Tag archives: nonprofits
The COVID crisis has been quite a challenge for nearly everyone in the world. But for Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary – the nonprofit founded in 2004 by director Jamie McLeod to rescue and often rehabilitate unwanted and displaced companion parrots – the pandemic really has been for the birds. Or rather, not so much, as […]
The Cancer Center of Santa Barbara was founded 73 years ago based on the simple concept that a city that is one of the most desirable places on Earth to live should also have state-of-the-art cancer care available locally. The name, locations, and internal structure has changed over the years, but the nonprofit’s goal has […]
The Santa Barbara coastal region has largely escaped any major disasters in the past year, save, of course, for the ongoing crisis with COVID-19. There haven’t been any major fires striking between Carpinteria and western Goleta, and no serious flooding despite the recent record-setting string of rainstorms. On the other hand, some folks out by […]
Tea was served in copious amounts as CommUnify invited dozens to an outdoor event at the gorgeous Santa Barbara Club on December 2. Good thing, because one simple statement was quite sobering. Santa Barbara County is essentially tied for first in California for highest poverty rate. With the sale of countless multi-million-dollar homes in the […]
For nonprofits, there are many barometers of success. One is fundraising, obviously. The more a nonprofit can raise, the better its odds become of fulfilling its mission. Another is outcome. One advantage enjoyed by Mission Scholars, the program I run under the aegis of the Santa Barbara Education Foundation, is that its goals are clear-cut […]
Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics operates eight clinics in Santa Barbara, Goleta, and Isla Vista, largely located in neighborhoods where healthcare is most needed by an underserved population. The buildings themselves aren’t glamorous even though they’re located in a town with a gleaming new cancer center and a gorgeously re-designed front entrance to the main hospital. […]
It was a very in-tents occasion when Montecito Bank & Trust erected a giant marquee in the rotunda at the Hilton for its 17th annual Community Dividends lunch when $1 million was given to 179 worthy organizations from the local community. The late Mike Towbes, founder of the bank, always described the event as his […]
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of year. I love how the holiday allows us to reflect and give gratitude before we launch into the rest of the end-of-year holidays. Oh, and I love the food. This year I find Thanksgiving especially poignant. For those not felled by COVID, we’re coming up on the […]
‘Tis the season for our little slice of heaven to showcase its robust heart, with nonprofits across the South Coast hosting a plethora of events and fundraisers to aid those in need. Throughout the season, we’ll highlight companies that need help in order to hit their goals. This week, we take a look at the […]
In its short 13-year history, Leading From Within — which was founded in 2008 as the Courage to Lead program that was created to offer renewal to experienced nonprofit executive leaders while also offering leadership development — has already had quite an impact in town. More than 60 executive directors have participated in the year-long […]
Just Communities (JC), the nonprofit whose mission includes “dismantling all forms of prejudice, discrimination, and oppression,” works towards its vision of an equitable and inclusive Central Coast by offering cultural competency training to organizational leaders, education seminars for the general public, leadership training for students and teachers, and customized consultation to local agencies for diversity […]
Direct Relief has been so efficient at serving as one of the country’s most effective humanitarian assistance organizations that it’s easy to overlook the scope and the scale of what the nonprofit achieves. Just last week alone, for example, Direct Relief airlifted a huge planeload of medical supplies and other equipment to Haiti after the […]
It is said that Santa Barbara is home to more nonprofits per capita than any other county in the country. After writing about them for 30 years, I believe it. All the executive directors met at Chomp on the Rocks restaurant to celebrate the beginning of their fiscal year and chat about their business. Being […]
Owning a business or being self-employed requires a great deal of self-motivation and discipline. Fitness and martial arts demand similar traits, and it was the lessons learned through his own fitness regimen that led Gilbert Regalado II to establish the new nonprofit Solid Foundations, a series of classes that teach young kids life skills and […]
Girls Inc. of Greater Santa Barbara has had plenty on its plate since the pandemic altered almost everything back in March 2020. Like everyone else, the nonprofit — whose mission is to inspire all girls to be strong, smart, and bold with a vision serving empowered girls in an equitable society — had to make […]
We’re all familiar with major names in philanthropic giving like MacArthur, Rockefeller, or Ford, but there are hundreds of lesser-known foundations that are making innovative solutions a reality through small-scale funding programs. One of these is Invoking the Pause (ITP), an organization focused on implementing tangible trailblazing climate solutions in the 21st century. In their […]
Performing arts and the arts nonprofit sector of Santa Barbara took a huge hit in 2020, as COVID performed a scorched earth campaign across an already tenuous industry. Santa Barbara loves its art and its artists, but it has often suffered from the silo’ing of audiences and funding. Philanthropists love having their names on new […]
When most of America shut down last year, the Alzheimer’s Association was faced with a dilemma: What to do about its largest annual fundraiser, the Walk to End Alzheimer’s? Mass gatherings were obviously out of the question, but could they somehow restructure the event rather than calling it off? “The word ‘cancel’ never came up,” […]
For more than 40 years, Human Rights Watch has enjoyed an international reputation for taking on and often accomplishing its mission to scrupulously investigate abuses to widely expose the facts and then relentlessly press those in power, ranging from governments to armed groups to businesses — all in the name of change. Its ability to […]
David Asbell has had it up to here with the pandemic. The longtime general manager of the Lobero Theatre piloted the venue through a pandemic pivot along with everybody else to stay relevant during the last 14 months. For the Lobero, this meant partnering up with an indie producer to host live streaming shows from […]
