Giving List Santa Barbara 2023

photo by Blake Bronstad Photography

Santa Barbara

Welcome to The Giving List Santa Barbara, 2023

We are thrilled to present you with this year’s edition of The Giving List Santa Barbara

One of the things I love about Santa Barbara County is that it’s small enough to feel manageable, yet big enough to offer a robust and interesting tapestry of people, communities, and causes. In Santa Barbara you can make a difference in people’s lives through good work and innovative programs to tackle chal lenges that in larger regions seem too overwhelming; you can bring together groups to create invaluable partnerships to solve problems. Nowhere is this reflected more clearly than in Santa Barbara’s nonprofit and philanthropic community.

The Giving List was created out of the belief that storytelling, humanity’s most powerful tool, is vastly underutilized in educat ing donors on the work being done by nonprofits. Three years ago, Santa Barbara became the lab for us to test this theory – that telling powerful stories could help nonprofits raise more money by providing donors with a compendium of narratives describing the work being done by some of the region’s most vital nonprofits. We also suspected that by giving donors more information on a broader array of giving options, we could help build stronger re lationships between our local nonprofits and the community they depend on for their survival.

So began our Giving List journey and our work telling the sto ries behind the region’s nonprofit leaders and organizations on the front lines of recovery, pressing for social and racial justice, uplift ing our children and families, supporting the arts, and fighting to preserve our precious natural world.

We’ve learned a lot since that first book. We’ve learned about the importance of specificity in an ask. That when people feel moved, they feel motivated to give. That a big check is great, and we’ve seen many come in, but nothing’s more important for the long-term resilience of a nonprofit than building strong, lasting relationships with donors.

This is the first year we’ve included some of Santa Barbara’s prominent religious organizations and their powerful stories about the intersection of faith and philanthropy. I’ve been so in spired to learn about the deep impact that our local faith orga nizations have on our region and how vital a role they play in providing a safety net for Santa Barbara residents.

These are fast-moving times, with an ever-growing list of causes that demand our attention. As we move through COVID and

the inequities it laid bare, a cataclysmic housing crisis, and the ongoing call for greater racial and gender equity, there are other pressing needs: the war in Ukraine, gun violence, an assault on women’s reproductive rights, and an uptick in racism, antisemi tism, and hate, all while wildfires and drought underscore a deep ening climate crisis.

If you’re a longtime donor to Santa Barbara nonprofits, we hope this book can help you be more thoughtful in your giving as you’re inundated by all the challenges mounting around us. If you’re newer to Santa Barbara, or to giving in general, we hope we can help direct you to some of the wonderful giving opportunities that would make a difference in this region and beyond. In any case, our intention is to help you break through some of the noise created by so many pressing needs.

The organizations in this book are not the only ones that are worthy of your support. But we do believe that the nonprofits represented in these pages represent Santa Barbara’s uniquely vi brant nonprofit and philanthropic culture. They are organizations doing important work, at an important time, and are worthy of your strong consideration.

This book would not be possible without the support of some of Santa Barbara’s premier institutions. We are deeply grateful to Montecito Bank & Trust, which wrote the book on community giving and has been our premier partner since The Giving List’s inception. The Santa Barbara Foundation and the Mosher Foun dation have likewise been amazing partners to us from the start. The impact of these institutions’ ongoing commitment to Santa Barbara’s nonprofit community is immeasurable. We also want to say a heartfelt thank you to our partners Southern California Public Radio and California State University, Northridge for their continued support and belief in The Giving List. And we are also grateful for our newer relationship with J.P. Morgan, and for their partnership in this book.

We hope you are as inspired by reading this book as we have been in making it.

Sincerely, Gwyn Lurie CEO, The Montecito Journal Media Group

Giving Back

We launched The Giving List to help the nonprofit organizations featured in this book spend less time fundraising and more time doing the critical work demanded of them.

Confronting the myriad and mounting challenges facing Santa Barbara, the nation, and the globe requires the ingenuity and dedication exhibited by the nonprofits that fill these pages. We have assembled their stories with the hope that you will see their value and invest in them.

A large proportion of the nonprofits we feature are smaller and more grassroots. This means that while they may have the ideas and leadership to forge change, they don’t necessarily have the diversified revenue streams to reach their fullest impact. We are hoping you will change that by donating and helping them secure the predictable, unrestricted revenue they need to focus on what’s most important: the work. With your engagement, we have the chance to invest in organizations with the potential to take on some of our most pressing challenges.

Please join us by supporting your local nonprofits on the front lines of justice, whether that be fighting racism; using the arts to change culture; helping children, youth, and families in need; or striving to preserve our precious environment.

We will all be better for it.

How to DAF?

An increasingly popular and efficient tool to manage your giving is a donor-advised fund, or DAF.

A DAF is like a charitable banking account, managed by a community foundation or by some of the world’s largest investment banking firms, where you can make a donation today and direct grants to worthy nonprofits later.

A key advantage with a DAF is that it allows you, the donor, to take a tax deduction in the year you donate money or complex assets, while not compelling you to distribute the money immediately. This can mean time to make more thoughtful decisions about how you want to direct your charitable contributions.

Many financial institutions and community foundations have low start-up fees, making it possible for donors at any level to DAF.

How to Read This Book

The Giving List was created to make it easier for you to navigate the dizzying array of worthwhile causes and nonprofit organizations here in Santa Barbara. To that end, we have distributed 25,000 copies of The Giving List Santa Barbara to people like you: individ ual donors, staff within the region’s small and large private foundations, and to philanthropic advisors, wealth managers, and estate planners.

As you dive into this book, we want to point out some of its unique features, and of The Giving List program as a whole.

Ongoing Support

Our partnership with the nonprofits in these pages does not end with the printing of this book. Each profile will live on TheGivingList.com through 2023, where we will be updating each profile once a month so that you can continue to track the important ongoing work of each and every Giving List organization.

We hope that you will use the website as a guide not only for yourselves, but as an easy way to share the work of our partners – whether they be nonprofits, community foundations, or funder affinity groups – with your friends, family, and colleagues.

Matching Challenges

The Giving List was created to help nonprofits generate predictable, unrestricted revenue through storytelling. One tried and true method to accomplish this is matching challenge campaigns.

Throughout the pages of this book, please keep an eye out for matching challenges.

In most cases, these are arranged by our nonprofit partners and are fueled either by their boards or by individual and institutional donors. So if you are looking to double the impact of your gift, there are ample opportunities throughout this book, our third volume of The Giving List Santa Barbara.

Staying Connected

We are building a community of people who care deeply about philanthropy and understand the vital role it plays in our world, and we want you to join.

Since launching January of 2022, our bi-weekly newsletter, The Fifth Estate, has become a venue for updates from our nonprofit part ners and stories from the frontlines of philanthropy.

We would love for you to join The Fifth Estate; please visit www.TheGivingList.com and follow the prompts.

You can also join our newsletter...

...by waving your phone’s camera over this QR code.

Contents

New Money

Philanthropy, incorporated for the public good, can and should make all its investments accordingly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 12

Social Sector Leaders: Montecito Bank & Trust

Giving back differently. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 18

Santa Barbara Foundation

Always up to the next challenge P. 26

32 Advocacy

Legal Aid Foundation of Santa Barbara County provides free legal assistance to Santa Barbara County res idents. Their mission is to provide high-quality civil legal services to low-income and other vulnerable residents in order to ensure equal access to justice. They change lives through direct representation, legal advice and information, and community education. P. 34

Planned Parenthood California Central Coast seeks to improve our communities’ sexual and reproductive health outcomes through health care, education, and advocacy. P. 36

The Fund for Santa Barbara is a community foun dation that supports organizations and groups working for progressive social change in Santa Barbara County. The FUND is dedicated to helping find solutions to current and emerging social problems and issues that challenge our so ciety as a whole. P. 38

Social Sector Leaders: Cal State University Northridge (CSUN)

Giving students a leg up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 40

J.P. Morgan

Centering philanthropy in financial advising . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 42

46 Giving Paws

Profile – Wilma Melville is proving the power of the hu man-canine bond. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 48

C.A.R.E.4Paws works to reduce pet overpopulation, keep animals out of shelters, and improve quality of life for pets and pet owners in need P. 52

The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation’s mission is to strengthen disaster response in America by res cuing and recruiting dogs and partnering them with firefight ers and other first responders to find people buried alive in the wreckage of disasters P. 54

56

For the Children

Profile – Nancy Sheldon Philanthropy isn’t only about gifts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 58

Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Santa Barbara County seeks to assure a safe, permanent, nurturing home for every abused and/or neglected child by providing a highly-trained volunteer to advocate for them in the court system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 60

RiteCare Childhood Language Center is ded icated to supporting and assisting children by provid ing childhood speech-language, literacy, and education programs for a lifetime of improved communication and confidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 62

64 Community Resilience

Profile – Jackie Carrera Community is at the heart of her life and work P. 66

Faith-Based Philanthropy: St. Vincent’s

Through this gate life changes P. 70

Common Table Foundation believes that inclusive, authentic dialogue and engagement among people of all back grounds is the heartbeat of a healthy democracy; it is essential in giving voice to those in society’s margins, and critical in developing a culture of belonging, participation, and collabo ration. Their programs and events serve as seed-beds for cul tivating, demonstrating, and celebrating our fundamental con nectedness as human beings, first and foremost . . . . . . . . . . P. 72

Leading From Within fosters a dynamic network of pub lic-minded leaders who know each other, trust each other, and are better able to work together to improve our communities. This investment better ensures that leaders can address some of society’s more persistent challenges. The deep, personal nature of their programs help leaders better understand and invest in themselves and build trusted relationships with their peers P. 74

Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade was created to pre pare for and respond to natural disasters and community crises through volunteer training, coordination, and de ployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 76

Clean Coalition is driven to accelerate the transition to renewable energy and a modern grid through technical, policy, and project development expertise P. 78

80 Education

Profile – Kalyan Balaven

Modeling educational inclusion P. 82

Dunn School community educates whole students to their fullest potential in preparation for a life of learning and respon sible leadership in society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 84

Santa Barbara City College Foundation fuels the excel lence of Santa Barbara City College by engaging the community, building relationships, and inviting the generosity of donors. The resources raised and managed by the Foundation enrich college pro grams, remove barriers, and empower students to succeed P. 86

NatureTrack fosters a fascination with nature for students in kindergarten through 12th grade through free field trips led by trained volunteer docents to a variety of local ecosystems from the forest to the beach. Formulated in conjunction with their school curriculum, kids are engaged in fun and education al activities as they learn to become stewards of our natural re sources. No students, volunteers, or teachers are left behind as the special program Freedom Trax allows those in wheelchairs to join in the field trips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 88

Santa Barbara Education Foundation provides and supports programs that enrich the academic, artistic, and per sonal development of all students in the Santa Barbara Unified School District P. 90

92

Environment

Profile – Hiroko Benko

The Channel’s defender P. 94

Community Environmental Council (CEC) builds onthe-ground momentum to reverse the threat of the climate cri sis. They transform the systems that fuel it. They safeguard the community from its impacts. And every day, they move people to create a more resilient California Central Coast . . . . . . . P. 96

Explore Ecology works with over 30,000 children a year, inspiring them to engage with the natural world, think criti cally, and experience the value of environmental stewardship. Explore Ecology programs include the Art From Scrap Cre ative ReUse Store and Gallery, Environmental Education, Watershed Resource Center, and School Gardens. Their goal is to promote a greater understanding of the connections be tween people and their environment and to encourage cre ative thinking through hands-on environmental education and artistic expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 98

Lotusland preserves and enhances the unique, historic es tate of Madame Ganna Walska, care for and improve its collec tions, and develop its conservation and horticulture programs, so they educate us, inspire us, and advance our understanding and appreciation of the importance of plants in our lives and in the life of the planet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 100

Marine Conservation Network was born out of love for people and the future of our oceans. The oceans have always been there for us, but the connection and relationship has diminished and suffered due to lack of understanding and compassion. Their goal is to close that communication gap between the scientists, conservationists, and the public by networking, education, and advocacy programs. They unite and connect individuals and ocean communities to leading scientific research and effective conservation practices by building bridges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 102

White Buffalo Land Trust builds healthier soils , sequesters carbon, increases biodiversity, improves the health of our water cycle, reaches our climate goals, and builds resiliency P. 104

106 Family Well-being

Social Sector Leaders: The Shared Crossing Project

Exploring the mysteries of life and death P. 108

Family Service Agency (FSA) helps strengthen and advocate for families and individuals of all ages and diversities, helping to create and preserve a healthy community. Established in 1899, FSA improves the health and well-being of our community’s most vulnerable children, families, and seniors by ensuring access to food, shelter, and other basic needs, as well as providing case man agement, advocacy, and mental health programs . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 110

Hospice of Santa Barbara, since 1974, has been provid ing compassionate care and support to those impacted by seri ous illness and the bereaved in our community. It is the second oldest hospice program in the United States, and it continues to build today on its distinguished history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 112

People Helping People is dedicated to improving the lives of men, women, and children in the Santa Ynez Valley, Los Al amos, and surrounding communities by addressing emergency and basic needs, furnishing comprehensive integrated family and individual support services, and acting as a catalyst for pos itive community change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 114

Unity Shoppe is dedicated to providing residents impacted by temporary conditions of poverty, natural disaster, or health crisis with resources, including groceries, clothing, and other essen tials as well as job training, which reinforces human dignity and encourages self-sufficiency and independence . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 116

118 Global Reach

Faith-Based Philanthropy: Congregation B’Nai B’rith

Repairing the Santa Barbara and world community P. 120

Direct Relief is a humanitarian aid organization, active in all 50 states and more than 80 countries, with a mission to improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergencies – without regard to politics, religion, or ability to pay . . . . . . P. 122

Human Rights Watch (HRW) defends the rights of peo ple worldwide. It scrupulously investigates abuses, exposes the facts widely, and pressures those with power to respect rights and secure justice. Human Rights Watch is an independent, in ternational organization that works as part of a vibrant move ment to uphold human dignity and advance the cause of human rights for all. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 124

World Telehealth Initiative provides sustainable med ical expertise to the world’s most vulnerable communities to build local capacity and deliver core health services, through a network of volunteer health care professionals supported with state-of-the-art technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 126

128 Healthcare

Profile – Michael Brinkenhoff Tragedy begets inspiration P. 130

Cottage Health believes the people of Santa Barbara should have the best healthcare in the nation – right here at home – in our com munity. That’s why it is committed to being one of the best hospi tals in the country… and to always be reaching higher P. 132

Sansum Clinic’s mission is to provide an excellent healthcare ex perience, recognizing its first priority is the patients it serves . . P. 134

VNA Health - Serenity House provides compassionate, personalized end-of-life care in a tranquil, homelike setting. Specially-trained hospice providers and board-certified staff focus on quality of life for patients and their family offering medical, emotional, and spiritual support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 136

Sansum Diabetes Research Institute is dedicated to improving the lives of people impacted by diabetes through re search, education, and clinical care P. 138

Savie Health provides free medical, behavioral health, den tal, and vision care to uninsured adults in Santa Barbara Coun ty and beyond regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, immigration status, religion, or sexual orientation P. 140

142

Senior and Speciality Compassion Care

Profile – Charlotte Gullap-Moore

Giving back because of what she once received P. 144

Hillside is a residential facility for 59 people with developmental disabilities, including intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, autism, and epilepsy. They provide a home that supports residents’ efforts to maximize their physical, cognitive, social, and emotional abilities so that they can attain their highest level of independence in an environ ment where people are treated with dignity and respect P. 146

The Rona Barrett Foundation provides affordable housing and supportive services for seniors-in-need. They do this by developing, expanding, and continuing oper ation of care homes such as the Golden Inn & Village in Santa Ynez, California. Residents benefit from a wide range of essential care services. With dignity, respect, and love, the Rona Barrett Foundation presents residents with a broad variety of programs that meet their needs and en hance their lives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 148

150 Homelessness & Housing

Faith-Based Philanthropy: The Father Virgil Cordano Center

Reconstructing the lives of the unhoused P. 152

New Beginnings aims to provide its clients with the abili ty to lead healthy and productive lives through its Counseling Clinic, Life Skills Parenting and Education Program, Safe Parking and Rapid Re-Housing Program, and the Supportive Services for Veterans Families Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 154

PATH’s mission is to assist homeless individuals achieve self-suf ficiency, by helping as many as possible access the services they need to transition to stable employment and housing P. 156

158 Nourishment

Organic Soup Kitchen aims to provide metabolic oncology nutrition and food security to support the health and wellness of low-income seniors and other individuals with cancer or chronic illness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 160

Santa Barbara County Food Action Network con nects, aligns, and activates food system changemakers to devel op a robust local food economy, a healthy and just community, and a well-stewarded, resilient foodshed P. 162

164

The Arts

Profile – Palmer Jackson Jr. Tuned into local giving P. 166

Social Sector Leaders: Southern California Public Radio

Where democracy is heard P. 168

CAMA (Community Arts Music Association) seeks to enrich Santa Barbara’s cultural life by bringing live performances by world renowned classical artists and orchestras of the highest ar tistic excellence to our community and by providing creative, fo cused music education programs for individuals of all ages . P. 170

Granada Theatre – owned and operated by the Santa Bar bara Center for the Performing Arts – serves Santa Barbara by providing a vibrant, state-of-the-art venue where world-class artistic performances are available to the widest possible au dience, promoting appreciation for the performing arts and enhancing the quality of life in our community . . . . . . . . . P. 172

Santa Barbara Museum of Art has had a distinguished 80-year history of fascinating exhibitions and programs of international significance. The museum’s 25,000-piece per manent collection spans both the centuries and the globe. Of fering a robust calendar of events, tours, classes, educational

programs, lectures, and free resources for adults, families, and kids, the museum makes it easy for visitors to connect more deeply with the artwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 174

Santa Barbara Symphony seeks to enrich the lives of Santa Barbara residents by producing and presenting the highest quality musical experiences performed with artistic excellence, which is accessible to the entire community; and to inspire a passion for symphonic music in the next generation of audience members, musicians, and funders . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 176

UCSB Arts & Lectures annually presents more than 100 public events from critically acclaimed concerts and dance per formances by world renowned artists to talks by groundbreaking authors and film series at UCSB and Santa Barbara-area venues. A&L’s mission is to “educate, entertain, and inspire.”. . . . . . P. 178

180 Youth Development

Profile – Monte and Maria Wilson In service to children P. 182

AHA! (Healthy Attitudes, Emotional Harmony, and Life long Achievement) equips teenagers, educators, and parents with social and emotional intelligence to dismantle apathy, prevent despair, and interrupt hate-based behavior P. 184

Community Hot Rod not only offers a free program to teach the youth and young at heart how to build, restore, and fabricate classic cars and off-road race vehicles here in Santa Barbara, their program also promotes a positive environment that improves both personal and community etiquette that is seriously missing in our community and world today P. 186

Endowment for Youth Community seeks to unlock the full potential of Black African American youth by providing op portunities that maximize shared community, prosperity, and personal growth goals and objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 188

Freedom 4 Youth aims to uplift and empower youth im pacted by the criminal legal system to build safe and compas sionate communities. They believe in the power of centering the stories of those most impacted to build belonging, hope, love, and systemic change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 190

United Way of Santa Barbara seeks to enrich the lives of children and families and build resilient communities by lead ing local programs and partnerships that improve school read iness and academic achievement, financial empowerment, and crisis response and recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 192

To learn more about joining The Giving List Community, please contact: partnerships@thegivinglist.com

CEO & Founder Gwyn Lurie gwyn@montecitojournal.net

President & Founder Tim Buckley tim@montecitojournal.net

Executive Editor Daniel Heimpel dheimpel@thegivinglist.com

Art Director Trent Watanabe

Associate Editor & Director of Partnerships Vicki Horwits vicki@thegivinglist.com

Copy Editor Lily Buckley Harbin Graphic Design/Layout Stevie Acuña

Administration & Billing: Jessikah Moran frontdesk@montecitojournal.net

Contributors: Tom Dibblee, Guillaume Doane, Joe Donnelly, Les Firestein, Brenda Gazzar, LaRue Gillespie, Richard Hecht, Jonathan Karp, Peter Langley, Steven Libowitz, Gary Marks, Amanda Moose, A. Moret, Lorie Dewhirst Porter, Asher Radziner, Brian Rinker, Zach Rosen, Leslie Rugg, Dan Schifrin, Nicholas Schou, Holden Slattery, Dipti Vaidya

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New Money

Philanthropy,

incorporated for the public good, can and should make all its investments accordingly.

BY DANIEL HEIMPEL

In 2021, Senators Angus King (I-Maine) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced a bill to more tightly regulate donoradvised funds, commonly referred to as DAFs. While the Accelerating Charitable Efforts (ACE) Act’s reforms were far from sweeping, the bill set off a bitter debate over who controls charitable funds: the donor or the public.

The Act’s supporters plausibly argued that wealthy donors could use the increasingly popular philanthropic instruments for personal gain, and that DAFs allow them to hoard and perpetually control what becomes public money once those donors accept a tax benefit. Its detractors plausibly argued that the bill would reduce char itable donations by constraining donors’ access to an easy way to commit large sums to charity, even if the gifts to nonprofits don’t happen immediately.

For the uninitiated, DAFs are like charitable bank accounts that allow a donor to make a “donation” of money or complex assets. The primary sponsors of these accounts are increasingly subsid iaries of large investment firms – like Fidelity, Schwab, and Van guard – and community foundations. The donor receives a tax deduction for the year that the gift was made but isn’t compelled to disburse those funds immediately.

“We want to make the timing of the deduction and the ben efit to the community closer together than the current some time from today until infinity,” says Jan Masaoka, the longtime CEO of the California Association of Nonprofits, which sup ports the ACE Act.

The bill, which hasn’t moved to a vote in the Senate, but was introduced in the House in early 2022, targets the estimated $160 billion DAF industry. Most importantly, it would compel donors to spend down those accounts within 15 years or submit to 5% annual payouts if they want to retain control for 50 years.

One of the bill’s most strident opponents is the Philanthropy Roundtable, a national association of similarly-minded charita ble foundations.

“Our mission is to help foster excellence in philanthropy, to protect philanthropic freedom, and to help donors advance the principles of liberty, opportunity, and personal responsibility,” says Elizabeth McGuigan, the Roundtable’s senior director of policy and government affairs. “This entire legislation is aimed at hypothetical problems. What we see is robust giving coming out of donor-advised funds… The best way forward is to protect phil anthropic freedom and donor privacy, which of course, the ACE

Act would violate in many ways.”

She has a point. Private foundations are compelled by federal law to give 5% of the value of their endowments out in grants every year. In aggregate they hew very closely to this number. The National Philanthropic Trust, a DAF sponsor itself, found, through its robust annual survey, that the 2020 payout rate for DAFs nation-wide was 23.8%.

For David Risher, who, alongside wife Jennifer, has in spired more than $33 million in giving through their grassroots #HalfMyDAF campaign, moving the massive wealth locked up in DAFs and charitable foundations requires an “all and” approach.

“Legislation is a pretty big hammer. But if that’s what the world needs, let’s do it,” Risher says. “But meanwhile let’s not wait for regulations to tell us what the right thing to do

is. Let’s get to it. Let’s inject some entrepreneurial spirit into philanthropy. That isn’t going to come from the government. It’s going to come from people like you and me and someone like MacKenzie Scott waking up and saying, ‘Let’s try some different things here.’”

More than the substance of the bill itself, the ACE Act’s intro duction showed that two senior senators were willing to question whether the tax benefit conferred to donors by the federal govern ment was being matched by sufficient public benefit.

And the government, working on the public’s behalf, is fully entitled to ask these questions. I would argue that it is also every individual American’s responsibility to ask whether philanthropy is living up to its purpose. After all, the donor’s acceptance of tax abatement by setting up a charitable foun

Charitable foundations can use the power of their balance sheets to offer unfunded loan guarantees to spur private investments in things like solar panel expansion or urban redevelopment.

(photo by Blake Bronstad Photography)

dation or a DAF creates a legal trust wherein the trustee is the public – you and me.

Despite all the control that the philanthropic sector wields over its assets, it really is the people’s money.

In that context, we should be looking at how capital flows through the true seat of wealth in private foundations – their en dowments: the corpora.

The corpora refers to the more than $1 trillion held by chari table foundations in the United States. Remember, this collective of bodies is governed by an Internal Revenue Service rule that compels 5% of its totality be given to charity every year. The rest, the 95%, is largely invested on the private market.

Of the $485 billion that Americans gave out in 2021, charitable foundations made up less than 20% at $90 billion. As this makes clear, the real money lies in foundation endowments and – for individuals – within DAFs housed at the globe’s most successful investment banks.

So how is all that money, owned by the public, being spent? How should it be spent? And what can be done to accelerate in vestments that support, rather than degrade, this nation’s social safety net and the globe’s ailing environment?

Spending Down

Given the flood of issues affecting us – a teetering economy, an assault on reproductive rights, commonplace mass shootings, a West that burns – maybe it’s best to just spend the money held up in charitable foundation endowments or donor-advised funds as quickly as possible.

That was the tack Kathy Kwan took when deciding the fate of her and her husband’s $60 million Eustace-Kwan Family Foundation. “If all those dollars are locked up in savings accounts, they’re not going through the economy,” Kwan told me. “They’re not helping people.”

By the end of 2023 the total endowment will be spent down. Kwan isn’t alone.

In 2014, after the death of longtime Schwab COO Larry Stupski, wife Joyce declared that the foundation would “spend down” all its assets by 2029. “Spending down gives our team of staff and grant

ee-partners the opportunity to dream big, take risks, and make real change in our communities,” she said before her death in 2021.

Stupski and Eustace-Kwan are part of a growing roster of foun dations that have pledged to give all their money away sooner than the “perpetuity” the majority seek, which I will describe shortly.

Mr. #HalfMyDaf, David Risher, has a similar take, but applied to donor-advised funds. Under the model that he and his wife cre ated, anyone who commits to spending down half his or her DAF within a year is eligible to nominate nonprofits for matching gifts. These can be made by the cadre of DAF holders that have pledged to be HalfMyDaffers, or anyone who visits the website.

Since 2020, #HalfMyDAF has moved an average of $11 million a year, a little more in annual giving than a charitable foundation with a $200 million endowment would give according to the 5% rule.

But spending down means stamping an expiration date on the golden goose.

Perpetuity and Not Terrible Investments

Charitable

foundations and the firms managing DAFs, while not uniform in their investment strategies, have one key similarity: an unswerving focus on returns.

Foundations are fond of the concept “perpetuity,” wherein sage fiscal management renders the corpus immortal. To achieve per petuity, private foundation investments must produce more rev enue than their operating costs, which includes the 5% payout requirement. This requires a returns-oriented mindset, which can run counter to the public interest.

While some DAF holders may direct their sponsoring organi zations to spend down the money quickly, DAF sponsor fees are derived from the size of the assets managed. This creates a clear disincentive for managers to counsel their clients to give the mon ey away. And while that money sits, the goal is, again, profit.

Fossil fuels can be a very good investment. So too private pris ons and firearms. And investments with private equity firms that gobble up distressed apartment buildings and homes and convert them into market-rate rentals can also be lucrative.

But where is the public benefit in any of these?

Recognizing this incongruity with foundations’ missions, an increasing number have joined the now $40-plus trillion Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) industry. ESG simply means that investments in socially and environmentally unappetizing companies and funds are identified and screened out. So, if you are a charitable foun dation focused on climate change, your ESG screen will keep you from buying ExxonMobil stock.

That’s a start.

David and Jennifer Risher have moved more than $33 million of DAF dollars to nonprofits.

Using the Balance Sheet

When a rich kid wants to buy a home, his or her parents can either purchase the house outright or engender a modicum of self-reliance by putting up a loan guarantee to smooth the mortgage over with a bank.

Similarly, charitable foundations can use the power of their balance sheets to offer unfunded loan guarantees to spur pri vate investments in things like solar panel expansion or urban redevelopment.

The Community Investment Guarantee Pool (CIGP), launched in 2019, has pulled together major names in philan thropy and impact investing – the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Arnold Ventures, the Annie E. Casey and Kresge foundations, among others – to offer loan guarantees for a range of social ly-conscious private enterprises.

In 2021, the pool used $15 million in guarantees to leverage $131 million in capital to develop affordable housing.

“Affordable housing is an important new issue area for Arnold Ventures,” said Arnold Ventures Director of New Programs Chris Hensman in a 2022 CIGP press release. “We’re excited to par ticipate in the Pool and explore financial guarantees as a highly leverageable tool for helping to launch, test, and scale the most promising of these housing strategies.”

Better.

Patient Capital

In 1969, when Congress passed the Tax Reform Act – which included that 5% payout rule for private foundations – it also created something called a program-related investment (PRI).

Pioneered and lobbied by the Ford Foundation, which has al located more than $600 million to PRIs, these are investments, most often structured as low interest debt, that fulfill a founda tion’s mission.

Per IRS rules, making a profit cannot be the “primary concern” of a PRI. In exchange for accepting concessionary returns, the IRS allows a foundation to count these investments towards their annual payout.

This financial instrument has largely been deployed as “patient capital,” in the form of low-yield loans (1-3% over 5-10 years).

In 2015, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the JPMorgan Chase Foundation launched the Entrepreneurs of Color Fund in Detroit. Since, it has loaned out more than $10 million and helped create and retain 1,100 jobs.

But PRIs don’t need to be structured as loans – they can also be used to buy equity. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has deployed more than $1.5 billion in PRIs. To develop new vac cines, the foundation made equity investments into biotech start ups, while compelling those companies to make their products affordable in poor countries.

That’s promising.

Market Rate Returns Meet Social Impact

In 2017, the California Wellness Foundation, which holds a little north of $1 billion in assets, began experimenting with mission-related investments (MRIs). In essence, MRIs are a fancy way of saying market-rate investments that also generate positive social impacts.

“We started with $50 million and set up a mini-endowment with very similar asset allocations to our larger portfolio, and tracked performance,” says Wellness’ chief financial officer, Rochelle Witharana. “We were able to prove that the MRIs tracked exactly the same as the broader portfolio.”

With a flourish Witharana adds, “We are now moving our entire billion to impact.”

Despite increasing evidence that investments can yield acceptable returns with ac ceptable risk, mission-related investing is far from the norm. The Global Impact Investing Network estimates that while growing, there is only around $715 billion in impact-investing dollars under management globally. For scale, U.S. pension funds alone hold roughly $40 trillion.

The reason why philanthropy has been slow to step up, Witharana says, “is the old boy network [of foundation finance committees and staff]” who “believe that MRIs can’t make the same returns as traditional portfolios, which I feel is completely incorrect.”

The Ford Foundation’s $1 billion Mission Investments program, launched in 2017, is showing that returns can not only exceed expectations, but can also feed the vaunted immortality of a foundation’s corpus.

“Mission Investments has generated a compound annual return rate of 28% from its inception in 2017 through 2021,” Ford President Darren Walker wrote in a 2022 reflection on the program’s five-year anniversary. “That’s triple the return required to sustain the foundation’s perpetual existence.”

While Ford’s MRI carve out is significant, it is far from shifting the whole $16 billion endowment towards double bottom line investing.

California Wellness Foundation CFO Rochelle Witharana is one of only a few financial officers moving the entirety of their foundation’s endowments to impact.

There are only a handful of foundations across the country that have done that. In California, I know of only two large foun dations, other than Wellness, that have pledged to move their entire endowment to impact: the Weingart Foundation and the East Bay Community Foundation.

Valerie Red-Horse Mohl is the East Bay Community Foundation’s CFO. Among many accomplishments in the world of fi nance, Red-Horse Mohl founded the first Native American owned investment bank in the 1990s. She came to the East Bay Com munity Foundation in 2020 to not only change how it invests, but how philanthro py does as a whole.

“I think the way to make reparations is to allow us [Black and Native American People] to thrive and catch up in the wealth gap,” Red-Horse Mohl says. “For me, it’s not so much looking back, even though that’s important. It’s looking forward and how do we really narrow, if not eliminate, the wealth gap?”

Part of that is investing in Black and Brown financial managers, long excluded from the upper echelons of finance. “What happens when money comes into Black and Brown funds from Wall Street?” she asks. “It starts to then flow into companies that are all over America in communities of color. And then we raise the level of wealth in those communities and then the need for all the philanthropic support starts to lessen.”

Cynthia Muller is the director of mission investment at the $8 billion, Michigan-Based W.K. Kellogg Foundation. In 2007, the Kel logg Foundation was one of the first major national foundations to commit to MRIs and has deployed more than $300 million since.

Being so early in, Muller says, Kellogg could set the table on diversity, equity, and inclusion, by making investments that “don’t hurt the underlying communities, but sway markets and practice. When the Kellogg Foundation comes in, it makes it okay for others to come in.”

But don’t get too caught up on the good that mission-related investing can do; market rate returns are top criteria when investment offi cers like Witharana, Red-Horse Mohl, or Muller are considering an allocation.

Inasmuch, labeling these investments mission related may be too limiting. If we go back to the original premise of this essay, and accept that all these dollars are truly public, there is an argument to be made that all investments should be mission related.

But instead of compelling charitable foundations to align their investments, can the government incentivize philanthropy to increase momentum towards impact investing?

Changing the Energy of Money

Since the creation of the PRI more than 50 years ago, the practice has become increasingly commonplace across philanthropy.

“In 2022, you can’t go to a foundation or family office without talking about a PRI,” Kellogg’s Muller says.

Community foundations are also taking a leadership role in di recting their DAF holders towards program-related investments. The California Community Foundation, through its Home L.A. Loan Fund, has guaranteed returns for DAF clients who have in turn given out more than $11 million in low-yield loans to sup port affordable housing developments. And the East Bay Com munity Foundation regularly holds pitch sessions where social entrepreneurs take their ideas to the foundation’s DAF clients di

rectly in the hopes of winning a PRI.

This is evidence that offering philanthropy an incentive can yield sector-wide change. But PRIs are still, most often, part of the 5%. How can we go bigger, move the 95%, the great corpora, to impact?

While the ACE Act uses a stick, albeit small, the federal govern ment also can offer some carrots.

One is the excise tax. Currently, charitable foundations pay 1.39% of net gains on their investments in a calendar year.

The federal government could create an incentive for foundations by waiving the tax if, for example, a foundation’s portfolio uses an ESG screen or reaches a minimum threshold of verifiable MRIs.

The Gates Foundation has made equity investments in vaccines.

Another area for reform could be unrelated business taxable in come (UBTI). If a nonprofit, including a charitable foundation, generates revenue from business activities that differ significantly from its mission, it can be taxed at the corporate or trust rate. This can create tax exposure for foundations or DAFs that invest in, for example, real estate funds with debt financing.

If a foundation focused on, for example, alleviating poverty, in vests in an affordable housing fund, it can still be taxed on some portion of the return. The IRS could waive UBTI.

While both the excise tax and UBTI are relatively small ex penses, waiving these taxes would show the federal government is supportive of the idea of impact investing.

For Debbie La Franchi, who founded impact investing firm SDS Capital Group more than two decades ago, the real reason why foundations have been slow to impact is more about them selves than federal regulation.

“Our experience with MRIs is either that foundations don’t have them, or they are very narrow, or they want to wait until you are on fund three or four when we don’t need the foundation mon ey anyway,” La Franchi says. “We need the money when we are launching a new concept, especially when it also has an impact.”

Part of the problem, as I mentioned above, is the whole notion of calling out impact investments as mission related. Whether it’s La Franchi’s California-based homeless supportive housing fund, or her fund in the U.S. South, both lead with market-rate returns. Same too for a venture fund that invests in early stage solar, wind, and energy storage companies.

By labeling investments – that could come out of any asset class – as mission related, philanthropy is curtailing the full power of its corpus. Instead of a carve out, they should use their full en dowments to build up the field of impact managers, who will cre ate products with the scale and track record to draw institutional money. Remember, pension funds hold about 40 times the wealth that U.S. charitable foundations do.

Government can help through tax policy and other financial instruments, but philanthropy doesn’t need to wait to act.

So, to my friends on the financial side of the philanthropic house, what are you going to do with that $1 trillion ball of our public money in your hands? Will you seek perpetuity through traditional means, or will you find immortality by changing mar kets, the energy of money?

Now that would be transformational.

L.A.-based SDS Capital Group has drawn millions in foundation investments to provide supportive housing to the city’s homeless population.

The Female Lead: Montecito Bank & Trust

By Lorie Dewhirst Porter

Michael Towbes, who founded Montecito Bank & Trust (MB&T) in 1975, struck a different tone than most bankers when he proclaimed that, “banking is not about the MONEY, it’s about the PEOPLE.”

This sentiment is echoed in terms of the bank’s philanthropy, which amounted to $1.6 million donated to local nonprofits in 2021.

And that’s not a one-time event; MB&T has contributed at least $1 million to local nonprofits every year since 2003 through nu merous programs including its Community Dividends Program, which donates funds based on four “pillars” of corporate giving: arts and culture, health and medical, social services, and youth and education. On November 21, 2022 they celebrated 20 years of Community Dividends: $20 million of Corporate Philanthropy.

Towbes’ philanthropic legacy is embedded into MB&T, and lives in its stated mission: “To make the communities we serve better places to live and work.”

But there’s more: more than 55% of MB&T’s workforce of 265-plus employees are female, as is its Chairwoman/CEO, Janet

Garufis. When you consider that 67 percent of the top leaders at banks nationwide are male, MB&T is clearly blazing a trail in the banking industry by creating and nurturing a hospitable environ ment for female leadership.

Reflecting on her own career, Garufis notes, “After spending my ca reer working my way up the corporate ladder, navigating large multi national financial institutions into various leadership roles at different banks, I have come to appreciate the difference a feminine perspective can bring to the leadership conversation.” She believes it’s not about being the “toughest or loudest voice in the room, it’s about being au thentic, having conviction, confidence, empathy, and a lot of patience and tenacity.” Such a combination really influences a “female leader’s ability to communicate clearly, find balance and purpose, and relate to others on a more individual and personal level in collaborating to get the job done.”

To that end, the four talented women featured here, each from different departments of MB&T, give us their views on philan thropy, working at the bank, and why they call California’s Central Coast “home.”

Patty & Bob Bryant, Janet Garufis

Bank & Trust’s giving has transformed our com munity. CALM’s partnership with the bank has fostered inno vative mental health support in schools, in our clinics, and with our collaborators. With the generous support of MB&T, CALM has been able to remain singularly focused on our mission.”

