About us

People first, always.

Save Family Foundation was created to give back in a meaningful way, working alongside communities to help people feel supported, resilient, and able to cope with life's challenges.

Our Story

SAVE Family Foundation began in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, in our own neighborhood. We watched the crisis hit close to home: people out of work, families going hungry, neighbors unhoused, and so many struggling quietly with depression and anxiety. Like a lot of families, our family responded the way we knew how: individually, wherever we each saw a need.

We gave to the Sacramento Food Bank and other local organizations. We sat down with local officials about the homelessness crisis. We provided pro bono therapy and community wellness support because so many people around us were hurting. We picked up extra shifts at our rural hospital, continuing a longstanding family commitment to expanding healthcare access in underserved Northern California. And we built nutrition and culinary-medicine programs, healthy-cooking sessions for Medicare patients and schoolchildren, alongside mindfulness and drug-awareness education.

At some point, the realization was simple: there is strength in unity. Everything we were each doing separately would go further, reach more people, and last longer if we brought it together under one roof. So we did, and SAVE Family Foundation was born.

SAVE Family Foundation is a clinician-led, Sacramento-based foundation increasing access to wellness, mental health, nutrition, housing stability, and education. Born from years of grassroots volunteer work across the Northern Valley, SAVE brings that work together and platforms it through a family foundation. We don't just connect people to care; we deliver it, and we grow the specialized workforce that provides it.

We're building this one domain at a time, starting with mental health, so that every commitment we make is measured by real, demonstrable impact. That family ethos still runs through everything we do, a belief that healthcare, education, and basic stability shouldn't depend on your zip code, and that a family united around its community can build something bigger than any one of us alone.

Our Guiding Pillars

SAVE's work is guided by four pillars that shape how we show up for our community, both today and for the long term.

Data & Research

Our work is grounded in real, local data. We use resources like the Sacramento County Community Health Assessment to identify community needs and guide where we invest our efforts.

Collaboration

SAVE works alongside other nonprofits and providers, filling gaps and strengthening the network of support across our community.

Policy Advocacy

We advocate to protect funding like Medi-Cal and ECM for mental health, and engage legislators across the aisle through events like Day/Night on the Hill.

Community

SAVE is rooted in Sacramento and Northern California. We're building deep, lasting relationships with the multiple communities who shape our home.

Our Service Domains

Here at the SAVE Family Foundation, we have 5 main service areas and are building our work one focus area at a time. For 2026, our domain of focus is mental health, but we consistently work through all 5 themes over the years.

Mental Health

We go beyond connecting people to care, we deliver it. SAVE subsidizes specialized therapy that insurance often won't cover and patients can't afford, from trauma and addiction care to support for serious mental illness. As a clinician-led training site, we also grow the specialized workforce the region is short on, developing therapists in high-need modalities like EMDR and perinatal mental health.

Nutrition and Food Insecurity

Good health starts with good food. SAVE builds culinary-medicine and healthy-eating programs, from cooking sessions for Medicare patients and schoolchildren to nutrition education, tackling food insecurity and the everyday barriers to eating well.

Housing Stability

Stability is the foundation everything else is built on. SAVE works toward a community where housing and basic security aren't out of reach, because wellness isn't possible without a stable place to stand.

Education

Access to opportunity shouldn't depend on where you start. SAVE supports education as a pathway to wellness, from workforce and life-skills learning to funding the training of future clinicians who might not otherwise afford it.

Rural Health Access

Care shouldn't depend on your income or your zip code. Today, through our partner organizations, we help facilitate therapy for Medi-Cal patients under California's CalAIM initiative, expanding access for low-income communities. Looking ahead, we're committed to strengthening healthcare education and infrastructure across underserved Northern California, building on a long family legacy of expanding medical training and access in the region.

Meet the Team

As a family foundation, we see ourselves as a family unit in how we treat each other on our team and in how we show up for the communities and families we serve. What connects us all is our passion. When we ask ourselves what our dream job would be, each of us feels it’s here, doing the work we’ve always wanted to do, through SAVE. We aspire to connect like-minded people and organizations to that same sense of family and home, wherever we go, creating that feeling for the communities and families we serve. Family meets family.

