Fund Spotlight: Piccinini Pesco Family Fund

For some, philanthropy begins at the end of their life. But Nicole Piccinini Pesco, local philanthropist, and a Stanislaus Community Foundation Fundholder has a different approach. She feels the urgency to create necessary change now. That urgency has inspired Nicole to leverage her charitable giving with SCF’s expertise to support new nonprofit programs today. Nicole is increasingly interested in programs that give people real-time tools and resources to uplift themselves.

Personal Inspiration for Philanthropy 
In 2016, Nicole and her husband welcomed their first child. While it was one of the happiest times for her family, it was also a period of personal loss. Just before Nicole stepped into motherhood, she lost her father and shortly after the birth of her son, she lost her younger brother. Nicole grieved these losses while managing her growing family grocery business – all while juggling the demands of being a new mom. Despite the countless resources available to her, it was a daily struggle. She began to think about how a single mother without any support could possibly manage multiple stressors.  

As the world was shaken by the COVID-19 pandemic, Nicole saw the community’s needs first-hand, especially the struggle of mothers trying to support their children, work, and manage their households. These struggles inspired Nicole to use her charitable resources to disrupt the cycle of poverty plaguing mothers and their young children. 

These moments became the foundation of Nicole’s charitable point of view and are directly connected to the types of programs she has invested in in recent years.  

Partnering with Stanislaus Community Foundation 
When Nicole first came to Stanislaus Community Foundation, she already had a vision of the areas where she wanted to create impact. She just didn’t know where to start. SCF’s deep knowledge of local nonprofits and programs made it easy for Nicole to identify organizations who were innovatively solving key issues within our community. Her goal wasn’t just to give to organizations with proven track records – it was also to support new organizations and innovative projects that struggled to receive funding because of their unconventional ideas and solutions. 

Quick Solutions & Innovative Pilots 
Since opening her fund in 2021, Nicole’s philanthropy has been focused on both the present and the future. She granted funds to Tuolumne River Trust to plant trees in the Airport Neighborhood and to Improve Your Tomorrow to expand their College Academy, a program to support young men of color in achieving their academic dreams, to Stanislaus County.  

She also granted unrestricted funds to Stanislaus County’s Health Services Agency, an organization dedicated to providing health care services to the community. The funds allowed caseworkers to purchase gift cards for clients to use for their basic needs, child development or safety, and improving overall life skills. Despite initial fears of clients misusing the funds, caseworkers were overjoyed when they learned that clients had purchased food and diapers, repaired their broken-down vehicles, paid their rent, and even attended college classes or trade school. They were wise in their investments and are now on a path towards a better future.

 While meeting people’s urgent needs is important, equally important is addressing the systemic issues that have created a population of people who are struggling to make ends meet. To help address this, Nicole invested in the Center for Human Services Two Gen program, an innovative pilot program intended to disrupt the cycle of poverty for single mothers and their children in Stanislaus County. By providing wraparound services like mentoring, peer support and housing, this program has proven that, when someone’s basic needs are being met, they can focus on investing in themselves and providing a better life for their children. A participant in the program shared, “I make plans and I have big dreams; I just need that push to follow through.”  

Hope for the Future 
Nicole envisions Stanislaus County becoming a community where everyone has access to the resources they need to thrive, no matter what that might look like for each person. She says, “It’s hard to say just pull yourself up by the bootstraps – because you can’t do that if you don’t have any boots.” She strongly believes that everyone deserves to have their most basic needs met and a real chance at breaking the cycles of poverty, homelessness, drug abuse, etc. For Nicole, the focus is equity – making sure we all have the same starting line in life. As she notes “it’s not a fair race if you’re starting 100 yards behind everyone else.” Thanks to Nicole’s gifts in our community, more residents are closer to the same starting line.