– Alana Walczak CALM, President & CEO

Ambia Clark SVP, Commercial Lending Group

Ambia Clark grew up in Santa Barbara County, where her father was di rector of launch systems at Van denberg Space Force Base, and her mother ran the physical therapy department at Marian Rehabilita tion Center. She recalls joining her mother, who led the Breast Can cer Support Group and the Stroke Support Group.

“Through her expertise in her field, coupled with her passion to help people, my mother made lifelong impacts on wonderful people in our community and inspired me to want to do the same,” Clark says.

While attending UC San Diego studying business management, Clark worked part-time as a recruiter for an investment firm (at the time, she was much young er than most of the recruiters). After graduation, she moved home and worked for a bank in the Santa Ynez Valley for two years as an accountant.

But Clark missed “that special piece of working with people that goes beyond the numbers,” and was hired as Janet Garufis’ assistant, just shortly before Garufis was promoted to CEO at MB&T.

At that point, “Janet gave me a really incredible gift, which was to say, ’You’re doing a great job as my assis tant, but we need to find the best place you should be in the bank to be your best,’” Clark says. “She called

“Montecito

Ambia & her husband, Chris Clark

Janet Garufis (MB&T), Jeff Pittman (MB&T), Ambia Clark, George Leis (MB&T) “40 Under 40 Award, Pacific Coast Business Times”

the bank a village where we all work together in different ways; we have accounting, risk/compliance, we have training, we have lending. And I decided that lending was where I wanted to be.”

As a local of Santa Barbara’s Mesa community, Clark focuses on Santa Barbara and Montecito. “I work primarily with high-networth individuals, families, foundations, and nonprofit organiza tions to provide credit solutions where the financial considerations are complex,” adding, “Because we are a philanthropic bank, we are the bank of choice for many nonprofits in town.”

As a mother of four, Clark focuses her personal volunteer time on nonprofits connected to youth, education, and health. She’s served on several nonprofit boards, including the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation (supporting families of children with can cer), Women’s Economic Ventures (providing small business con sulting, funding, and education to individuals), the Montecito Community Foundation (related to the Montecito Association), and Monroe Elementary School on the Mesa (where her daugh ter is enrolled). Because MB&T has a charitable matching pro gram for employees and also provides monetary donations based on employee volunteer hours, Clark feels that “we’re really able to see how we contribute, not just personally, and to the bank, but to the community too.”

Clark’s loyalty to MB&T is evident.

“We have a great leadership team,” she says. “That’s why I’ve stayed at the bank for so long; it’s the mission of the bank and the leadership. We have very strong employee retention.”

She’s well aware of the difference female leadership can make in the banking world.

“You know, I don’t think I ever felt like I was out of place as a fe male in the banking arena; commercial lending is not a popular field for women yet. Certainly I’d love to see more diversity,” she says.

Clark believes women are well suited to banking, especially in terms of relationship management, saying, “Communication and relationships are at the forefront of being a great lender and leader.” CEO Garufis agrees: “Ambia is such a perfect fit in her role. She makes it look so easy! Our customers rave about her professional and caring approach to helping them identify the best solutions. I am so grateful to have a leader like Ambia who can model the way for other young women.”

Michele Shipp VP, Senior Trust Officer

Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, Michele Shipp’s first exposure to philanthropy was when she was in preschool and her family lived in Southern India.

“I learned about a very special type of giving early on in India,” Shipp says. “It left a powerful impression on me because they gave

so much, everything that they had to make us feel welcome.”

Because her father was a professor of medicine, sabbaticals were spent in international locations. In 1986, her family moved to California, where she completed her junior high and high school education. Shipp attended the University of San Diego, studying political science with a music minor.

“Music is my passion. I have always been a songwriter,” she says. Shipp later attended Santa Clara Law School and practiced as an

Michele with her husband, Kent Kinosian

Michele Shipp, Jeff Pittman, Albert Chu (MB&T Wealth Management)

estate planning attorney for several years in San Diego. An oppor tunity to work for a national bank in corporate fiduciary service came up, “and it completely changed my life,” she says. Over time, she became more specialized, and became a philanthropic fiduciary advisor reviewing charitable trusts across the nation.

Shipp moved back home to Santa Barbara in 2016 to be near her senior parents and was able to help them evacuate during the Thomas Fire and subsequent mudslides.

“It was a powerful time,” she says. “We got through it, and I felt like I needed a job that was going to have more direct impact and more meaning in our community.”

She received a call from Jeff Pittman at MB&T and embraced the opportunity to work at the bank.

“To me, this change was a heart decision,” she says. “I had been a fan of the bank for many years because of Michael Towbes’ legacy. It was the fact that the bank’s culture is philanthropy. And because of my philanthropic fiduciary advising work, it struck a chord for me because that’s the conversation I wanted to be in.”

Shipp is proud to be a part of such an experienced Wealth Man agement team. The Wealth Management division was established in 1996 and has developed a strong local presence for investment and fiduciary services.

“We sit with individuals and nonprofits and help them with in vestment management and serving as a trustee to administer trusts and estates,” she says. “Every wealth management account will get a trust officer, a portfolio manager, and a team of support.”

In addition to participating in MB&T’s Associate Matching Do nation Program, Shipp is an active member of the Santa Barbara Council of Charitable Gift Planners, the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners, and the Santa Barbara Estate Planning Council.

Ultimately, Shipp says, “I’m not going to a job. I’m going to a purpose every day. I do think that the philanthropic culture here is very special.” Janet Garufis adds: “I always believed that if we

created a culture where our associates could make a real differ ence, everything else would take care of itself. As philanthropy and volunteerism have become synonymous with Montecito Bank & Trust, we have been able to recruit and retain the best and brightest bankers in the business and MB&T has grown successfully. Mi chele is an excellent example of the value of that culture and we are grateful to have her on our team.”

Maria McCall

VP, Director of MClub

Maria McCall prob ably has the most entertaining posi tion at MB&T. As Vice Pres ident/Director of MB&T’s MClub, she oversees and cu rates special travel and enrich ment programs for her MC lub member clients.

And because she hails from Louisiana and spent summers at the family home in New Orleans, that city is often on the list for MClub travels.

When she first moved to Santa Barbara in 1986, McCall taught Spanish and math at Santa Barbara’s Bishop Garcia Diego High School. From there, she was hired to run the senior programs for Santa Barbara’s Parks and Recreation Department, where she helmed an affordable travel program for seniors in addition to overseeing several of the department’s centers, including the Lou

“Montecito Bank & Trust has always been a cornerstone of the com munity, leading with an extraordinary generosity and a sensitivity for people-centered values. Throughout the pandemic, they were shoul der-to-shoulder with us, meeting unprecedented challenges of our most vulnerable neighbors. We don’t just bank with MB&T, we are partners. We make a difference and positively change lives, together.”

–Valerie Kissell

CEO, Santa Ynez Valley People Helping People

“The support that Montecito Bank & Trust has provided to the Santa Bar bara Symphony over the years has been tremendous, and has enabled us to continue to grow and evolve into the leading performing arts institution that we are today. We also have the great fortune of having the bank’s CEO, Jan et Garufis, as our Board Chair. In this capacity, she helped the Symphony thrive during the pandemic by ensuring that transparent communication and fiscal responsibility increased – whether that was guaranteeing the Symphony’s family of musicians and teaching artists would be compensat ed, or helping to secure funding to safely bring the orchestra back to create a new digital series to be there for the community when it was needed the most. As a result, the Santa Barbara Symphony is experiencing momentum, increased impact, and newfound financial strength.”

– Kathryn R Martin President & CEO, Santa Barbara Symphony

ise Lowry Davis Center, the Carrillo Recreation Center, and ran a docent program for the Andrée Clark Bird Refuge.

Starting in 2005, she began running bank travel programs, first for a local bank and then for a national bank. (According to McCall, bank travel programs are more prevalent in the Midwest and the South than the West.) In 2016, she was hired by MB&T to organize and run MClub.

MClub offers its members exclusive opportunities to enjoy travel, cultural, and educa tional enrichment and fine dining several times a year.

But the pandemic was a challenge: “We completely pivoted the program to educa tional Zoom programs and did virtual tours,” McCall says. In addition to teaching MClub members how to use Zoom, “We did a lot of programs about the history of Santa Barbara and with authors who published books during the pandemic.”

A special session featured Frank Lloyd Wright’s Smith House, formerly owned by Anne Smith Towbes (widow of Michael Towbes). The virtual tour was so successful, McCall and

Maria makes the rounds at an Art Foundation event for MClub clients

Maria McCall, Keith & Lois Moore (MClub members), Linda Rosso (Development Director for New Beginnings)

Towbes followed it up with an in-person MClub tour of Michigan and Mackinac Island in June of 2022. MClub members also visited Scotland this past summer, which included a stop at the famous golf course at St. Andrews. Currently, McCall is pondering a river cruise in Portugal. She loves the challenge of creating travel experi ences her MClub members would not otherwise have access to: “I try to make it as concierge level as I can,” she says modestly.

McCall also features nonprofits as part of the MClub agenda, inviting speakers to provide in-depth information about organi zations such as the Family Service Agency (she’s on the board and serves on the Senior Programs Advisory Committee), the Nation al Disaster Search Dog Foundation (rescuing/recruiting dogs for firefighters and first responders), the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County (conserving natural resources and open land), and CALM (Child Abuse Listening Mediation).

–

“What I feel like I’ve done with the bank is to create a community within our community bank,” she says, adding, “I love working for Montecito Bank & Trust. Not only are we like a family, all the staff together – which is wonderful – but we are embracing our commu nity and helping our community. And I think that’s really amazing.”

Of McCall Garufis says: “Maria is a gift to our bank and to her MClub members. No one asked her to stay connected to MClub when COVID hit, she just ‘did the right thing’ reaching out to her members. What a difference she made!”

Megan Orloff

EVP, Chief Strategy Officer

Our childhood pur suits can often be early indicators of what is to come in our adult hood. From age 14 through her college days at USC, Me gan Orloff was a springboard and platform diver and her fearlessness when facing chal lenges head-on has character ized her professional career.

A native Californian, Orloff moved to New York City after college and worked at several large advertising agencies – including Ogilvy & Mather and Havas Worldwide – running domestic and global accounts for 18 years.

“I was able to constantly learn, engage with some of the best

“In addition to their long-standing annual support of our work, Montecito Bank & Trust lives out their commitment to assist those struggling in our community simply in being a top-quality com munity bank. They have provided strategic and advantageous financing, wise guidance, dedicated service and cheerfully volun teered to assist the homeless and addicted. Thanks to MB&T, our community has a remodeled facility that will provide critical ser vices for decades to come. We are so grateful!”

Rolf Geyling President, Santa Barbara Rescue Mission

Karen Poythress (MClub member), Keith Moore (MClub member), Maria McCall

Michael Towbes Community grant from Montecito Bank & Trust was a defining moment in this organization’s growth. The funding was the catalyst that brought the Veterans Village program to life. It provided desperately-needed funding at precisely the right moment. We believed we had created the new national blueprint for ending veteran homelessness, but without the funding to advance those plans and implement the solution, our mission of ending veteran homelessness and suffering would have remained only a dream. Two-hundred and thirty men and women who served our country are alive and well today because of the generosity of Montecito Bank & Trust.”

– Robert Harris Executive Director, Gold Coast Veterans Foundation

creative and business minds, develop my leadership style and skills, and ultimately, kind of burn out,” she admits. Montecito was a logical move; they owned a home here and she often spent vaca tions and long weekends in town. “I’d see Montecito Bank & Trust everywhere,” Orloff says, “and I thought, ‘If I was ever going to work in Santa Barbara, that’s where I’d want to work!’”

And that’s exactly where she landed in 2015. MB&T “allowed me to try something new, bring my non-banking background and creative-driven personality to the bank, which in turn provided

me the opportunity to build a department nearly from scratch and help shape a locally iconic brand and make a difference through community involvement.”

Leading a team of marketers, product owners, data analysts, spon sorship and outreach associates, and project managers, Orloff com bines her creative talents and strategic acumen to help define growth strategies to ensure the bank’s continued stability and overall success.

Local nonprofits have also received the benefit of Orloff’s market ing experience. She currently chairs the board of Angels Foster Care

“The

Angels Foster Care “Al Fresco” Luncheon 2022 - Ashleigh Davis (MB&T), Davina Gomez (MB&T), Meichelle Arntz (Angels Foster Care board member), Megan Orloff, Ambia Clark (MB&T), Michelle Richardson (MB&T)

“The Foodbank’s partnership with Montecito Bank & Trust has benefited the community in many, varied ways over the years. Their commitment has come in the form of direct contributions to our education and food distribution programs, sponsorship of needed new vehicles, and a customized, community-based loan for the Foodbank to purchase the right South County facility at the right time – our wonderful new Sharehouse. MB&T’s for ward-thinking approach ensures the well-being of our neighbors in need, and all of us in case of disasters.”

2022:

of Santa Barbara, an agency that provides foster care for infants and toddlers throughout Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. She admits to falling “hook, line, and sinker” for the organization’s mission and program, having inherited her motivation to help chil dren from her late mother, an elementary school teacher.

Orloff also chairs the Montecito Association, supports the United

Boys & Girls Club of Santa Barbara, the Teddy Bear Cancer Foun dation, and the Santa Barbara Zoo. Through MB&T’s Financial Literacy Program, Orloff teaches financial literacy to local schools across Santa Barbara on a volunteer basis.

“I have learned a lot in the seven years I’ve been engaged in the nonprofit community,” she says, “but getting the chance to witness the impact of these organizations is the most fulfilling part.”

Orloff is also well aware of her position as a female leader in a male-dominated profession and is an active member of CHIEF, a private membership network.

“The focus is on professional development, female voice, and mentorship,” she says. “It’s been a great opportunity to broaden my perspectives, evaluate my own leadership, help solve others’ work-related challenges, and share new ideas.”

“I am so grateful to have Megan’s leadership on our Executive team,” says Janet Garufis. “She definitely gives MB&T the ability to ‘out-punch our weight class’ when it comes to brand identity and is an important and respected voice at the table. Megan brings such creative energy and a sense of fun to everything she does and acts as a mentor and role model for so many of our female (and male) asso ciates. I can’t imagine the leader I would be today if I had a mentor and role model like Megan as I came up the ranks.”

SCAN TO LEARN MORE ABOUT MONTECITO BANK & TRUST montecito.bank (805) 963-7511

– Erik Talkin

CEO, Foodbank of Santa Barbara County

Anniversary Grants,

Megan Orloff, Davina Gomez, Armando Casillas (MB&T)

Stepping up Then and Now: Santa Barbara Foundation

By Dan Schifrin

mi

With nearly a century of experience serving the Central Coast, the Santa Barbara Foundation (SBF) has always been there when our community needed it most. From world wars, the Great Depression, droughts, fires, and through the pandemic, SBF has remained flexible and constant in its work to care for Santa Barbara County.

In the spring of 2020, when schools, businesses, govern ments, and nonprofits were struggling to respond to a new kind of virus, the Foundation moved quickly, in partnership with

other funders, to offer emergency grants to local organizations whose income stream – perhaps even their existence – was on the line. Over the next 15 months, SBF disbursed $5.8 million to keep the lights on for social service centers and front-line support across the region.

This nimbleness was a product of SBF’s five-year strategic plan, which was launched in 2018 and focuses on addressing basic needs by supporting safety-net services, working families, and strength ening the region’s social sector. Having a robust safety net in place for families and the nonprofit community allowed them to quickly pivot to meet the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

SBF Director of Donor Relations Jessica Sanchez and the SBF Team have reached out and granted millions to nonprofits, small businesses, and

cro-businesses for ongoing COVID-19 support.

The Foundation’s dedicated staff builds relationships with donors, nonprofits, government agencies, businesses, and ev eryone in between to understand the needs and mobilize Santa Barbara’s collective resources to find solutions. In 2021, SBF, with support from its donors, provided over 2,700 grants to taling over $38 million and is well on its way to providing that level of support in 2022. But beyond dollars, it is the staff pick ing up the phone, meeting with partners all around the county, making connections and finding solutions.

“We are honored to be among the many nonprofits that the Santa Barbara Foundation supports,” says Loretta Johnson, the executive director of Villa Majella of Santa Barbara, a recipi ent of SBF’s 2022 Safety & Shelter Grant Program. “The Santa Barbara Foundation’s continued commitment to caring for the most vulnerable members of our Santa Barbara community is making a major difference in the lives of the pregnant women and infants we serve.”

Villa Majella is one of numerous nonprofits doing amazing work to enhance lives in the community. It’s no exaggeration to say the Foundation has supported nearly every nonprofit and essential community initiative since its start in 1928.

SBF’s Vice President of Philanthropic Services Tammy John son, who joined the Foundation in the spring of 2022, calls

the organization the “community living room,” a place where donors, community members, and leaders of its business, non profit, education, and civic sectors can gather, “to discuss and problem solve. Collaboration is layered into everything we do.”

More Than a Place to Direct Dollars

As a community foundation, SBF is a particular kind of communal hub, bringing in new funding from donors as well as disbursing endowment earnings to support everything from legacy organizations to brand new initiatives.

For those looking to make a difference with charitable dollars, partnering with SBF through a donor-advised fund

2022 Celebrate Philanthropy Honorees (left to right) Linda & Mike Cordero and Debbie & George Adam. They were honored at a luncheon at the Santa Maria Country Club on November 1st for their efforts in uplifting the Santa Maria Valley.

(or DAF) or any of the Foundation’s charitable accounts is a force multiplier for both the donor and the community. SBF’s network of funders, and deep knowledge of local is sues, means it can pool resources and invest more effectively than single donors can.

This service is especially helpful to new Santa Barbara resi dents, or those who have recently experienced a wealth event. Santa Barbara has an unusually high concentration of both do nors and nonprofits, and SBF is committed, as Johnson says,

to “providing donors with education and support to help them identify or vet an organization they might want to support.”

The Foundation provides educational events for donors known as the Coffee & Conversations series. This series brings together community experts to share on regional challenges and solutions to help make life better for all. Once you make a donation to the Foundation you have access to the resources, knowledge base, and relationships of SBF – including the Cof fee & Conversations series.

SBF President & CEO Jackie Carrera addresses the sold out Celebrate Philanthropy Luncheon in the Santa Maria Valley on November 1, 2022.

Partnering with SBF also provides opportunities for socially responsible investing, as the Foundation moves more of its port folio toward a triple bottom line. More than $20 million has already been invested in environmentally conscious investments since 2019, and this year, according to Johnson, the Foundation has committed to a more comprehensive investing policy. “With this responsible investing policy,” she says, “we will be screening any future investments for their effects on climate change as well as DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access).”

Building for the Future

With its finger on the pulse of the community, and its bird’s-eye view of county systems and programs, SBF is supporting the social sector at an even higher level.

In 2021, in conjunction with the University of San Di

ego Nonprofit Research Institute and DataLake, LLC, the Foundation published a rigorous study: The State of the Non profit Sector in Santa Barbara County . The paper showcased the community’s resilience since 2020, as well as detailed information about the difficulty that arts organizations and nonprofits run by leaders of color, among others, face. The study was a reminder that the health of the more than 2,000 nonprofits in Santa Barbara County is a critical element of the regional economy.

This study, along with the initiatives spearheaded by SBF, points to the Foundation as a hub for social sector innovation, with national, and even global, reach.

SBF Staff poses after the 79th Person of the Year Awards luncheon on September 21, 2022.

SBF’s Community Caregiving Initiative (CCI) is an exam ple. As part of its research into how to help caregivers, CCI studied how staff, patients, and family members connected to Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria communi cated about medication. It turned out that the linchpin was collaborating with caretakers, and ensuring they had access to the same information as the patient, sometimes by providing it in Spanish. The result? A reduction in patients readmitted to the hospital.

“AARP has worked with the CCI and learned from this ex perience,” says Johnson, adding that the CCI resources and framework of care, with great thanks to the Promotoras Net work, have provided support for communities internationally, in countries like Mexico.

The Foundation is also able to work across sectors to pro vide support in times of need. When small businesses and microbusinesses were suffering as a result of the pandemic, SBF stepped in to support the California Office of the Small

Business Advocate and County of Santa Barbara and is still administering millions of dollars to support small businesses and micro-enterprises.

“At its core, the Foundation, our Board and our staff, works for Santa Barbara County. We believe that a healthy commu nity is engaged, informed, and communicates across sectors. And when a community is working together like this,” John son says – with donors, nonprofits, government, businesses, all on one page – “we are stronger and ready for whatever the future holds.”

The Santa Barbara Foundation is currently evaluating its five-year strategic plan and making adjustments to be stronger for the next plan that will be announced in late 2023. Now is the time to partner with the Foundation, your community foundation, to build a deeper connec tion to our community and problem solve for community challenges. Join the Foundation in these efforts today at SBFoundation.org.

The 79th Person of the Year honorees, Ginger Salazar (yellow dress) and Katina Zaninovich (blue dress), join the Former Honorees of the award for a picture at the celebratory luncheon that was on September 21, 2022.

SANTA BARBARA FOUNDATION

Tammy Johnson

Vice President, Philanthropic Services Tjohnson@SBFoundation.org SBFoundation.org (805) 963-1873

South County – 1111 Chapala Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101

North County – 2625 S. Miller Street, Santa Maria, CA 93455 Tax ID# 95-1866094

The Foundation is the “community living room,” a place where donors, community members, and leaders of its business, nonprofit, education, and civic sectors can gather, “to discuss and problem solve. Collaboration is layered into everything we do.”

– Tammy Johnson, Vice President, Philanthropic Services

Advocacy

Advocacy is about standing up for people in need and speaking up for those without a voice.

Whether global or local, we are thankful for the brave advocates you will read about in the following pages.

LEGAL AID FOUNDATION OF SANTA BARBARA COUNTY

Closing the Justice Gap

Civil legal representation is expensive. Even basic legal services cost thousands of dollars. If you are struggling to pay rent, how do you pay for an attorney to fight an illegal eviction? If you are a stay-at-home mom, and a victim of domestic violence, how can you pay a lawyer?

The Legal Aid Foundation of Santa Barbara County provides high-quality civil legal services to the most vulnerable people. Starting in 1959 with a few volunteers, the foundation has transformed into a fullfledged, county-wide, nonprofit law firm. Employing 12 lawyers and six legal support staff, the foundation provides legal services to lower-income individuals, people with mental and physical disabilities, senior citizens, and survivors of domestic violence. The foundation has offices in Santa Barbara, Lompoc, and Santa Maria. All services are provided free of charge.

According to Executive Director Jennifer Smith, the foundation provides an invaluable service. “We all know that if you are accused of a crime, you are guaranteed access to counsel,” Smith says. “But, if you need a restraining order against an abuser, or if you are at risk of homlessness due to an unjust eviction, you are not automatically provided counsel.”

Access to legal representation can be a life or death matter. In one case, the foundation worked with an immigrant family where the mother and children were the victims of ongoing domestic abuse. The abuse had flown under the radar for years due to a language and cultural barrier. Eventually, local police got involved. The police then reached out to the foundation.

Legal aid attorneys worked to obtain a restraining order, ensured the family was able to receive counseling and support, and even helped the family obtain visas to remain in the

United States. As a result, the mother was able to secure a job and gain financial independence from the abuser. All free to the family.

In addition to providing court representation, the foundation maintains self-service stations at courthouses throughout the county. Individuals can receive guidance on completing legal paperwork, and advice on navigating the legal process. The self-service stations even help the government reduce costs by ensuring required processes are followed, and paperwork isn’t repeatedly rejected.

"T he team at the Legal Aid Foundation took my case and handled it expertly. Working with them reduced my stress and made me feel supported during a stressful time."

– Anonymous Family

Violence Prevention Program Client

Legal Aid changes lives through advice, legal representation, and community education.

The Legal Aid staff provide critical civil legal services to those in need.

What We Need...

Help Bridge the Gap

Despite the growth of the foundation, more resources are needed. The State Bar of California estimates an additional 9,000 full-time legal aid lawyers are needed to address the justice gap in the state. Santa Barbara County is no exception. In fact, the Legal Aid Foundation is seeking an additional attorney to help meet the growing needs of the Family Violence Prevention program.

The Legal Aid Foundation of Santa Barbara County seeks donations to help close the justice gap between the most vulnerable people and the rest of society. Donations help pay the costs to represent clients, and provide programs that prevent violence, protect the elderly, assist the poor, and help the disabled.

am extremely appreciative of the help I received from the Legal Aid Founda tion. They were thorough, assuring, and knowledgeable during a very uncertain time when I lacked the resources to otherwise receive a reasonable outcome with the housing crisis I faced."

– Anonymous Homelessness Prevention Client

KEY SUPPORTERS

In Memory of D. William

- State Bar of California Justice Gap Study

(Bill) Wagner

Alan Blakeboro

Susan Thompson

Crystal Forsher

Julianna Malis

Jena Acos

Saji Dias Gunawardane

Tim Harrington

Wendy Kosche

Alexander Saunders

Legal Aid Foundation of Santa Barbara County www.lafsbc.org

301 E. Canon Perdido Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101 (805) 963-6754

Contact: Jennifer R. Smith Executive Director (805) 963-6754 x103 jsmith@lafsbc.org

Becky Steiger

Garry Tetalman

State Bar of California

California Judicial Council California Access to Justice Commission

California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, Victim Services Branch Hutton Parker Foundation Yardi Systems

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check:

Legal Aid Foundation of Santa Barbara County

301 E. Canon Perdido Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 95-2112634

By Credit Card: www.lafsbc.org/donate

"I

The Family Violence Prevention attorneys participate in Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

To fully address the unmet legal needs of low-income Californians, a conservative estimate is that the state would need another 9,000 full-time civil legal aid lawyers.

Keeping Its Doors Open for Everyone… No Matter What

Jenna Tosh watched the erosion of repro ductive rights in America for years and knew Roe vs. Wade would one day be overturned.

It was still “a gut punch” for the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood California Cen tral Coast when the U.S. Supreme Court end ed the constitutional right to abortion in June 2022, leaving states free to outlaw it.

“We knew this day was going to come… and yet actually losing these rights is unprecedent ed and it’s devastating,” Tosh, who turned to Planned Parenthood for affordable and con fidential contraception as a New York high school student, says.

While abortion will remain legal in California, many other states have already lost access to safe and legal abortion. As a result, the Planned Par enthood affiliate – the main if not only abortion provider in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo counties – had already seen an increase of 1,000 percent of patients traveling from out of state just weeks after the court decision.

Patients are scrambling to find the soonest access to abortion, Tosh says, and “it’s scary, it’s alarming, and it’s really tragic.”

Founded in 1964, Planned Parenthood California Central Coast also provides breast

y own person al experience with Planned Par enthood is the same as many of my peers. All of our stories start the same and end the same. We went to Planned Parent hood feeling confused, nervous, even a little scared, but we left with knowledge, relief, and empowerment to make the best decisions about our bodies for ourselves. That is the magic of providing a safe space to access information without judgement."

– Nicole Martinez Volunteer with PPCCC’s Raíz Program

and cervical cancer screenings, sexually trans mitted disease testing and treatment, birth con trol, gender-affirming hormone care, and other primary preventive health services. It operates six health centers in the three counties and en gages in education, outreach, and advocacy.

The medical provider’s largest organizational

where all people have equitable opportunity to experience health and wellness includ ing high-quality sexual and reproductive health care provided with respect and without judgement. Our Mission is to improve our communities’ sexual and reproductive health outcomes through health care, education, and advocacy.

priority is to advance health equity. One of the ways it does that is by providing “culturally and linguistically relevant care” to diverse patient populations. They have trilingual staff, for ex ample, to better serve the large number of Mix tec migrants from Mexico who only speak their native indigenous language.

“We make sure that every person that comes to us finds not only compassion but a real sense of belonging at Planned Parenthood,” Tosh says.

The Central Coast affiliate also takes pride in having kept its doors open during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing trans and non binary individuals on estrogen and testosterone therapies to continue their hormone care with out disruption. Many other providers had initial ly closed their doors.

“We have a mantra that our doors stay open. We say that because we’re often under attack,” Tosh says. “That’s a mantra we’ve truly lived these past few years.”

"M

Our bilingual community health educators deliver sex education and information to adults, teens, and families through out the tri-counties helping them make the healthy decisions necessary to build a strong and healthy future. Above are PPCCC’s educators who lead culturally-relevant prevention education workshops in the community.

Planned Parenthood California Central Coast envisions a future

PPCCC has already seen an influx of out-of-state abortion patients at our six health centers since the SCOTUS decision was announced. Now, as a result of state abortion bans, PPCCC is seeing as many as 5-10 out of state patients each week. This is nearly a 1,000% increase in out-of-state abortion care provided along the Central Coast. This situation is highly fluid, and likely to worsen as more states take up abortion bans.

The Public Affairs team mobilizes stakeholders through nonpartisan campaigns and community engagement programs advocating for public policies that expand access to reproductive health services and comprehensive sex education.

Powering Reproductive Freedom, Bodily Autonomy

Planned Parenthood California Central Coast is seeking an unprecedented $3.3 million by the end of June to help it face these ongoing historic challenges. The funds would primarily go toward healthcare education, advocacy, and expanding their health services and clinical staff, including an additional physician and nurses for its health centers in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo counties.

The funds will enable the Planned Parenthood affiliate to continue to advance health equity in the diverse communities they serve while expanding access to patients traveling to California from other states that have banned abortion.

“Each person should be able to make decisions about their own bodies, health care, and futures without the interference of politicians and judges. That’s the work we do,” says Jenna Tosh, the nonprofit affiliate’s president and CEO. “We give people tools to make decisions for themselves.”

Planned Parenthood California Central Coast www.ppcentralcoast.org 518 Garden Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101 (805) 963-2445

"The nurse and doctor had a kind de meanor, which made it a lot easier to talk. I love you, Planned Parenthood.”

“I was nervous about my visit and what that might entail, but she was very kind and made me feel validated.”

“This was the best reproductive care and advice that I've ever received.”

“Practiced actual informed consent! I am very grateful to find someone who listened and gave me the affirming care I need as a trans person.”

“Everyone does a great job of creating a welcoming, inclu sive, and safe environment. Everyone was positive, uplifting, and I felt safe.”

–Anonymous patient quotes

After nearly 50 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has ended the constitutional right to abortion, opening the doors for states to ban access to this life-saving care. At the time of this writing, 18 states have total or highly restrictive abortion bans in effect and an additional 8 states are in active litigation over proposed bans. We can expect as many as 26 states to enact bans. That means 36 million women, along with more people who can become pregnant, will lose access to safe and legal abortion.

KEY SUPPORTERS

Leslie & Ashish Bhutani

Hahn-Block Family Foundation Ms. Joyce Frenette Mrs. Kathryn W. Henry

The Crawford Idema Family Foundation Mrs. Kristen Klingbeil-Weis & Mr. Karl Weis Linked Foundation

Mr. & Mrs. Robert Marshall Mericos Foundation Mithun Family Foundation Henry Mayo Newhall Foundation

Contact: Lindsay Soleimani Vice President of Philanthropy (805) 722-1522 lindsay.soleimani@ppcentralcoast.org

Santa Barbara Foundation

Judy & Jack Stapelmann

Rachel Kaganoff Stern

Dr. & Mrs. David L. Stevig

Stone Family Foundation

The Ripple Pie Foundation

The Walter J. and Holly O. Thomson Foundation

Dr. Carrie Towbes & Dr. John Lewis

The Towbes Foundation

Zegar Family Foundation

The Many Ways to Give...

By

Check:

Planned Parenthood California Central Coast

518 Garden Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101

| www.thegivinglist.com |

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 95-2319356

By Credit Card: www.ppcentralcoast.org

Seeding a Brighter, Fairer Future for Santa Barbara

eing able to bring people together, to help them engage in honest and open dialogue and then – most importantly – to give them the tools to put their intentions into action to make progressive change happen – all of these make The FUND an asset in our community and drive my commitment as a supporter"

– Steve Glikbarg Supporter

The Fund for Santa Barbara, founded in 1980, has always drawn together diverse communities and organizations with the goal of creating a more just and equitable region.

The organization is its own community foundation focused on “advancing progressive change by strengthening movements for economic, environmental, political, racial, and social Justice.”

Through the long tail of COVID and the racial reckoning sparked by the murder of George Floyd, The FUND has experienced an inspiring burst of mission momentum.

In late 2021, for example, The FUND partnered with UC Santa Barbara’s Blum Center on Poverty, Inequality and Democracy, and USC’s Equity Research Institute to release the first of its kind Central Coast Regional Equity Study, a comprehensive report which provides qualitative markers on inequity in the Central Coast Region, and how we can begin a path forward in collectively addressing these regional inequities.

“We know we live in a very expensive area and what that does to workers in terms of housing access and other issues,” says Alina Rey Keswani, The FUND’s development and communications manager. “Addressing that inequality takes an all-hands-on-deck approach that is not limited to the nonprofit sector.”

It’s a non-traditional approach to giving echoed in The FUND’s motto, “Change, not Charity,” Rey Keswani points out. “We don’t want to just throw money at something. We want to provide funding, tools, and non-monetary support that will actually e ect change.”

The FUND’s approach is to support organizations led by local leaders that are united in their search for a solution to the same problem.

“Communities directly experiencing inequity or injustice don’t need people coming in from out of town to tell them what they need,” Rey Keswani says. “We get behind local leaders in the community who are already seeking change and help them to make that change. It must be a constituency lead project.”

The FUND also recently launched its Mickey Flacks Social Housing Fund, which is named after the fund’s benefactor who passed away in 2020. The program provides up to $5,000 in grant money to groups advocating for a ordable and fair access to housing in Santa Barbara.

“To honor her memory, we have established a donor-advised fund to issue grants to address housing justice,” Rey Keswani says, “used to support organizations advocating for and actively leading social housing justice campaigns in Santa Barbara County.”

Another major benchmark was met when The FUND launched its Youth Making Change philanthropy program to train teenagers from ages 13 to 19 in the grant-making process. The program is modeled after The FUND’s grantmaking committee and draws from applications to selection boards in both South and North Santa Barbara County.

“We really see ourselves as not the leaders but the people supporting the leaders of the movement,” Rey Keswani says. “What we grant is intentional. Often seed funding that provides support to groups that wouldn’t otherwise have that. It gives us a unique power to bring people together and generate support for social change.”

"B

What

The FUND raises its own money to support its annual budget; recurring monthly donations expand its ability to support organizations at the forefront of addressing inequity in Santa Barbara County.

Whether it’s providing seed money to community groups that are helping to address the crucial problems of housing inequality and racial justice in Santa Barbara or training the next generation of leaders in this struggle, The FUND is there to help.

Every contribution, no matter how small, makes a di erence in this vital e ort. To donate, please visit: fundforsantabarbara.org/donate

Fund for Santa Barbara

fundforsantabarbara.org

PO Box 90710

Santa Barbara, CA 93190 (805) 962-9164

Contact: Alina Rey Keswani Development & Communications Manager (805) 962-9164 development@ fundforsantabarbara.org

KEY SUPPORTERS

Julia Hamilton

Jean Kaplan

David Landecker

Alice O’Connor

John & Gloria McManus

Sara Miller McCune

Maryanne Mott

Linda & Dennis Fenton

Natalie Orfalea

Gail Osherenko

Sheila & Jim Davidson

Ted Rhodes

Susan Rose

John & Suzanne Steed

Dale Zurawski & Geo Sla Atterbury Foundation

Hutton Parker Foundation

James Bower Foundation

Santa Barbara Foundation

Wood Claeyssens Foundation

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check:

The Fund for Santa Barbara PO Box 90710

Santa Barbara, CA 93190

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 77-0070742

By Credit Card: fundforsantabarbara.org/donate

Mickey Flacks

Youth Making Change Board Members

Pictured at the Central Coast Regional Equity Study Launch: Marcos Vargas (The Fund for Santa Barbara), Alice O'Connor (UCSB Blum Center), Manuel Pastor (USC ERI)

CSUN Shines on the Central Coast

By Jonathan Karp

George Leis has been a prominent business and civic leader in Santa Barbara for decades. But he readily admits he left at least a piece of his heart in San F... ernando. The Valley, that is.

“I wouldn’t be the person I am today if I hadn’t gotten an amazing education at Northridge,” the president and chief op erating officer of Montecito Bank & Trust says, referring to Cal ifornia State University, Northridge.

It is called Matador pride, a passionate sense of gratitude for the educational grounding and life lessons that has made CSUN a defining experience, particularly for students who, like Leis, are the first in their families to attend college. And like Leis, CSUN alumni typically carry an ethos of community en gagement wherever their careers have taken them.

Founded in 1958, CSUN has produced 400,000 graduates, with a disproportionately high ratio rising to leadership roles in business and public service, the arts and science, in California, across the United States, and around the world. The university has nurtured lifelong bonds with them through informal net works and official alumni chapters.

Graduates have formed chapters based on ethnic background, including Armenian, Black, and Latino; their majors and pro fessions; shared experiences like military service; and yet less so by the traditional structure of college alumni associations – ge ography. Of CSUN’s 22 alumni chapters, only three are city specific: New York, Washington, D.C., and London.

Leis wants to change that by building an active network of Matadors in Santa Barbara. More than 3,600 CSUN graduates live in Santa Barbara County, including several fellow promi nent figures. Leis’s own boss, Montecito Bank & Trust Chair and CEO Janet Garufis, earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at CSUN. As an undergraduate, Garufis worked as a bank teller. Today, she is one of the top female bank executives in California. “Isn’t it ironic that both of us graduated from CSUN,” Leis says. “Here in Santa Barbara are two alums at the same bank which cares deeply about the community.”

Among other distinguished residents who are involved in the alumni network initiative is Gina Carbajal, a longtime nonprof it leader who is the regional director for the Special Olympics Southern California. She likes to note that she was a Matador

at San Gabriel High School east of Los Angeles, then a Gaucho at the University of California, Santa Barbara, before returning to her Matador roots to earn a Master of Public Administration from CSUN.

Carbajal participated in a mid-career graduate program in which CSUN held weekly classes in Santa Barbara, and she has an enduring appreciation for CSUN’s commitment to offering working professionals, even outside L.A., options to achieve their educational goals and help further their careers.