Sabita Kondle, MA, LMFT, LPCC

Founder & CEO

Sabita has worked with youth in Yuba City since 2002 and has practiced therapy since 2019. She is the founder of SAVE’s practicum training program and the inspiration behind our inaugural gala’s mental health theme. Sabita is passionate about uplifting mental health, reducing stigma, expanding access to care, and diversifying the workforce ,training clinicians from different cultural backgrounds to strengthen cultural competency across the field. Outside of her clinical work, she loves cooking and healthy eating.

Venu Kondle, MD

Co-Founder | Board Member | Vice Chair

Dr. Kondle is a nephrologist who has practiced medicine for 32 years, expanding access to rural health care across Yuba City, the North Valley, and Sacramento. He still practices primary care in rural areas today, serving with heart and offering care at home. Coming from a rural farm town, he became the first physician in his family and community, an experience that shaped his lifelong passion for expanding medical education and access to rural areas. Dr. Kondle is a firm believer in reducing healthcare costs, offering sincere and meaningful bedside care, and outside of medicine, he remains passionate about organic farming and still farms to this day.

Sumana Kondle, MD, MSPH, MSHPL

Co-Founder | Board Member | Vice President of Population Health & Community Programs

Dr. Sumana Kondle, MD, MSPH, MSHPL, is a physician and public health leader with a focus on preventive medicine, nutrition, and community wellness. Growing up in a rural community with limited access to health care, where her father was often the only provider available, she knew by high school that she wanted to become a public health doctor. She chose to complete her college, graduate, and medical education across the South, deepening her commitment to upstream, preventive interventions in underserved and rural communities. She completed her residency in General Preventive Medicine at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and is currently pursuing certification in culinary medicine, applying food-as-medicine approaches to chronic disease prevention. She recently contributed to an ABC News Medical Unit feature on the MIND diet and brain health. As Medical Director at PromiseCare, she leads a Chronic Disease and Patient Wellness Program serving the Temecula, Murrieta, and Hemet communities, integrating nutrition education into patient care. She also serves as Executive Program Manager and a board member of the SAVE Family Foundation, a nonprofit she co-founded to expand access to professional support services for families in the Sacramento and Yuba City areas.

Soham Kondle, BS

Co-Founder | Board Member | Treasurer

Soham is a lifelong Californian, born in Yuba City, and is currently a fourth-year medical student at California Northstate University College of Medicine in Sacramento. He is passionate about improving policy and circumstances for people experiencing homelessness, and has advocated directly with legislators on behalf of unhoused communities. Soham also cares deeply about fitness as a tool for community health, and has organized and spoken at fitness-focused community events.

Imelda Martinez, BS, BA

Executive Strategy Director

Imelda Martinez is the Executive Strategy Director of SAVE Family Foundation, leading strategic initiatives, operations, community partnerships, fundraising, and organizational growth to expand access to behavioral health and wellness services throughout Northern California.

With more than 12 years of nonprofit experience, Imelda has served individuals and families across all stages of life, from working with children and adults with developmental disabilities to supporting older adults and their caregivers. Her career has also spanned youth development, behavioral health, entrepreneurship, workforce development, and community outreach.

Imelda has built strong partnerships with schools, healthcare providers, businesses, and community organizations to expand access to services for underserved communities. She's passionate about connecting people and finding practical ways to help organizations better serve the communities they serve.

As a Hispanic American, Imelda believes everyone deserves the opportunity to live a healthy life and access the support they need, a belief that drives her work at SAVE every day.

Shani Singh, AA

Marketing Manager

Shani comes with a background in graphic design and spent several years in UX design and marketing, working with early-stage Edtech startups and nonprofits to help their missions reach the people they were built to serve. That journey left her with a simple belief: good design and storytelling are what help causes actually reach the people who need them. Now, as Marketing Manager at SAVE Family Foundation, she brings that passion to life, leading the organization's storytelling, brand, and community outreach across Sacramento and Yuba City.