest Opinions that FID Executive Director, Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater, has written for the different papers.

Outlook Newspapers, October 4, 2018
Outlook Newspapers, July 19, 2018
(article on The Women’s Room, page 2)
All Saints Church Monthly Magazine
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