“Of course, I love the U.C. system, too, but it doesn’t always allow that flexibility for individuals who aren’t your traditional students,” Carbajal says.

Her fellow students included county government officials, law enforcement officers, and firefighters. Bernard Melekian, a 50-year veteran of public service, who retired as Santa Barbara police chief in July, earned his MPA in the CSUN program. (He also earned his bachelor’s degree from CSUN and a doctorate in planning, policy, and development at USC.) Retired Santa Bar bara County Fire Chief Eric Peterson attended CSUN’s MPA program too.

“In a heartbeat, I would recommend the program, and I did,” says Carbajal, whose daughter also got her MPA while living in Santa Barbara. “Beyond the education, I built strong relation

Chairman of the National Notary Association Milt Valera

ships that exist to this day, whether it’s in a working capacity or just friendship.” Earlier that day, in fact, Carbajal got a call from Santa Barbara City Council Member Eric Friedman, who was in her CSUN cohort.

Milt Valera, a CSUN alum and major benefactor, has homes in L.A. and Santa Barbara. He sees the potential to form a broader cohort of CSUN graduates from different programs and generations to build a community that supports each oth er and elevates CSUN’s visibility on the Central Coast. There’s no shortage of great state schools in the area, from UCSB to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to CSU Channel Islands in Ventura County, but Valera doesn’t see it as encroachment.

“There’s more than enough room. It’s not really direct com petition as much as it’s a function of telling CSUN’s story,” he says. That story centers on the university’s commitment to social and economic equity and its record of academic excellence that fosters upward mobility for students from low-income, tradi tionally disadvantaged families.

Several years ago, Valera hosted a well-attended CSUN fund

raiser in Santa Barbara, and Leis now wants to connect alumni more regularly and in a variety of ways, including career men toring and networking. As a first step, he organized a visit by CSUN President Erika D. Beck to meet with alumni and key Santa Barbara movers and shakers.

Beck is familiar with the Santa Barbara community – and vice versa – from her time as head of CSUCI. Leis was serv ing as chair of the CSUCI Foundation Board at the time and found her to be an inspiring leader. When Beck moved over to Northridge, Leis says he “jumped at the opportunity” to join the CSUN Foundation Board, his second term as a board mem ber at his alma mater.

So, in addition to his myriad professional and civic commit ments, Leis has answered the call to spearhead CSUN’s aware ness-raising effort in Santa Barbara, saying, “There is a small group of us who said, ‘Hey, our love and passion for Northridge is real, so how can we help?’”

It’s undoubtedly an endeavor he will pursue with all his heart.

SCAN TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CSUN FOUNDATION

Nichole Ipach President

Nichole.Ipach@csun.edu www.csun.edu/foundation (818) 677-4400 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge CA 91330 Tax ID# 95-6196006

| www.thegivinglist.com |

Regional director for the Special Olympics Gina Carbajal

President and chief operating officer of Montecito Bank & Trust George Leis

A Career of Giving

Deb Langford

Head of Black Wealth Initiatives, J.P. Morgan Private Bank

Deb Langford was mindful of the impact of giving long be fore taking up her role as Head of Black Wealth Initiatives at J.P. Morgan. In her current function, Langford guides afflu ent members of the Black community in the growth and pres ervation of their wealth, and in leaving generational legacies. Following a career of driving results, excellence, and inclusion in media and entertainment, Langford pivoted to deliver enter prise-level outcomes in diversity initiatives.

Most recently, Langford was named a 2022 NAACP Changemaker Award honoree. Now that she has made her foray into the finance world, she is working with the country’s Black affluent families to help build their enduring wealth and legacy in line with their values.

Culture often shapes wealth decisions.

believe that one’s culture and unique experiences can determine their decisions and choices in many areas of life, including where to invest their time, wealth, and resourc es. People can be inspired when they see a team who reflects their shared experiences and an organization which is action able in committing to building a lasting legacy and effecting real change,” Langford says. “A survey conducted by the firm in 2022 found that Black and Hispanic respondents expressed a greater inclination than their white counterparts to invest their money in a way that promotes equity more broadly. They really want to be change agents for their families, for their communi ties, and the world at large.”

J.P. Morgan Private Bank helps you realize the full impact of your wealth.

Working with the Private Bank and Black Wealth Initiatives, clients have the support and partnership of advisors dedicated to supporting your interest in creating a better world. At J.P. Morgan Private Bank we are dedicated to delivering specialized advice to help clients make the most of their philanthropic passions by incorporating this aspect of their lives into their overall financial plan.

experience the full potential of their wealth.

Black Wealth Initiatives is the Private Bank’s intentional effort to be the bank of choice for high-net-worth Black individuals and families, and the employer of choice for Black advisors and investors. The group’s events-driven work is focused on building Black generational wealth by connecting with Black individuals and families across the country with tailored content, experiences, and advice.

The Private Bank brings together a range of specialized disciplines, including philanthropy advisory, to help clients David

“I

Frame, CEO of J.P. Morgan U.S. Private Bank, poses with attendees of the Black Wealth Initiatives Forum.

Financial Security and Community Support

Ayla Kalani

Westlake Village and Santa Barbara Market Team Lead, J.P. Morgan Private Bank

When Ayla Kalani joined J.P. Morgan Private Bank 10 years ago, the bank had high-net-worth clients throughout South ern California but only two offices to serve them. Today, the Private Bank recently expanded its presence to Santa Barbara, and no out post is growing faster than the one on State Street.

As other companies retrenched during the COVID-19 pandemic, J.P. Morgan set up shop in new locations.

“Two years ago, we decided it was the right time to get closer to this community, to really understand what’s keeping people up at night and bring our global resources,” says Kalani, an executive director who oversees the Private Bank’s operations stretching from Encino to Fresno.

What J.P. Morgan’s local team – now four private bankers and growing – learned has made a showcase for the Private Bank’s full portfolio of investment and advisory services to help its clients do well and do good.

“Santa Barbara stands out because existing and prospective clients have an intense interest in philanthropy and sustainable investing,” Kalani says.

Increasingly, J.P. Morgan Private Bank clients are looking beyond

achieving financial security for themselves and their families. They want their investments to have social impact and they want to give back to their communities and to causes they care about. Their affluence gives them the opportunity to create profound legacies.

“Philanthropy is an incredible way to educate the next generation on family finances,” Kalani says, because it’s a “humane and tangible way to instill a sense of how to be a good steward of wealth and carry forward your family’s legacy.”

Kalani, who immigrated from Iran, says diversity and inclusion programs are key to building a team that can attract a wider clientele. Her expansion plans include new Private Bank offices in Santa Barbara and Westlake Village and employing 30 to 40 private bankers by 2027, up from 10 today in her service area. Outside of Santa Barbara, there are promising markets emerging.

“My job is to make sure my market gets to know us better and understands our full toolkit, whether it’s advising on investing, borrowing, or philanthropy.”

privatebank.jpmorgan.com/santa-barbara

“Philanthropy is an incredible way to educate the next generation on family finances,” Kalani says, because it’s a “humane and tangible way to instill a sense of how to be a good steward of wealth and carry forward your family’s legacy.”

The Behavioral Science Behind Charitable Giving

Jeff Kreisler Head of Behavioral Science, J.P. Morgan Private Bank

Jamie Hackleman Family Governance and Senior Philanthropy Advisor, J.P. Morgan Private Bank

With 16 people on four continents, the J.P. Morgan Philanthropy Centre team has deep and diverse expertise from the nonprofit world, business, government, and even the field of behavioral science.

“My purpose is to help both clients and advisors understand how emotion and psychology impact decision making so that ultimately our clients can make better decisions to reach their goals,” says Jeff Kreisler, the Private Bank’s head of behavioral science, who works on both investment and philanthropy strategies. A lawyer turned comedian turned best-selling author and thought leader in behavioral science, says his work “isn’t therapy, but it’s laying out the types of questions clients need to answer” to define a path and remove behavioral obstacles in their way.

Broadly speaking, Americans are generous. In 2021, U.S. charities received a record $485 billion in donations, two-thirds of which came from individuals, according to Giving USA. Six out of 10 American households give to charity in some capacity. Among affluent households, the figure rises to nine out of 10.

With nearly two million registered nonprofits in the U.S., defining parameters can be daunting. Give locally, nationally, globally? Make larger donations to fewer nonprofits or cast a wide net? Just write checks or actively participate, perhaps by joining the board of a beneficiary organization? Set up a donor-advised fund or a family foundation?

Other choices pose challenges, too. Consider that there are about 6,300 stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, 7,500 U.S.-listed mutual funds, and 2,900 exchange-traded funds. Even with Treasury, municipal, and corporate bonds, derivatives, hedge funds, and private equity funds added to the mix, the number of investment options pales compared to the nearly two million registered nonprofits in the U.S.

Instead of “peanut butter philanthropy, where giving is spread thin across different issues and causes, we work with clients to narrow their focus and get more strategic and proactive to make it easier to construct a grant-making portfolio,” says Jamie Hackleman, executive director and senior philanthropy advisor who oversees the Centre’s operations for the West region.

It starts with coaxing clients to clarify and articulate their goals. “Jeff [Kreisler] and I have been teaming up on a lot of conversations around the purpose of wealth, exploring clients’ motivations, values,

and interests to understand why they want to engage in philanthropy, what they want to accomplish,” Hackleman says.

Next, they help donors assess nonprofits. Hackleman says she often hears clients say, “I don’t have any sense of what my money has done.” Centre advisors coach clients on how to conduct due diligence and streamline the process by screening funding opportunities themselves and arranging site visits, so clients can determine whether a nonprofit aligns with their values and impact goals.

“One of the biggest challenges in philanthropy is how to measure impact, especially for issues like homelessness or the environment,” Kreisler says. “That’s why we make such an effort to help clients think about their goals and identity. Part of the motivation to give is intrinsic – a sense of purpose that enables you to feel rewarded even if you don’t see carbon-dioxide emissions go down or something else that is numerically measurable.”

Case in point: Hackleman, who previously worked at the Gates Foundation and the family office of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, helped a Private Bank client find a meaningful way into climate change after years of unsatisfying support for conservation efforts in Africa. The Philanthropy Centre researched several climate mitigation strategies and gave the report to the client, who, having just finished an eco-friendly remodel of her home, embraced building efficiency as her cause and is funding organizations across the U.S.

“It was a perfect sweet spot of relevance to her own life and her desire to make a difference in the climate space,” Hackleman says. For Kreisler, the behavioral scientist, the example shows the motivating value of “completion bias,” breaking down a big problem into small, achievable goals. That the client also had personal knowledge of the green technology “gave her a feeling that she wasn’t just writing a check but was bringing her whole self, and that provides rewards and satisfaction that can help donors get over the hurdles to giving,” he says.

A Donor-Advised Fund in Action

ADonor-Advised Fund (DAF) can be a great strategy for charita ble giving as it provides an easy, cost-effective way to give. One client who had been using a DAF had a $200mm liquidity event and engaged our team to not only work on the asset allocation, but to also discuss their philanthropic vision and desire to create high-impact programs. We immediately brought in a regional specialist from our Philanthropy Centre and set up an in-person meeting to discuss.

The family shared that they aspired to be more creative and inde pendent in their giving while actively incorporating their family in the process, with the intention to set aside $75mm. Given the size and committed engagement, a foundation made sense. The Philanthro py Centre team and I worked hand-in-hand with the client to advise around the structure of the foundation, what to incorporate, the com position of the board, the roles and responsibilities of those involved, governing documents, and, beyond all, ensured the foundation was set-

“The Philanthropy Centre team and I worked hand-in-hand with the client to advise around the structure of the foundation, what to incorporate, the composition of the board, the roles and responsibilities of those involved, governing documents, and, beyond all, ensured the foundation was set-up thoughtfully.”

up thoughtfully. Additionally, we leveraged our in-house Private Foundations Services team to discuss how they help foundations with their grant-making and due-diligence efforts.

After the operational pieces were in place, we met with the family to consider their focus areas. Through discussing and un derstanding their family values, we translated them into a mission statement and key pillars for the foundation. Leveraging our con nectivity across the donor and nonprofit community globally, we connected the family with a number of organizations that echoed their philosophy.

Today, the family has targeted their first grants with their strong mission statement. We maintain constant communica tion to ensure they are finding success and continue to foster our crucial relationship of great value with the family. This im portant and rewarding experience has created a level of connec tion and understanding with our client that can be seen span ning across our partnership from investing to estate planning.

privatebank.jpmorgan.com/santa-barbara

All case studies are shown for illustrative purposes only and should not be relied upon as advice or interpreted as a recommendation. Results shown are not meant to be representative of actual results. Past performance is not a guarantee of the future performance.

Eva Rhodes Banker for J.P. Morgan Private Bank, Santa Barbara

Giving Paws

Animals help us physically and mentally.

They offer professional support, they offer love and companionship, they rescue us from dire situations. And we can offer something back by supporting the organizations that care for these creatures who in turn care for us.

Wilma Melville: Dogged Determination

By Les Firestein

Wilma Melville is the most inspirational person I’ve ever met. She has done more during her retirement than most people have done during their entire careers. I recently had the pleasure of visiting her at the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation Training Center in Santa Paula, California, and then again in the hangar where she lives with her airplane. “Spark plug” is an overused term I have never used before. She is a spark plug. She is Annie Oakley. She is Amelia Earhart. Above all, Wilma Melville is an exhauster of my internal thesaurus of superlatives.

One of the things I nd so inspirational about Melville is she has achieved so much without having any particular advantages. She was a public school gym teacher from a working-class neighborhood in Newark. If there’s one advantage Melville thinks she had, it was her grandmother Pauline who mentored her and cared for her during the summers of World War II. at granny showed Melville the importance of hard work, self-reliance,

and charity – attributes that would eventually blossom into the $7 million-plus annual revenue National Disaster Search Dog Foundation and training facility Melville founded more than a quarter centur y ago

As Melville tells it, she always pushed herself and her body hard. “Lots of energy came my way from some DNA combination. Running felt so good, I wondered why so many people were walking. Right through high school, Phys Ed was my favorite class. Eventually I came to understand I had an adventurous spirit, so let’s get on with hiking, camping, and even endurance horseback riding.” Endurance rides are what brought Melville to Ojai – it was the incredible, beautiful, and plentiful network of trails. Having trained on those ro bust Ojai trails, Melville twice rode the Tevis Cup, a 100-mile horseback endurance ride in the Sierras of Nor thern California, in less than 24 hours. She has always pushed it, even now as she’s pushing 90.

“Some shelter dogs are extremely driven, hyper focused, and tenacious. It’s what makes them di cult but also what makes them great. It’s just their personality. But because of that, the dogs need a lot of tasks and much personalized interaction as an outlet for all that determination and energy. Is it a surprise I get along with that type of animal? Probably not.”

is is Melville in her own words: “Living 88 years is a lengthy time with endless opportunities to learn. I’ve learned a great deal in those years. Not everything, mind you, but I’ve gone through signi cant changes. Some of the happenings that changed me were painful, while others took growing up and simply becoming a realist.”

Melville’s journey to rescue dog royalty was by no means a direct path. She always loved animals even though she grew up in the city But it wasn’t until much later when she was “retired” in Ojai and her horse got injured requiring a lengthy recovery that the always-goal-oriented Melville decided to train a dog to “do something special!” e next goal would be to attain certication as a FEMA canine disaster search team. at requires developing skills in dogs and handlers that are highly unusual –such as training dogs to climb up and down ladders, or to walk upstairs backward, or to nd a missing person amid a myriad of confusing smells (including a generous drenching of jet fuel).

What especially appealed to Melville were many of the best dogs for search and rescue are those that were abandoned. “Many of these dogs would likely have been euthanized,” she says. “ e Search Dog Foundation looks for dogs that are extremely driven, hyper focused, and tenacious. It’s what makes them di cult but also what makes them great. It’s just their personality But because of that, the dogs need a lot of tasks and much personalized interaction as an outlet for all that determination and energy. Is it a surprise I get along with that type of animal? Probably not.”

Melville trained Murphy to be FEMA-certi ed in 24 months. Not long thereafter came the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building by domestic terrorists. Melville saw the carnage on the news and had the inkling she might “ get the call.” She was right. From Palm Springs where she was vacationing, Melville was deployed for 10 days with Murphy to the federal building (what was left of it). e truck bomb destroyed that building and damaged or destroyed 424 other structures within a 16-block radius. One hundred and

Melville on one of her Tevis Cup Rides in 1990

Melville at training with Murphy

IN WILMA’S WORDS

LF: To what do you contribute your moxie?

WM: I was an extremely shy child with many fears I missed out on a great deal of fun, so at about the age of 12, I decided on my own that fear was misplaced energy I had to face my fears and battle to overcome them one by one I did just that in the way of a 12-year-old, and have honed that skill ever since And it only took me about a century!

LF: As for your capacity to get things done?

WM: I think this is an attitude One has to “ get done what’s on one’s plate today” because tomorrow is another day Another group of demands will be made tomorrow If I don’t complete all my tasks today, how can I possibly handle tomorrow too? I don’t understand procrastination. Sometimes I have to think on a topic so that item does not get done today But to push o until tomorrow what can be done today is just going to make tomorrow very di cult.

LF: Where did you get the “bug” to become a pilot?

WM: My first husband, a physician, was out shopping for a plane thinking he would take flying lessons in that plane I immediately signed up for lessons thinking, I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit in a plane with him and not know how to fly. I had completed perhaps a dozen lessons and the guy never did buy a plane Dilemma. Since I do not like to stop in the middle and leave a project undone, I completed the course and became a licensed pilot. Flying added a tremendous lift to my self-confidence! My thinking wa s, If I could fly, I could do most anything. Then came a divorce with four very young boys to raise. Yep, that was one of the tough times and di cult decisions Fortunately that divorce was perhaps the best decision I’ve made over the years. [ Three of Melville’s four sons have become pilots.]

LF: What has made you so fiercely independent?

MW: The divorce taught me that no one would ever take care of me as well as I could myself I was enraged that I had bought into the culture of the 1950s. I was intensely angry with myself that I had even imagined that another person had to be counted on. I had worked as a teacher so that the now-divorced husband could go to medical school. He could pay enough child support so that with me teaching, the money flow was adequate Time passed. Some lessons are more di cult than others Eventually I met my next husband while hiking with my kids at Mount Baldy

LF: Would you say there is value in knowing not just who you are but who you aren’t?

WM: I realize I have only normal intelligence My education was adequate for a teacher I recognize that I was a “late bloomer” when it came to making a change in the tiny sliver of dogdom that we call “canine disaster search.” I learned to take anger and turn it into useful energy When a pilot in the air finds herself in a tough situation, what follows is an air tra c controller saying, “ What are your intentions?” That is a sobering question. My hair stands on end. There is no one else to answer One can delay by saying, “Standby.” But moments later, one’s intentions must be spoken. Becoming a pilot was an outstanding help in my life I give myself credit for a vision plus the knowledge that I had to surround myself with those who knew a great deal about things of which I knew very little To this day, I know very well the dir ection that the Search Dog Foundation must go The future and the horizon are clear to me At 88, I likely have little time remaining. What will be the best use of my time? Standby

Melville and Murphy

sixty-eight people were killed – 30 of them children in the building’s daycare facility. As Melville tells it: “I saw the best of humanity and the worst of humanity in Oklahoma. e destruction was caused by the worst of humanity, but the average Oklahoman was doing anything and everything they could to help We – the search dogs and their handlers – were own in on a militar y plane and every day our job was to go wherever the re department and other rst responders needed us. e blast had pancaked all the oors together, so as they excavated, you knew what oor you were on based on the contents of the

the accounting oor And sadly, when we got to the toys and little juice boxes, we knew we were in the daycare.

“Every day we would go in for 12-hour search-and-rescue shifts, and every night we’d come out with our dogs, and Oklahomans would be at the gates, asking us if we had found this person or that person. I remember this one guy was there every night, patiently standing vigil, waiting to hear what happened with his wife, holding out hope. Hope can be in nitesimally small, but so long as there’s still that ember, this guy was going to be there every night. I remember one night I was coming out with Murphy and the guy stopped me, and held up a picture of his wife and said, ‘Have you found my wife yet?’ I didn’t have the heart to tell him that because of the force of the blast, we were not nding a great number of intact bodies. So I just told him we would not stop searching until every single person had been accounted for. is was true. We certainly had the tools to do that.”

Almost 30 years later, this woman who seems so tough – this modern-day Annie Oakley – quietly and undramatically weeps as she tells that stor y. She talks about the importance of closure, of people holding out hope. Melville continues, “ When these dogs make a discovery, what it does is allow the family to close that chapter and eventually start a new one.”

From her experience in Oklahoma, Melville learned there were only approximately 15 FEMA-certi ed dogs in the entire United States – a completely anemic and insu cient number. increase that number, because the greater the number of local dogs spread out over the countr y, the faster they can be deployed and the greater likelihood of a “live nd.” After the Murrah Building bombing, Melville created the Search Dog Foundation. e rst goal was to train 168 certi ed canine disaster search teams – one for each person who died in Oklahoma. is was completed in Februar y 2020 and Melville was there to witness it. Today, the number 168 is engraved on the sculpture of Melville and Murphy that stands proudly at the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation training facility in Santa Paula.

Murphy searching the ruins of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building

The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation at work at Ground Zero on 9/11

A Pawsitive Impact for Pets

While shelters along California’s Cen tral Coast do their best to provide care for abandoned dogs and cats, the facilities can be extremely overcrowded as animals face a long wait to find forever families. And, sadly, not all animals find a new home.

Isabelle Gullö has a solution: Why not step in earlier with programs that reduce pet overpopulation and prevent pet homelessness in the first place?

In 2009, Gullö, who at the time was a Santa Barbara County Animal Services shelter volunteer, cofounded C.A.R.E.4Paws alongside Carlos Abitia and other shelter volunteers to fill a desperate need and provide resources that keep pets healthy and with their families for life.

C.A.R.E.4Paws – short for Community Awareness, Responsibility & Education –offers an array of services to low-income, senior, disabled and unhoused pet families in Santa Barbara County’s most underserved communities. This includes free spaying or neutering, assistance with veterinary care and low-cost vaccine events in the nonprofit’s two mobile veterinary clinics; distribution of pet food and supplies; support for pet families exposed to domestic violence; a youth

education program called Paws Up For Pets; and even Pet Emergency Training (P.E.T.) for First Responders.

More than 20,000 pet families in need receive assistance every year in Santa Barbara County. Also, in February 2022, the organization expanded its mobile wellness services to San Luis Obispo County, where it has already assisted hundreds of low-income pet families.

The nonprofit is having a sizable impact on reducing overpopulation.

“Since our founding, C.A.R.E.4Paws has spayed and neutered more than 16,000 dogs and cats for free,” says Gullö, who’s also the nonprofit’s executive director. “That has contributed to a significant drop in shelter intake numbers. By the end of December 2022, we will have altered another 2,200 animals.

Also sizable is the amount of free pet food C.A.R.E.4Paws provides annually. In fact, the nonprofit has distributed well over one million pounds of food since the pandemic began. Much of the food is distributed through Pet Resource Centers co-operated by C.A.R.E.4Paws and various partners. Some is provided during community events. For example, during weekly visits to Santa Barbara’s Alameda Park, volunteers

Since the start of the pandemic, C.A.R.E.4Paws has distrib uted one million pounds of pet food to families in need.

provide food for pets of the unsheltered, along with blankets, bedding, and flea treatment. Once a month, C.A.R.E.4Paws brings A’s Mobile Grooming to the park to bathe the dogs of the unhoused for free, a service also provided monthly in Santa Maria with Doggie Parlour.

“Times are hard for so many community members, and families should not have to choose between caring for their animals and putting food on the table,” says Gullö. “We do everything we can to ensure pets stay healthy and with the people who love them. This prevents suffering and pet homelessness.”

"W hat a wonderful organization and incredible group of people who are involved in helping those of us who are financially challenged at this time. Thank you to everyone at C.A.R.E.4Paws. You are a blessing for our furry-pawed loves.”

– Queenie Longley and her kitty, Little Girl

Client

Every year, C.A.R.E.4Paws assists more than 10,000 dogs and cats with critical pet wellness services in its mobile veterinary clinics. Courtesy photo.

To keep animals healthy and with the people who love them, C.A.R.E.4Paws provides a range of pet wellness services for low-income, senior, disabled, vet eran and unsheltered community members. Photo by WinkFace Photography.

What We Need...

Mobilizing the Clinic

C.A.R.E.4Paws

has put a down payment on a brand-new, 37-foot mobile clinic to augment its two existing and old, 26-foot veter inary vehicles, which provide free and low-cost pet wellness services in underserved areas of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. The new, larger clinic-on-wheels, slated to start rolling in spring 2023, has increased kennel capacity and the ability to carry more types of vital equipment. This will allow the organization to more efficiently help additional animals over a larger geographical footprint.

C.A.R.E.4Paws is raising the remaining $100,000 of the $350,000 vehicle price tag. Jump on board to help pet families in need!

Between 2020 and the end of 2022, C.A.R.E.4Paws has increased the number of pet families it helps annually from 7,000 to more than 20,000. The demand, especially for free and low-cost pet wellness services, only continues to grow!

“C.A.R.E.4Paws and I share a commitment and drive to make a difference!

“There are many animal organizations in our area, but what drew me to C.A.R.E.4Paws in the organization’s infancy was cofounders Isabelle Gullo and Carlos Abitia and the ded icated group of volunteers. Their passion and motivation make a big difference in the lives of our four-legged friends.

“I support C.A.R.E.4Paws in several areas, including its mobile veterinary clinic, which goes into high-need communities to provide spay/neuter surgeries, medical care, rou tine vaccinations and other wellness services. I also love the support provided for pet families exposed to domestic abuse through Safe Haven.

“C.A.R.E.4Paws is truly a grassroots organization with a mission. Its impact has been impressive from day one and it will only grow stronger!”

– Lyn Proctor Donor

KEY SUPPORTERS

ASPCA

Avalan Wealth Management Chrissie’s Fund

Christopher Harris Dr. Hildegard H. Balin Charitable Trust Edwin & Caroline Woods

Edwin and Jeanne Woods

Family Foundation

John and Karen Jostes

Henry Mayo Newhall Foundation

Joel & Vasanti Fithian La Centra-Sumerlin Foundation

Lee Heller

Lyn Proctor

C.A.R.E.4Paws care4paws.org P.O. Box 60524 Santa Barbara, CA 93160 (805) 968-2273

Contact: Isabelle Gullö Executive Director & Cofounder 805-637-1892 isabelle@care4paws.org

Manitou Fund

Mary H. Storer Foundation

Mary Jo & Hank Greenberg

Animal Welfare Foundation

May and Bill Allison Foundation

Montecito Bank & Trust

Petco Love

PetSmart Charities

Ron & Elizabeth Ziegler

Roy & Ida Eagle Foundation

Santa Barbara Foundation

Walter & Holly Thomson

Charitable Foundation

Wendy P. McCaw Foundation

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check: C.A.R.E.4Paws, Inc.

P.O. Box 60524 Santa Barbara, CA 93160

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 27-0207473

By Credit Card: care4paws.org

This cute kitten is one of 2,200 cats and dogs altered by C.A.R.E.4Paws' clinic team in 2022. Courtesy photo.

Mobile clinic technicians Lisa Bolton and Rebecca Burrato prepare a dog for surgery in one of C.A.R.E.4Paws' two mobile clinics. Photo by WinkFace Photography.

From the Tragedy of the Oklahoma City Bombing Was Born a Human-Canine Bond That Relentlessly Saves Lives

a time of crisis, nothing matters more than who your partners are. During Santa Barbara‘s 1/9 debris flow which fol lowed the 2017 Thomas Fire, National Disaster Search Dog Founda tion, with 18 of their search teams deployed, played a crucial role in our search and rescue operation. I cannot say enough about the vital importance of the work that is being done by this organization."

– Kevin Taylor Fire Chief Montecito Fire Protection District

When two children got lost during a hike in rural New York with oncoming rain commingling with the darkening night, it wasn’t drones or thermal heat sensors that found them. It was Luka, a Belgian Mali nois search dog. His enthusiastic signal led his handler away from the search area to a steep ravine, where they were found in the dark, cold but unharmed.

It was only a few years earlier when Luka him self needed rescuing. Found by an animal con trol officer in Central California as a stray, a ro tating host of temporary owners deemed Luka “un-adoptable.” That is, before the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation found him.

The National Disaster Search Dog Foun dation is unlike any other organization in the U.S., having pioneered a model that has helped hundreds of dogs, created highly skilled search teams, filling a critical need by pairing the res cued with rescuers.

Teams have been part of search-and-rescue efforts including 9/11, earthquakes in Haiti, the

Camp Fire (in the Sierra Nevada Mountains; this was the deadliest and most destructive fire in California’s history) and the deadly mudslides in Montecito in 2018.

Oddly, certain behavioral traits that often make dogs poor pets make for great rescue dogs.

“These dogs won’t quit,” says Denise Sand ers, senior director of communications and handler operations. “We look for those that are super high energy, toy obsessed, and have laser-like focus on the job at hand. That’s what you need to ensure resilience during deployments when there’s difficult terrain and rough conditions.”

The foundation combs shelters, finding dogs that train for up to 12 months at their 145-acre National Training Center in Santa Paula, Cali fornia, and are teamed with first responders across the nation to complete their certifica tion. The foundation also provides a lifetime commitment of care for the dog and ongoing training for handlers.

“The reason that these search teams are able to do this work so well is because of the relation ship between handler and dog,” Sanders says. “Our handler training program focuses on the depth and longevity of that bond, building on the historical foundation that humans and dogs have always partnered and been companions.”

This vision was born in 1995, when founder Wilma Melville combed through the rubble of the Oklahoma City bombing with her search dog, Murphy. That harrowing experience made her realize the need for more highly trained search teams.

She started with the goal of training 168 certified canine disaster search teams to honor the 168 victims of the bombing. The founda tion exceeded that goal in 2020 and has now trained and certified more than 229 teams, with 84 currently working across the country assisting with landslides, missing persons, and collapsed structures this year alone, including 21 in the Los Angeles area (12 in the Bay Area and 57 across California).

"In

The bond between handler and canine provides the solid foundation for their work together, and extends into all aspects of their lives, whether at home or on the job.

Disasters happen. It’s not a matter of if, but when...

The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (SDF) has proudly served our country and the world since 1996, recruiting, rescuing, and training shelter dogs to become search dogs, looking for survivors in the wreckage of natural and human-made disasters alongside their first responder-handlers during more than 230 incidents, including Ground Zero after 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the devastating Japan earthquake and tsunami in 2011, and the Montecito mudslide in 2018.

With active teams across the nation, SDF continues to support current teams and the next generation of search dogs, providing ongoing training and veterinary care for their entire lives. Dogs unable to complete disaster search training are placed in another career or loving home, and once rescued, they will never need to be rescued again.

Join us in supporting these incredible canine heroes and show them we believe in the power of rescued dogs becoming rescuers.

Be part of the search today.

Saving

Lives,

Both Human and Canine

The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation has rescued and trained 279 dogs that have, in turn, rescued humans in disasters. Over 26 years, these expert teams have worked in the largest disasters: from 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the earth quakes in Haiti to missing persons and small structure collapses throughout the country.

The foundation has pioneered a model for screening, train ing, and providing a lifetime of care for each dog it rescues, along with ongoing expert support for handlers.

But the U.S. only has half the amount of search teams truly needed. The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation has a goal of training 20 teams in the next year, while ensuring every dog that enters its program will be suc cessful, whether as a disaster search dog or in another career, by foster ing the bonds that will create the next generation of working dogs.

With a gift to the foundation, you can save lives both human and canine.

National Disaster Search Dog Foundation

6800 Wheeler Canyon Road Santa Paula, CA 93060

Contact: Rhett Mauck Executive Director (805) 646-1015

Rhett@SearchDogFoundation.org

atching the Search Dog Foundation grow from a small group of ardent volunteers into the nationally recognized or ganization it is today has been an inspiration and an honor. I value the opportunity to both encour age and be part of that growth."

– George Leis Chair, Board of Directors, National Disaster Search Dog Foundation; President & Chief Operating Officer, Montecito Bank & Trust

KEY SUPPORTERS

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

George Leis – Board Chair President and COO, Montecito Bank & Trust

Dennis Kuykendall – Board Vice Chair Project Executive, Balfour Beatty Construction

Mike J. Diani – Secretary President, Diani Building Corp.

Richard Butt

Retired EVP, Executive Creative Director, VMLY&R

Robert Harris Battalion Chief, Los Angeles County Fire Department

George R. Haynes, Ph.D. CEO, National Disaster Search Dog Foundation

Crystal Wyatt Leadership in Board Governance and Creative & Sustainable Philanthropy

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check:

National Disaster Search Dog Foundation

6800 Wheeler Canyon Road

Santa Paula, CA 93060

By

DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 77-0412509

"W

Intense drive, athleticism, and energy are innate traits we look for in the canines recruited for disaster search work.

For the Children

Children are precious, sensitive, and impressionable. And they are the future. What they need more than anything are adults that will fight for them no matter how hard that fight may be.

Nancy Sheldon Sets a Large Philanthropy Table

By Gary Marks

When Nancy Sheldon was a little girl growing up in Milwaukee, her mother, Muriel, hosted dinners for Russian immigrants. It puzzled Sheldon, primarily because, as she recalls, “my mother hated to cook.” And yet, there she was, working away in the kitchen, creating beautiful dinners, to make these transplanted families feel comfortable. “I just remember not understanding what it was all about and why she was doing it, but feeling like there was a sacrifice,” she recalls. Although Sheldon could not completely comprehend the gravitas of the families’ plight at the time, her mother was actually helping to resettle “Refuseniks,” people (usually Jewish) from the former Soviet Union who were often forbidden from emigrating, but took great risks to leave the country. Thus, the seed of philanthropy was planted in young Sheldon.

Years later, working in the banking industry for UBS, Shel don didn’t have the time for the hands-on giving that her moth er modeled for her, so she gave charitably to many philanthrop ic causes. Then, 22 years ago, a business opportunity for her husband brought them to Santa Barbara. After experiencing postpartum depression upon the birth of her first child, Shel don was struck by the impulse to contribute to her community as her mother had, by not only contributing financially but by more actively participating.

Recalling those welcoming dinners from her childhood, she finally comprehended their significance. “It was just so visceral,” Sheldon remembers. “I realized that I could make a much big ger difference in people’s lives just by personal interactions,” she says. So, she began to volunteer for “PEP,” Postpartum Educa tion for Parents, a local organization that supports new mothers and helps those who are experiencing postpartum depression. She soon found herself running their hotline: “I had very little knowledge except my own experience. But I realized just how impactful it was to get involved and help where you can,” she recounts. She also learned about empathy, opening up and be ing able to listen, reflect, and support. “It was a very big growth moment for me. I learned not to be afraid to get involved in causes I cared about, just because the work was daunting or I lacked experience.”

Her work at PEP was followed by numerous forays into phil anthropic volunteer work for local organizations, including her synagogue and the Santa Barbara Food Bank, both of which

were springboards for her biggest endeavor to date. On a trip to San Francisco, Sheldon visited the science museum with her children. She was overwhelmed by her kids’ wonder and enthu siasm during the visit. “I just saw the immediate growth in their learning,” she says. Inspired by that trip, when she returned to

Santa Barbara, she discovered an effort was underway to bring that kind of experience to her community. So, she joined the board of the nascent Children’s Museum of Santa Barbara, an 501c3 organization formed in 1990 for that very purpose.

“I joined and became the head of development before I even knew what that word meant,” she recalls. “They told me they were doing a ‘capital campaign’ and I said, ‘ok let’s go for it,’” she adds. But it was a grueling ten years of hard work bringing that dream to fruition, and there were times when she fanta sized about doing something that seemed easier, like “finding the cure for an incurable disease,” she jokes. But every time she felt like it was a Sisyphean task, she remembered a conversation she had with her son, when he was only five years old. When she asked her children (she now has four) what they loved so much about children’s museums, her son, Max, immediately gushed, “Mom, I just love walking through those doors.” Making sure all children in her community had the chance to ‘walk through those doors’ helped Sheldon persevere.

In 2017, the realization of that dream, MOXI, the Wolf Mu seum of Exploration + Innovation, opened its doors to the pub lic. The 17,000-square-foot space on State Street is an interac tive science museum for all ages, and it has attracted thousands of kids and adults along with rave reviews for the immersive ex posure to science, technology, and imagination. “I think it has accomplished much more than we set out for,” Sheldon says.

These days, Sheldon and her husband, Michael, own and run LOCAL, a buzzing, thriving eatery on Coast Village Road in Montecito. The brainchild of Michael, the menu was designed around 50 favorite meals that Michael has perfected at home for his family. Sheldon’s mother may not have loved to cook, but cooking has been her husband’s lifelong passion.

As for philanthropy, the 2019 death of her mother changed her perspective. She began to get involved in political work. “It was an ode to my mom, about taking more risks, not less,” she says. “Hers was a life well-lived, and it’s inspired me in the way that I approach giving.” Her volunteer work now includes social justice causes, get out the vote efforts, supporting wom en’s reproductive autonomy, and co-chairing the board of her synagogue. Between the food she’s serving up locally and the philanthropic work that continues to expand, Nancy Sheldon sets a very large table these days, and it includes many causes that would make her mother very proud.

“It was a very big growth moment for me. I learned not to be afraid to get involved in causes I cared about, just because the work was daunting or I lacked experience.”

- Nancy Sheldon

Meet the Unprecedented Needs for Children in Foster Care

While statewide data lags, it is clear that the number of children entering foster care in Santa Barbara County has skyrocketed. For CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of Santa Barbara County, this has created an immense challenge.

The pandemic already cut its roster of volunteers who help and guide young people by one third, leaving far too many County children without a much-needed advocate on their sides when navigating the complicated juvenile dependency system. While dubbed civil courts, these are the forums where life altering changes about the lives of young children ensnared in a system dubious at providing adequate shelter and well-being are made requiring outside advocates – CASA volunteers – to help provide the best services possible.

CASA sta and its volunteers o er the court important glimpses into children’s needs, often setting them up for a better future. But with pandemic school shortages and a loss of teachers reporting abuse, coupled with an exploding illicit fentanyl trade, more and more

children are falling into the cracks.

