Building Community Power With Camille Llanes-Fontanilla and Saúl Ramos
What does it look like to build durable community power? SOMOS Mayfair, a grassroots organization in East San Jose founded by and for the historically excluded immigrant families of the Mayfair neighborhood, has received more than $20 million in support from Sobrato Philanthropies, the philanthropic arm of the Sobrato Organization. Phil talks with Camille Llanes-Fontanilla, Sobrato Philanthropies’ senior vice president of community impact and systems change and SOMOS Mayfair’s former longtime executive director, and Saúl Ramos, SOMOS Mayfair’s current co-executive director, about what it takes to fund and lead an organization built around resident-led solutions rather than a single programmatic focus.
Llanes-Fontanilla and Ramos describe SOMOS Mayfair’s evolution from an early-education program into a broader “power-building” infrastructure spanning leadership development, worker-owned cooperatives, and affordable housing organizing, and explain why the perception that the organization “lacked focus” actually reflected a deep commitment to following community need. The conversation also turns to the current climate of fear shaping daily life in immigrant communities amid stepped-up enforcement, the toll that sustained crisis response takes on nonprofit leaders and staff, and why funders should resist retreating into “strategic planning” pauses just when communities need consistency the most.
Guest Info:
Camille Llanes-Fontanilla, MPA is senior vice president of community impact and systems change at Sobrato Philanthropies, where she leads the organization’s strategy for local giving, policy work, and place-based investment across Silicon Valley. Before joining Sobrato in 2021, Camille spent 11 years as Executive Director of SOMOS Mayfair, the East San Jose organization where she was born and raised, leading significant organizational growth, raising more than $25 million for the neighborhood, and building the Si Se Puede Collective. She holds a master’s degree in public administration from San Jose State University.
Saúl Ramos is co-executive director of SOMOS Mayfair, alongside Victor Vasquez, a role he has held since 2022 after previously serving as the organization’s deputy director. A proud son of unionized cannery workers and farmworkers, Saúl brings more than 20 years of experience serving immigrant communities, including leading SOMOS Mayfair’s grassroots COVID-19 outreach campaign in partnership with Santa Clara County’s Department of Public Health and the Si Se Puede Collective. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
Credits:
Podcast Production: Cold Italian
Artwork: Jay Kustka
Resources:
SOMOS Mayfair
Sobrato Philanthropies
The Giving Code: Silicon Valley Nonprofits and Philanthropy
Center for Effective Philanthropy State of Nonprofits 2026: What Donors Need to Know