Today’s Under the Hood Spotlight
Welcome to Under the Hood, our exclusive Saturday series for Napa Valley Features paid subscribers.
Today’s Under the Hood Article Summary: Jameson Humane has launched a new biannual grant initiative — Grants for Global Stewardship — designed to support other nonprofits addressing animal welfare across California and eventually the U.S. The shift marks a strategic pivot away from direct animal rescue toward amplifying impact through funding others’ innovative efforts. With $120,000 distributed each grant cycle, the program aims to increase reach and efficiency. Founder Monica Stevens calls the effort a “catalytic impact,” enabling broader collaboration amid shifting federal and local resources.
Beyond today’s discussion, we’re also diving into the latest data from our readers’ polls and providing insights from our economic dashboard, covering local Napa Valley, U.S. and global markets.
“What We’re Reading” features excerpts from recent articles offering a range of perspectives on topics shaping our community and the wider world. A new section at the end, “Visuals That Caught Our Eye,” spotlights compelling charts and graphs that stood out this week.
“What We’re Reading”: Excerpts of the Day
"Sources with knowledge of the case say investigators suspect a contract worker at the (Hundred Acre) winery had taken ... ashes out of what the worker believed was a safely cooled oven and put them on a pile of flammable material." – from NBC Bay Area, in "Questions Raised over Napa Fire," Wine-Searcher.
"This number is an early snapshot. I cannot stress that enough. It's an early snapshot. The full picture will continue to unfold as we gather more information from growers, vintners and at producers in the weeks ahead." – from Tracy Cleveland, Napa County Agricultural Commissioner, in "Early estimates of Pickett Fire's economic impact to Napa wine industry around $65M," CBS San Francisco.
"We would like to plant Cabernet Franc because we see more and more that Cabernet Franc brings a finesse." – from Christian Moueix, in "Napa’s Dominus Buys Yountville Ranch Vineyard from Markham," Wine Spectator.
“I think the macro problem is this decreasing consumption, but the other issue I’m seeing is wine just is not cool. I know some people want to look at Napa as an aspirational region, but it sure would be nice to get the young people drinking RTDs to think about a wine cooler versus something that’s spirit-based.” – from Michael Honig, in "Under the Hood: As America Drinks Less, Napa Feels the Squeeze," Napa Valley Features.
"How many more kids need to be shot before Republicans step up to end this gun violence epidemic? – from Mike Thompson, in "Chairman Thompson Slams GOP Leadership for Enabling Gun Violence: 'President Trump, Speaker Johnson, and Leader Thune Have Blood on Their Hands'," official statement.
“Our success is due to the commitment of Wine Institute’s officers, board of directors and members who devote their time to the greater good of the industry.” – from Bobby Koch, in "Longtime Wine Institute Leader Bobby Koch to Retire," Wine Institute.
“The fact that heatwaves age us is surprising” – from Paul Beggs, in "Repeated heatwaves can age you as much as smoking or drinking," Nature.
"I'm looking at creating the Lodi Winery Business Improvement District, which would add a 1.5% assessment on the direct sale of wine from Lodi wineries." – from Stuart Spencer, in "Lodi wine industry proposes 1.5% sales assessment to fund promotion amid struggles," CBS Sacramento.
"2025 goes a step further. We must think, readapt, act." – from the Guinaudeau family, in "Top Pomerol wine estate quits Bordeaux appellation system on eve of harvest," Decanter.
"Decoy is honored to be the exclusive wine partner of the Emmy Awards." – from Chanel Caplan, in "Decoy Named Official Wine Partner of The 77th Emmy® Awards Season," Decoy Wines.
"Current cognitive readiness tests administered to service members lack the sensitivity to detect subtle shifts in cognitive performance that may occur in individuals exposed to operational hazards." – from Christopher Smalt, in "New technologies tackle brain health assessment for the military," MIT News.
"Wildfires have burned more than a million hectares of land in the European Union this year so far, the highest amount in any year since official records began in 2006." – from Kate Abnett, in "Record wildfires burn more than 1 million hectares of EU land this year," Reuters.
"Some state websites or phone lines may be slow or briefly unavailable during recovery." – from the office of Gov. Joe Lombardo, in "Nevada state offices close after wide-ranging 'network security incident,'" Reuters.
"It’s very unsettled. Most of the voters, the plurality in this poll, are undecided." – from Mark DiCamillo, in "California voters undecided in 2026 governor’s race, but prefer Newsom over Harris for president in 2028," Los Angeles Times.
“The object of power is power… We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power — pure power.” — George Orwell, 1984, Part 3, Chapter 3.