“I have been working at CASA for 15 years,” says Executive Director Kim Colby Davis, with clear urgency in her voice. “And by far now we are seeing the worst cases I’ve ever seen.”

Colby Davis points to “fentanyl flooding the streets.”

“If you are getting a street drug you have a 50-50 shot you’re getting fentanyl,” she says. “And the kids are paying the price because a parent on fentanyl can’t keep them safe. It’s just not possible. And the cases of human tra cking and sex abuse are o the charts right now. It’s just so much worse than I have ever seen.”

The truly hard part for Colby Davis, her dedicated sta , and volunteers, is that they set out in 2013 to provide every child experiencing foster care a CASA. Despite enjoying that success and building on it, the team is back to stage I, mustering the strength and support to do the same for hundreds more. All in the face of a 30% drop in volunteers, largely fueled by the challenges imposed by the pandemic.

Coming out of the crisis, and facing this new

darker one, the team – which periodically breaks down in tears about the scale of the crisis – is bleary-eyed, tired but resolute.

“When things got ugly, we dug deeper to make sure we get every kid every resource possible,” she says.

But that is not something CASA can do alone. Now more than ever, the kids they serve so comprehensively need your support.

“I feel lucky that I can support CASA. Fate could have had me running from all kinds of hardships. Compared to what’s going around and the kids in need, we are happy to be able to donate. “

– Michael Holland Donor

CASA volunteers attend court hearings alongside their assigned youth. They participate in all proceedings, submitting a court report ahead of time and providing any additional information when asked by the Juvenile Court Judge.

CASA volunteers visit the children they serve on a weekly basis.

What We Need...

Do

To recruit, train, and provide ongoing support to every CASA volunteer requires $2,600. With more than 100 County children waiting, a $260,000 ask is completely within reason.

So step up as a volunteer, and also make a significant donation.

Before this new wave of entries into the turbulence of foster care, CASA of Santa Barbara County found a way – with your help – to serve every single child in the system: speeding adoptions, reunifications, and setting these resilient young people on a path to success.

A more targeted intervention does not exist. Be a part of a foundational pillar of this community’s future today.

am a direct product of the generosity of CASA donors. Because of you, I had moments of stability, normalcy and pure childlike happiness. On behalf of the children who benefit from having a CASA volunteer in their lives, thank you. I know that it is a choice to support CASA, with so many other worthy organizations, you chose CASA.”

Estefany Can

KEY SUPPORTERS

Patricia and Evan Aptaker

Heather and Rich Ames Jim and Julie Burge Marcy Carsey Andrew and Terri Dowen Rick DuBreuil

Frank and Alida Freda Ted and Coleen Friedel Martin and Kerrilee Gore Niall and Julie Henley McNamara Christine and Michael Holland

Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA)

of Santa Barbara County sbcasa.org

2125 S. Broadway Ste 106 Santa Maria, CA 93454 (805) 739-9102

Contact: Kira Cosio Associate Director of Donor Engagement (805) 357-2595 kira@sbcasa.org

Deborah and Marty Lynch

Mona McConkey and Dominick Barry

Tony and Sabrina Papa

Justine Roddick and Tina Schlieske

Veronica Sandoval

Elan Shpigel

Lindsay Soleimani

Prudence and Robert Sternin

Daniel Vordale

Virginia Benson Wigle

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check:

Court Appointed Special Advocates of Santa Barbara County

2125 S. Broadway #106

Santa Maria, CA 93454

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 33-0662734

By Credit Card: sbcasa.org/donate

“I

–

Former Foster Youth

Giving Children the Power to Speak

RiteCare of SB

saw the great work they were doing for under-served local chil dren through their free services, like Camp Chit Chat. As a Board Mem ber, and former recipient of speech therapy, I am proud to do my part to help other children gain access to life-changing speech and communication. So many of the kids who use these services have stories of making their first friends, or being able to participate in school and social situations because they can com municate clearly. Supporting RiteCare of SB is the best way to support children across the community after the challenging few years they’ve endured.”

– Diana Watts Board Member

Julie DeAngelis helps children to speak clearly. Even those who still want to wear COVID-19 masks to hide their language delays.

Remote learning and the social isolation wrought by the pandemic left many stu dents behind. This is acutely true of children’s language and speech development. How can you expect a toddler to mimic language if they’re surrounded by masked faces?

RiteCare Childhood Language Center of Santa Barbara, founded in 1984, is the only nonprofit in Santa Barbara County offering free language and speech therapy for children.

DeAngelis, director of RiteCare Childhood Language Center of Santa Barbara, says that local pediatricians, psychologists, librarians, and schools are aware of their services, but the need is greater than their small staff can support.

“We have developed all these amazing programs based on the needs in our communi ty,” DeAngelis says. “The school system has strict parameters on who can qualify. So many children might still need therapy, but they are not qualifying based on the parameters.”

This is where the center fills that gap, specifically with a focus on the preschool years, with other programs for older children.

Housed in the historic Masonic Temple in Santa Barbara, RiteCare Childhood Lan guage Center of Santa Barbara typically treats over 100 patients a year with extensive private speech and language therapy supported by three programs to augment those efforts: Camp Chit Chat, a socially interactive camp for preschool-age children with mild to moderate speech and language delays; Brain Lab, an after-school literacy program for students from first grade through sixth grade; and Super Brains, a small group of kinder garten through first-grade children that works on social skills.

The nonprofit measures success by clear speech. This essential ability is a struggle for many young children who initially arrive at the center having to repeat themselves to be understood, or turn to others to interpret for them. Sometimes, DeAngelis says, parents bring a child to the center who isn’t talking at all.

The best stories end on graduation day, she says, when that same student won’t stop talking.

"I first became interest ed in

because I

CENTER OF SANTA BARBARA

Camp Chit Chat develops dino-mite speech and language skills! Dinosaur Week at Camp Chit Chat, 2022.

Our kids leap into learning at RiteCare of Santa Barbara! Space Week at Camp Chit Chat 2022.

What We Need...

Expanding Reach and Speech

RiteCare Childhood Language Center of Santa Barbara offers free speech therapy to more than 100 children every year. But, the long tail of the pandemic on children’s educational development – especially in spoken language – means the nonprofit needs to expand to meet the need.

The center is raising $60,000 this year to hire a clinician to help serve more children.

“We have the need to expand our therapy services to help more children in Santa Barbara,” says Julie DeAngelis, the director of RiteCare Childhood Language Center of Santa Barbara. “We have always had a waitlist for our services. Hiring another staff member would allow us to see more children annually, around 30 more a year with a full-time clinician.”

We have 48 children on our waitlist for services.

The need to hire another clinician is pressing; we need your support.

KEY SUPPORTERS

Wood-Claeyssens Foundation

Santa Barbara Foundation Hutton Parker Foundation Towbes Foundation Montecito Journal Santa Barbara Lodge of Perfection King David's Lodge #209 Westerlay Orchids

Mark and Amy Frank Carpinteria Masonic Center

e’ve been fortunate enough to have worked with Julie and Summer with two of our children and we couldn’t be more grateful and appreciative for the material changes and growth we saw with our kids. They helped our kids improve their ability to communicate, read and in turn improve the confidence in themselves which is priceless. We are so grateful for their support.”

– Brian and Emily Schwabecher Parents

McGowan Guntermann

William

Safina Trust

David Bradley and Chelsea Rangsikitpho

Toine and Kandie Overgaag

Edmund Heath Maurice and Mary Sourmany

MERCK Foundation Serviot, INC.

Roy and Ida Eagle Foundation

RiteCare Childhood Language Center of Santa Barbara 16 E. Carrillo Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101 www.casrf.org/santabarbara

Contact: Julie DeAngelis Executive Director, Speech-Language Pathologist (805) 962-8469 jdeangelis@casrf.org

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check:

California Scottish Rite Foundation

16 E. Carrillo Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 946078728

Memo: Of Santa Barbara: The Giving List

“W

Clinicians Julie and Summer maintain lifelong friendships with the families they help. RiteCare graduates suc ceed in school and life!

Community Resilience

Communities are built by the bonds that are forged among its members.

Nonprofits are often the connective fiber, giving communities the resilience they need in times of crisis and stress.

Jackie Carrera Puts the ‘Community’ in Santa Barbara ‘Community’ Foundation

As told to Gwyn Lurie

Jackie Carrera’s powerful sense of community started with her family, long before she moved from Maryland to Cal ifornia and eventually settled on the Central Coast. To day, ours is the community that the Santa Barbara Foundation CEO spends much of her time contemplating.

“I was raised by a second-grade teacher. We had a closeknit family with four kids. My family was my first commu nity. And we all had a role in it. Whether it was vacuuming on Saturday mornings or doing the dishes every single night, we all worked and contributed to our home life. I came to understand that whether it was my classroom, my sports team, my student council, my workplace – these were all forms of ‘community’ and everyone had something to contribute and a role to play.”

It was while in college studying finance at Loyola University in Maryland that Carrera began to understand that commu nity extended into a larger world, which included those with very different life circumstances.

“I was in an ethics class and the discussion was about home lessness; it was actually a debate. I thought, ‘How do you de bate homelessness? What is there to debate?’… Some of my classmates were saying, ‘They (aka, other) need to pull them selves up by their bootstraps and get moving.’ And I was really disturbed… I thought ‘major disconnect here.’ What if that person can’t take care of themselves? Who chooses to be on the street? This is not a sign of a healthy person who has the support of a community that is able to get themselves back to where they need to be. I was pretty upset, and went ranting back to my college roommates. And one roommate turned to me and said, ‘So what are you going to do about it?’ And I was stopped dead in my tracks.

“That was when I first thought, ‘I can and need to do some thing.’”

Carrera believes that it’s not so much about giving back be cause something was given to you. It’s about naturally being a part of a community and playing a role, your very own role. For Carrera, the crux of it all is community. So, it makes sense that she finds herself leading the Santa Barbara Foundation, a central hub for Santa Barbara’s local philanthropic and nonprofit com munity and the people and causes they serve. From this perch, Carrera has a bird’s-eye view of how philanthropy works in this town, and strong opinions on what are the most important is sues facing a place she calls “a little slice of heaven.”

Q: So, how is Santa Barbara as a philanthropic community?

A: In Santa Barbara County, the extraordinary sense of care for others is palpable. Whether it’s grappling with a commu nity issue or working with philanthropists who want to under stand better how they can support others, I have the privilege of being immersed in all that is really wonderful about Santa Barbara. Just like everywhere, there are issues, but here, we’re oriented toward solving those problems together. I see it from many angles and I can’t emphasize enough how generous this community is.

(Photo by Dean Zatkowsky)

Q: As the head of a community foundation, how do you decide who and what to support?

A: First, we listen to many people who guide us in develop ing a strategic plan that helps us determine what to prioritize and where to focus our discretionary dollars and staff effort. Second, we have hundreds of donor-directed funds which ex tend our support to nearly every issue area imaginable. Our relationships with our nonprofit partners are key. They help us understand the issues and where the greatest challenges are. What I love about community foundations is that because of our many partners, we are able to see both the challenges as well as the critical interventions – and even solutions.

Q: What are the key things you consider that help you decide to give funds to an organization?

A: For grants that we make with our discretionary resources, we view every proposal holistically. It’s about so much more than just the specific request. Each request is an opportunity to learn about an organization’s mission, leadership, and its capacity, as well as the feasibility of what’s being proposed.

We also look at how that work aligns with community needs, our strategic plan and the resources we have available. We also assess our ability to interest other donors who might be willing to fund alongside or in addition to us. And, of course, we con sider the issue that the organization is trying to address and the impact they can have.

Our decisions are informed by grant committees made up of seasoned and emerging philanthropists, experts in a partic ular field, and staff. In 2018, we established the Collaboration for Social Impact so that we have a vehicle to assist organiza tions with capacity building and ensure its leaders have the knowledge, skills, and resources to fulfill their mission. It’s important to us that this work is guided by practitioners –nonprofit executives who are leaders in the field.

Q: What role can philanthropy play in moving the needle on systemic issues like racial and gender equity?

A: Philanthropy can raise awareness, identify barriers, and invest in plans to address those barriers, whether it’s in our own organization or in how we invest. Our entire sector is about charitable contributions and tackling community issues. It’s impossible to do that if we are not really looking at our entire community and what’s preventing them from thriving.

Q: How does that look for the Santa Barbara Foundation?

A: This is an evolving journey.

For us, equity isn’t about making a statement, though we have when we needed to. Our organization has been for quite some time committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and ac cess in our grantmaking and internal operations, but we have never had a mechanism to act on that formally or understand how we are doing. In May 2020 with George Floyd’s mur der, we doubled down on our own commitment to what we had been doing informally. We started by taking stock with an honest and thorough independent assessment of our progress toward diversity, equity, inclusion, and access (DEIA).

We set up a task force made up of board and staff members. We examined our county’s demographics and our organiza tion’s history, we looked at what other community founda tions are doing in this space around the country, and then looked at how well our strategic plan incorporated DEIA as a pillar. We went through a rigorous process of stakeholder interviews and very broad-based input. We are now in the pro cess of prioritizing and adopting recommendations.

There’s nothing like someone who is not in your business coming in and telling you how to do your work. This is about viewing our relationship with our nonprofits as a partnership and listening to the experts and leaders on the ground to make sure that our values –of centering community –actually show up in the way that we do our work.

Community is shaped by people who have had different experiences. There are people in different stages in their life. There are people from different socioeconomic backgrounds. There are people from different places, cultures. If you don’t have a mix of housing and opportunities to make a healthy income, you’re preventing the diversity that you need to create that vibrant, healthy community life.

Q: So, you’re modeling what you’re asking other organizations to do.

A: And sharing what we have learned. We also have a small capacity building grant program through which we fund orga nizations to conduct DEIA work.

Q: How do you measure ROI (return on investment) in your grant making?

A: This is such a great question. We think of this in terms of impact, or outcomes. After much consideration, we chose to measure our outcomes using a system called Results Based Accountability. This system poses the questions: What did we do? How well did we do it? Is anyone better off as a result? The first two questions are relatively easy to answer. However, the way we collect this data has become more meaningful. Rather than asking for solely quantitative outputs, especially from our grantees, we look for qualitative information. We’ve changed our reporting process to include interviews. This allows us to understand how a grant enabled an organization to build their capacity to become stronger as an entity. The interview allows us to understand what their challenges are, and connect them to peers to be able to facilitate cohorts and peer learning as they go.

The last question – is anyone better off? – requires us to have a baseline understanding of community level indicators. Our community is working toward that in a variety of issue areas, and we hope to be able to measure our investments against that baseline at some point.

Q: So, do you support trust-based giving?

A: Absolutely. That’s the core of it. There’s nothing like someone who is not in your world coming in and telling you how to do it. It is about viewing our relationship with our nonprofits as a partnership and listening to the experts and leaders on the ground to make sure that our values – of cen tering community – actually show up in the way that we do our work. That really is the only way we in philanthropy can advance equity and opportunity.

Q: Are you more likely to bet on a person or on an idea?

A: I have a theory that at least 60% of the success of an idea is in the people behind it, and the rest is in the idea itself and sometimes other variables.

We’ve had a lot of great ideas here in Santa Barbara for how to solve homelessness, deal with affordable housing, fix child care. I’m not sure when we’re going to get there, but right now there’s a feeling that the people and the resources are coming into alignment around some of these things, which is a great feeling because nobody wants to be on a wheel just spinning, spinning around and not going anywhere.

Q: What issue do you think is most key right now in this com munity?

A: Housing. The cost is crippling to individuals and fami lies. It doesn’t matter if you recently graduated from UCSB or you grew up here or you just moved here, most are struggling to stay here because of the cost of housing.

Community is made up of lots of diverse people. There are people in different stages in their life. There are people from different socioeconomic backgrounds. There are people from different places, cultures. If you don’t have a mix of housing and opportunities to make a healthy income, you’re prevent ing the diversity that you need to create that vibrant, healthy community life.

Q: If you could wave a magic wand and change anything in Santa Barbara, what would it be?

A: An evolved appreciation for understanding one another. There’s a line of a song that has always resonated with me: ‘Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right.’ It’s about being open to different, new perspectives. Another one of my favorite sayings is ‘seek not to be understood so much as to understand.’ Being open to learning about and understanding somebody else and ulti mately getting to know that person, or organization, or cul ture – and truly valuing the differences – is part of what cre ates a healthy, thriving community. That right there removes a barrier that has prevented so many people from just simply getting along and being able to live together in, dare I say it, harmony. But it takes intent. It takes work. It takes courage because you have to be willing to acknowledge your own belief system and to challenge those beliefs and assumptions about yourself and others. And then ultimately recognize that your differences are what make life so rich and wonderful and ful filling. We all have something to learn from each other if we just take the time and realize the value in that.

So that’s my dream, and we start by realizing the value of understanding one another. There will always be issues but with a shared set of operating principles like this, chances are greater that a community will be able to effectively address even its most significant challenges.

St. Vincent’s: A Place Where Lives Change for the Better

By the time St. Vincent de Paul died in 1660, the Daughters of Charity had more than 40 houses in France. Often, they were the very first women’s order to develop in modern urban settings building orphanages, homes for the elderly, and shelters for the handicapped. Today, there are more than 16,000 members in 90 countries around the world, and in each community, their goal remains the same: to change lives.

When social work theory favored finding foster homes for orphans, St. Vincent’s quickly adapted, developing programs to support foster homes and parents.

They developed a specialized program for exceptional children that continued for half a century, programs for developmentally challenged children, the first day nursery that responded to the needs of working women in the city, and were critical support to the Special Olympics here.

St. Vincent’s is not just a place or an institution. It is Santa Barbara’s longestrunning social services organization, woven into the region’s history, all while serving 600 people every day. The campus is named after the French priest St. Vincent de Paul who was the founder of the Daughters of Charity who came to Santa Barbara in 1858.

Above the agency’s gateway is a steel banner that proclaims: St. Vincent’s mission – “Through this gate… life changes.”

Sister Arthur Gordon, vice president of St. Vincent’s mission integration, has been a member of the Daughters of Charity for 61 years. Sister Arthur underscores that her order came to Santa Barbara at the request of

Bishop Thaddeus Amat to build an Englishspeaking school. They did that, and they also built an orphanage.

Over the course of more than a century and a half, the Daughters of Charity have responded to new needs.

Unlike other religious orders for women, the Daughters of Charity from their founding were not cloistered, and from the very beginning were engaged in serving the needs of the poor. In its time, their foundation signaled something new, even radical. They established hospitals, schools, and homes for orphan children, developed programs to train people for jobs, taught reading and writing, and carried out a prison ministry.

“We trust the people,” Sister Arthur says. “We are advocates for the poor, the homeless, and the marginalized.”

Today, they have three central goals: providing affordable housing for low-income families, early childhood education, and a Family Strengthening Program. They have built at St. Vincent’s over 150 housing units for low-income families and the elderly, and cottages for single mothers. The single moms must either be in school or working. And as part of the program, the mothers are taught the basics of family finances, are helped to establish bank and savings accounts, all while receiving daycare for their children.

The Family Strengthening Program provides single moms with something that

ST. VINCENT’S THEN AND NOW. FOR OVER 160 YEARS THE DAUGHTERS OF CHARITY HAVE SERVED THE PEOPLE OF SANTA BARBARA BY GIVING LOVE AND SHELTER TO THE MOST VULNERABLE IN OUR

COMMUNITY. OUR TRADITION OF CARING CONTINUES TO GUIDE US INTO THE FUTURE.

cannot be provided by other social services: a sense of self-worth and encouragement to believe in themselves.

One such mother is Rosalinda, who came to St. Vincent’s with an infant and a toddler, and was struggling to put food on the table. She was a grocery store cashier without career goals.

But, after two years in St. Vincent’s Family Strengthening Program, and with the help of her case managers, her life improved, as did the future for her children. Rosalinda is now a full-time property manager and her daughters are thriving.

“I understand that not everyone has the

same story, but what I want to accomplish by sharing my story is to give someone else hope and encouragement,” Rosalinda says. “If you put effort and pride in what you do, you achieve so much in life. It’s okay to reach out for help to better yourself, but don’t expect others to do the work for you.”

Sister Arthur points to the critical need for low-income housing in Santa Barbara where there are an estimated 2,000 unhoused people. Like many other coastal cities, rent has skyrocketed, pushing monthly low-income residents to the brink or into homelessness. Hardly a week passes without

SCAN TO LEARN MORE ABOUT

ST. VINCENT’S

Regina Ruiz

Chief Development Officer rruiz@sv-sb.org www.stvincents-sb.org (805) 683-6383 4200 Calle Real, Santa Barbara, CA 93110 Tax ID# 95-1643367

the local newspapers reporting on the critical need for housing.

More broadly, Sister Arthur says that St. Vincent’s plan is to build affordable housing and small housing units. “We still have vacant land and we are planning to build affordable units,” she says.

There is a humility in the way that Sister Arthur thinks about the needs of the poor.

Her motivation is drawn from the paradigmatic life of Jesus of Nazareth, who treated all people with love and compassion. She acknowledges that we do not have all the answers for the social problems that dog our contemporary life.

But, “the people we serve can teach us a great deal.”

Of course, St. Vincent’s serves people from all faiths and its services are non-denominational.

Even small donations can make an outsized impact. Your $200 donation covers one day of complete services for a mother like Rosalinda and her two children, a home in our cottages, daycare, food, and parenting classes on our campus.

We Need to Talk

Almost everyone is aware that America’s current cultural climate is perhaps more polarized than at any time since the Civil War. Very few have any idea how to fix it.

Common Table Foundation’s solution: Going back to the basics.

Driven by the notion that divisiveness and conflict are fueled by the inability to see each other as individuals with much more that unites than divides us, the nonprofit was launched in 2018 to serve as a beacon for bringing diverse communities together to celebrate all that we have in common.

The device to get there is the simple act of having a conversation over a meal. Literally.

To that end, in late summer 2018, Common Table put out a bunch of tables straddling the center divider of a full block of pre-promenade State Street, and invited people to bring their own food, grab a random seat, and start talking with their neighbor.

“The idea was to create a way for people who may never have met to actually sit down and have a meal together,” says Warren Ritter, the foundation’s Executive Director. “Dialogue can create a starting point of understanding.”

The foundation clearly had tapped into a

true hunger for community connection as the State Street gathering drew more than 400 folks from all backgrounds to break bread at the Common Table. Among the participants was a MAGA supporter sandwiched between former Democratic Rep. Lois Capps (one of the nonprofit’s founders) and a homeless man.

“Our vision and purpose is bringing diverse people together to celebrate all that we have in common,” Ritter says. “Then you can see if any of those perceived differences actually even exist.”

Similar food-based events were held in Carpinteria over the next 18 months, which also saw the foundation spawning such programs as Coffee Conversations to foster deeper dialogue in a one-on-one setting, and the United By Art Project to bring together artists of all stripes on a shared stage.

But just as expansion plans were set to go into development, the COVID pandemic shut everything down.

Now, Ritter is working hard at the helm of the resurgent Common Table, where he plans to draw on his own background, which includes serving as the former president of Santa Barbara Young Black Professionals, where he nurtured the organization from infancy to a thriving group of 300 members through networking events.

The nonprofit’s upgraded plans include events targeted at specific segments such as school districts, health care facilities, and companies, aiming to foster connective conversations between business CEOs and entry-level employees, or nurses and hospital administrators.

“We’re all fundamental members of the community. We’re all neighbors. We’re all connected,” Ritter says. “Let’s get the conversations going again.”

Hal Conklin deeply loved this community and was dedicated to bringing this community together to celebrate the diversity that exists among all of us.

We believe that inclusive, authentic dialogue and engagement among people of all backgrounds is the heartbeat of a healthy democracy; it is essential in giving voice to those in society's margins, and critical in developing a culture of belonging, participation, and collaboration. Todd Capps (right), former Executive Director of Common Table and Hal Conklin (left), former Santa Barbara Mayor truly embraced this belief.

Warren Ritter has been selected as the next Executive Director of the Common Table Foundation. Warren has been an active member in the community and has helped pave the way for many others to step up in active leadership roles. Using the principles of collab oration and genuine relationship building, he is looking forward to leading the organization to new heights.

What We Need...

Toolkit for Togetherness

Your tax-deductible support of the Common Table Foundation is critical to a successful revival of the nonprofit’s programs and events, and the launching of new ones to combat divisiveness. Donations also aid in the creation of the forthcoming Common Table toolkit so that communities across the nation can host their own events using a comprehensive and efficient online platform –part of the foundation’s mission to spread Common Table’s goal of connecting through conversation around the world.

Common Table Foundation commontablefoundation.org

315 Meigs Rd, Ste A412 Santa Barbara CA 93109 (805) 724-2734

Contact: Warren Ritter II Executive Director (805) 724-2734 warren@commontablefoundation.org

KEY SUPPORTERS

The Santa Barbara Foundation Montecito Bank & Trust Santa Barbara Independent

The Fund for Santa Barbara City of Santa Barbara

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check:

Common Table Foundation

315 Meigs Road, Ste A412 Santa Barbara CA 93109

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 02-0538138

Memo: Santa Barbara

Now more than ever, our community is looking to unite and remember that we are all more alike than we are different.

Inspiration and Renewal for Santa Barbara’s Essential Nonprofit Workforce

Emerging Leaders Program alumni celebrate each other in our 8th cohort's program graduation. These leaders are prepared and supported to take on further roles of responsibility working for the causes our community care about.

What happens when the people driving a nonprofit organization providing community support get burned out and need sup port themselves?

Leading From Within is what happens.

Leading From Within is an organization that doesn’t work for one specific cause; rather, it’s a nonprofit supporting the people who are doing that work, helping the community.

In a region that boasts an incredibly high density of nonprofit organizations and philanthropic support, supporting nonprofit leaders and staff is critical and necessary work. Leading From Within’s results speak to the very practical efficacy of their work.

“Nonprofits generally don’t prepare their staff for the strain involved in prolonged work,” says Executive Director Ed France.

France cites the extremely high burnout rate in nonprofits as the genesis of the organization. When Leading From Within’s founder, Ken Saxon, began serving on nonprofit boards, he noticed how rarely those organizations invested in staff development, and it especially affected leaders of these organizations.

“Too often, critical nonprofit leaders were isolated, operated from a sense of scarcity, and were prone to burnout,” Saxon says. He discovered that many of these organizations didn’t even have money for professional development set aside in their budgets. Eyeing that need, Saxon developed a program to uplift these organizations’ leaders and staff to do the leadership development they need to make their highest and best contribution to their cause, and Leading From Within was born.

“I admire how Leading From Within, as a small, nimble nonprofit, has worked to be re sponsive to the needs of the sector, experimenting with new offerings, including pro bono coaching for emerging and executive leaders.”

– Elena Anderson Executive Coach & Consultant

Leading From Within’s programs started with a methodology called “Courage and Renewal,” which helps nonprofit staffers rediscover and refuel their inspiration and passion for their work, thereby extending their commitment and longevity and inspiring civic leadership. Their “Emerging Leaders” program fosters leadership qualities and grooms staff for future leadership positions.

In the nonprofit world, where turnover is rampant, Leading From Within’s results are impressive.

“Of our 568 alumni, approximately 85% have stayed in the nonprofit world locally,” France says.

He should know. He’s one of them. Having founded the Bicycle Coalition of Santa Barbara County, France was working long days and weekends for years. After a while, France could no longer access his inspiration for the work.

“The lens that we see our work through gets distorted, gets clouded. As a leader of an organization, your lens is your vision, and your vision that you hold for your organization is the most important way that you can support your team,” France says. Eventually, he hit a wall. “I just tried to take on all things, until I felt very jaded. It nearly broke me.”

Then, he discovered Leading From Within and enrolled in their Courage to Lead Program. It not only reinvigorated his passion for nonprofit work, but it inspired him so much, he ultimately became the organization’s executive director – firmly planting him in a nonprofit world that needs him and Leading From Within.

What We Need...

Make an Investment in People

Donating to Leading From Within is a great way to leverage your investment in philanthropy. $2,500 pays for a transformative leadership development experience in a nonprofit leader’s career, and fosters the growth potential of the next up-and-coming leader in Santa Barbara County.

Adaptive Offerings support ed our over 550 alumni and program participants to stay grounded and offer their best work throughout the challenges of the pandemic. Our learning system allows us to offer the most relevant and impactful leadership development offerings throughout a highly transi tional time.

he value of Courage to Lead is that it teaches us to be open to opportunities, and to actively listen to each other and the world around us. I found myself open as a leader to hear what was going on and my relationship with Manju (my lead staff) is because Courage to Lead gave us the tools and space to build trust. The trust we had built at Leading From Within allowed us to forge a strong and effective team.”

– Norbert Tan

KEY SUPPORTERS

Santa Barbara Foundation Angell Foundation

Schwartz Family Foundation Manitou Fund

Mosher Foundation Natalie Orfalea Foundation and Lou Buglioli Jo and Ken Saxon Ann Jackson Family Foundation James S. Bower Foundation

Leading From Within www.leading-from-within.org PO Box 806 Santa Barbara, CA, 93102 (805) 203-6940

Contact: Edward France Executive Director (805) 203-6940 ed@leading-from-within.org

The Towbes Foundation

Maryan Schall Linked Foundation

Mary and Jim Morouse McCune Foundation

Ginger Salazar and Brett Matthews Jeff Bochsler Chris Parker

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check: Leading From Within PO Box 806

Santa Barbara, CA, 93102

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 68-0365504

By Credit Card: leading-from-within.org/support

“T

Deputy Director, AAPI Equity Alliance

Without professional development investment, how can our nonprofit sector be most effective in advancing the causes our community cares about? Investing in Leadership Development works. Join Leading From Within and support the people driving positive change in our region.

No Burden Is Too Heavy if We All Lift Together

The origin story of the Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade is the stu of legend –and for good reason. In the aftermath of the 2017 record-shattering Thomas Fire and 2018 debris flow that devastated Montecito, the Bucket Brigade emerged from the mud leading an army of volunteers to dig out homes, clear open spaces, and restore trails to reconnect the community.

In the following five years, while over four million acres of California burned and we endured a global pandemic, the Bucket Brigade continued to work, reestablishing five miles of neighborhood trail and restoring riparian habitats in areas a ected by the debris flow. During the pandemic, they launched the Bucket Brigade Academy, volunteers sewed and delivered 40,000 masks to critical service workers, built and delivered home victory garden kits throughout the region, and delivered food and supplies to vulnerable seniors.

“In the wake of larger and more frequent disasters, just wanting to help our neighbors is no longer enough,” says Abe Powell, the Brigade’s

co-founder. “We need to become good at helping each other as a whole community.”

In Montecito, the Bucket Brigade has broadened its scope from immediate disaster relief to include projects that build long-term resilience, including neighborhood organizing e orts like the Walk Montecito! safe-routes-toschool campaign.

Looking ahead, the Bucket Brigade has two major Community Uplift Projects that it wishes to expand with donor support: the Bucket Brigade Academy and Bucket Brigade Humanitarian Garden. The Academy is a youth leadership training program where students learn advanced volunteer leadership skills to prepare to lead relief e orts in their own communities in a time of need. Located at Elings Park, the Humanitarian Garden is a seven-acre public space where volunteers come to connect and develop urgently-needed community restoration skills. The garden is a safe space where local leaders and volunteers from all around come to learn and train in habitat restoration, regenerative agriculture,

uring a crisis, the Bucket Brigade turns helplessness into helping by enabling the community to lead its own recovery e ort. The inclusive, welcoming approach gives ordinary people a chance to become neighborhood heroes in a time of need. This is something every community needs right now."

"D

– Greg Tebbe Bucket Brigade President and Volunteer

community organizing, and disaster relief.

“To train a generation of climate leaders, we need to create a safe space where community members can learn and grow together,” Powell says.

Bucket Brigade Academy is a youth leadership training program that teaches students life-saving skills and how to safely lead volunteers in response to a community crisis.

In the face of yearly record-breaking fires and natural disasters, the Bucket Brigade organizes, trains, and deploys volunteers in response to community needs.

What We Need...

You Can Help Build Resilience in Santa Barbara County

The Bucket Brigade resilience model focuses on people and community.

“The feel-good factor of volunteering is overwhelmingly powerful, especially since we are so privileged in our own lives,” says Hy Rosario, a Bucket Brigade volunteer.

“The opportunity to give is returned ten-fold and cannot be overstated.”

You can become a Bucket Brigade Member or Sponsor today by visiting sbbucketbrigade.org and clicking the red donate button. Donations can also be made by mail to P.O. Box 50640 Santa Barbara, CA 93150. Your donations help the Bucket Brigade keep the doors open and provide the safety equipment, materials, and leadership needed for year-round community action and uplift.

“Now is the time to reconnect with the Bucket Brigade community,” says Co-founder Abe Powell. “Join us as we remember what it means to be good neighbors in a time of need – not just with words, but with deeds.”

Since the Thomas Fire, seven California record-breaking fires burned over four million acres of land and 7,447 structures creating a cascading series of housing, habitat, and community resilience crises across the state during a global pandemic.

The need for community resilience has never been greater.

In 2022, Bucket Brigade volunteers, sta , and community partners removed 163,627 pounds of toxic debris caused by the Alisal Fire, which burned 16,970 acres and 13 structures in Gaviota, California on October 11, 2021.

Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade sbbucketbrigade.org

P.O. Box 50640 Santa Barbara, CA 93150 (805) 568-9700

Contact: Abe Powell CEO/Co-Founder (805) 568-9700 contactus@sbbucketbrigade.org

"The most impactful part of volunteering is the feel-good factor. It is overwhelmingly powerful, especially since we are so privileged in our own lives. The opportunity to give is returned ten-fold and cannot be overstated."

KEY SUPPORTERS

Zegar Family Foundation

The Muller Family

Ann Jackson Family Foundation

Christina Kirby and Josh Kulkin

Eric and Wendy Schmidt

Geo Sla and Dale Zurawski

The Brittingham Family Foundation

Audacious Foundation Sharon Bradford/WWW Foundation

Tony and Kyra Rogers

Jackie & Je Scha er

Nati & Michael Smith and Anne Smith Towbes

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check:

Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade

P.O. Box 50640

Santa Barbara, CA 93150

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 83-1156413

By Credit Card: sbbucketbrigade.org

– Hy Rosario Bucket Brigade Humanitarian Garden Volunteer

Clean Coalition: Resilience Through Solar

The 70 miles of coast spanning Lake Casitas to Point Conception and including Carpinteria, Montecito, Santa Barbara, and Goleta, is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful stretches of land in the continental United States.

It’s also one of the most vulnerable to catastrophic grid outages.

This region’s electrical grid, known as the Goleta Load Pocket (GLP), is served by transmission lines running through 40 miles of treacherous terrain threatened by wildfires, earthquakes, and mudslides.

In 2018, the Thomas Fire and ensuing debris flows almost crippled this essential connection. “Both the fire and debris flows came close to taking down the transmission lines for months,” says Craig Lewis, the founder and executive director of the Clean Coalition, a

Santa Barbara-based nonprofit working to bring energy resilience to the region through renewable energy.

Lewis, who was raised in Santa Barbara and attended San Marcos High School, moved away for college and career. But after 35 years, immediately following the debris flow disaster, he returned to address a vital need for renewables-driven resilience.

The Clean Coalition helps critical community facilities plan and develop Solar Microgrids and Community Microgrids. A Solar Microgrid pairs solar panels with significant amounts of energy storage in batteries. It provides daily energy and powers critical infrastructure during blackouts. Critical facilities include health centers, a ordable and transitional housing facilities, retirement communities, corporate campuses, emergency

response and sheltering facilities, and schools.

Fourteen new solar arrays, with six being Solar Microgrids, are anticipated to save the Santa Barbara Unified School District at least $7.8 million in energy costs and contribute $6.5 million in value-of-resilience over the duration of the 28-year Power Purchase Agreements

“We helped Santa Barbara Unified School District understand the technical and economic benefits of providing indefinite solar-driven resilience to the most critical loads like refrigerators and freezers, communication systems, and emergency sheltering,” says Lewis, “while supporting the rest of the loads for significant percentages of time too.”

The Solar Microgrid sites will now have resilient back-up power for critical functions instead of unreliable, short-term diesel generation. This also turns schools into safe havens during disaster events, providing a benefit to the surrounding communities.

The donor-driven Clean Coalition also facilitated the Strauss Wind Energy Project near Lompoc, which as Lewis says will “instantly double the amount of local renewable energy being produced in Santa Barbara County,” and the Vallecito Energy Storage Resilience project in Carpinteria, which is the first major energy storage project in the County.

Solar parking canopies behind Peabody Stadium at Santa Barbara High School.

Solar shade canopies at Adams Elementary School.

Expanding the Reach of Clean Energy

Our donors are stewards of the environment who are bold and forwardthinking. Our donors are leaders who care for their neighbors and invest in future generations.

Last year the Clean Coalition needed $250,000 to support our e orts throughout the Santa Barbara region. This year we are asking for $500,000 to expand our reach to North County schools and critical community facilities throughout the Central Coast over the next two years.

Funding will go towards the salaries of those conducting studies and dealing with regulatory policy at the state and local levels. Policy innovations that govern interconnection and Community Microgrids are particularly vital to unleashing clean local energy, and the Clean Coalition is working diligently to create the conditions for more solar-driven microgrids and the economic, environmental, and resilience benefits that come with them.

Many more renewables-driven microgrids are required to reach our goal of total energy resilience, and you are important to making this happen.

Clean Coalition clean-coalition.org 1800 Garden Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101

Contact: Craig Lewis Executive Director (650) 796-2353 craig@clean-coalition.org

"Transitioning to renewable energy is critical to fighting climate change, and maximizing local renewable sources makes communities resilient. While our Santa Barbara region is incredibly special, the grid is alarmingly vulnerable to natural disasters. Our family foundation has supported the Clean Coalition for the past decade. The organization’s leadership, vision, and initiative has demonstrated that clean energy innovations can benefit our local region and also serve as a model for communities across the country."

– Wendy Schmidt President and Co-Founder The

"Santa Barbara can lead the way to the clean local energy future, and be among the first communities to reap the unparalleled trifecta of benefits associated with clean local energy - in terms of economic, environmental, and resilience benefits."

