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SOHO End of Year Giving 2025
November/December 2025
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Thank you for being part of San Diego’s historic preservation community and for sharing SOHO’s mission. Together, in this last year, we have fought hard for San Diego’s historic neighborhoods and places, and it has been—and remains—a battlefield, one of the most challenging we have faced in more than 30 years.
In 2025, shifting government priorities and reductions in arts and culture support across the country have created ripple effects for nonprofits like ours. While SOHO has never relied on federal funding, we do rely on city funding for the arts, which has been severely cut. Our work is sustained through museum admissions, educational programs, special events, and the generosity of members and supporters like you. This changing climate only underscores how essential your support has become.
Looking back on the past year, it is clear that it has been your support that has made every difference. With your generosity, SOHO launched a campaign to counter the misconception that preservation stands in the way of housing by commissioning an independent $46,000 landmark study with PlaceEconomics to explore, in part, how historic neighborhoods can strengthen housing affordability and livability—insights missing from San Diego’s so-called “Preservation and Progress” initiative. This report is expected shortly, and we will share it with you as soon as it is available. Together, we sent more than 4,000 postcards to city leaders, with SOHO funding the printing and most of the postage. Each one was a voice for San Diego’s heritage—thousands of citizens reminding our leaders that preservation matters. With your help we will continue this fight. Your support ensures that SOHO remains a steadfast voice for balanced, thoughtful policy that values both community and heritage.
You stood with us as we attended over forty public and private meetings to speak up for endangered historic buildings and vulnerable historic neighborhoods across San Diego, and reviewed or fielded hundreds of City of San Diego 45-year reviews evaluating whether a building is a historic resource eligible for designation.
We are asking for your help to keep up this essential work and to keep the pressure on those who so carelessly and callously put our historic places at risk.
The protection of San Diego’s landmarks often requires long, hard-fought efforts. We completed the George Marston Museum & Gardens exterior restoration, a one-million-dollar project made possible by SOHO staff carefully managing costs so that every penny went into the restoration work. We marked the extraordinary 25-year SOHO-guided effort that culminated in the $550 million restoration of the Hotel del Coronado. And let’s not forget saving the last two modest Theosophical Lomaland cottages from demolition.
It’s hard to describe the broad scope of what SOHO does on any given day. Just last Friday, we consulted with a nonprofit struggling to care for its historic property, responded to community tips about threatened landmarks, and fielded calls from city leaders and the media seeking SOHO’s perspective. This kind of every day and behind-the-scenes work doesn’t make headlines, but it is every bit as important as our public victories. It is the daily rhythm of preservation, and it is possible only because of you.
So far this year, SOHO has published sixty-nine preservation news articles and guides to saving historic places, provided nineteen one-on-one consultations with homeowners and business owners, and held dozens of phone conversations with members and the public at large, and led Neighborhood Historic Preservation Coalition (NHPC) meetings focused on strategy and information sharing.
You also made possible our educational work. A free monthly virtual lecture series on San Diego’s historic places, as well as lectures on reimagining historic buildings for new uses as part of the solution to our housing and environmental challenges have been popular. You supported our docents and volunteers as they shared our house museums and neighborhood walking tours with thousands of visitors. You also joined us for behind-the-scenes restorations and rediscoveries of places like Vacation Village and the Del. All this work was sustained through donor generosity.
This is the power of your generosity. SOHO does not—and cannot—do this work alone. You are the key to our success.
As we look ahead, you know as well as we do that the challenges remain daunting. The city’s Preservation and Progress initiative and recent state legislation continue to threaten San Diego’s historic character. Yet every setback only strengthens our resolve. With your continued help, with your partnership, we can and will keep fighting for San Diego’s historic places, expanding our outreach, and defending the communities and stories that help make our city truly special. After 56 years, we are still a grassroots organization—ordinary people doing extraordinary work to improve the world we live in. That is as true today as it was in 1969 when SOHO was founded.
SOHO is about people—our members, supporters, and friends. You write letters, attend hearings, sign petitions, volunteer at events, take part in programs, and share your voice when it matters most. And through your year-end gifts, you sustain us. Your support is what enables us to help San Diegans save the places that matter, and the more you give, the more we can do.
Please, if you are able, include SOHO in your giving this year. Your tax-deductible gift will directly fuel the preservation and protection of San Diego’s history, architecture, and cultural heritage for generations to come.
Thank you for standing with us, for being such a vital part of this preservation family.
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