Grant Program Expands Jameson Humane’s Reach
By Dave Stoneberg
NAPA VALLEY, Calif. — A decade after its founding, Napa’s Jameson Humane has launched a new program – one that seeks connection and collaboration with other nonprofits to help animals and the people who care for them.
The Grants for Global Stewardship program will provide $120,000 in grants twice each year to animal welfare nonprofits. The program will amplify Jameson Humane’s mission for aiding animals in need, not just in Napa and surrounding counties but throughout California at first and then throughout the United States.
“After 10 years, there’s only so much that we can do,” said Monica Stevens, founder and president of Jameson Humane. “We just want other people to come up with great ideas. I call it ‘catalytic impact’ because the more smart people you have working on this, the better. Just imagine the ideas that will come up.”
She added that she doesn’t know of any other granting opportunity like this.
At the end of May, Jameson reopened Ella’s Cathouse & Adoption Center, a cage-free, no-kill adoption center, located on Old Sonoma Road in Napa. “We care for 30 cats at any given time and we’re working with the Napa County Animal Shelter to take in more,” Stevens said. Beyond that, though, Jameson no longer runs an animal rescue shelter after selling its property on Cuttings Wharf Road in Napa.
The idea of an education center and animal rescue ranch led to the purchase of the Cuttings Wharf property in 2018, during a drought year. But every year since then, the property has flooded and staff had to re-home the pigs and cows during the rainy season. Stevens said that was not a good use of money that was donated. Beyond that, though, “To be honest, we were never going to build on that property because it flooded every year.”
Those concerns led to questions: What are we doing with that property? And what are we eventually going to do?
The challenge was to think of something that would be powerful to replace the energy and resources that was put into the rescue ranch. At the ranch, Jameson staff and volunteers cared for some 30 animals, not including the cats at Ella’s Cathouse. That took resources, that is time and money, and most of those animals were never going to be adopted, Stevens said. “If you think about it, how many animals were we really helping in that situation?” she asked.
Jameson Humane had a choice: They could spend X amount of dollars on operations every year, Stevens said, “Or we can fund projects for nonprofits that have really good ideas and good projects and make things happen for the animals and the humans even faster.”
Stevens added its staff and volunteers can do so much at the ranch, but Jameson Humane as an organization could do so much more if they helped 10 to 15 nonprofits during every grant cycle. “Well, imagine the number of animals we can help with these grants. We could help 30 animals with one of the grants. So that’s the kind of productivity that I want to see.”
Beyond the Grants for Global Stewardship program and Ella’s Cathouse & Adoption Center, Jameson Humane continues to offer several other programs, including:
Community Animal Assistance Program
Community Pet Pantry
Disaster Preparedness
Education
Foster
Impact, including vaccination and spay and neuter clinics
LEAP (Leaders for Ethics, Animals and the Planet)
Senior Citizen Pet Wellness
Training and Behavior Support program
The grant program was launched at this year’s Wine-a-PAW-looza fundraising event held at the Castelucci Estate in Oakville in June. It was the Fund-A-Need lot for the 12th annual event and it raised $250,000. Overall, the 2025 Wine-a-PAW-looza event raised $1.302 million. In a dozen years, Wine-a-PAW-looza has raised $16 million.
A few conditions regarding the grants: Those applying must be a nonprofit, 501c3 organization, must have been running for at least two years, must submit a 990 IRS nonprofit tax form and must make at least $50,000 a year. Grants will be accepted between Sept. 1 and Sept. 30. Jameson’s grant administrator Stephanie Mathers and Stevens will preliminarily review the grant applications; the ones that meet the criteria will be reviewed by a committee of 10 people, who are located all up and down the West Coast and have been involved with Jameson Humane. A decision on the grants will be made in mid-November. Other criteria can be found on the website.
Those seeking the grants will need to write a narrative on what they will do with the grant, and then at the end of the year, when the grant is up, they will need to tell Jameson Humane what they did with the money.
Stevens said Jameson Humane continues to seek donations to fund the grant program from people who believe in it.
Then Stevens turned philosophical. “You know like right now, the country is suffering. There’s so many humans that aren’t getting money from social service organizations, because the federal money is not there. I think through this grant program, we are looking for someone, who is inspirational,” Stevens said. “We’re just looking for humans to say, ‘I got a great idea. Jameson, can you fund it?’”
She added, “I’m just really inspired by the thought that something really terrific is going to happen.”
Stevens summed up the program as she referenced Helen Keller’s famous quote: “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
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Dave Stoneberg is an editor and journalist.