– Craig Lewis Founder and Executive Director Clean Coalition

"S chools are vital for educating our children in safe and healthy environments, and they also provide refuge to the broader communities in times of need. It has been a pleasure to work with the Clean Coalition to get Santa Barbara Unified schools primed for the indefinite resilience delivered by Solar Microgrids, along with tremendous economic and environmental benefits. The Solar Microgrids facilitated by the Clean Coalition are state of the art, and I am thrilled that these will show the way for schools throughout the region and well beyond."

KEY SUPPORTERS

Steven Amerikaner

Diane Boss

Sharon Byrne

Laura Capps

Jackie Carrera

Michael Chiacos

Jon Clark

Julianna & Tom Dain

Katie Davis

Bill Duncan

Cindy Feinberg

Jonathan Gartner

John Glanville

Stephen Honikman

Dennis Houghton

Vijaya Jammalamadaka

Berna Kieler

Greg Lowe

Lance Lyon

Lee Lysne

Stephen Macintosh

Cary Matsuoka

Sara Miller McCune

Stacy & Ron Pulice

Rick Rockhold

Jordan Sager

Wendy Schmidt

Jim Taylor

Michael Weissman, PhD

Merryl & Chuck Zegar

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check: Clean Coalition

1800 Garden Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 14-1901877

By Credit Card: clean-coalition.org/support

– Laura Capps Board Member, Santa Barbara Unified School District and newly elected Santa Barbara County Supervisor

Schmidt Family Foundation

Ribbon-cutting for Santa Barbara Unified School District (SBUSD) solar and Solar Microgrid projects. From left to right: Craig Lewis, Founder and Executive Director of the Clean Coalition, Kelly Fresch, Principal of Adams Elementary School, Hilda Maldonado, SBUSD Superintendent, Rose Muñoz, President of the SBUSD School Board, and Laura Capps, SBUSD Board Member and incoming Santa Barbara County Supervisor.

Education

No great society has existed that didn’t grow its children and youth in the fertile soil of education. For their contributions, we applaud the organizations that put their shoulders to this important task.

The ‘Other,’ Kalyan Balaven

By Gwyn Lurie

As the rst person of color to ser ve as Head of Dunn School in Los Olivos, California, Kalyan (“Kal”) Balaven is, in many ways, a long way from his youth in the San Francisco Bay Area, where his family found itself houseless, sur viving on what Balaven calls community wealth.

From an ethnic perspective, Balaven says that he’s always thought of himself as “other ” An outsider identi cation that informs his work today as the head of an esteemed private residential school with a rich histor y that didn’t always include leaders (or many students) that looked like him.

“ e idea of being part of a globally Black diaspora community was part of my upbringing. At 18, I became Muslim, but I identify myself mostly by my faith practice now because I feel it identi es me more as a human. But I know who I walk through the world as. I’m part of the larger African diaspora; I’m also part of the Tamil diaspora. But every time I tried to belong to a group, I found myself on the outskirts somehow. When confronted with boxes, I’m like, where do I t in? So, I resonate with outliers. I want to make sure the outliers are taken care of Because they’re the afterthoughts who are often not seen.”

Chasing Mr. Lindsey

It was in high school, and completely by accident, that Balaven ended up in a rhetoric class with a teacher named Tommy Lindsey who, despite Balaven’s attempt to conceal his family’s transient living situation, saw what was going on and reached out to help Lindsey became a lifelong friend and mentor and supporter of Balaven. “ is man really saw me,” Balaven says.

It’s to Mr. Lindsey that Balaven attributes many of his important life choices. “I think I got to UC Berkeley because he really encouraged me. en I attended law school at UC Davis, but realized that wasn’t a t, so I got into education and I became a teacher… My whole life, my whole educational career has been chasing Mr. Lindsey.”

Identifying as “other,” and a deep appreciation for the impact that one Mr. Lindsey can have on a student, have greatly informed Balaven’s career as an educator committed to creating opportunities for outliers to feel seen – something Balaven sees as a key element of “inclusion” that is very hard to measure. But that didn’t stop him from trying.

It was as the number two at e Athenian School in Danville, California, and head of diversity, equity, and inclusion, that Balaven set out to nd a way to measure the idea, out of which came the creation of the Inclusion Dashboard.

“It was a great victor y moment,” Balaven says. “But then I started to see Athenian and many other schools using the dashboard as an indication that inclusion was happening as opposed to a tool to respond to exclusion, which is what it was meant to be. It became the very thing it was tr ying to identify ”

When Balaven arrived at Dunn School, he recognized Santa Barbara as a good “lab” in which to begin exploring ways to respond to exclusion.

“So, the dashboard is telling you there’s a problem,” Balaven says. “In the lab you start to identify how to approach that problem and solve it.”

With this in mind, Balaven created the rst-ever Inclusion Lab in Santa Barbara County, regularly bringing together educators from private and public school worlds to collaborate on this issue.

“There’s always a war somewhere on the planet.

I want to do it for Dunn and to inspire other schools, in Los Angeles, in the Bay Area, and beyond, to create refugee endowments to save students from these conflicts, wherever they are.”

“It’s an imperative as far as an educational outcome, that the world is represented at the school that is trying to graduate students to do good in the world. But the world is not all privileged people with the means to write a check for tuition. But the program is as important as the people in the class. Our philanthropy at Dunn is tied to providing students nancial aid so that they can have that experience. Our mission is about responsible leadership in society. And the philanthropic piece is... How do we give students, the afterthoughts, that opportunity?”

The Public Purpose Of Private Education

Balaven believes that schools like Dunn have an important public purpose. “So there’s two veins. One is giving students that are afterthoughts, the opportunity And then what public purpose can you, as a school, have?”

Under Balaven’s leadership, Dunn has found that purpose by expanding the concept of inclusion not just to “others” like himself, but to students around the world, forced into “other” or refugee status by ongoing con icts.

Dunn School got into the business of taking in refugees completely by accident when Balaven received a call from a mother in Ukraine, desperate to place her student in a safe educational environment. at call sparked Balaven’s interest in creating an ongoing opportunity for refugees from around the globe to attend Dunn School. Since receiving that call, Balaven has raised the funds to pay the tuition of six Ukrainian students. But to guarantee that these students can remain at Dunn for all four years, they are now faced with raising an additional $450,000.

Balaven has no intention of stopping there.

“I want to nd the right partners to create a refugee endowment,” he says. “ ere’s always a war somewhere on the planet. I want to do it for Dunn and to inspire other schools, in Los Angeles, in the Bay Area, and beyond, to create refugee endowments to save students from these con icts, wherever they are. So we have a place for them to land and we can set them up for life, like only residential boarding schools can. You have a home, you have a place to stay, you have all of it.”

“I also want to create a program for refugee studies so the students graduating from a school have all been part of a program and they understand the impact of con ict, and when someone seeks refuge, what happens in terms of culture? What happens in terms of politics, economics, etc.? And as they go on to seek responsible leadership in society, that is part of their toolkit. S o as people in positions where they can stop or start wars, they deeply consider the human impact because they’ve lived it, and they’ve been around it.”

Balaven likens this work to the building of water wells – a metaphor he was introduced to while helping, as a student at UC Berkeley, at a fundraiser in Hayward, California, to build wells in Sudan and Bangladesh.

“ ere was a speaker on the stage, and he was talking about the wells, and he said, ‘ When you build this well, you’re going to be quenching thirst for generations. Even when you’re gone, people will be able to drink clean water ’ And I was... Wow ere’s only one other thing like a well, and that’s a school. When you build a school, generations will come and get knowledge. For me, philanthropy is that thing that will last longer than you do And if you believe in the school’s mission, and in what it can do for students, you give to the school because it sets up the next generation and beyond.”

Saying Yes to Students Who Need a Supportive School Community

“

Ne Tentes Aut Perfice.”

This is the Latin motto that students and faculty at Dunn School, a private co-ed college prep boarding and day school in Los Olivos, live by. It translates to, “Attempt not, but achieve.” And it perfectly represents the school’s deeply-felt community and entrepreneurial spirit.

Kalyan Balaven, Head of School at Dunn since 2021, talks about the important interlocking puzzle pieces that embody the school’s spirit and set Dunn School apart from other private schools.

The first is a dedication to Whole Student Education, the guiding philosophy Dunn was founded on more than 65 years ago. Says Balaven, Dunn student life focuses on an allencompassing experience – emotional, mental, physical, and social – and its goal to help students find their moral core.

The second is Dunn’s entrepreneurial mindset. “That idea of getting it done. Not just talking about it, or attempting it, but to achieve it – we have to get it done,” Balaven says.

Finally, Dunn is also a residential school, where the curriculum takes place “24/7.”

Students often share meals, walks, and the give and take of ideas with their teachers throughout

the day and evening.

Nowhere is this spirit more evident than in Dunn School’s push to provide financial aid and scholarship money to deserving students both locally and abroad.

“It’s really, really hard for me to say no to an impressive young person who’s trying to do something better for themselves… You feel the potential and just try to make it happen,” Balaven says.

And happen it does. In 2014, with help from generous grandparents of Dunn alumni students, the African Scholars Program was established to help up to three African students attend Dunn. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the school quickly reached out to their Central Coast community for help and the Emergency Ukrainian Student Scholarship was born, enabling the school to welcome six Ukrainian students to campus.

“We’re taking kids who’ve had a traumatic situation as a result of poverty or as a result of war and we’re supporting them,” Balaven says.

Founded by Anthony Dunn in 1957, the school sits on 55 bucolic acres and includes a middle school (added in 1978) and high school. Classes are small, teachers are passionate about the

hen the war in Ukraine started, school was canceled, and we spent most of our time in shelters. An airplane exploded over my house at 4 am. At Dunn, I feel safe here, like I can relax."

– Dunn Student

experiential curriculum, and graduates are so invested in their school that they’ve returned after becoming successes in life and endowed both an entire program (Jurgensen Entrepreneurship Program) and a dorm (Boone Hall).

With so much to o er, Balaven just wants to be able to o er more underserved students the opportunity to be able to experience that Dunn School spirit.

"W

Emergency Ukrainian Student Scholarship Recipient

Building Community: The annual all- school color run.

Each year, student leaders are tasked with helping new students become oriented with the Dunn campus and culture, which can include a gelato break on a warm day.

Helping to Build Generational Wealth for the Underserved Student

Dunn School is seeking donations to build an endowment to provide financial aid and opportunities to local underserved students as well as students fleeing foreign countries.

“The phrase ‘generational wealth’ is important to me,” says Kalyan Balaven, Dunn’s Head of School. “By giving to this they’re giving in perpetuity for perpetuity. Our goal is to set up our students to be generational wealth builders for their villages, their communities… We only have six Ukrainian kids at this one moment in time, but we can have greater impact if the philanthropy is there.”

Every donation of $70,000 provides tuition, travel, legal support, full room and board, school supplies, clothing, and allowance. Each time this goal is reached it allows Dunn School to rescue one more student in need, to prepare them for a successful life and, imbued with the school’s entrepreneurial spirit, learn to be the catalysts for generational wealth.

Dunn School dunnschool.org

2555 West Highway 154 Los Olivos, CA 93441 (805) 688-6471

hole student education really is a holistic approach to learning and teaching, and it reflects the opportunity for the students to learn not just the academic, but the social, the cultural, and some of the softer nuances about being successful in life."

– Guy Walker Alumnus & Board of Trustees Chair

The first-ever student from his school in Uganda to come to the United States, Isaac is the latest success story in Dunn's African Scholar program, which has provided four-year, fully paid scholarships for students like Isaac since 2014.

Outdoor

Contact: LynnRae Dunn Director of Philanthropy (805) 686-0627 ldunn@dunnschool.org

KEY SUPPORTERS

Robert Day & W.M. Keck Foundation Jonathan Day Mike Boone

Autumn & Steven Badelt Janet & Barry Lang Arn & Nancy Youngman Cindy & Adam Bronfman Eric Roberts George & Leanne Roberts Stephane de Bord & Kimberly Branagh Whitney & Philip Arnautou Stephanie Bailey

The Many Ways to Give...

Maria Zhang

Tina & Jonathan Grunzweig

Kristen Carlson

Scott & Lisa Ramsey

Mary & CJ Jackson

Susan Jorgensen & Alice Gillaroo

Ike & Lara Zekaria

Tim & Virginia Bliss

Janice & Julian Gangolli Randall Day Guy R. Walker

"W

Education: Enjoying a zipline adventure trip o campus.

55. The percentage of students that receive need-based financial aid, and without it, would not be able to attend.

Making College Degrees Affordable and Accessible

While serving a 13-year prison sen tence, Alberto “Berto” Lule started to draw cartoons as an escape. That led to reading books on art history, and when Berto left prison, he had a burning desire to study art history and pursue a career in the field, but zero means by which to do it.

That’s when the Santa Barbara City College Foundation entered his life. The Foundation, started in 1976, provides support and programs for students at Santa Barbara City College and is the private philanthropic partner to the community college. The SBCC Promise, the cornerstone initiative of the Foundation, affords the opportunity for any recent, local high school graduate to pursue higher education at Santa Barbara City College free of charge for two years. In addition, the Foundation offers a wide range of grants, scholarships, and support for college programs.

Whereas the top universities in the country trumpet their devastatingly low acceptance rates every year in U.S. News & World Report, Santa Barbara City College prides itself on the opposite. “We take the top 100 percent of applicants,” boasts CEO Geoff Green. “There are no criteria, other than being a breathing adult who wants to

learn. It is truly accessible to everyone.”

Green is not just an advocate for the SBCC Foundation, but also the mission and accomplishments of this typically underappreciated tier of the California higher education system itself. At Santa Barbara City College, beyond focusing on just providing students with a liberal arts education, the curriculum provides students with the opportunity to learn marketable trade skills and access to a course of study that will lead directly to a job.

“Roughly thirty to forty percent of our students are enrolled in career technical programs,” says Green. Those include programs that provide graduates with professional certificates that often qualify them for jobs in the community for which there is a demonstrable need, from alcohol and drug counselor to auto mechanic.

Ironically, even though the community college system may seem like the least expensive path to higher education, because of the way financial aid is dispersed in California, it turns out that it can be the most expensive one to pursue. The financial aid system in the U.S. was built around the four-year university model. “One of the very real side effects of that is that

community college students are frequently left out of the system,” says Green.

In Berto Lule’s case, support from the SBCC Foundation turned out to be exactly what made his educational journey possible. Community college seemed to him like the only option, but as a recent parolee, there was no way he could afford it. So Berto enrolled in Transitions, one of the SBCC programs funded by the Foundation that provides guidance and access to college for individuals released from the criminal justice system.

As a student at Santa Barbara City College, he earned all A’s in his art classes, and then landed a prestigious internship with the SBCC Atkinson Gallery, also sponsored by the SBCC Foundation. He graduated from SBCC in 2018, earned his graduate degree in art history at UCLA, and now works as a curator at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.

“W e appreciate the fact that the SBCC Foundation provides students with the support they need to pursue a college education and a career.”

– Jane and Norm Habermann Legacy Circle Members

The SBCC Promise offers all recent, local high school graduates the opportunity to attend SBCC full-time at no cost, relying entirely on private donations to cover all required fees, books, and supplies for up to two years. To date, more than 6,000 students have participated.

SBCC has been changing lives in our community for more than a century. The SBCC Foundation provides more than $5 million annually for the SBCC Promise, student success programs, scholarships, and more, supporting SBCC students as they prepare for careers, transfer to four-year universities, and pursue lifelong learning goals.

What We Need...

Be Part of the Education Solution

he SBCC Promise has allowed me to find myself and has been incred ibly helpful in my academic journey. By covering the cost of going to college for two years, I’ve been able to focus on my studies.”

– Kaley-Ann Lopez Vasquez SBCC Promise Student

Donations

to the Santa Barbara City College Foundation will fund programs like the very one that helped Alberto “Berto” Lule realize his dream of having a career in art history. The Foundation is also currently striving to make the SBCC Promise a permanent offering, and works continually to improve and expand access to a greater share of the Santa Barbara community. The cost of one student’s participation in the SBCC Promise varies with the student and their course of study, but currently ranges between $2,500 and $5,000.

For every unrestricted dollar donated to the President's Circle, the SBCC Foundation generates $11 for SBCC student support.

KEY SUPPORTERS

Laurie Ashton & Lynn Sarko

Leslie & Ashish Bhutani

Roger Durling & Daniel Launspach

Coleen & Ted Friedel

Perri Harcourt

Bruce Heavin & Lynda Weinman

Madeleine & Peter Jacobson

Irma & Morrie Jurkowitz

Lillian Lovelace

Kandy Luria-Budgor & Beno Budgor Sara Miller McCune

John C. Mithun & Mercedes Millington

Maryan Schall

Frank Schipper & Leslie Meadowcroft-Schipper

Herbert & Bui Simon

Geoff Slaff & Dale Zurawski

Judy & Jack Stapelmann

Rachel Kaganoff Stern

Scott Vincent Merryl & Chuck Zegar

The Many Ways to Give...

SBCC Foundation sbccfoundation.org 721 Cliff Drive, Santa Barbara, CA 93109 (805) 730-4401

Contact: Sarah Stretz Chief Development Officer (805) 730-4412 stretz@sbccfoundation.org

By Check:

SBCC Foundation

721 Cliff Drive, Santa Barbara, CA 93109

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 95-3234551

By Credit Card: sbccfoundation.org

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Fostering a Lifelong Fascination with Nature

NatureTrack gives students the opportunity to learn outdoors, where learning comes alive. But more than that, students receive the health and wellness benefits nature o ers. Students and NatureTrack volunteers return from the trips happier and healthier!

e both know it is vital for our young generation to be out in nature and experience what nature o ers. Seeing the excitement on students’ faces and their reactions to natural discoveries is always a joy. We enjoy being out on the trails and beaches, sharing nature at the moment with future stewards of our natural world.

There’s a new crisis in our midst: kids spending too much time indoors and online. There’s even a name for the condition – Nature Deficit Disorder.

Coined by journalist and author Richard Louv, the need to connect our children with the great outdoors became even more pronounced during and after the pandemic. The average American child today spends less than ten minutes a day in unstructured outdoor play but over seven hours a day in front of a screen, according to Stanford Health News.

According to a 2019 study by Aarhus University, kids who had grown up around the lowest levels of vegetation had up to a 50% higher risk of developing a psychiatric disorder. These children were also at higher risk for mood disorders and substance abuse. Mounting evidence from dozens of researchers shows that nature has benefits for both physical and psychological human well-being.

Kids simply have to get back out into nature.

And that’s exactly what NatureTrack, a Santa Barbara-based nonprofit, does. Founded in 2011 by Sue Eisaguirre, NatureTrack is every school-age child’s invitation to get out into the natural world.

and educational activities while on the trails or beaches. And every field trip, including transportation, is completely free.

“The students are finding out just how FUN nature can be, and at the same time, learning,” Eisaguirre says. “Fostering a fascination with nature is our overarching goal. We’re creating stewards of our natural resources. They’ll want to protect what they now understand and enjoy.”

To date, the nonprofit and its 100 dedicated volunteer docents have taken more than 30,000 students on field trips. And no volunteer, teacher, or student is left behind as NatureTrack also o ers Freedom Trax for wheelchair users or others with mobility disabilities. By attaching Freedom Trax to their manual wheelchair, all types of terrain are now accessible to them. They can traverse beach sand and rocky trails with their classmates, colleagues, and fellow docents.

In addition to field trips for K-12 students, NatureTrack o ers trips for wheelchair users. With Freedom Trax attached to a manual wheelchair, anyone with a mobility disability can access and enjoy natural areas they’ve never before been able to explore. NatureTrack also lends Freedom Trax, at no cost, to individuals and other nonprofits.

The organization takes kindergarten through 12th-grade students on docent-led outdoor field trips ranging from hiking local trails, to spending time in oak woodlands and coastal sage scrub, to exploring beaches and botanical gardens, and other local ecosystems. Direct communication with teachers ensures each field trip will supplement in-classroom learning. NatureTrack docents lead small groups and share their enthusiasm and love of the outdoors as they engage the kids in a variety of fun

“Most of my students have never been on a hike and marveled at all they experienced during their NatureTrack field trip… Without NatureTrack, these students would not get the opportunity to gain new insights and experiences such as these,” says Anna Mudge, a math and science teacher at Maple High School, in a letter she wrote praising NatureTrack to the California Coastal Commission.

NatureTrack is determined to continue nurturing kids by taking them out into nature.

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– Dennis and Carole Nord NatureTrack Volunteers since 2011

(Photo: John Evarts)

NatureTrack provides Freedom Trax at no cost to wheelchair users so they too can enjoy being on trails and beaches, exploring and enjoying nature. If participants cannot use the joystick independently, as seen above, it's easy for someone to walk along and operate it for them.

What We Need...

Transportation costs have increased significantly. In order to keep NatureTrack outdoor field trips cost-free for everyone, we need your help. Every donation you make will help us connect more kids and wheelchair users to nature.

$1,000 – Pays for 15 students to take a field trip (including transportation)

$2,500 – Pays for 35 students to take a field trip (including transportation)

$5,000 – Pays for 70 students to take a field trip (including transportation)

$6,300 – Buys 1 FreedomTrax device PRICELESS – Becoming a NatureTrack volunteer! Join us. We have as much fun as the students!

after year Pacific HR continues to invest in NatureTrack because it is solely dedicated to getting our students outdoors and immersed in nature. Its e ective volunteer docent model means dollars are maximized for life-changing field trips for kids who may otherwise not have access to these transformational opportunities.”

– Christina Nelson, SHRM-SCP President CEO Pacific HR, Inc.

NatureTrack Foundation, Inc. www.naturetrack.org P.O. Box 953 Los Olivos, CA 93441 (805) 886-2047

Contact: Sue Eisaguirre Founder & Executive Director (805) 886-2047 sue@naturetrack.org

Some students have never been to the beach. How can we expect them to be stewards of our natural world if they cannot first experience it, enjoy it, and fall in love with it? NatureTrack provides students the opportunity to immerse themselves in nature during the traditional school day.

“NatureTrack volunteers encourage learners of all ages to open their minds and hearts and explore the wonders of the natural world in their own backyards. Whenever I take a group of students on an outdoor adventure, I am just as excited as they are to explore and discover. I wish every child in Santa Barbara County could have this opportunity. I feel so fortunate to be a part of this extraordinary organization!”

– Jeanne Dixon, NatureTrack Volunteer-Docent

KEY SUPPORTERS

Adams Legacy Foundation Audacious Foundation California Coastal Conservancy Explore the Coast Coastal Ranches Conservancy Coastal Resources Enhancement Fund Craig H. Neilsen Foundation deLaski Family Foundation Herbert and Gertrude Latkin Charitable Foundation

John S. Kiewit Memorial Foundation Natalie Orfalea Foundation and Lou Buglioli Pacific HR, Inc.

Parks California - Route to Parks Santa Ynez Valley Foundation Santa Ynez Valley Youth Recreation Towbes Foundation

The Many Ways to Give...

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 45-3040646

By Credit Card: naturetrack.org/donate

| www.thegivinglist.com |

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Teacher Grants Lead to Student Success

best part about working with Santa Barbara Education Foundation is that they're trying to give access to everybody. So thank you to the donors, thank you to Santa Barbara Education Foundation, and thank you for just making this possible for kids."

There are 12,700 students within the Santa Barbara School District learning across 19 TK-12 schools and supported by a sta of nearly 1,700. When pondering public education, it’s easy to get swept up in the numbers and quantifying success through standard metrics.

The Santa Barbara Education Foundation (SBEF) takes a more holistic approach. It embraces the individuals that hold it all together – parents, teachers, and students.

Founded in 1985, the nonprofit has a singular focus that Executive Director Pedro Paz articulates straightforwardly: “Supporting programs that

enrich the academic, artistic, and personal development of all students in the school district.”

Clear lines of communication are established with the superintendent.

“We, along with the district, try to be the eyes and ears of what’s happening in the district. The superintendent helps SBEF pivot as much as we can,” Paz says.

It is precisely in those pivots that the Santa Barbara Education Foundation has been able to o er academic support, extend music and arts programming, focus on literacy, and o er support in mental health.

As the superintendent helps to ensure SBEF is responding to critical needs of its students and sta , teachers and administrative sta have the closest connection to the students and can act as their advocates. Each year, teacher grants are awarded to o er supplies and tools to engage and enhance the impact of the classroom.

Development O cer Melissa Davenport explains that “teachers are aware of what experiences they could give their students and what they can bring into the classroom.” Without the funding to fulfill the Teacher Grants, needs that have been uniquely identified cannot be fulfilled, and a precious opportunity to engage and enrich students is lost.

– Tracy Womack La Colina Junior High School Teacher

Paz enthusiastically shared the story of a Franklin Elementary School student named Bella and how the Teacher Grant helped her to thrive in the classroom and embrace her sense of self.

Bella’s teacher was awarded a grant to teach Mexican Folklorico dance classes. After signing up for the classes, Bella exhibited confidence that made her shine in the classroom and among her peers.

The program is contingent on three di erent touchstones. The first is asking if the educational outcomes of students enrich their lives in the best possible way. The second is to determine whether the e orts are executed in a manner that is both culturally sensitive and meets the individual needs of students. And finally, are students and teachers better o because of the programming? Without the Teacher Grant, Bella may have remained a shy and quiet student in the classroom struggling to find her voice.

“We are working toward growing the leaders of tomorrow, especially for our community, and that is really the truth of what we do,” Paz says.

"The

One Teacher Grant provided culturally relevant and high-quality music and Folklorico dance instruction during the school day to 50 Franklin Elementary School students in grades 3rd through 5th.

SBEF distributed a record $33,000 in Keep the Beat funds to Santa Barbara Unified music teachers this school year.

We award Teacher Grants annually to support the purchase of much-needed supplies and tools and encourage the development of creative and innovative teaching in the Santa Barbara Unified School District.

What We Need...

Helping Teachers Help Students

The agenda for the 2022/2023 school year is to close the gap and achieve more funding for Teacher Grants while focusing on literacy development and mental health. Despite the $223,000 gap that the Santa Barbara Education Foundation is currently experiencing, their diligence and thoughtfulness bear every single student in mind.

You can help countless students like Bella find their voice.

Santa Barbara Education Foundation

SantaBarbaraEducation.org

1528 Chapala Street, Suite 308 Santa Barbara, CA 93101 (805) 284-9125

Contact: Pedro Paz Executive Director (805) 284-9125 Pedro@SantaBarbaraEducation.org

We o er a variety of summer programs to help students beat summer learning loss and continue learning in a fun and supportive environment. We constantly fundraise for scholarships for these summer programs to ensure all students have access to these unique summer learning opportunities.

have always been impressed with Keep the Beat as it fosters a love of music in children that can last a lifetime. I learned to love music when I was young and wanted to help our young folks experience that same love in their formative years."

KEY SUPPORTERS

Arnesen Family Foundation

Timothy and Louise Casey

Andrew and Mary Jane Cooper

Daniel and Mandy Hochman

Elaine F. Stepanek Foundation

James S. Bower Foundation

John L. Carleton Foundation

Senator Monique Limón

J.M. Lind

Superintendent Dr. Hilda Maldonado

Sara Miller McCune

Mithun Family Foundation

Mosher Foundation

Santa Barbara Foundation

Nick Rail

April Thede Towbes Foundation

– Anne Towbes Music

Education Supporter

Walter J. & Holly O. Thomson Foundation

Wood-Claeyssens Foundation

Zegar Family Foundation

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check:

Santa Barbara Education Foundation

1330 State Street, Suite 201 Santa Barbara, CA 93101

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 77-0071544

By Credit Card: sbefoundation.org/get-involved

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Environment

Our global degradation is already, and will continue to be, humanity’s greatest challenge. These organizations are rising to the challenge with determination and bold solutions.

For the Love of the Channel and the Life Teeming Through It

By Joe Donnelly

It sounds like a question my daughter would ask me: “What’s your favorite whale?”

Still, I couldn’t help myself, after all, Hiroko Benko has seen them all. Well, not quite, as there are around 90 species of cetaceans – whales, dolphins, and porpoises – swimming around the world’s oceans and not all of them can be spotted in the Santa Barbara Channel. But a heckuva lot of them can be, including Blue Whales (the world’s largest creature ever), Grays, Minke, Sperm, Humpback, Killer Whales, and a variety of dol phins. About 27 species traverse the Santa Barbara Channel, migrating between food sources and nurseries along the coast.

Benko’s seen most of them during her decades at the helm of one of the world’s premier whale-watching enterprises, the Condor Express, including a pod of 60 Blue Whales spotted gliding through the waters near Santa Cruz Island a few years back. “That was incredible. Wow,” she says, still in wonder.

Benko says that Killer Whales are “magnificent to look at.” But her favorite, if she had to pick – and she’d prefer not to – are Humpbacks. “They play with you,” she says. “I feel sometimes they are people watching.”

We’re having a midsummer Zoom chat and it says something about the company she keeps that the woman offering ad-hoc IT support for the Zoom-naïve Benko is Toni Frohoff, Ph.D., behavioral biologist and founder of TerraMar Research and POD, the Santa Barbara-based nonprofit Protect Our Dolphin Neighbors. Frohoff gets Benko set up and we diverge briefly into the low weight and high mortality of Gray Whales. “It’s been sad to see such a high mortality rate this year because of a lack of food,” Frohoff says. “We’ve been seeing a lot of anoma lies, and the water temperature is changing.”

Although, with our droughts, fires, and floods, we tend to think of climate change as primarily affecting land-based habi tats, it is, of course, also altering the oceans.

“Hopefully, the environmental laws, despite what’s happen ing politically, will improve,” Frohoff says, before leaving us to fend for ourselves technologically. Before she departs, though, Benko modestly apologizes for not being a biologist. “You don’t need to be a biologist,” Frohoff rejoins. “You’re already support ing so many biologists in the area.” And to me, she adds, “I’m not just saying this because Hiroko’s become my friend. She’s been supporting a lot of research in this area.”

Benko’s primary tool for providing this kind of support, the

Condor Express, has a long tradition of doing just that. It also happens to be at the center of an epic love story with a cosmo politan sweep to it.

It starts with Captain Fred Benko, a Santa Barbara legend of novelistic proportions. Benko was born in Ohio and grew up singing in the church choir and was apparently good enough to handle Handel, as well as belt some Bach. As it does for all Ohioans, football, the Marines, and beer interrupted this boy’s road to Carnegie Hall, though Benko did have a brief stint as a beer-hall busker before the white-collar world of pharmaceuti cal sales sent him down more conventional paths.

One guesses the collar never fit comfortably because Benko quit that life not long after a West Coast sales trip brought him to Santa Barbara. He decided the harbor was where he wanted to be and Benko bought a few boats and started the Channel-based sports fishing and party boat enterprise that eventually became the Condor Express.

(Photo by Stacey J. Byers)

What started with a few boats and the captain’s appreciation for the sea and the creatures in it became SFEA (Sports Fishing Expeditions Adventures) Landing. After setting up shop on the other side of the harbor past the break wall, Benko set about de veloping what he hoped would become the premier sports-fish ing and harbor-cruising party boat. He launched the original Condor, nine months in the making, in 1979.

Benko was as much a naturalist and educator as a fisherman. He was in great demand as a lecturer for his deep knowledge of the Santa Barbara Channel’s marine life, especially the charismat ic creatures that live here: dolphins, whales, sharks, and sea lions.

Though she didn’t grow up a choirboy in landlocked Ohio, Hiroko Benko’s journey to the helm of the Condor Express is just as unlikely. Hiroko hails from Osaka, Japan, and studied international relations in college. A businesswoman whose ca reer had taken her around the world, “the Commodore,” as she would come to be known, had relocated to Los Angeles when she met her future husband while visiting friends in Santa Bar bara. Hiroko and Fred were married in 1985, four months after meeting. Hiroko has lived in Santa Barbara ever since.

By then, whales had started coming back to the Channel in droves, or pods to be more accurate, after seismic oil exploration ceased in the local waters. The Benkos decided to back-burner the sports fishing ventures in favor of what was fast becoming their true passion: sharing the experience of seeing magnificent cetaceans up close. The couple dedicated the Condor to provid ing the West Coast’s first, and best, whale-watching experience. They upgraded the experience for guests, the environment, and the whales in the early 2000s when the Condor Express launched. The 75-foot catamaran was designed in New Zea land and built in Bellingham, Washington, to be fast, powerful, smooth in choppy waters and as easy on the environment as four 740-hp diesel engines could be. The Condor Express can reach the Channel Islands in 45 minutes. Most importantly, though its non-propellor, waterjet engines are safe for marine life.

When Fred Benko died in 2013, Hiroko could have sold the lucrative business and rested on her laurels. Instead, she forged her own identity as “the Commodore” while honoring her late husband’s legacy and the spirit of their partnership. Benko had been mulling about what her future might hold by the time her husband passed at age 73 on March 7, a blow that was quickly followed by another.

“When he was passing away, I was planning, well, when should I retire? What should I do with the boat? Should I keep it or not?” Benko confides. “But once I saw the fire, I had no choice; I had to go ahead, take over. I don’t care how much it costs; I have to do this job.”

Benko is referring to a fire in the wheelhouse of the Condor Express that exploded just days after her husband passed. The fire steeled her resolve. At the helm of the Condor Express operations, Benko, with the support of the entire communi ty, put the boat in drydock for repairs. An improved Condor Express resumed whale-watching tours and party cruises in the harbor just six months after the fire, much sooner than anyone expected.

Benko then took the opportunity provided by COVID shut downs to upgrade the Condor Express to meet the Environ mental Protection Agency’s Tier-3 engine standards well in ad vance of the agency’s deadlines, making it one of the greenest boats in California. “I promised we would be the poster boat for the Clean Air Act,” Benko says.

More recently, Benko has extended the spirit of their whale-watching excursion beyond the wake of the Condor Express and to the area at large as the co-chair of the Santa Barbara Channel Whale Heritage Site. As the co-chair, she is working to get the Channel recognized as a Whale Heritage Site. Currently there are five designated Whale Heritage Sites in the world and Santa Barbara is among a handful of official candidates vying to join the list of sites where marine life and habitats, especially whales and dolphins, are protected and celebrated.

Just getting the Channel accepted as a viable heritage-site candidate has been a more-than-year-long process. Making that grade means the heritage-site program, run by the World Cetacean Alliance and World Animal Protection organizations, recognizes the diversity of cetaceans and quality of marine life here. If the application is accepted, the benefits would extend beyond that recognition to further enhance the area’s stature as a global eco-tourism destination.

The Condor Express’s mission is a key component of the area’s candidacy, as are the Maritime Museum and the San ta Barbara Museum of Natural History. Together, along with the abundance of cetacean life in the Channel, they provide unique educational and experiential opportunities that are hard to find elsewhere.

“I hope he is proud of me from up there,” Benko says, think ing of Captain Fred and how recognition for the Channel as a Whale Heritage Site would, in many ways, be a happy ending to the love story they started writing together decades ago.

Reversing the Threat of the Climate Crisis

ith all of the damage to our neighborhood after the Thomas Fire and Montecito debris flow, I knew I had to get more involved in protecting our region from climate change – for my own children, and for all young people. I chose the Community Environmental Council because they are so e ective in what they do here in the heart of my own community and are such a strong model for the rest of the country.”

– Carolyn Fitzgerald CEC Board of Directors

Our climate is in crisis. Record-setting heat waves. Larger and more destructive wildfires. An historic megadrought, hotter and drier than anything we’ve seen in nearly 1,000 years.

Santa Barbara’s Community Environmental Council (CEC) has long seen this coming and began organizing years ago. Now, the CEC is implementing a vision for the future of Central California and has developed an ambitious plan to combat the crisis, which they’ve broken down into three key components.

Reverse: Pushing for ambitious, zero carbon emissions and ensuring that the Central Coast has the tools to reach them.

Repair: Tapping the power of regenerative agriculture and nature-based solutions to

remove excess carbon from the atmosphere.

Protect: Deploying bold community-led actions to protect vulnerable populations facing drastic climate change.

“Since the beginning of 2021, we have been working to implement a very ambitious strategic plan around climate change,” says Sigrid Wright, CEC’s CEO. “It calls for us to double down and do twice as much twice as fast.”

Because our region has a vital agricultural economy, a key component of CEC’s vision is ensuring that this important sector’s major players – farms, ranches, orchards, and vineyards – are part of the e ort.

“They are on the front lines of climate change and must be part of the solution,” Wright explains.

Whether it’s bringing the agricultural

sector on board with carbon sequestering initiatives that could eliminate 100 percent of the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions or helping to implement strategies to improve the soil’s capacity to retain water, CEC and its Central Coast partners are making specific and measurable advances in fighting climate change.

CEC has also helped mobilize inclusive community campaigns – through partnerships in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties – to rapidly replace destructive fossil fuels with renewable green technologies that resist extreme heat, wildfires, and other natural disasters. Additionally, CEC is the only nonprofit on the Central Coast partnering with the University of California’s Climate Stewards program to deliver a 40-hour certification course to train environmental leaders from every walk of life in every community.

“Through our Climate Stewards program, and all of the strategies we are deploying, we are working to bring local practices to scale, so that the work to protect our region from climate change can have an even bigger impact,” says Kathi King, Montecito resident and CEC Director of Climate Education and Leadership. “We must do everything we can to address the problem now. By working together, we can address the climate crisis with solutions that preserve our region for generations to come.”

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What We Need...

Reverse, Repair, Protect. Saving the Central Coast and Our Planet.

The Community Environmental Council (CEC) must raise $15 million to fund its Protect Our Climate: Reverse, Repair, Protect campaign, the nonprofit’s ambitious plan to halt the climate crisis. As of late in 2022, CEC had raised $11.7 million, and all gifts will be matched by the John C. Mithun Foundation, up to $100,000. Funding will propel CEC’s work in several key areas, as well as establish an 8,000-square-foot Environmental Hub on Santa Barbara’s State Street – a living laboratory for people from all walks of life to design equitable climate solutions and put nature’s solutions to work.

“The Hub will fill a much-needed gap for a gathering space for the social sector, and will feature the Conklin Community Room, a flexible-use conference room. It also includes a professional webinar studio, small meeting rooms, “hot desk” rentals, and use for after-hours events such as film screenings, lectures, and receptions,” says Sigrid Wright, CEC’s CEO. “Our intention is that people from across the region who share the mission of protecting the Central Coast can have a place to design the future together.”

The Community Environmental Council has pioneered environmental solutions on California’s Central Coast for more than 50 years. Our work advances rapid and equitable solutions to the climate crisis: reversing climate change, repairing the damage, and protecting local communities from extreme weather e ects. To fuel our work, CEC launched a $15M campaign to do twice as much, twice as fast. Together, we can solve this. Join us.

