BY SAM WATERSTONE | March 8, 2021
The nonprofit sector makes up a significant portion of our economy – statewide, nonprofits generate 15 percent of California’s GDP, and represent 1 in every 14 jobs. Prior to the pandemic, Santa Barbara County was home to nearly 2,000 nonprofits employing over 20,000 individuals, with the second highest nonprofit revenue per capita, per the 2019 Causes Count Report.
Despite being a philanthropic powerhouse in terms of total nonprofits and charitable giving, Santa Barbara County’s nonprofit community has historically lacked the support necessary to ensure the well-being and professional development of the staff who make up the backbone of the sector. In other words, our nonprofit workforce is largely overworked and undercompensated, and the sector as a whole has suffered because of it.
On top of this, the nonprofit world brings daily challenges that have only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. These challenges include developing effective leaders, collaborating efficiently with other stakeholders, and raising enough funds to operate – all while providing ongoing services to communities with increasing needs.
Supporting Our Social Sector
At the Santa Barbara Foundation (SBF), we believe that the key to strengthening our extensive social sector is to provide nonprofit leaders and their organizations with the knowledge, skills, and resources to fulfill their mission. In addition to being a funder, the Foundation is committed to delivering a variety of capacity building resources as another value-add to our community. By building a healthier social sector, we can improve the social outcomes for our county.
To increase our commitment to the social sector, SBF created the Collaboration for Social Impact (CSI). The CSI focuses on strengthening all Santa Barbara County nonprofits by supporting capacity building in the areas of leadership development, technical assistance, financial management, technology, and cross-organizational collaboration, as well as personnel health and wellness.
The CSI team is led by nonprofit capacity building expert Gary Clark, who joined the Foundation in March 2020 as the Director of the Collaboration for Social Impact.
“I view capacity building as not only equipping nonprofits with the tools they need to succeed, but also helping the social sector weave a stronger and more resilient infrastructure that supports the greater social safety net,” explained Clark. “With the Collaboration for Social Impact, SBF is able to support nonprofits by promoting best practices and collaboration when there are opportunities to generate a greater impact within the communities we all serve.”
The CSI also draws on the expertise of the CSI Advisory Committee, a diverse and experienced group of Santa Barbara County executive leaders who have long worked on the front lines of nonprofits. The current CSI Advisory Committee includes:
“For those of us on the Advisory Committee, I feel it is our responsibility to teach and share what we have learned to the next generation of executive directors and nonprofit leaders, so they can understand our successes and failures,” said Ernesto Paredes, a CSI Advisory Committee member with over 30 years of social sector leadership experience.
Nonprofit Programs & Resources
The CSI team manages one of the Santa Barbara Foundation’s key grant programs, the Small Capacity Building Grant (SCBG) Program, which offers targeted, timely grants aimed at strengthening the organizational capacity and programmatic effectiveness of local nonprofits. In 2020, the Foundation awarded more than $300,000 in SCBG funding to 67 organizations. About half of these grants were awarded to support nonprofits with their capacity to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Additionally, the CSI supports the nonprofit sector by providing a broad inventory of COVID-19 Santa Barbara County Nonprofit Resources, promoting public and private sector advocacy, and facilitating webinars and trainings on topics such as business continuity planning, board governance, financial literacy and adaptive leadership. The CSI partners with organizations like Leading from Within, The Fund for Santa Barbara, and Cal Lutheran University’s Center for Nonprofit Leadership to bring high quality programs and services to the nonprofit community, as well as Santa Barbara County’s nonprofit digital hub, the Nonprofit Resource Network (NPRN), to ensure the sector can share and receive important, up-to-date information related to events, resources, jobs, and more.
“In addition to grant dollars, every nonprofit organization needs a strong governing structure, they usually need a roof over their head, and meeting space, and technology,” Clark said. “Sometimes they need leadership development or strategic planning assistance – the list goes on and on – and the Collaboration for Social Impact is here to help individual organizations and the sector as a whole evolve and become stronger in all those areas.”
Another CSI program working to strengthen our social sector is the CalNonprofits Free 1st Year Membership Program, currently available to nonprofits with budgets of $4.9 million or less.
“We partnered with CalNonprofits to provide free nonprofit membership, not only because their member benefits include tools like ThinkHR – an incredible Human Resources technical assistance tool that is very valuable in these transitional times – but also because as members, nonprofits can engage in advocacy on behalf of the entire sector, at the state level.”
Going forward, the CSI is excited to continue spreading the word about its offerings to nonprofits countywide. The Foundation’s new CSI webpage was launched in January 2021 and is regularly updated with important nonprofit news, events, and resources designed to help our sector thrive. In 2021, the CSI team plans to emphasize cross-sector collaboration as it works to meet the evolving needs of our communities – during the pandemic and beyond.
If you have questions about the Collaboration for Social Impact, please contact Gary Clark at GClark@SBFoundation.org or Maria Caudillo, Community Engagement Coordinator, at MCaudillo@SBFoundation.org.
Interested in contributing to the Collaboration for Social Impact and helping to bolster the capacity of the social sector? We welcome your partnership and appreciate your support!
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