We’ve dedicated this issue to the people and organizations working to make San Diego better, because collaboration greases the wheels of progress.

In our annual Charitable Giving Guide, you’ll find stories of people helping people, including a neighborhood group who stepped up after flooding devastated Southeast San Diego last winter and a nonprofit mentoring foster kids in our city. There are stories of volunteers and organizers and leaders—and one very special mom who, on the path to understanding her child’s seizures, ended up with a PhD.

Then we’re climbing in a truck and setting traps with a local woman working tirelessly to help San Diegans—and people all over the world—reunite with their missing pets. And you’ll learn more about local icons whose gifts have transformed San Diego. There’s much here to be inspired by. This is a issue to remind us all of the power of giving what we can, doing what we can, and building what we can, the best way that we can: together