Community Environmental Council cecsb.org P.O. Box 90660 Santa Barbara, CA 93190 (805) 963-0583

Contact: Nicole Eads Director of Development (805) 730-0768 nicole.eads@cecmail.org

EC helped me understand the basics and the complexities of climate change, and how to take steps in my life to make positive changes. I also gained a deeper understanding of how to strategically bring environmental sustainability into my work to help clients be successful.”

– Lisa Murphy Rivas Principal, LMR Consulting, Inc. Alumna, CEC’s UC Climate Stewards

KEY SUPPORTERS

Campaign Leadership Donors

Mary Becker

Diane Boss

James S. Bower Foundation

Sheila & Tom Cullen

Katie Davis

Emily, Dan, Casey & Willow Engel

G. A. Fowler Family Foundation

Nancy & Karl Hutterer

Karen & John Jostes

Jean Kaplan

Charles D. (Kim) Kimbell

Dorothy Largay & Wayne Rosing

John C. Mithun Foundation

Betsy & Charles Newman

Natalie Orfalea Foundation

Hutton Parker Foundation

Paul Relis

Sea Forward Fund

Judy & Jack Stapelmann

Michel Saint-Sulpice

Suzanne & John Steed

Leslie Sweem Bhutani & Ashish Bhutani

Sally Warner-Arnett & G. William Arnett

Elizabeth Weber

Zegar Family Foundation

Anonymous

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check: Community Environmental Council

P.O. Box 90660 Santa Barbara, CA 93190

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 94-1728064

By Credit Card: cecsb.org/donate

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School Gardens Help Children Grow

It’s a typical school day and time for an Explore Ecology garden class. Children line up to head outside. When they enter the garden, their excitement is palpable. Students notice that the flowers they planted from seed are now being visited by butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. They harvest ripe fruits and vegetables and try new foods like kale, parsley, and passion fruit. When the compost bin is opened, there is always a collective gasp of wonder as students see firsthand the bustling world inside. In school gardens, science comes alive!

Approximately 14,000 elementary and junior high school students benefit from this program that brings students outside into nature as part of their school day. Explore Ecology School Gardens are found in over 30 schools throughout the county. Trained Explore Ecology Garden Educators guide eager young learners through the processes of planting, composting, and maintaining an organic garden. Students have so much fun outside, they hardly even know they’re practicing their skills in math, science, and language arts.

Produce is harvested regularly and provides students opportunities to taste new food that they grow themselves. Extra produce goes to the cafeteria and occasionally to the school community.

“Time in the garden is many students’ favorite part of their day,” says Lindsay John-

Explore Ecology’s large-scale worm bins installed at nine schools decompose approximately 54,000 pounds of food scraps and green waste into compost each year. If the number of bins were doubled at school sites, this could result in nearly 108,000 lbs of organics being diverted from landfi lls to help California reach its goal of 75% reduction by 2025. Please donate to support additional worm bins on more school campuses.

son, Explore Ecology’s Executive Director. “When I visit school gardens I’m reminded of the importance of our work and instantly have renewed hope for the future of our children and the planet. The garden o ers common ground for children to connect with each other while exploring the natural environment and allowing their imaginations to soar!”

e love that kids can learn where their food comes from, and how to improve soil quality and make compost. Explore Ecology has been a champion in installing compost bins on school campuses and growing students’ interest in composting. Worms are fascinating for little ones to watch and touch!”

Students learn about the decomposition cycle, plant nutrients, and soil fertility while making compost.

Closed-loop systems like vermicomposting, also known as worm composting, are an important part of the program. Green waste and food scraps from the cafeteria and garden are fed to worms and other decomposers and transformed into a rich soil amendment, which is returned to the garden beds to grow nutritious food. These large-scale vermicompost bins reduce waste that would otherwise end up in the landfill and are a valuable teaching tool for experiential learning.

Catherine Brozowski Executive Director, Audacious Foundation

Explore Ecology is a leading environmental education nonprofit in Santa Barbara County, providing a wide array of programs to over 40,000 children and adults annually. Programs include the Art From Scrap Creative Reuse Store, Environmental Education, the Watershed Resource Center at Arroyo Burro Beach, and the School Gardens Program.

Extra produce grown in the gardens is often sold at on-campus farmers markets or distributed to school families.

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–

MATCHING CHALLENGE!

Through December 31, 2023, the first $5,000 donated will be matched thanks to a generous challenge grant from Mission Wealth

Children feel a sense of pride and accomplishment when they harvest the plants they've grown. They also enjoy tasting the fruits (and veggies) of their labor.

In Garden Class, children get exercise, put their hands in the soil, and experience firsthand what they learn in the classroom.

our youth with knowledge to make improved sustainable choices is a critical need considering our planet’s climate change crisis. Explore Ecology has proven their ability to deliver impactful education programs to children and their families in our county. Mission Wealth is happy to provide this matching grant to encourage others in the Santa Barbara community to join us in supporting Explore Ecology’s gardens and food waste reduction education programs."

Support School Gardens in Santa Barbara County

You can help Explore Ecology bring garden education and vermicompost bins to schools in Santa Barbara County. California is now requiring all municipalities to reduce organic waste going to landfills by 75% by the year 2025. To help accomplish this goal, Explore Ecology has installed and manages large-scale worm composting bins at nine school gardens. These bins measure 5’ x 10’ and are capable of handling 30 to 50 gallons of green waste per week.

Please help us meet our $80,000 fundraising goal to provide garden education and additional composting systems to more schools. Your support makes it possible for children to continue to learn and grow in healthy school gardens.

KEY SUPPORTERS

American Riviera Bank

Audacious Foundation

Cottage Children's Hospital

Deckers Brands

Garden Club of Santa Barbara

Christine Green Hutton Parker Foundation

Johnson Ohana Foundation

Janet Loughlin

Mission Wealth

Tracy Mongold

Montecito Bank & Trust

Explore Ecology

ExploreEcology.org

302 East Cota Street

Santa Barbara, CA 93101 (805) 884-0459

Contact Melissa Brooks Development and Finance Director (805) 884-0459 x3

Melissa@ExploreEcology.org

– Jane and Paul Orfalea Audacious Foundation

Michel Saint-Sulpice

NOAA

Sansum Clinic

Santa Barbara Foundation

SB County O ce of Arts and Culture/City of SB Towbes Foundation

UCSB Coastal Fund

Union Bank

Tisha Weber-Ford Village Properties

Williams-Corbett Foundation

The Many Ways to Give...

To make a donation by check:

Explore Ecology, 302 East Cota Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101

Or online at: www. exploreecology.org/donate

“School garden activities inspire kids to adopt better nutrition at school and at home. Students pass on what they've learned to the entire family, so it's really a double benefit.”

"Empowering

– Seth Streeter Founder / Chief Impact O cer, Mission Wealth

Lotusland: An Oasis of Rare Plant Life

Since opening to the public in 1993, Ganna Walska Lo tusland has grown to become one of the world’s premier botanical gardens and a center for horticultural educa tion, sustainable garden practices, and plant conservation. Our vision is to preserve and protect the spectacular property and bring the Garden to its next era.

Nestled on a 37-acre Montecito estate, Lotusland is a Botanical Garden par adise purchased in 1941 by Madame Ganna Walska, a Polish opera singer, owner of a Parisian theater, and a generous philan thropist, both internationally and locally. Gan na Walska’s dramatic vision and adoration for her garden and devotion to the land makes Lotusland a reliquary of stunning eccentric ity. Her desire to obtain rare flora resulted in curating 20 gardens containing 3,400 plants and more than 35,000 specimens. By the early 1970s, Madame Ganna Walska had cultivated one of the most significant Cycad collections in the country, yet today 40% of those trea sured species face extinction.

While she passed away in 1984, it took nearly ten years for the garden’s stewards to share her accomplished legacy with the public as she intended. In 1993, the County of Santa Barbara permitted Lotusland to open to the public.

We seek to build an enduring Garden, through resto ration and revival of existing buildings, improvements to visitor experience, preservation of the living and non-living collections, and by ensuring a sustainable environmental center of excellence and a secure financial future.

Rebecca Anderson, Executive Director, describes Lotusland as “the most private, public garden anywhere. We are motivated and driven for the purposes of education and enjoyment, in addition to research and conservation.”

A member of the Museums for All initiative, Lotusland supports this access program of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), administered by the Association of Children’s Museums (ACM). The program supports those receiving food assistance (CalFresh/SNAP) benefits by offering admission for $3 per person. Museums for All is part of Lotusland’s commitment to seek, include, and welcome all audiences.

“The driver of our strategic goals is to sustain and invest in the garden to ensure it is here for future generations,” Anderson says.

Lotusland has demonstrated painstaking maintenance to preserve the 100-year-old property while implementing sustainability practices. The Garden celebrates 30 years

By the early 1970s, Madame Walska had amassed one of the greatest cycad collections in the country. Today, Lotusland is successfully engaged in the critical work of protecting threatened and endangered species of plants from around the world and saving them from extinction.

ne of my favorite places in Santa Barbara is Lotusland. I am passionate about good design and love the leg endary Lotusland for its extraordinary creativity and endless inspiration."

– Caroline Thompson Lotusland Trustee, Owner of Cabana Home

as a public garden by demonstrating and fostering environmental stewardship, launching new programs to promote wellbeing, and continuing its commitment to educate and inspire.

"O

What We Need...

Help Preserve a Montecito and World Treasure

With Cycads threatened globally, Lotusland is squarely focused on renovating its renowned Cycad Garden and preserving its stunning specimens. Lotusland has had tremendous success in the management of threatened Cycad species. The Cycad Garden recently experienced an Armillaria flare-up and has begun the large undertaking of fungus eradication. This is an extensive project, requiring the removal of plants, triaging diseased specimens, excavating all host material, adding subterranean and surface drainage systems, replacing the soil, and creating new planter beds for improved environmental conditions. This project includes renovating pathways, improving accessibility, and securing plant health within the Cycad Collection for many years to come. When complete, Lotusland Curators will be able to be secure in their work to advance scientific methods to ensure the legacy of these species. The anticipated cost for the remainder of the work in this internationally significant garden is $300,000. Lotusland is at the front line of a worldwide scientific community to save these rarest of plants.

Your support helps to advance and accelerate this critical work, and ensure Lotusland’s participation, prominence, and impact in the global conservation community.

“We are not only a historic site and a legacy garden,” Anderson says, “we are at the forefront of sustainable horticulture. This is an exciting moment where historic preservation and conservation works are paramount, and at the same time, we are innovating to use Lotusland as a center to model both horticultural and sustainability excellence.”

Help keep this century-old Montecito jewel gleaming for many years to come.

As we look towards the Garden’s 30th Anniversary and beyond, our vision is not only to preserve and protect the spectacular legacy left by Madame Ganna Walska, but also to bring the Garden to its next level.

Lotusland is engaged in the critical work of protecting threatened and endangered species of plants from around the world and saving them from extinction. Among those plants are cycads, some of the most threatened plants on the planet. The cycad collection at Lotusland, containing over 450 specimens, is the most important plant collection at Lotusland, and is recognized nationally and is of global importance. Beneath this important collection at Lotusland is a naturally occurring fungus called Armillaria or oak root fungus. This organism colonizes the roots and the base of a variety of trees and shrubs and eventually kills them. When the remediation efforts are complete, Lotusland Curators will be able to be secure in their work to advance scientific methods to ensure the legacy of these species.

"Madame Ganna Walska has planted seeds of imagination, beauty, spirituality, and growth. I choose to honor my mother and father's legacies through supporting Lotusland."

– Belle Hahn

Former Trustee & Honorary Chairwoman

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

David M. Jones, President Mari Mitchel, Vice President Lesley Cunningham, Immediate Past President Ashley Adelson

Jeanne Anderson

Daniel Bifano

Laura M. Bridley Merryl Brown Ron Caird

Geoff Crane Rachael Douglas

The Many Ways to Give...

Connie Flowers Pearcy Anthony Grumbine Joseph Marek

Jeffrey Romano

Stephen P. Schaible Mark Schmidt

Wendy Schmidt

Caroline Thompson

Rick Vitelle

Lisa Bjornson Wolf Crystal Wyatt

Ganna Walksa Loutsland www.lotusland.org

695 Ashley Road Santa Barbara, CA 93108 (805) 969-3767

Contact: Patricia Sadeghian Director of Development (805) 969.3767 x125 psadeghian@lotusland.org

By Check: Ganna Walksa Lotusland

695 Ashley Road Santa Barbara, CA 93018

| www.thegivinglist.com |

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 23-7082550

By Credit Card: www.lotusland.org

Together We Can Make Oceans of Difference

This year, with more than 11 billion snow crabs disappearing from the sea floor, the Alaskan snow crab fishing season was canceled for the first time ever. In Florida, manatees are dying off by the hundreds due to starvation.

Kimberly Ray, a marine biologist and the CEO and founder of Marine Conservation Network, sees similar things happening all over the world.

“We all need to think about a different way of doing things because it’s not like it was hundreds of years ago when there was plenty of every thing in the sea,” Ray says. “There are almost eight billion people in the world now and we need to find a better way. We need to preserve the ocean and what it provides for everybody.”

This perilous situation is why Ray started Marine Conservation Network seven years ago. The Santa Barbara nonprofit’s mission is to sup port healthy oceans and marine life by bringing marine science to the public through education

and advocacy programs. As a conservationist, she had noticed a disconnect between what sci entists knew was happening in the oceans and what the public understood.

The Marine Conservation Network assists scientists and educates the public to create a movement for change through social media outreach and education, marine animal rescue efforts, and ocean monitoring. In coastal Cali fornia, the network monitors whale strikes and sea kelp, assists with sea lion rescues, and coor dinates with scientific organizations and aquar iums to inform the public on critical issues. This year, the organization has expanded its pres ence to communities in Tampa, Florida – where manatees are threatened – as well as Sri Lanka, Canada, and Italy.

Their rigorous Youth Ambassador program offers marine education and conservation courses, and helps with diving licenses and tu ition for college to train the next generation of conservationists and environmental scientists.

"We are all connected to the ocean. Without healthy oceans, no life, not even on land, can exist. To me the foundation of all life is in the ocean. MCN is bringing that message to all of us."

– Jean-Michel Cousteau

Alosha Samaraarachchi, an 11-year-old Youth Ambassador in Sri Lanka, has already written a published research paper, given a TEDx talk about ocean predators, and is on her way to be coming a marine scientist.

“If we don’t start taking care of the ocean, be ing responsible and only taking what we need, we’re not going to have anything left,” Ray says. “There’s more than enough food and resources to provide for everyone on earth, if it is done in a responsible manner.”

(photo by Charles Ray)

Kimberly Ray and Jean-Michel Cousteau at the Santa Barbara Library Lecture series

MCN’s CEO Kimberly Ray aboard the vessel Cecelia as an 8’ great white shark was rescued, along with NOAA and Shark Lab marine biologists.

"It is a pleasure to be connected to Ma rine Conservation Network. Kimberly first reached out to The Marine Diaries on Facebook, and wanted to collaborate. I was excited to be asked to do a video interview and it was actually one of the first video in terviews I had done. Since then I have been featured in webinars (including one with MCN), conferences, live discussions on social media, and spoken to schools and at in-person events. The first chat with MCN definitely helped me on this journey and I can't thank Kimberly enough. Her work is so important and vital for our oceans."

– Rebecca Daniel Director and Co-Founder ofThe Marine Diaries

What We Need...

Inspiring Our Youth to Save Our Waters

Join in the effort to save ocean ecosystems in peril. The Marine Conservation Network is building a movement for change through outreach and education, marine animal rescue efforts, and ocean mon itoring. The Marine Conservation Network is bridging scientific knowl edge and public perception.

Their rigorous Youth Ambassador program is inspiring the next generation of marine scientists around the world, helping them learn, get their diving licenses, and earn scholarships for school.The Conservation Network needs $500,000 and donations of scuba equipment, educational materials, and vehicles to continue their work and get the message out that we must find a better way before our ocean ecosystems and the communities that rely on them are lost.

From the Alaskan snow crab harvest being cancelled, to toxic algal red tide blooms sickening sea lions, to increasing whale and dolphin boat strikes off of our coastal waters and over fishing, all our efforts to repair and rejuvenate a healthy ocean sometimes falls on deaf ears. More than 50% of the population of the Earth rely on a healthy ocean harvest to sustain them, yet apathy and lack of education among most adults contribute to the plight of marine life. That's why we are planting seeds of conservation in the minds of our youth to carry on the mission of global education and marine conservation. We need them now as much as they need us.

Marine mammal volunteers and educators at the Bacara Resort in Santa Barbara with Kimberly Ray.

KEY SUPPORTERS

NOAA WFCRC Ocean Futures Friend of the Sea IMAREST

El Porto Shark Shark Bitten Tikkun Ha Yam

Marine Conservation Network

Marineconservationnet.org 224 Barranca Avenue, Ste 6 Santa Barbara, CA 93109 (805) 722-8524

Contact: Charles Ray Compliance Officer and CFO (805) 699-0215 CFOMCNRAY@gmail.com

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check: Marine Conservation Network 224 Barranca Avenue, Ste 6 Santa Barbara, CA 93109

| www.thegivinglist.com |

Jean-Michel Cousteau

Julie Packard

Matt Bille

Victor Ferguson

Mario Passoni

Rebecca Daniel Rabbi Ed Rosenthal Boris Davidov

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 30-1254196

By Credit Card: marineconservationnet.org/donate

MCN Youth Ambassador Alosha Sama raarachchi in Sri Lanka giving a TEDx talk on marine life.

A Living Laboratory for Regenerative Agriculture

White Bu alo Land Trust has a vital purpose: to restore the ecosystem through agriculture and in the process directly address the climate, biodiversity, public health, and food security challenges we face today. It’s not a pipe dream for the Santa Barbara-based nonprofit as the trust has created the Center for Regenerative Agriculture at its 1,000-acre Jalama Canyon Ranch, a site 10 miles south of Lompoc that is serving as proof positive for the practices right here in our own backyard.

The ranch is perfectly suited for this reimagining of agriculture as Jalama possesses all five of the primary ecological sites of Mediterranean climates: Grasslands, Oak Woodlands, Vineyards & Orchards, Sage Scrub, and Riparian Corridors.

“We’re in a unique position with the opportunity to steward this 1,000-acre ranch,” says Founder and President Steve Finkel. “It’s truly a living laboratory that allows us to engage with each ecological site to grow food, fiber, and more in ways that create positive ecological

outcomes. Our work supports climate, human, and soil health while bringing the bounty of the land into the marketplace.”

White Bu alo employs innovative monitoring and data collection systems to quantify its impacts and support research through its university partners including UCSB and Cal Tech. In turn, it shares the knowledge through diverse education and training programs to raise the ecological literacy of the whole community.

The need for bold ideas and impactful change in agriculture is critical. According to NOAA, the Coastal Curve from Santa Barbara through Los Angeles to the Mexican border is warming at double the rate of the continental U.S. Transitioning to Regenerative Agriculture o ers solutions to climate change and builds more resilient and healthier communities.

Even though Jalama has only been operational for 18 months, White Bu alo has already trained 125 farmers and ranchers in regenerative principles and food grown at the ranch is making its way to the marketplace.

“We are just scratching the surface of

"I have been deeply inspired by the White Bu alo team and their approach to regenerative agriculture; it has given me new hope that this generation can redesign our food systems to be a restorative force for people and planet. Manitou Fund is proud to support the Center for Regenerative Agriculture at Jalama Canyon Ranch. Building regional resilience has never been more important and Manitou is thrilled to be part of this transformation at the leading edge with White Bu alo Land Trust."

– Nora McNeely Hurley Manitou Fund

what’s possible,” says Finkel. “Every day, every growing season, we better understand the relationships between agriculture and ecology, refining our ability to accelerate ecological restoration through agriculture. We’re just getting started!”

What We Need...

A Global Imperative with a Local Solution

White Bu alo Land Trust is currently seeking $1.5 million to endow the Director of Land Stewardship position in perpetuity; a position of leadership catalyzing the adoption of regenerative agriculture locally, regionally, and globally.

Contributors can rest assured that those dollars are spent responsibly. “The enterprise part of our organization puts us in an equally competitive environment as any for-profit entity, as part of our mission to demonstrate regenerative agriculture as the new business as usual,” says Finkel, a former investment manager. “We treat the philanthropic dollars that we receive as investments and we take an incredible amount of pride in how we steward those donations. We seek to provide a capital return on every donation, whether it’s ecological, intellectual, or financial.”

• 24% of all greenhouse gas emissions come from

current food, agriculture, and land use sectors.

White Bu alo Land Trust www.whitebu alolandtrust.org PO Box 5100 Santa Barbara, CA 93150

Contact: Ana Smith, Director of Programs (805) 637-5497 ana@whitebu alolandtrust.org

White Buffalo Land Trust was founded in honor of the life, work, and love of Lyndsey McMorrow. Her passion for the well-being of people, communities, and planet continues to inspire our work and is an invitation for everyone to participate in the regeneration and healing of the Earth, and the heart.

“This is a life-changing training course for those interested in improving the ecological outcomes of our planet through regenerative agriculture!

I am grateful for the opportunity to learn in such an inspiring setting with a supportive community of practitioners. This course is revolutionary in restoring our environment and also restoring ourselves so that we can e ectively restore the environment.”

– Holistic Management Training Course Student

KEY SUPPORTERS

Manitou Fund

Roberto Foundation

WOKA Foundation

JS Bower Foundation

GA Fowler Family Foundation

TomKat Education Foundation

Coyuchi Philanthropy Fund

Dancing Tides Foundation

Natalie Orfalea Foundation

Brownstein, Farber, Hyatt, Schreck

McMorrow Family Foundation

Santa Barbara Foundation

Zegar Family Fund

Gardner Grout Foundation

Saxon Family Fund

Williams Corbett Foundation

Cienega Capital

Land Trust for Santa Barbara County

Gaviota Coast Conservancy

Santa Barbara Food Action Network

CA Dept of Agriculture

US Dept of Agriculture

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check:

White Bu alo Land Trust

PO Box 5100

Santa Barbara, CA 93150

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 82-4562776

By Credit Card: whitebu alolandtrust.org/donate

• 70% of U.S. farmland is expected to change hands over the next 20 years

our

The time to act is now to ensure that we transition to regenerative agriculture in one generation.

Family Well-Being

Families are the foundational pillar of a stable and compassionate society. But here in this country, the bonds that tie families together are frayed and in need of leaders willing to provide support and services – small and large – that can ensure their well-being.

“Discovering that the two incredible experiences I had with my children have a name (Shared Death Experiences), are being rigorously studied, and have been published in medical journals, has changed the trajectory of my grief. I wouldn’t wish the loss of two children on anyone, but I would wish the profound knowledge that SDEs exist and happen frequently on EVERYONE. They have changed everything I thought I knew about end of life and grief.”

- MICHELLE J., Environmental Scientist

Accompanying Loved Ones through End of Life… and Beyond

by Guillaume Doane

William Peters has spent nearly all of his adult life preoccupied with the mysteries of death and the transition into the afterlife. As the founder of the Shared Crossing Project and Shared Crossing Research Initiative, he has spearheaded the accumulation of more than 1,000 testimonials of pre-death dreams and visions, and post-mortem communications. He is the best-selling author of At Heaven’s Door, recently published by Simon & Schuster.

Since 2013, Peters and his research team have also chronicled a phenomenon known as the “shared death experience,” in which loved ones accompany the dying on their passage from life to an apparent afterlife. His team has

published in multiple academic and medical journals, including the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, on shared death experiences.

Peters, a grief and bereavement psychotherapist who holds degrees from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and UC Berkeley, founded the Shared Crossing Project to educate people in new and meaningful ways to interpret, understand, and experience death and dying. In the process, he has emerged as a unique authority on end-oflife experiences.

Many people have profound spiritual experiences at a loved one’s end of life and accompany them for a brief time beyond life.

ey receive messages and direct experiences of their loved ones. “It’s been a lot of work collecting thousands of cases and documenting the undeniable patterns,” Peters says. “ e research initiative has brought respectability, rigor, reason, and pragmatism to the study of end of life. If you read the research, it is di cult not to believe these unsuspecting people who unknowingly t into a common experience that is known as the Shared Death Experience, and that speaks to a beautiful afterlife.”

Peters spoke to me virtually from his home in Santa Barbara, where he has lived since 2009. As he began to tell me about this rst near-death experience, I sensed he was already challenging my own notions about death and what occurs beyond.

It happened when Peters was 17 on a ski trip near Lake Tahoe. e back of his skis had gotten crossed and he tumbled hard into a mound of snow, crunching his lower back. He immediately felt as if his sense perceptions had

necdotal evidence suggests that some loved ones and caregivers of dying patients undergo a type of end-oflife phenomena known as a shared death experience or SDE, whereby one feels that one has participated in a dying person’s transition to a post-mortem existence. Anecdotal evidence also suggests that SDEs can have a range of profound psychospiritual-emotional e ects.”

– Shared Death Experiences: A Little-Known Type of End-of-Life Phenomena Reported by Caregivers and Loved Ones*

*Published in the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, April 5, 2021

gone dark, like the electricity had been cut, “but I still had an observing self.”

Moments later, he could feel himself levitating and staring down at his motionless body in the snow and the limitless universe beyond it.

“As I was moving away, I was enthralled by a satellite view of planet Earth and then a beautiful galaxy,” Peters recalls. “All of a sudden, I was watching a review of my life and I recognized that everything I’ve ever done in my previous 17 years, every action I ever took, mattered. And then I went into this ribbed tunnel and realized that I was dying. I started pleading with God. I didn’t want to die.”

Peters, who grew up Catholic, then heard the “loving but very rm” voice of God compelling him to “make something of your life.” When he came to his senses, he managed to get on his feet and ski down the mountain. He would later learn that he had fractured his spine and was a fraction of an inch away from being paralyzed for life. e experience was

enough to cultivate a lifelong fascination with death and dying.

roughout his training as a psychotherapist, Peters learned of and shared many more spiritual or out-of-body experiences with hospice patients, nurses, and family members of the dying. ey catalyzed his understanding that he could make a contribution to our collective understanding of the nature of life, and death and dying. He would eventually coin the term “shared crossing,” which refers to experiences that suggest loving communication across the veil and ongoing connection with departed loved ones.

Later in 2013, he founded the Shared Crossing Research Initiative as a not-for-pro t collaboration with the Family erapy Institute of Santa Barbara. e mission is to research end-of-life experiences and their therapeutic value for patients, their families, loved ones, and caregivers. is work then supports the development of educational trainings for the public, healthcare professionals, and others

SCAN TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SHARED CROSSING RESEARCH INITIATIVE

William Peters, M.A., M.Ed., MFT

Founder info@sharedcrossing.com www.sharedcrossing.com (805) 724-4947

111 East Arrellaga Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101 Tax ID# 95-3531862

The Shared Crossing Research Initiative is fiscally-sponsored by the Family Therapy Institute of Santa Barbara

working in end-of-life. ese programs o er life-changing insights that awaken people to what matters most and prepares them for a conscious, connected, and loving end of life. By contributing to the Research Initiative, donors will be investing in this ground-breaking work that transforms personal, familial, and societal relationships to the mysteries of end-of-life.

“Everyone wants to know what happens after they die,” Peters says. “ at is the number one question people face at the end of life. Our work demonstrates that shared death and end-of-life experiences strongly suggest that our loved ones survive death. is awareness avails us to continue meaningful relationships with them alongside a knowing that we will be reunited again.”

“A

A Century of Helping the Most Underserved

Marialena, 73, suffered an incredible loss when her husband passed away several years ago. She spoke little English, had little money, no family living nearby, and was increasingly worried about her declining health when she called the intake line for Santa Barba ra County’s Family Service Agency. She wanted to know if they could help her secure financial assistance to pay for her medical needs.

Founded in 1899, Family Service Agency (FSA) is Santa Barbara County’s oldest nonsectarian private social welfare organization and has more than a century of experience helping the region’s most underserved children, families, and seniors. FSA’s mission is to ensure access to food, shelter, and other basic needs as well as provide case management, advocacy, and mental health programs.

The agency quickly discovered that Marialena was not eating properly, in part because she experienced acute anxiety every time she went out in public. FSA immediately arranged for home-delivered meals and grocery delivery.

FSA also assisted Marialena in making an appointment for a health screening, and following that, arranged for her to receive counseling to help with her crippling anxiety.

“What we have seen is a lot of families that have been destabilized due to COVID, with family members losing employment, getting sick, or worse and now we are seeing inflation and rising prices for food and other necessities,” says Lisa Brabo, FSA’s CEO. “We meet with the families and talking through what they are experiencing so we can help them put together an action plan to meet those needs.

As we develop a relationship over time, they gain more trust with us, and we learn more about their needs.”

That’s what happened when FSA began working with Laura, a single mom with three children ages 10, 15, and 17. Faced with a sudden eviction from their one-bedroom apartment, the family was referred to the organization’s Family Support Services program (FSS). The program discovers what barriers parents

are experiencing and connects them to the resources they need to thrive.

“Our FSS advocate quickly worked with Laura to obtain a hotel for the family for three nights and coordinated with Transition House for them to temporarily enter the family shelter,” Brabo says.

As the FSS advocate continued to work with Laura’s family, she became aware of additional barriers that they needed to work through in order for Laura to retain consistent employment.

“The advocate provided basic needs support for the family including gift cards for food, hygiene supplies, family meals, and school supplies,” Brabo says, adding that the family has also obtained medical insurance, rental assistance, and is on a waitlist for long-term, affordable housing.

Family Service Agency is committed to providing services where they are critically needed: in the community, for the people who need them most.

Family Service Agency takes a holistic approach to helping families and individuals, like Marialena, by providing wrap-around services that address both basic needs and mental health.

FSA's Family Advocates empower parents to identify the challenges they are experiencing and access the resources they need to thrive.

FSA nurtures youth resilience through behavioral health coun seling, mentorship, and advocacy.

What We Need...

FSA cultivates strong families through case management, parent education, and referrals to community resources.

FSA supports seniors and their caregivers with mental health coun seling, elder abuse prevention, and case management services.

"Thank you for all of your help. It has really made a difference for my family. My children now see a mother who has hope."

Help Serve More Families In Need, Faster

Family Service Agency has a long tradition of helping low-income people across Santa Barbara County receive the help they need in times of crisis. It’s a holistic approach that provides the wrap-around care each individual needs in order to become self-reliant, a mission that’s importance has become even more pronounced in the past few years.

But with inflation on the rise, FSA and the Santa Barbara County residents it serves need help.

“Where we are really lacking is having enough flexible funding for basic needs,” Lisa Brabo, FSA’s CEO says. “We’re doing our best to serve as many families as we can, but that’s where we really need help.”

Family Service Agency fsacares.org

123 W. Gutierrez Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101 (805) 965-1001

Contact: Paul Katan Director of Development (805) 965.1001 x 1255 pkatan@fsacares.org

– Single mother of two children Client

"F SA has always found a way to help those in need, expand ing the depth of its programs when necessary. It is truly an asset to our community."

– Marni Cooney Board member

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Molly Carrillo-Walker, Co-President Tricia Price, Co-President Rod Durham, Co-VP of Programs Edward Tran, Co-VP of Programs Maria McCall, VP of Development Robert Janeway, Co-Treasurer Linda Sessler, Co-Treasurer Teressa Johnes, Secretary

BOARD MEMBERS

Mario Barfield, Psy.D. Arianna Castellanos

Paul Cordeiro

Marni Cooney

Robin Doell Sawaske

Ed Galanski

Patty Herrera

Blanca Mejia, J.D.

Alexander Murkison

Paul Van Meel

Ryan Zick, J.D.

Terri Zuniga

HONORARY DIRECTOR

Shirley Ann

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check:

Family Service Agency of Santa Barbara County

123 West Gutierrez Street

Santa Barbara CA 93101

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 95-1644031

By Credit Card: fsacares.org/supportus

Strengthening and advocating for families and individuals of all ages and diversities.

HOSPICE

OF SANTA BARBARA

“Littles” and “Middles” Need Special Care when Going through Grief

ospice of Santa Barbara is one of our most important community

organization with

heart. Increasingly,

come to recognize the vital need for mental health services in our community. More than ever, we need to support the counseling services provided by Hospice of Santa Barbara. The current need is astoundingly great. Frankly, we need about 10 more of you. At the very least, we need to support the organization so that you can continue to grow the population you serve.”

Many people think of “hospice” purely as end-of-life medical care. In fact, hospice care is so much more. Hospice of Santa Barbara (HSB) provides the emotional, social, and spiritual care so necessary for survivors as well as the dying. Fear of loss, uncomfortable feelings of loss, and grief itself are not easy to deal with, much less talk about. It’s hard enough for adults to process the changes they must face when a loved one receives a terminal diagnosis and passes on. Initially, friends and family o er sympathy and cooked meals; then they drift o because life goes on. It normalizes.

But for children, there is no normal again; their world has changed forever when losing a member of the family or a friend. Hospice of Santa Barbara becomes a lifeline through its school outreach and one-on-one counseling programs. That connection made concrete through HSB counselors is key, especially for young children, who may seem to accept their loss until something triggers a memory or a feeling, and they’re thrown right back into profound grief.

The beauty of HSB lies in its therapeutic approach to the process of grieving. Charles Caldwell, Director of Strategic Advancement, describes it as “the transformative power of relationships. It is all about compassionate expression – the healing that can take place when walking together, side by side, hand in hand, all the way through the grief process, as long as it may take.” In this spirit, our children from Carpinteria to Santa Ynez can benefit from one-on-one and support group counseling. Each year, about 400 children and teens receive HSB services when experiencing the impending loss or death of a family member, the suicide of a friend, or a disaster that a ects an entire community.

Often those most in need are the Littles (4-8 year olds) and the Middles (8-12 year olds). Imagine trying to find the words to explain a

terminal disease or death itself while anticipating the absence of a loved relative who is central to a child’s sense of safety, home, and family. Licensed counselors help the whole family system, anchoring children to simple, concrete answers in order to understand the big changes already happening. HSB Bereavement Services Manager and bereavement counselor Michael Cruse suggests that even one short sentence such as “time with your mom or granddad is precious” can become a meaningful mantra, reminding Middles to make a memory with a terminally-ill parent or grandparent before rushing o with friends on a Saturday morning.

Littles may have trouble identifying how they feel and may express their fear or confusion by not wanting to go to school or having nightmares or a stomach ache. To help Littles sort out their feelings, HSB bereavement counselor Kolmi Majumdar uses play-based therapy through arts and crafts, games, and puppet play. Through HSB’s Beloved Bear program, Littles will receive plush bears handcrafted by HSB volunteers, who incorporate a deceased loved one’s favorite item of clothing in making each bear. This comforting keepsake allows the child to hold, hug, play with, and stay connected with the beloved family member.

At Hospice of Santa Barbara, sta believe the process of acknowledging a child’s loss and validating their feelings is crucial to their eventual acceptance and healthy development. That process starts and continues through compassionate relationships that a rm both love and grief at the heart of loss.

Compassion is the cornerstone of all HSB programs that include patient care management, spiritual counseling, family services, community education, and resources – all available in English and Spanish.

“H

organizations. There are larger health care entities in town; but there is no

more

we have

– Dr. Fred Kass

Each year, approximately 400 children and teens receive HSB Services

What We Need...

Support for the Littles and Middles

$38,300

ospice of Santa Barbara is that rare treasure that appears in a person’s life when it is most needed, during the very darkest of times, and o ers compassion and care without asking for any compensation. This heart-centered organization represents the highest ideals of humanity and is well deserving of our support.”

Hospice of Santa Barbara hospiceofsb.org

2050 Alameda Padre Serra #100 Santa Barbara, CA, 93103 (805) 563-8820

Contact: Charles Caldwell Director of Strategic Advancement (805) 570-5611 ccaldwell@hospiceofsb.org

The Many Ways to

By Check: Hospice of Santa Barbara

2050 Alameda Padre Serra #100 Santa Barbara, CA, 93103

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 23-7448586

By Credit Card: hospiceofsb.org

“H

– Marybeth Carty Natalie Orfalea Foundation, Executive Director

1 in 13 (or nearly 8 percent) of children in the U.S. will experience the death of a parent or sibling by age 18.

“A Hand Up”

"B y bringing worldclass polo to the Santa Ynez Valley, the Classic’s mission is to raise much-needed funds for People Helping People’s programs, which are dedicated to improving the lives of adults and children in the Santa Ynez Valley and Los Alamos by addressing emergency and basic needs. It brings all of the players and us great joy to be able to play the sport we love, on the horses we love, in front of spectators from this great valley that we love - all to benefit those who receive support from People Helping People. It is our honor to showcase polo for such a special cause."

– Guillermo “Memo” & Meghan Gracida

We believe every person deserves access to healthy, fresh, nutritious food. Leaders debuted a new Outdoor Food Pantry, available for our community 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. Inspired by the quintessential farm stand of our region, we envisioned a dignified and welcoming space for those in need.

“People Helping People is about an outpouring of generosity from community people volunteering to help people in the community,” says the nonprofit’s CEO, Valerie Kissell.

Santa Ynez-based People Helping People (PHP) was founded 30 years ago as a grassroots e ort of community leaders to distribute emergency food to the needy in the Valley. Then, it operated that one program with a budget of $45,000. The organization has now grown to 19 programs with a budget of $2.6 million, solving many of the varied and disparate needs of Valley residents.

From mental wellness, alcohol and drug prevention, healthcare and insurance, to housing insecurity and homelessness, People Helping People has unified under one roof almost any public assistance residents of the Santa Ynez Valley might need. If there’s a service they don’t already provide, they invite other agencies that do to come there and provide it.

“Most people are only one crisis away from help,” Kissell says. “Each case is so di erent, so there’s not a cookie-cutter approach for us. For someone it

might just be, ‘my car broke down, I need $600, I can’t get it fixed, I need to get to work.’”

People Helping People will take care of that expense, as Kissell says, “with dignity and respect, because nobody who comes through these doors should ever feel that it’s a handout.”

People commonly think of the Santa Ynez Valley for its wineries and acclaimed restaurants, but beneath is a community in need. Many of the owners of those businesses are tremendous supporters of People Helping People, but as PHP Director of Development and Communications Erica Flores notes, “I have delivered groceries to cooks and waiters of those restaurants.” Those establishments depend upon a thriving working class to run smoothly and sustainably.

“You can’t have the wonderful, successful restaurants in the Valley without them being built through the hard work, the sweat, the sacrifices of an immigrant population, a working class, and multiple families living under one roof,” Flores says.

And Flores knows this firsthand. A fourthgeneration Santa Ynez Valley native, she left a successful career as a fundraiser for Chico State

World Renowned Polo Players and SYV Polo Classic Steering Committee Members

to return to the Valley. But, because of economic conditions in the area and the pandemic, she wasn’t able to find her footing upon her return. Finally landing a fundraising job paying $18 per hour, she still fell $100 short of just making rent.

“Here I was, the single mom of an infant and driving to Lompoc for social services,” she says. “I had never had to navigate the government agencies before, and to do that while trying to breastfeed and change diapers and travel and have some type of sanity.” The first time Flores walked into People Helping People was to attend her “Women, Infants and Children” appointment, a public assistance program for people like Erica, a struggling single mother.

“People Helping People was that bridge that got my feet underneath me, that allowed me to choose self-sustainability for my daughter and it was here in the community that I was born and raised,” Flores says.

She is now the organization’s director of development. She attributes that success not just to the aid that PHP provided, but to the core spirit with which it comes: “it’s not a hand out, it’s a hand up,” she says.

SANTA YNEZ VALLEY PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE

Santa Ynez Elementary launched “Jump Start”, a program designed for students most impacted by remote learning. When we asked how we could help, they said, “lunches!” We rallied local businesses, partner organizations, community leaders and a wonderful group of volunteers to provide lunches for 15 school days, 750 meals in total.

What We Need...

Fighting Hunger in the Valley

Although any donation will greatly help this organization with a $2.6-million operating budget, an $800 donation will fill their outdoor pantry for one day, which provides emergency food distribution for the food insecure in the Santa Ynez community.

"Founded in 2009, the mission of the Women’s Independent Giving Society (WIGS) is to develop and maintain a women’s giving society to fund selected human services for disadvantaged individuals, families and children throughout the Santa Ynez Valley. WIGS held its 13th annual meeting at the Happy Canyon home and garden of Scott and Deb Biddinger, including an Italian-inspired luncheon. WIGS members received a progress report on their previous year’s funded PHP programs as well as updates on current program needs, which included client success stories. Members decide how they would like to invest their current year donations and cast their votes accordingly. Donations totaled over $32,000 and supported Homelessness Prevention, Mental Health & Wellness, Youth Programming, and Food Programs."

– Nancy Hunsicker

Founder & President, Women’s Independent Giving Society benefiting People Helping People

Santa Ynez Valley People Helping People www.syvphp.org

545 N. Alisal Rd. #102 Solvang, CA 93463 (805) 686-0295

Contact: Erica Jane Flores Director of Development & Communications (805) 686-0295 php@syvphp.org

KEY SUPPORTERS

John Kuelbs

John Easterling & Olivia Newton-John

The Gangolli Family Scott & Lisa Ramsey Tom & Nancy Elsaesser

The Brady Family Becky Barieau & Bill Wathen

Kenneth Kahn & Eva Van Prooyen Kevin Brine & Jessica Smith

Brook Harvey-Taylor & Billy Taylor Jamie Einerson Sean & Jodi Pitts

T.J. Barrack and Aston Barnicoat, Odyssey International Exchange Memo & Meghan Gracida

Students from Dunn Middle School sort fresh produce at PHP’s weekly food distribution at the Santa Ines Mission in Solvang. Volunteers from local schools, businesses, and organizations help serve 220 families every week. Volunteer drivers from Solvang and Los Olivos Rotary deliver 80 meals prepared by partnering nonprofit, Feed the Valley.

Joe & Katie Russell

Joel Baker & Charlotte Bredahl-Baker

Montecito Bank & Trust

First Bank

Grand Avenue Real Estate, Inc

Janice Rome

Joan & Theodore Tanner

Elee Johnson & Fairfield Farm

Santa Barbara Foundation

Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Foundation

Santa Ynez Valley Foundation

The Mindel Family Foundation

The Ann Jackson Family Foundation

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check:

Santa Ynez Valley People Helping People

P.O. Box 1478 Solvang, CA 93464

| www.thegivinglist.com |

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 77-0338060

By Credit Card: www.syvphp.org/donate

To the Next 105 Years

Unity Shoppe Executive Director and CEO Angela Miller-Bevan grew up in Santa Barbara and was raised by a single mother in a low-income family. She can’t recall precisely her first encounter with Unity Shoppe, but she remembers clearly the organization was a presence in her childhood. “My mom went to Unity Shoppe and so we just received the benefits of food when she came home,” Miller-Bevan says.

It’s a memory that encapsulates the essence of Unity Shoppe, an organization which for 105 years has provided Santa Barbara residents with groceries, clothing, job training, and toys for the holidays. As a dependable supplier of these essentials, Unity Shoppe reinforces the dignity of the families they serve and encourages their self-su ciency.

“By providing these services to low-income families, we give young people the opportunity to grow up and get jobs and go to school,” MillerBevan says. “We give them the opportunity to succeed.”

Miller-Bevan was among those beneficiaries. Following a career in advertising with stints at the Santa Barbara News-Press and Noozhawk, she pivoted to the nonprofit world, working at the American Heart Association during the COVID-19 pandemic and then as Executive

"When all seemed so dark, and the fear of not being able to eat consumed us, we found a small beacon of light shining on the corner of Sola & Chapala, which is known as the Unity Shoppe! At Unity, they provided us with food for meals and snacks, and when warmth was needed there were clothes for all walks of life big and little... But, the biggest thing was the love we and the other people along with us were shown. Because of that love and nourishment, we now have begun living and moving with the rest of the world. Back on our feet; moving forward from dark times with Unity & Love."

– Brandon & Jennifer Clients

Director of the Braille Institute in Santa Barbara. Before long, she was tapped to take over for Tom Reed, the venerable Executive Director of Unity Shoppe who is retiring at the end of 2022 after 20 years leading the organization. For an institution as storied and historic as Unity Shoppe, the transition is being managed carefully, with Reed mentoring MillerBevan until the end of the year. It’s a process designed to keep Unity Shoppe thriving for another 105 years.

An enthusiastic team of Senior Volunteers works throughout the year to craft thousands of custom birthday and holiday gift boxes for Preschools and Assisted Living Facilities and Seniors in our community, shining a light of hope during dark and desperate times.

Reed’s last hoorah will be Unity Shoppe’s annual telethon, the organization’s biggest fundraiser held in December that raked in $500,000 last year. Durable supporters like Brad Paisley and Kenny Loggins will perform again, as will Michael McDonald and special guest Oprah Winfrey.

“I’m very passionate about what the mission is now and has been,” Miller-Bevan says. “Moving forward, we will try to reach as many people as we possibly can. Especially with what’s going on in life with high gas and house prices, we need to give everybody a little break.”

Unity Shoppe o ers critical support services for low-income households in Santa Barbara. This year-round resource is completely reliant on the generous support of local individuals, foundations, and businesses to care for financially vulnerable families, children, and senior citizens. Celebrate Unity in Our Community by supporting this vital social safety-net.

Unity Delivers, launched in 2020, successfully provided $114,000 worth of groceries over 1,043 deliveries during the last year. The program’s success in South County has been met with an increased demand, as well as a call to expand into North County. Your support is vital to this critical program.

Unity Shoppe has 22 dedicated employees to help distribute more than 250,000 pounds of fresh food and groceries every year, providing over 300,000 free meals for our neighbors in need.

What We Need...

Taking the Legacy Countywide

Unity Shoppe is counting on the durable success of its annual telethon to continue investing in its programs and services. This includes JobSmart, which supplies low-income people with work clothes, and the Senior Resource Center, in which longtime senior volunteers knit, sew, quilt, paint, woodwork, and assemble clothes and toys to the delight and comfort of Santa Barbara’s vulnerable residents. In 2023, Unity Shoppe also plans to begin serving families in north Santa Barbara County. It’s a move inspired in part by Brad Paisley, who was so taken by Unity Shoppe that he brought the concept to his adopted home in Nashville. “Until now, people from north county have had to travel down to get our services,” says Executive Director Angela Miller-Bevan. “In 2023, we will go to them.”

Unity Shoppe provides food, clothing, and personal essentials for more than 15,000 shopping trips every year.

The Client Services Center, home of the Free Store, meets the needs for the Santa Barbara community by providing food, clothing, essentials, school supplies, employment readiness resources, and disaster recovery services when they are needed most.

Unity Shoppe, Inc. unityshoppe.org 1401 Chapala Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101 (805) 965-4122

Contact: Angela Miller-Bevan Executive Director Angela@UnityShoppe.org (805) 331-6161

"I was first introduced to Unity Shoppe when my son was volunteering for community service hours. We volunteered and worked side-by-side and saw first-hand the clients shopping with dignity by choosing items that they needed and then we watched as it appeared that they checked out at the register just like they would do in any other store but at Unity Shoppe, no payment changes hands. One of my favorite programs is Unity’s Seniors Helping Seniors Center. This program provides basic need requests from hospitals, senior centers, and other organizations helping seniors who are homebound or disabled. It’s no wonder why I love Unity’s slogan: DIGNITY. RESPECT. CHOICE."

– Susan Rodriguez Board Chair

KEY SUPPORTERS

Patricia and Paul Bragg Foundation Mithun Foundation

Susan and Ronald Rodriguez Giving Fund

Golden Rule Family Foundation

John and Marcia Goldman Bank of America Foundation

William Corbett Foundation

Maxine R. Waughtell

Donovan and Kathryn Chalfant Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Foundation Brittingham Family Foundation

Milton Hess

Victoria Ward

Ann Jaxson Family Foundation

MUFG Union Bank

Community West Bank ZIA Group

Santa Barbara Foundation Dana Newquist

Brad and Kim Paisley

Montecito Bank & Trust

Kenneth Richardson Consumer Fire Products

Dena Stein

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check: Unity Shoppe, Inc.

1209 State Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 77-0391064

By Credit Card: unityshoppe.org/ways-to-give

Global Reach

California, the most populated state in the United States, is basically a nation unto itself. And we feel the costs of what happens across the globe - environmental crises, the erosion of democracy and conflict - close to home. These nonprofits are not only extending this region’s philanthropic strength, but its reach. Be a part of making them stronger still.

“From humble beginnings in 1927, CBB has grown to a community of more than 800 households. Our bustling campus is filled with educational programs for children and adults, cultural activities, and community service groups and projects. Philanthropic support enables our talented clergy, sta , board, and volunteers to focus on what really matters – creating community, living our values, and helping to make our community and world a better place.”

– ELIZABETH GAYNES Executive Director

Repairing the World, Helping the Unsheltered, and Building a Community Campus –Congregation B’nai B’rith

BY RICHARD D. HECHT

Tikkun olam, translated as “repairing the world,” is one of the most important social justice concepts of contemporary Judaism. e concept has a long history in the Jewish tradition, reaching back to the rabbis of the Talmud who used the term to describe actions that bettered the world, often giving up something in order to achieve a higher social purpose. Tikkun olam is the recognition that the human world is delicate and can easily be degraded or destroyed, and is related to other vital terms within the Jewish tradition that describe acts of social justice including tzedakah (righteousness) and tzedek (justice).

“Tikkun olam refers to the way a group of people, a community, comes together to repair and maintain the fabric of our collective lives.”

And according to Rabbi Stephen Cohen, Congregation B’nai B’rith’s (CBB) senior Rabbi, this concept is the guiding principle of what “we do as part of a collective. It is shared work or a shared project.”

Indeed, Rabbi Cohen, along with the congregants at CBB, are walking the talk. rough their commitment to a set of interconnected philanthropic initiatives, CBB is not only working to connect with and support the greater Santa Barbara community, but indeed the world community.

Partnership with Givat Haviva International School

Givat

Haviva International School (GHIS) is a private high school in Israel that aims to prepare its students to become the leaders of the next generation; leaders who not only complete the academically rigorous International Baccalaureate high school degree, but also build skills that will allow them to go beyond the cultural, political, economic, and religious chasms that all too often frustrate and erode mutual understanding and empathy. It is a unique residential program school in that 25 percent of the student body is made up of Israeli Jews, 25 percent Israeli Arabs, and 50 percent international students from more than 20 countries, such as Kosovo, Sudan, and Liberia, many of which have su ered long, devastating, internal con icts. While the classes of GHIS re ect the demanding structure of this international high school program, the real work of the school is not just in the classroom. Each dorm room, for example, has three students; one Israeli Arab student, one Israeli Jewish student, and one

“We are making this enormous e ort, to which many of us have already given many thousands of dollars, and hundreds and hundreds of hours of our lives, with hope and a prayer that 30 years from now, 50 years from now, there will be Jewish children learning and playing here, and Jewish adults gathering for community and working together to make the world better.”

- RABBI STEPHEN COHEN

international student and, from the very beginning, students set out how they will manage their rooms. is is achieved through much dialogue and discussion in which the students are always learning from one another. As a partner with GHIS, members of CBB contribute to scholarship funds to support students, work with students as tutors and mentors, and often help students develop research projects.

One of those students, mentored by members of CBB, was, just four short years ago, paying for his middle school by pedaling a rickshaw in the streets of Monrovia, Liberia. Today, as a student at Santa Barbara City College, he serves as the student trustee to SBCC’s Board of Trustees, and this past spring was elected to serve as student body president.

Neighbors Ensuring Food, Equity, Safety, and Housing

Rabbi, explains that homelessness is a much larger and complex social issue than just not having housing. “It is really a matter of people being unsheltered,” Rabbi Brenner says. CBB created a group using the Hebrew word for soul or spirit called nefesh that is an acronym that conveys the extent of the needs of the unsheltered: “Neighbors Ensuring Food, Equity, Safety, and Housing.”

on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. “To let the oppressed go free; to break o every yoke. It is to share your bread with the hungry, and to take the wretched poor into your home. When you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to ignore your own kin.”

Building Dreams

Congregation

B’nai B’rith is committed to working with those in the local Santa Barbara community who are experiencing housing and food insecurity. Rabbi Daniel Brenner, Congregation B’nai B’rith’s Associate

rough NEFESH, CBB partners with other groups in Santa Barbara to fund housing vouchers and has created a “Welcome Home Kit” for people who are moving o the street and into a home, providing them the essentials they will need, including sheets, blankets, and a lamp. But the main focus is with DignityMoves, a nonpro t organization that works to end homelessness in our communities by building interim supportive housing with rapid, cost-e ective, scalable solutions. Locally, this e ort has provided 33 housing units, on a lot owned by Santa Barbara County, for individuals to stay in until they are able to move into permanent housing. Congregation B’nai B’rith helped to fund three of those units.

As Rabbi Brenner reminds us, his congregation believes deeply in the words of Prophet Isaiah, which are read each year

A s CBB moves toward marking its centenary here in Santa Barbara, it looks to expand its role in the community as a cultural center, rooted in a system of values, the values of tikkun olam. In early 2023, CBB will break ground on “Building Dreams,” a major renovation of their synagogue campus. rough this reimagined campus, CBB will be able to play a convening role for the community by providing an “important interfaith gathering place,” says Rabbi Cohen, “A place where people, all people, will nd food, conversations, and discussion about the past, the present, and the future.” e new facility will have accessibility improvements for people in wheelchairs, walkers, and baby strollers. e project also demonstrates CBB’s commitment to sustainability so that visitors will become more aware of our impact on the environment. Energy and water use will be evident in every component of the new campus. e learning center will encourage not only interfaith gathering, but intergenerational and multigenerational learning where seniors will interact with young children from the Beit HaYeladim Preschool.

Congregation B’nai B’rith continues, in all of its philanthropic outreach, to live and practice “tikkun olam.” For CBB, that starts right here in Santa Barbara.

Global Aid in Time of Global Crisis

In 1945, William Zimdin, an Estonian immigrant who had fled fascism to California, dedicated his fortune to sending relief parcels to war-torn Europe, sparking the organization that would eventually become Direct Relief.

More than 75 years later, Direct Relief provides emergency response and humanitarian and disaster relief to all 50 U.S. states and roughly 100 other nations. Their organization’s work is unabating and often in areas overlooked in the headlines. The Santa Barbara-based nonprofit shipped 27 tons of medicine to Sri Lanka when an economic crisis pushed the island-nation’s healthcare system near collapse. These ongoing e orts across the globe mean that Direct Relief is always ready, with supply chains and partnering organizations ready to respond at a moment’s notice.

For years, Direct Relief had been working in Ukraine. After the invasion, the organization began receiving requests for items they’ve rarely had to send, everything from body bags to treatments for chemical weapons. Since then, it has shipped more than 900 tons of medical aid to 400-plus hospitals and clinics in Ukraine.

Direct Relief has also provided $15.9 million of direct financial assistance, both within the country and to refugees in surrounding areas like Poland and Moldova, for medical essentials such as pharmaceutical prescriptions.

“Before the crisis in Ukraine started, we were already delivering medications to the Ministry of Health in Ukraine. When the war started, we didn’t have to start from scratch and try to figure out who to work with; we already had a really clear channel of how to get medicines into Ukraine,” says Heather Bennett, vice president of partnerships and philanthropy.

To generate support for Ukraine, Direct Relief has had to get creative in its fundraising, with e orts ranging from a Carnegie Hall concert hosted by Richard Gere, to partnering with Epic Games, who donated two weeks of revenue and subscriptions from the video game Fortnite – a total of $27 million – to Direct Relief and four other nonprofits.

Direct Relief is supported purely by their contributors and any donated funds can be directed to a specific program or area. Take a look at where and what crises are happening in

Ukrainian American and my parents were Ukrainian refugees who met at a displaced persons camp at the end of World War II. I just have to say a big thank you to Direct Relief for all the work that you are doing over there. I know Direct Relief does so much all over the world, but this means so much to me. I so much appreciate and admire Direct Relief and thank you for all that you do."

– Ana A. Taras Chief of Strategic Development, Ryan Health

the world. Given its vast range of geographical regions they serve and medical causes they support, there’s a good chance Direct Relief is already there with boots on the ground, continuing their legacy of aid.

"I’m

E cient. E ective. Transparent. Four Star Charity and 100% rating (Charity Navigator) 100% E ciency Rating, Top 10 U.S. Charities (Forbes)

#1 Top 10 Charities Changing the World (CNBC) Top 10 Most Innovative Nonprofits (Fast Company)

Emergency medical backpacks depart Direct Relief's warehouse bound for Lviv, Ukraine. The backpacks, which contain medical essentials for triage care, were requested by Ukraine's Ministry of Health.

The Power to Save Lives

Many

vaccines and other medications need to be refrigerated, something severely complicated amid war and natural disaster. Recently, Direct Relief installed almost 1,000 Tesla solar panels with both battery and generator backup at their headquarters in Santa Barbara to store insulins, vaccines, and other temperature-controlled medications, even during power outages. But the healthcare facilities that receive these lifesaving medicines also need reliable power.

Now, with the Power for Health initiative, Direct Relief is helping these facilities install solar power arrays, complete with battery storage. They have already begun installing backup power systems in high-risk areas, including the Mendocino Health Center and Marin Community Clinic.

Direct Relief plans to continue these installations throughout California and other high-risk regions with 20 more sites in development. The average cost is $400,000 per system, which is rated to last 20 years. Supporting the Power for Health initiative can help ensure that these facilities continue to operate when the community needs them most.

A

KEY SUPPORTERS

Tom and Carrie Cusack

Mary Dwyer

Pamela Gann and David Hardee

Stan and Betty Hatch

Jim and Chana Jackson

Dorothy Largay and Wayne Rosing

Mark and Kim Linehan

Siri and Bob Marshall Jay McGonigle

Harry and Jacquie McMahon

Direct Relief

www.DirectRelief.org

6100 Wallace Becknell Road Santa Barbara, CA 93117 (805) 964-4767

Contact: Heather Bennett Vice President, Partnerships and Philanthropy (805) 879-4934 hbennett@directrelief.org

Jane and Ron Olson

John and Mary Romo

Jamie Ru ng and Rhys Williams

Denis and Jennifer Sanan

Nancy Schlosser

Mark and Lynda Schwartz

Jim and Patricia Selbert

Thomas and Heather Sturgess Elizabeth Toro and Mark Hauser

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check: Direct Relief

6100 Wallace Becknell Road Santa Barbara, CA 93117

| www.thegivinglist.com |

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 95-1831116

By Credit Card: www.DirectRelief.org/donate

provider from HOPE Hospital responds to flooding in Bangladesh with an emergency medical pack provided by Direct Relief.

A Watchful Eye on the Crises of Our Time

"I am incredibly proud to sup port Human Rights Watch. They are vital to lifting up human rights de fenders around the world, giving voice to the voiceless, and bringing a powerful spotlight to atrocities that if left in the dark, would continue. The impact of Human Rights Watch fuels hope and gives those of us that call Santa Barbara home a tangible way to support human rights everywhere and anywhere. It’s about more dignity in the world – that is what HRW’s work ultimately delivers."

– Amy Rao Human Rights Watch Board Co-Chair

Don’t ever ask Director of Human Rights Watch Santa Barbara Lis Leader to pit one human rights crisis against another. As she will tell you, all human rights abuses are equal and they are every where, each of them clamoring for the pre cious but limited attention of the public. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, the protests that swept Iran, modern-day slavery around the World Cup in Qatar, the simmering Tigray conflict in Ethiopia. These are all hot spots where the organization conducts critical re search and advocacy.

Figuring out where to focus her committee’s time and resources is a matter of listening to her constituents. And today, Leader says the members of Human Rights Watch are preoccupied with two major crises of our time: climate change and the threats to American democracy.

“They want to know that there’s an organization out there that is doing something and Human Rights Watch is the organization for them,” Leader says.

In Brazil, Human Rights Watch has been putting pressure on the government to stop selling and burning parts of the Amazon. Around the world it monitors the impact of mining operations in local communities. It produces reports on the impact of extreme heat on pregnant women or how the lack of clean water can affect the Inuit people.

“Our constituents recognize that climate change is already on their doorstep,” Leader says. “In California, we don’t have a fire season anymore because all year is a fire season.”

As dire as its consequences, the potential havoc from climate change can often feel remote to her members, Leader admits. Whereas the immediate dangers to U.S.

democracy are on the forefront of their minds. For the organization, the midterm congressional elections were a litmus test for the resilience of American democracy. In 2022, Human Rights Watch launched a new initiative to address threats to civil society groups that are active in supporting American democracy and protecting people’s right to vote.

“We are advocating against disinformation that undermines the legitimacy of frontline organizations and misleads communities,” Leader says. “We really are focusing on exposing and neutralizing harms against groups led by people of color, Blacks, and Indigenous people.”

The organization’s research and advocacy doesn’t necessarily avert abuses, Leader says, but reporting them and standing up against them gives Human Rights Watch the best chance to create change.

Civilians flee the city of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, during heavy shelling and bombing on March 5, 2022, in Ukraine.

© 2022 Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images

Afghan girls leave school after classes on September 21, 2021, in Kabul, Afghan istan. In late March 2022, the Taliban reversed its decision to reopen all schools and announced that girls’ secondary schools would remain closed indefinitely. © 2021 Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

Justice for All

Human Rights Watch is one of the world’s leading independent organizations dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world.

The nonprofit investigates and reports on human rights abuses globally. Advocacy is directed towards organizations, governments, businesses, armed groups, or anyone or anything else that has the power to enforce laws or develop policies and practices that uphold human rights.

All donations are used to support work in these areas and are carefully reviewed to ensure that they are consistent with the values and mission of the organization. In order to ensure unbiased and fact-based research, Human Rights Watch does not take funding from any government.

An investment in Human Rights Watch is an investment in meaningful, long-term change. Will you help us create hope across 100+ countries in the world by making a donation to Human Rights Watch?

Human Rights Watch

Elisabeth Leader

Human Rights Watch Director leadere@hrw.org www.hrw.org/about/get-local/santa-barbara (805) 452-0219

Santa Barbara Committee: Graciela Montgomery, Co-Chair Rita Moya, Co-Chair

Gywn Lurie, Vice Chair, Fundraising Casey Rogers, Vice Chair, Program & Outreach

Alisa Freundlich, Vice Chair, Leadership & Governance Sue Wagner, Vice Chair, Voices for Justice Dinner

Donors:

Zegar Family Foundation

Offield Family Foundation

Otis & Bettina Chandler Foundation

Vicki Riskin & David W. Rintels

Lillian Lovelace

Tipper Gore

Kathryn Downing

G.A. Fowler Family Foundation

Stacy & Ron Pulice

Natalie Orfalea and Lou Buglioli

Sara Miller McCune

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check:

Human Rights Watch

350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor New York, New York, 10118-3299

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 13-2875808

Note on Transfer: Human Rights Watch Santa Barbara

Friends of HRW Santa Barbara

Providing Healthcare to the World’s Most Vulnerable Communities

he World Telehealth Initiative program is the most emerging, innovative, and helpful health program for patient care. Our physicians are exposed to very experienced consultants from different disciplines, sharing their knowledge with them and learning from them. Patients are also satisfied to receive specialist healthcare services from foreign doctors by telehealth device. They express their excitement and satisfaction to us.”

– Dr. Saiful

MBBS, MPH

Esperanza was 19 years old and living in Malawi when she faced a serious health crisis. While giving birth to her first child, she suffered an obstetric fistula, one of the most devastating childbirth injuries that requires intricate, advanced surgery to correct.

In the small southeastern country in Africa, many women in Malawi do not have access to the necessary care. They typically have few options, and like Esperanza, often become ostracized from society due to the incontinence and smell, and are forced to live out their lives, in pain, hidden away. According to the World Health Organization, more than two million women in Africa have suffered from obstetric fistulas.

Fortunately, Esperanza had two surgeries performed by a local surgeon who built her skills through the World Telehealth Initiative surgical mentorship program in Malawi. Through the program at Bwaila Hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi, novice surgeons are mentored by surgical

experts from Baylor College of Medicine. The local surgeon is now able to perform almost all fistula repair surgeries independently and allow these women reentry into society. It is World Telehealth Initiative’s mission to provide sustained, quality healthcare to the world’s most vulnerable communities.

Telehealth technology enables World Telehealth Initiative’s volunteer medical specialists to deliver healthcare expertise to anywhere in the world that has internet. World Telehealth Initiative uses a global cloud-based network and telehealth devices donated by Teladoc Health, the world’s leading virtual care company. The devices are used to teach and mentor local providers diagnostic and surgical skills, which embed these skills into their communities for years to come.

The World Health Organization reports that 50 percent of the world’s population does not have access to essential healthcare services. World Telehealth Initiative is the

only humanitarian organization that utilizes telehealth to provide peer-to-peer training, surgical mentoring, clinical consults, and emergent high-acuity care to serve patients and strengthen health systems in underserved communities worldwide.

According to Co-founder and Executive Director Sharon Allen, access to healthcare should not be determined by where you were born. She adds that World Telehealth Initiative is working to transform global healthcare by providing quality medical expertise where and when it is needed.

As for Esperanza, she made a full recovery, thanks to her local doctor and World Telehealth Initiative. She became an ambassador for World Telehealth Initiative and, with a phone and bicycle, has been traveling to nearby towns letting other locals know about the program.

“T

Islam,

Physician and Clinical Coordinator at HOPE Field Hospital in the Rohingya refugee camp

World Telehealth Initiative cares for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh by supporting HOPE Field Hospital in the refugee camp. The program provides medical expertise in various specialties to care for the Rohingya’s diverse health needs. Scheduled telehealth consultations enable specialized healthcare for patients and learning opportuni ties for local clinicians.

World Telehealth Initiative serves two children’s hospitals in Northern Argentina with high-acuity, emergent care. Spe cialists from Buenos Aires connect at a moment’s notice to pediatric hospitals in Salta and Santiago del Estero to avoid high-risk transfers of fragile children. They assist with diagnosis, care plan development, and guide complicated surgeries.

Help Get Healthcare to Where It’s Needed Most

Imagine you or your child has a medical emergency and you’re unable to get the necessary care or specialized treatment because the only doctor that can help is over 100 miles away and your only means of transportation is on foot.

World Telehealth Initiative strives to make quality medical care accessible to under-resourced communities, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, wherever, whenever it is needed. Technology makes this possible.

World Telehealth Initiative is seeking to raise $1.5 million so they can expand their services to more underserved communities. Currently they have 33 programs across the globe, in areas as diverse as Togo, Bhutan, and Kashmir. By the end of 2022, World Telehealth Initiative’s goal is to expand to 40 programs and, by the end of 2023, they hope to expand to 65 programs in order to double the number of patients served per month to 500.

World Telehealth Initiative because of the care and hope they provide patients around the world without access to critical health needs. Not only do they provide quality health care for patients today through their telemedicine technology, WTI also builds the skills of local clinicians to serve future patients. I am proud to be part of their important work globally."

– Sheri Sobrato Brisson Social Entrepreneur and Philanthropist

Mortality rates from oral cancer in West Africa are among the highest globally, in part because there are not enough dentists. World Telehealth Initiative’s program provides den tal students in Guinea with training from global dental experts. The students are now qualified dentists who provide quality dental care in West Africa.

KEY SUPPORTERS

Intel Pfizer

Teladoc Health Jan Campbell Virgil Elings

Matt and Sheri Fay Susan Hackwood

Jody Dolan Holehouse

Angel Iscovich Robert Skinner

Yulun and Susan Wang Ron Werft

The Many Ways to Give...

World Telehealth Initiative www.worldtelehealthinitiative.org 7402 Hollister Avenue Goleta, CA 93117 (805) 886-8016

Contact: Erin Goldfarb Chief Development Officer (818) 687-3700 egoldfarb@worldtelehealthinitiative.org

| www.thegivinglist.com |

By Check:

World Telehealth Initiative

7402 Hollister Avenue Goleta, CA 93117

By DAF : Tax ID# 82-4657634

Stock Transfer: Contact Erin Goldfarb

By Credit Card: worldtelehealthinitiative.org/donate

"I support

World Telehealth Initiative’s volunteer medical specialists host virtual lectures and hands-on skills training for clinicians in Cambodia to build their capacity. Additionally, bedside con sultations are educational opportunities for local clinicians, while simultaneously providing specialized care for patients.

“8.6 million people in middle- and lowincome countries die annually from treatable conditions.”

Healthcare

As navigating healthcare in the U.S. becomes ever more complicated, expensive, and vastly disparate in its access, these organizations are working tirelessly to provide the best in care and research to those who are most vulnerable.

Tragedy Inspires Innovation and Passion-Driven Philanthropy

By Gary Marks

Dr. Michael Brinkenhoff’s professional “aha” moment came at the nadir of his personal life, an invention born of tragedy. When his beloved wife, Gayle, was being treated for breast cancer in 2000, her treatments caused many distressing side effects; the damage to her once-beautiful eyelashes was the most distressing, Dr. Brinkenhoff remembers.

A practicing ophthalmologist at the time, and wanting to help his wife in any way he could, he told her, “I think I can come up with something” to help with the loss of the attractive ness of her eyelashes. He went to work with cosmetics chemists to discover a solution. He ultimately created his own unique formula, and when he applied his concoction to her eyelashes, “they were restored to their original beauty,” he says. In 2006, they formed a company, and RevitaLash was born, a cosmetic product that beautified eyelashes.

Besides being the best possible spokesperson for the product, Gayle Brinkenhoff was instrumental in its development. In the beginning, Dr. Brinkenhoff applied his formula with a Q-tip. Wishing for a more advanced tool, he said to his wife one day, “I wish I had a paint brush so I could put it on accurately.”

“Oh you men,” she shot back. “You don’t know what we’ve got in our cosmetic closet,” and she promptly went into her own and returned with an eyeliner brush.

“That’s perfect,” he exclaimed, recalling his own naivete about beauty products at the time. Before being launched into the marketplace, the formula had become an instant hit in their community, even in its earliest stages.

“We had neighbors and friends knocking at the door, and they’d heard that my mom had this special formula,” remembers Gayle’s daughter (from a previous marriage) Dariel Sidney, who at one time ran the company’s international sales. “They were like hungry wolves at the door.”

That was the real lightbulb moment for Michael, when he knew that he had a product that he could sell.

When they launched the original RevitaLash formula at a beau ty trade show in 2006, there was nothing on the market like it.

“We invented a whole new category of cosmetic product,” Sidney says. “People didn’t know what eyelash conditioners were. There was no such thing at the time.”

Although Gayle Brinkenhoff ultimately succumbed to cancer in 2013, she lived to see the success of the line of products she inspired and the company she co-founded with her husband.

When RevitaLash Cosmetics began to sell internationally, it was such a hit that the couple traveled all over the world. Dr. Brinkenhoff recalls one of their first trips to Poland for the in ternational launch.

“Her story had preceded her,” he says fondly. “When she walked into the room to talk about that product, they got up and applauded. She was a movie star. They would take her pic ture and interview her.”

As successful as the RevitaLash Cosmetics product lines have been, the company has perhaps distinguished itself even more for its philanthropic work. Because of the company’s origin sto ry, they have always given part of its proceeds to breast cancer research and causes.

“The type of projects that we fund are cutting edge, not well-funded, really innovative research projects,” says Sidney, who is now the VP of Global Philanthropy. “We don’t fund

walks or big gala dinners. While those are important for aware ness, our focus is on direct medical research. Sometimes it’s not as glamorous, and we don’t get a lot of fun pictures to post, but we believe that is what’s going to move the needle in cancer research,” she says.

As a company, RevitaLash Cosmetics sponsors a yearly “Gay le Brinkenhoff Breast Cancer Symposium,” where lead research ers from around the world gather to share ideas and collaborate. The conference has yielded some groundbreaking research and progress in cancer treatment. And, most recently, it has helped the direction of RevitaLash Cosmetics’ philanthropic work. One of the symposium’s organizers, Dr. Linda Malkas, a leading cancer researcher for 25 years, appealed directly to Dr. Brinken hoff to support her research.

“I listened and the more I heard about the research, the more convinced I became that this has the potential to be historic,” he says. “Just in the last couple of months, the research they have done has gone into phase one clinical trials, and I am hoping that this is going to be a game changer for not just breast cancer, but all kinds of cancer.”

“You become more passionate when it’s personal,” Sid ney says.

“When

VP of Global Philanthropy Dariel Sidney

Reaching Higher Together

“Through all types of natural disasters, historic challenges, and emergencies, the doors to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital (SBCH) have been open for more than 130 years and today we continue to grow and serve our region,” says David Dietrich, Cot tage Health’s Vice President for Advancement.

Cottage Health is a family of inpatient and outpatient facilities and services, including hospitals in Santa Barbara, Goleta, and the Santa Ynez Valley, and outpatient clinics and urgent care centers spanning the TriCounties. The health system also offers online care with Cottage Virtual Care at cottagehealth.org/virtualcare.

In the spirit of the 130th anniversary, SBCH Foundation is reaching out to its many friends in the community, culminating a six-year effort to raise $130 million in support of excellence and innovation at the not-for-profit hospital. Reaching Higher Together: The Cottage Health campaign for excellence is led by a task force of volunteers co-

chaired by Jelinda DeVorzon and Greg Faulkner.

At the time of publication, the campaign had raised more than $121 million. But Dietrich notes that Cottage will continue to encourage the community to join the Reaching Higher effort. “Our objective is to meet and exceed our goal because the cost of priority programs to support patients, families, and caregivers continues to increase – especially during the pandemic. We are always aware that the work of excellence is never done,” he says.

Funds raised so far are already making an important impact. Through the generosity of community supporters, Cottage has been able to offer scholarships to more than 125 students pursuing careers in nursing. The expansion and renovation of the SBCH Emergency Department and Trauma Center is well under way, thanks to generous support. With an updated design and workflow, the ER will expand capacity for care from 44,000 patient visits annually to more than 70,000 per year

when the project is completed in late 2023.

Reaching Higher Together is also enabling Cottage to open new doors. Generous donations helped the hospital open the new Cottage Family Suites, a fully renovated building with 12 furnished apartments available for patient families from out of the area who need a place to stay while their loved one is receiving critical care.

The Campaign is also making it possible for Cottage to invest in its Graduate Medical Education program, and in an upgraded, state-of-the-art simulation training center – ensuring that caregivers can continue to practice and refine skills in a safe teaching and learning environment.

“This campaign and the support of our friends and neighbors is helping Cottage provide access to the best health care in the nation for people in this region, so they don’t need to travel elsewhere to get the best,” Dietrich says.

What We Need...

A New Home for Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital

Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital (CRH) is moving from its current De la Vina Street location to a state-of-the-art space on the Goleta Valley Cot tage Hospital campus to provide patients with:

• spacious, private rooms for comfort and healing

• expanded inpatient and outpatient therapy areas

• new outdoor aquatic therapy center

• therapeutic and healing gardens

The project will exceed $40M and the Foundations at CRH and GVCH are collaborating to raise at least $15M through the new ‘Rebuild & Renew’ Campaign. Generous community participation is essential. To learn about giving opportunities and how this campaign will strengthen Cottage’s ability to serve our community please call (805) 660-2496 or visit renewcrh.org

here else can one do so much for a dedicated group of healthcare students starting on their careers of service to the various communities in the world, including our own? The effect is widespread and lasting, and of increasing importance.”

– George Burtness

Longtime volunteer and supporter of nursing scholarships at Cottage Health

COTTAGE HEALTH FRIENDS LIST

Susan Christol-Deacon

Thomas Cusack

Jelinda DeVorzon

Gregory Faulkner

Pamela Gann

Roberta Griffin

Hollye Jacobs

Dorothy Largay, PhD

Robin Malone, MD

Peter MacDougall, EdD

Babji Mesipam, MD

Gretchen Milligan

Nancy Nielsen

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check:

Cottage Health cottagehealth.org

P.O. Box 689 400 Pueblo St. Santa Barbara, CA 93102 (805) 879-8980

Contact: Magda Stayton Director of Development (805) 324-9929 Cell (805) 448-0293 mstayton@sbch.org

For gifts to Reaching Higher Campaign, checks to:

Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Foundation For gifts to Rebuild & Renew Campaign, checks to: Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation

Robert Nourse

Steve Ortiz

Ernesto Paredes

Gamble Parks

Richard Ponce, MD

Ginger Salazar

Wesley Schooler, MD

Mark Scott, MD

Bhupi Singh

Marshall ‘Chip’ Turner

Yulun Wang, PhD Steven Zola

Mail to:

Cottage Advancement Services P.O. Box 689

Santa Barbara, CA 93102

By Credit Card: cottagehealth.org/donate

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Cottage Family Suites helps keep families together during hospital care.

New Simulation Training Center provides realistic medical training.

101 Years of Groundbreaking Medical Excellence

deeply about. We have a deep emotional connec tion now with the Clinic, from people at the top to ded icated staff at the front desks. I feel now like we are part of a family," says Ron Burns. “The more we need them, the more they are there for us. The relationship is huge ly important, and we are happy to know that everyone there has our back.”

“We are fortunate to be able to share what we have. It is a great feeling,” Sally Burns adds.

– Ron and Sally Burns

Take a look at any person in front or back of you in line at the grocery store, and chances are one of them is a patient of Sansum Clinic.

No wonder.

Sansum Clinic remains the largest independent nonprofit outpatient healthcare organization between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. Today, Sansum Clinic cares for more than 123,000 patients annually, across 23 different locations on the Central Coast, spanning more than 50 specialties and service lines.

“One out of two people in southern Santa Barbara County come to

Sansum Clinic,” says Director of Marketing Jill Fonte. “We offer the full breadth of healthcare services. We take care of patients throughout their lifetime, with everything from pediatrics to geriatrics.”

But numbers are just part of the story. Sansum Clinic’s commitment to ensuring the latest technology and treatments are available for its patients helps to keep Santa Barbara as advanced in medical sciences as much larger cities.

From its top-of-the-line surgery centers and imaging machines to the world-class Ridley-Tree Cancer Center, investments in infrastructure and innovation are the organization’s hallmark.

This approach also extends to customer service via the most evolved forms of digital and virtual patient communication, including Telehealth and MyChart to the WELL™ text platform to better connect with patients.

“As always, our greatest asset is our people – the 220+ physicians and more than 1,200 staff members,” says Kurt N. Ransohoff, MD, FACP, and Sansum Clinic’s CEO and Chief Medical Officer. “Together, we are committed to delivering on our mission of providing an excellent healthcare experience, recognizing our first priority is the patients we serve.”

Sansum Clinic’s leadership is particularly proud of how the organization simultaneously fought COVID-19 while still delivering essential care for the community. That included creating countless vaccine clinics staffed by an army of doctors, nurses and medical assistants, and running the county’s first drive-up appointment-based COVID-19 testing operation, all while demonstrating a capacity to uphold the highest standards of quality, ethics, and professionalism across all of the clinic.

With COVID-19 appearing to be more manageable, Sansum Clinic is excited to turn its focus to planning and preparing to care for the community for another 100 years.

“I want to use our time in the best possible way, and that means being in volved with organizations and people that we care

Sansum Clinic Legacy Society Members

Our Pediatrics Department has board-certified pediatricians, pediatric nurse prac titioners, and medical staff members who provide compassionate care for infants, children, and young adults.

Kurt N. Ransohoff, MD, FACP, CEO and Chief Medical Officer, and Marjorie Newman, MD, Medical Director, led Sansum Clinic's many contributions to the community throughout the pandemic, a time which encompassed the Clinic's 100th year of providing expert care to patients.

New Projects Underway for Which We Could Use Community Support to Help Position Us for Our

Continued growth and constant upgrading are hallmarks of Sansum Clinic: One recent example is the expansion of the Foothill Surgery Center from four to six outpatient surgery operating rooms.

Another advancement is a new Breast Imaging Center slated to open mid-2023.

The Facial Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Department will soon open in a new location offering expanded aesthetics services. Recruitment of new physicians and advanced practice providers will remain a focus as we continue to expand services. Similarly, technology is always evolving, and there is a constant need for the latest equipment, such as upgraded CT and MRI scanners, endoscopes, and ultrasound machines.

“As a nonprofit organization dedicated to healthcare in an era of economic headwinds, our commitment to providing exceptional care relies, increasingly, on the generosity of our donors,” says Kurt N. Ransohoff, MD, FACP, and Sansum Clinic’s CEO and chief medical officer. “Your investment can make a critical difference as we plan and prepare to deliver services for the next 100 years.”

In an era of uncertainty in healthcare reimbursement, philanthropic support is essential to ensure we continue delivering both the high-tech and hightouch elements of quality medical care. Support from donors allows us to continuously upgrade technology, programs and services, and facilities.

Our team of hospitalists provides exceptional, compassionate care to Sansum Clinic patients when they are hospitalized.

“Each one of the doctors I interface with has such con cern for me. They follow the needs of their patients, and it’s like I am part of the team, and we are all working together,” describes Marilyn Gilbert. “Sansum Clinic has kept me alive and feeling good, and kept me full of life.”

– Marilyn Gilbert

Sansum Clinic

470 South Patterson Avenue

Santa Barbara, CA 93111 (805) 681-7500

Contact: Dru A. Hartley Director of Philanthropy (805) 681-7726 dhartley@sansumclinic.org

KEY SUPPORTERS 2021

Anonymous (2)

Susie and Riley Bechtel

James S. Bower Foundation

Cancer Foundation of Santa Barbara

La Centra-Sumerlin Foundation

Susie and Ted Cronin

Roberta and Stan Fishman

J & J Family Foundation

Julie and Jamie Kellner

The Kemmerer Family Foundation

Manitou Fund

Julie Nadel

Dr. Nancy O’Reilly

Natalie Orfalea Foundation and Lou Buglioli

Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree

Bobbie and Eddie Rosenblatt

Mike and Shannon Sanders

Mary Lynn and Warren Staley

The Wolf Family Foundation

The Many Ways to Give...

sansumclinic.org/donate-now

Sansum Clinic Legacy Society Member

The Patient Access Team at Sansum Clinic was awarded a WE CARE trophy for providing exceptional customer service throughout the pandemic.

Continued Success in the Future

The Road to Serenity Continues

For nearly three decades, VNA Health has operated Serenity House, the largest nonprofit facility of its kind in California providing 24/7 in-patient care. Serenity House provides around-the-clock medical and personalized care in a shelter of tranquility and safety during a challenging time.

The end of life journey can be one of frustration, fatigue, and fear, or it can be one of dignity, honor, and love. Whether a spouse, a parent, or a child, the families served at Serenity House are able to say goodbye without the extra stresses that caregiving can bring.

Serenity House o ers private rooms, each with a spacious bathroom and private patio, in a home-like setting. Families and friends have the opportunity to spend time with their loved one in a serene setting away from household chores and demands.

Specially trained hospice providers and sta compassionately focus on quality of life for patients and their families through medical, emotional, and spiritual support.

WHY SERENITY HOUSE?

This question can best be answered by the families who remain. One family, Angel and her children share how memories of their time at Serenity House continue to bring them hope for the future.

IN 2017… after a year of intense and extensive treatment, Kevin Speier became unresponsive. His wife, Angel, with the support of Kevin’s parents decided it was time for him to go to Serenity House. What Angel expected to be a short stay unexpectedly turned into seven weeks.

FIVE YEARS LATER… Jase, now nine-years-old, remembers the details of his daily visits: putting mini golf at his Dad’s bedside; climbing the turtle play structure outside with his sister Alina; and the plentiful mealtimes shared with family. Looking back, Angel wouldn’t trade their experience at Serenity House for the world.

Jase, Alina, and Angel at Serenity House in 2017.

(Photo by Rafael Ramirez)

9,500+

The generosity of our donors, volunteers, and supporters make it possible to serve 9,500 patients and community members every year.

What We Need...

Founded in 1908, “for the good of the community and out of compassion for the less fortunate,” the VNA Health founders planned that “there will be a Loan Closet” to provide bed linens, night clothes, and other nursing supplies. In 1948, Thomas M. Storke, then editor and publisher of the Santa Barbara News-Press, helped expand the Loan Closet to provide short-term loans of durable medical equipment.

Today, the VNA Health Loan Closet is the only community resource in Santa Barbara County o ering free loans of basic medical equipment, such as wheelchairs, crutches, knee scooters, walkers, and shower seats to community residents.

The VNA Health Loan Closet serves more than 4,000 clients each year and is completely supported through private donations and contributions. VNA Health depends on its friends, family, and neighbors. Please join us today by making a donation to continue the Loan Closet legacy and to ensure it is available to support every generation of the next family in need.

VNA Health www.vna.health

509 E. Montecito Street, Suite 200 Santa Barbara, CA 93103 (805) 965-5555

– Jase Speier

he memories of Serenity House are not sad ones, they’re really wonderful, sweet, and treasured. I think once going there … it was like the perfect place for us. When we were at Serenity House, I asked Kevin, ‘Could we have done anything di erently?’ He just wrote, ‘No regrets.’ We were able to have closure …so that’s pretty special.”

– Angel Speier

Contact for Legacy Gift:

Lailan McGrath

Director of the Foundation (805) 690-6218 lailan.mcgrath@vna.health

Angel

found love again and recently married Jackson Snyder. The Speier-Snyder family, embraced by Kevin’s family, is expanding as they happily await their newest member. For many families like Angel’s, the road to serenity continues because of your generous support.

Most insurance policies cover the medical benefits of hospice care. Room and board are typically paid for by the patient. However, with your help VNA Health can ensure that our whole community can benefit from Serenity House, regardless of inadequate resources or insurance.

Founded in 1908, VNA Health is California’s third oldest Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) and continues to be a leading nonprofit provider of comprehensive in-home healthcare, helping patients at any age or stage in life, and their families ... to live well at home ... wherever they reside and call home. VNA Health has been caring for family after family for more than six generations, providing Home Health Care, Palliative Care, Hospice Care, Bereavement Care, and Community Care programs such as the Loan Closet, Music Services, We Honor Veterans, and Serenity House. VNA Health has earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® in Home Health Care, Palliative Care, and Hospice Care; and a 4-Star Quality Rating and 4-Star Patient Satisfaction Rating from CMS.

KEY SUPPORTERS

Board of Directors

Mark Mattingly, Chair

Ken Kraus, Vice Chair

Karen Handy, Secretary

Kieran Shah, CHPCA, President & CEO

Michael Bordofsky, MD

Laura Canfield, DNP, RN, CNS, CNRN, SCRN

Alex W. Craigie, Esq. Eusebio Cordova, Jr. Pamela Dillman Haskell

Paul Jaconette, MPH

Frederic C. Kass, MD

Neil Levinson, Esq.

Ben Phillips

Suzi Schomer

Christopher Thrash, MD

Directors Emeriti

Ed Brady

Stan Fishman

Herb Geary, RN

Jane Habermann

Christopher Jones, Esq.

Steve Lew

Michelle Martinich, CPA

Chris McNamara

Judy Murphy

Elna Scheinfeld

James Stovesand

Ted Thoreson, MD

The Many Ways to Give...

VNA

E. Montecito Street, Suite 200 Santa Barbara, CA 93103

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 77-0342043

By Credit Card: www.vna.health/foundation

“I feel like my father was being cared for… It made me feel safe and comfortable.”

For the good of the community, there will be a Loan Closet

By Cash or Check:

Health Foundation 509

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Celebrating 100 Years of Lifesaving Insulin

he incredible, life-changing work that Dr. Sansum did right here in Santa Barbara continues with brilliant and passionate people at SDRI. It inspires me every day that I contribute as a board member. I am proud to serve on the board, and I am grateful that SDRI has a profoundly positive impact on people worldwide. The Paskin Family Foundation is proud to support an organization that aims to provide resources, regardless of age, race, gender, or socioeconomic class."

– Michael and Sarah Paskin Founders of The Paskin Family Foundation

Dr. William Sansum, renowned diabetes specialist and Sansum Diabetes Research Institute’s (SDRI) founder, was the first U.S. physician to manufacture and administer insulin, saving millions of lives.

Dr. Sansum cared for the gravely-ill diabetes patients in Santa Barbara and conducted diabetes research in the hope of finding a cure. Prior to the discovery of insulin, diabetes was a death sentence. In 1922, Dr. Sansum’s work became a functional cure for diabetes, and his research was on the front page of newspapers across the country. Once the news spread, patients stampeded into Santa Barbara from all over the world for Dr. Sansum’s lifesaving insulin.

“Dr. Sansum’s work profoundly changed the landscape for those living with diabetes,” said Ellen Goodstein, Executive Director at SDRI. “Since then, SDRI has celebrated his legacy through our groundbreaking achievements in diabetes research, education, and clinical care.”

Dr. Sansum worked tirelessly to manufacture insulin for his patients and founded SDRI in 1944 to further his groundbreaking work. Dr. Sansum’s

enormous contribution to diabetes research and care had an everlasting impact. He paved the way for current and future SDRI researchers to continue their important work impacting the quality of life for people with diabetes.

Today, clinical research for all types of diabetes is at the forefront of SDRI’s mission and gives hope to the global diabetes community. SDRI’s work has led to critical advances in the treatment of diabetes, garnering national and global recognition for breakthroughs in diabetes in pregnancy and artificial pancreas technology.

“As SDRI looks to the future, we will expand our work in diabetes in pregnancy research, artificial pancreas technology, and move forward with new initiatives that look to metabolism and nutrition as new areas that hold the promise of breakthrough research,” said Dr. Samuel Klein, SDRI’s Chief Scientific O cer. “This research will take us beyond glucose control and create evidence-based solutions to improve metabolic health and multi-organ system function related to all forms of diabetes.”

SDRI continues to be leaders in diabetes

research as well as addressing the growing health disparities for underrepresented populations a ected by diabetes. Additionally, the priority in providing high-quality clinical care to children and adults impacted by diabetes will not waiver.

“SDRI remains steadfast to its mission,” said Goodstein. “In 2021 alone, 4,510 people participated in clinical trials at SDRI. The diabetes in pregnancy team assisted 158 women navigate the di cult road of a pregnancy complicated by diabetes. SDRI is incredibly grateful for the philanthropic support for new ideas, new research, and the opportunity to continue Dr. Sansum’s legacy.”

Today over 37 million Americans live with diabetes and the important work in diabetes research continues. Your support helps make it possible for SDRI to continue their promise to improve the lives of people impacted by diabetes through research, education, and clinical care.

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Today, approximately 1.84 million Americans have type 1 diabetes, and 244,000 of those people are under the age of 20. By 2050, an additional 600,000 people of this age group are expected to have diabetes. As these numbers grow, our research continues to help us better understand the chronic condition.

Dr. Lois Jovanovic served SDRI for 26 years, and her groundbreaking research resulted in the current global standards for care in diabetes during pregnancy. Today, Dr. Kristin Castorino, SDRI’s Senior Research Physician, continues to advance Dr. Jovanovic’s legacy, and leads our Diabetes in Pregnancy research team.

What We Need...

Dr. William Sansum, renowned diabetes specialist and SDRI’s founder, was the first U.S. physician to manufacture and administer insulin in the treatment of diabetes.

Dr. Sansum’s quest to improve the lives of people with diabetes has paved the way for current and future SDRI researchers to continue their significant, life-saving work.

Advances in diabetes technology have transformed the treatment paradigm for type 1 diabetes, yet the burden of the disease is significant. SDRI, along with collaborators from centers like Yale, University of Virginia, Harvard, and Stanford, carried out the pivotal safety study of the first tubeless, on-body automated insulin delivery system.

Help Those Impacted by Diabetes

100years ago, SDRI’s founder, Dr. William Sansum, became the first US physician to manufacture and administer lifesaving insulin. This advancement saved the lives of millions of people and established Santa Barbara as a mecca for those seeking treatment for diabetes. So much has been accomplished in the last one hundred years, yet our important work must continue to improve the lives of those who live with diabetes.

Please donate today to continue our promise for improving the lives of people impacted by diabetes through research, education, and care. www.sansum.org/ways-to-give

More than 37 million Americans have diabetes (about 1 in 10), and approximately 90-95% of them have type 2 diabetes.

town of Santa Barbara has made amazing advancements in diabetes research and furthering treatments for not only people in our community, but all over the world. It started with Dr. Sansum, and the incredible work that he did, but SDRI has continued to thrive in medical innovation. Dr. Lois Jovanovic, another legend of diabetes research at SDRI, helped my wife, Ivana, when she was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Dr. Jovanovic gave my wife and I the family we had always dreamed of, and I am so grateful to SDRI for the work that is done there."

– Andrew Firestone Principal, StonePark Capital

KEY SUPPORTERS

Barker Foundation

Jerry and Geri Bidwell

Kim and Andy Busch

Timothy and Louise Casey

Tom and Nancy Crawford Joan Doell Arnold

Virgil Elings

Norman Kurland and Deborah David

Fred and Joyce Lukas

The Paskin Family Foundation

Sansum Diabetes Research Institute www.sansum.org 2219 Bath Street Santa Barbara, CA 93105 (805) 682-7638

Contact: Ellen Goodstein Executive Director (805) 682-7638 egoodstein@sansum.org

Mosher Foundation

The Ogle Family

The Redman Family

Robert and Ruth Reingold

Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree

Matthew and Natalie Rowe

Santa Barbara Foundation

Sandra Tillisch Svoboda

William K. Bowes, Jr. Foundation

Etty Yenni

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check:

Sansum Diabetes Research Institute

2219 Bath Street Santa Barbara, CA 93105

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 95-1684086

By Credit Card: sansum.org/ways-to-give

"Our

Comprehensive, No-cost Healthcare for Those Who Need It Most

he Bower Foundation recognizes and is happy to support the critical need for a free health clin ic for the approximately 20,000 individuals in Central and Northern Santa Barbara County who do not have health insurance. Providing individuals in this popula tion with preventive care is not only the ethical and right thing for us to do as a community, but also will save taxpayers substantial funds in preventing hospitalizations as a result of these indi viduals not receiving preventive treatment.”

– Jon Clark President, James S. Bower Foundation

Saturdays, but thanks to additional fundraising it is now also serving patients on Wednesdays. With sufficient support, Savie Health will soon be able to operate full-time and add dental and vision care in addition to preventative medical services.

“Many of our patients haven’t seen a doctor for a number of years,” Shugart says. “We pay for lab tests and for imaging like mammograms, ultrasounds, and X-rays. We’re a small staff of less than three full-time employees; the rest of the people, who include several physicians, are all volunteers.”

The impact that Savie Health is having in Santa Barbara County, as well as its potential to provide even more crucial medical care, cannot be overstated.

Dr. Ahmad Nooristani founded Savie Health in 2021, after seeing the need for a free health clinic in Lompoc through his work as a hospitalist at Lompoc Valley Medical Cen ter. He previously founded the SLO NOOR Foundation (free clinic) in San Luis Obispo in 2011, after seeing a similar need in that community.

In 2011, Dr. Ahmad Nooristani had an important realization. Many of the low-income (frequently undocumented) patients he was treating in his San Luis Obispo County were suffering from chronic health conditions that could have been mitigated with the preventative care built into health insurance plans. However, these individuals did not have insurance.

Nooristani’s response was to launch the SLO Noor Foundation, which, more than a decade later, continues to operate the only free clinic in all of San Luis Obispo County.

In 2018, Nooristani began working at the Lompoc Valley Medical Center, where he found the same issues. So, he discussed opening a clinic in Santa Barbara County with his board. When they balked, he hired Eryn Shugart, a veteran fundraiser for Santa Barbara nonprofits, to lead fundraising efforts to open a new clinic serving the county. With Shugart’s help, Nooristani and generous donors were able to open a free clinic, Savie Health, named after Nooristani’s young daughter, near the Medical Center.

Shugart says that the clinic has only been able to operate on Fridays and

“Santa Barbara County doesn’t have another free clinic,” Shugart points out. “We do not require any proof of income; we do not ask any questions about people’s documentation status. The only criteria we have for patients to be seen is not having health insurance.”

Savie Health also provides mental health care completely free of charge.

“The people we serve, whether in Lompoc, Santa Maria, or Los Alamos, are all part of this county,” Shugart says. “But the resources for medical care in North County are so meager compared to what exists in South County. There is a stark difference. There is such a need for this.”

Pictured are Ashley Costa from the Lompoc Valley Community Healthcare Or ganization along with Savie Health Executive Director Eryn Shugart, Founder Dr. Ahmad Nooristani, Senator Monique Limón, Volunteer Dr. Larry Li, and Lompoc City Council Member Jeremy Ball. Savie Health is grateful for the support of volunteer physicians, local nonprofits, and government officials.

“T

A Savie Health patient's son-in-law and grandson are pictured, in the waiting room at Savie Health. Savie's services keep individu als and families without health insurance in the greater Lompoc area healthy, helping to prevent unnecessary hospitalizations for untreated chronic conditions.

What We Need...

Make Healthcare Free, Forever

Savie Health needs your help to not only continue its crucial work in providing free medical care in Santa Barbara County, but more importantly, to broaden the scope to include dental services. To accomplish this and long-term sustainability, Savie Health is raising money to create a permanent endowment. The nonprofit invites you to make a Founding Donation of $5,000, supporting the only permanent and full-time free clinic in Santa Barbara County. To donate and learn more about Savie Health, please visit www. saviehealth.org.

Savie Health is located at 1111 E. Ocean Avenue Suite 2, Lompoc, CA 93436.

Savie is just 1/4 mile away from Lompoc Valley Medical Center, where patients go to receive complementary lab tests and imaging services.

Volunteer Nurse Practitioner Trainee Joycelyn checks a patient's blood pressure. Savie Health focus es on preventive care, with a goal of controlling chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes.

“I was a little skeptical before coming to my appoint ment at Savie Health Clinic, but after my appoint ment and to my surprise, the outcome was better than I expected it to be. This clinic is exactly what any one without health insurance needs! My health care con cern was addressed at no cost to me. I now have peace of mind knowing that I am in the hands of a health care provider caring for my health.”

KEY SUPPORTERS

Savie Health saviehealth.org

1111 East Ocean Ave #2 Lompoc, CA 93436

Contact: Eryn Shugart, PhD Executive Director (805) 455-0165 eryn.shugart@saviehealth.org

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check: Savie Health Corp. P.O. Box 140 Lompoc, CA 93436

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 86-1668790

By Credit Card: saviehealth.org

– Carla Jimenez

Savie Health Patient & Savie Health Clinic Manager

Williams Corbett Foundation California Wellness Foundation

There are an estimated 20,000 individuals who do not have health insurance in Central and Northern Santa Barbara County. Savie Health is helping to address this critical concern through the preventive services that it offers.

Senior and Speciality Compassion Care

Mahatma Gandhi said, “The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.” These organizations are exemplary examples as they use compassion and innovation to protect the health of those most at risk.

Two Epiphanies Lead to a Life of Service

By Gary Marks

When she was young, Charlotte Gullap-Moore had two epiphanies that she felt would define her des tiny. The first came at age eight, when her mother sent her to her grandmother’s house to spend the summer. The image of her grandmother returning home from her work as a nurse left an indelible impression.

“She had the white cap on, the white uniform, and white shoes when she would walk through the front door,” Gul lap-Moore says. “She just had a radiant glow about her, and I knew then that I wanted to become a nurse.”

The second epiphany came when she was accepted into nurs ing school at Temple University. Although she had been saving money to put herself through school by working in a nursing home, she did not have enough money to buy the books she would need. Gullap-Moore worried aloud to one of her col leagues that, while excited to have gotten in, she did not know how she was going to pay for it. The next day when she came into work, the brother of one of her patients approached her and offered her the money she needed.

“‘I know you’re not allowed to take money, but I want to give you the money you need to buy books,’” they said. She was flabbergasted. “How did he even know?” Gullap-Moore says.

As it turned out, the family had overheard her conversation the previous day, and they decided that they should help her. She was reluctant to accept money from a stranger and the rela tive of one of her patients, but the man insisted. On her day off, she ventured to the benevolent stranger’s downtown office and took the elevator up to his penthouse suite. When he handed her the check, she had her second life-changing epiphany.

“‘I’m going to make sure that when I finish school and be come successful, I’m going to give back to the next generation of scholars,’” she recalls telling him.

She has since more than lived up to her promise to pave the way for the next generation. She has spent countless hours not only volunteering for philanthropic and charitable organiza tions, but she has served on several of their boards. At one point in the last few years, she served on seven philanthropic, public service, or charitable boards of directors simultaneously.

“Depending on where you are in life, you may not have the money to write big checks with a whole bunch of com mas, but if you can be a living physical illustration of a good

steward…” she says. “It’s about making sure you are living a lifestyle that physically demonstrates what it looks like to be a person of service.”

Ever since receiving that $500 gift for her school books, Gul lap-Moore has never stopped servicing. In 2010, she founded “Moore On Health,” a full-service nursing concierge service dedicated to a holistic approach to health care. And in 2022, Charlotte was elected to the Santa Barbara City College Board of Trustees, where she will continue to fulfill her promise made long ago, to give back to the next generation of scholars.

Summing up her lifelong dedication to being a public stew ard, Charlotte says it’s simple: “Just follow your heart.”

“Depending

Providing Compassionate Care in a Loving Community

If ever a well-known Latin phrase epitomized a venerable Santa Barbara organization, “in loco parentis” (“in place of a parent”) is a perfect fit for Hillside. Not only is Hillside entrusted by families to care for their loved ones, but it also provides an actual physical place, that is a true home, where responsibilities and duties are matched with care, love, encouragement, and the fulfillment of potential.

From its inception nearly 80 years ago, Hillside has offered intensive medical support and empathetic caregiving for people challenged with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). Originally conceived in the late 1930s as a model residential facility for children with cerebral palsy, Hillside now provides state-ofthe-art services to an adult I/DD population on a picturesque 24-acre setting in the Hidden Valley neighborhood of Santa Barbara. Beyond medical support and 24-hour nursing care, Hillside programs include aquatic therapy, physical therapy, recreational therapy, sensory motor training, independent living skills training, and occupational therapy.

A key difference that puts Hillside in the vanguard of similar adult facilities is their emphasis on person-centered care. Program

design and participation are a joint venture between staff and residents, so each resident has the greatest opportunity to achieve their highest level of independence and accomplishment, while living in a respectful and loving environment.

President and CEO Michael Rassler describes the prevailing atmosphere at Hillside for both residents and staff, “Every day is inspiring, realizing how much the same we all are.” Rassler notes how connected the Hillside family is with staff and residents caring for each other, working together to solve challenges and to achieve the best outcomes.

“The staff and our residents are constantly engaged, and the end result is their justifiable pride,” he says. Even the challenge of the pandemic proved the resourcefulness of the staff and residents, who expanded on-campus opportunities when leaving Hillside was not possible.

If any single resident personifies the homey spirit of Hillside, it’s Barbara, now age 78, who came to Hillside as a nine-year-old child in 1944. Rassler calls her Hillside’s “mother hen to a lot of chicks.” She has taken on many roles with residents: friend, mentor, project partner, and

lacing Sophie at Hillside was the most difficult, but most rewarding decision I have ever made. When Sophie was 17, we realized she needed things we could not give her: full-time skilled medical care and activities that kept her stimulated and happy. I did what I had to as a mother; I brought her to a place that could provide her what I could not. The day we dropped Sophie off I was heartbroken. What propelled me ahead were the amazing people at Hillside. I knew they were going to take care of her. She has been there over 18 years now. Hillside has provided not only for Sophie, but for our whole family – it has given us a life filled with trust, and love."

– Jessika Cardinahl

“family” member. As the resident who has called Hillside “home” the longest, Barbara’s seniority, as well as her remarkable memory, has earned her the right to be the one who tells all the stories at “celebration of life ceremonies.”

From the parental perspective, the mother of another resident, J.P., expresses profound relief and comfort, knowing her son is getting the care and services his family could not provide. J.P. came to Hillside six years ago when he turned 21. His parents and sister are amazed and pleased at the growth they have seen in him. The reality of trying to care for a severely challenged child had a major impact on each familial relationship. Now J.P.’s parents and sibling have rebuilt their sense of family while finding stronger, healthier ways to interact with their son and brother.

As it turns out, Hillside creates a new definition of family that improves life for everyone.

“P

Mother of Sophie, a resident at Hillside

Madison Rowe, our Director of Programs, helps Nancy plant a succulent in a clay pot. Hillside was fortunate to have wheelchair accessible planter boxes donated by the Adams Legacy Foundation, providing residents with sensory stimulation, purpose, and joy.

Many wonderful relationships are formed at Hillside between the dedicated direct-care staff and the residents, such as with Quinn McCormick, Director of Behavioral Management, and Barbara.

illside is a critically important part of a healthy community because we do need to care for those who are least able to care for themselves.”

Norris Goss Hillside Board of Directors Vice-Chair

KEY SUPPORTERS

Adams Legacy Foundation

Assistance League of Santa Barbara Henry W. Bull Foundation

CDBG Human Services

Ray and Susan Dingman Gardner Grout Foundation

Barry and Norris Goss Hutton Parker Foundation

Ann Jackson Family Foundation

Robert and Jan Kopf

Latkin Charitable Foundation

Montecito Bank & Trust

Mosher Foundation

Outhwaite Foundation

Santa Barbara Foundation

Chumash Foundation

Judy A. Shea

St. Francis Foundation

Thomson Charitable Foundation

Towbes Foundation

Peter and Gina Troesch

Alice Tweed Tuohy Foundation

Valmark Global Gift Fund

Williams-Corbett Foundation

Hillside

www.hillsidesb.org 1235 Veronica Springs Rd. Santa Barbara, CA 93105 (805) 687-0788

Contact: Michael S. Rassler President & CEO (805) 687-0788, x111 (805) 766-0896 (m) mrassler@Hillsidesb.org

“H

–

At Hillside, we do not just provide basic care; our residents are nurtured, valued, and loved. In this photo, Ariel Gonzalez, Qualified Intellectual Disability Profes sional, helps Katie celebrate her birthday earlier this year.

Norris Goss pictured with fellow Board Member John Demboski.

A Place to Call Home for Struggling Seniors

o many elderly women and men have touched my life over the years. Whether a grandparent or dear friend, their experiences and valuable contribu tions have always been of interest to me. Personal bonds are the inspiration for my wanting to become directly involved with the Rona Barrett Foundation and its work on behalf of seniors in their time of need. Like so many others, I’ve been im pressed with the Foundation’s efforts to develop and build the Golden Inn & Village. I eagerly anticipate the completion of Phase II, Harry’s House.”

– Cynthia Manigault Chairperson, Board of Trustees

Long before entertainment news trailblazer Rona Barrett interviewed everyone from Raquel Welch to Tom Cruise, she was a young girl at her father’s food store in Astoria, New York, standing on tiptoes to push buttons on the cash register.

She saw how much the customers loved her father, his sense of humor and, most of all, his generosity. Barrett watched him support friends and family and write checks each Sunday to small charities.

“He was always handing out money. And we didn’t have a lot of money!” Barrett says, “We were just an ordinary family. ‘We don’t need another dress, we don’t need another pair of shoes and if someone needs another pair of shoes…’ That was his thinking: If ever I had an extra nickel and didn’t need it, give it to someone who does. And that always stayed with me.”

That generous spirit led her to found The Rona Barrett Foundation, providing housing and community for seniors in need. After leaving Hollywood and caring for her father in

his final years, she realized that not all seniors have the means to live out their days in comfort.

Barrett parlayed her name recognition and started with a few donors and a patch of land in the Santa Ynez Valley. Fifteen years later, The Golden Inn & Village, a safe haven for lowincome seniors, opened its doors, with 60 small apartments and other wellness services, and maybe most importantly, dignity.

“Putting a roof over their heads was not enough,” says Barrett, who realized the scope of the problem when on their first move-in day, resident after resident showed up, not with furniture, but with paper bags in hand. “It hit the heart. I said, ‘My god, if this is going to happen all over the country, what are we going to do?’”

Many were unhoused, living in RV’s or sleeping from place to place. So the foundation bought beds and created a food program and community center.

Resident Carol LaRue recalls what it felt like to finally have security. “It was like winning one of the Golden Tickets in a Willy Wonka

Chocolate Bar. With the turn of a key and the opening of a door... I was home.”

In 2022, residents celebrated The Golden Inn & Village’s 5-year anniversary. In February, the foundation broke ground on Harry’s House, a facility with 60 units of congregate care named in honor of Barrett’s late father, Harry Burstein. The foundation hopes to establish a $20 million endowment to ensure that their residents have the security of knowing they will always have food and a place to call home.

“S

Nineteen of the original residents of the Golden Inn & Village were celebrated with a ‘graduation’ ceremony during the 5th anniversary of the Golden Inn and Village this year. “We couldn't think of a better way to celebrate than to honor the original residents who were here the day we opened our doors.” --Rona Barrett

Rona Barrett in The Robert and Carol Jackson Foundation Library at the Golden Inn & Village. The library was unveiled in 2018 and is a resident favorite.

What We Need...

Give the Foundation a Long Life

With life expectancy growing and an aging population without a safety net, The Rona Barrett Foundation is dedicated to giving seniors in need housing and dignity in their golden years.

Founded by pioneering entertainment journalist Rona Barrett, the organization created The Golden Inn & Village, a safe haven for seniors with limited means to live a quality life.

The Foundation has broken ground on a second facility, Harry’s House, and is seeking $20 million to create an endowment to give their residents security in the years ahead. You can help change the lives of the seniors who have given so much to their communities by giving them housing, community, mental health, and dignity.

California has the second highest rate of poverty among older adults in the country, leading to high levels of hunger and increasing homelessness.

Approximately 20 percent of all people 65 and over in California live in poverty.

The harsh reality of aging without a stable home includes dire health impacts: older adults without homes experience health problems that you would typically see in people who are 20 years older, including cognitive decline and decreased mobility.

– Source: California Master Plan for Aging: Housing for All Ages & Stages

It was never enough just to place a roof over people’s heads. That’s why The Rona Barrett Foundation created a host of health-centric services and socially-engaged activities and programs for the senior residents of the Golden Inn & Village.

The Rona Barrett Foundation www.ronabarrettfoundation.org P.O. Box 1559 Santa Ynez, CA 93460 (805) 688-8887

Contact: Tony Morris Executive Director (805) 688-8887 tony@ronabarrettfoundation.org

Carol LaRue is one of the original residents still residing at the Golden Inn and Village. When the Golden Inn and Village opened in 2016, there were over 900 applications for 60 units.

financial security.

Golden Inn & Village project opened my eyes to the urgency to provide low-income housing solutions for seniors

– Fred Rice Donor and Board Member, Emeritus

KEY SUPPORTERS

Annenberg Foundation

Ann Jackson Family Foundation

Hutton Parker Foundation

The Robert and Carol Jackson Charitable Foundation

Santa Barbara Foundation

Santa Ynez Valley Foundation

The Towbes Foundation

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Rona Barrett, Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Cynthia Manigault, Chairperson

Djamila Cabugos, Vice-President & Treasurer

Steve Reden, Secretary Jane Ayer

Roger Battistone

Lisa Clement, M.D.

Kelly Hunziker

Susan Weber

In Memoriam: Karen Langley Stephen

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check:

The Rona Barrett Foundation

P.O. BOX 1559

Santa Ynez, CA 93460

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 77-0555412

By Credit Card: ronabarrettfoundation.org/donate

“The

who have very little

Nationwide, there is a massive need for facilities like the Golden Inn & Village.”

Homelessness & Housing

Santa Barbara is riven by a crushing homelessness crisis. Many have tried and failed to make an impact, but these organizations are all – from different tacks – making a positive change.

Meeting Our Homeless Brothers and Sisters Where They Are

Anthony, an African American man in his early 60s, began visiting the Fr. Virgil Cordano Center (FVCC) more than a year ago. As a young man, he had had all of the trappings of success; he was married, had children, and a career working in a bank. But then he fell victim to alcohol and drug addiction, losing everything and becoming homeless.

When he began visiting the FVCC, Anthony was eager to work and do anything to help rebuild his dignity and self esteem. He began cleaning up around the Center. He was determined to rebuild his life and was searching for a hand up and not a handout. Debbie McQuade, Program Director of the FVCC, helped him nd a job working in a rm that cleans o ces and banks at night. e FVCC provided fresh and nutritious meals to strengthen his body and, most importantly, he found a sense of community that restored his

dignity and provided encouragement to begin rebuilding his life.

Anthony’s story is far from unique. In the last few months alone, 35 members of the Fr. Virgil Cordano Center, who visited the Center to have meals or receive support, secured stable employment. For some of these men and women, the FVCC has been the only place they could call home.

A Tradition of Caring Through Compassion and Acceptance

Barbara’s homeless community can rest during the day. e FVCC is open Monday through Friday 9am - 3pm and o ers nutritional meals; case management and support in accessing eligible social services and work/housing opportunities; access to utilities such as a kitchen, laundry machines, computers, and the internet; and a safe place to rest, socialize, and experience a sense of community. In short, the FVCC provides a place of welcome and support for the needs and well-being of homeless men and women.

“Finding a job is all about persistence.

At the Fr. Virgil Cordano Center, I got the proper nourishment which was good for my body and made me a lot healthier. And then I got a lot of encouragement from the sta and volunteers, too.”

– JOHNNY WATKINS

Named

after Father Virgil Cordano, the beloved longtime pastor of Old Mission Santa Barbara who passed away in 2008, the FVCC is the only drop-in Homeless Day Center in the Santa Barbara area that o ers services addressing the physical and community needs of homeless men and women during the day. While services exist in the Santa Barbara area o ering shelter at night, many unsheltered people do not have a safe place to rest during the day other than public areas where they are often made to feel unwelcome. e Center includes 34 comfortable chairs where members of Santa

e Fr. Virgil Cordano Center rst opened its doors in 2019 and is a collaborative social services ministry of the two oldest Roman Catholic communities in Santa Barbara: the Franciscan Friars of Old Mission Santa Barbara, who arrived in 1786, and the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, who arrived in 1858 and are currently located at St. Vincent’s. Faithful to the traditions of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Vincent de Paul, both of whom modeled a simple lifestyle in service of the poor. e FVCC is just the latest in a long collaboration between the Friars and the Daughters of Charity, which began more than 160 years ago, and aims to alleviate the harsh conditions of homelessness, restore a sense of dignity and community to the most vulnerable and marginalized of our community, and provide needed support to help our unsheltered sisters and brothers transition out of homelessness.

e Center’s co-founder, Father John Hardin, a Franciscan Friar, says the FVCC ful lls a need for those without homes in a county whose

social service network is not able to meet the ever-increasing demands of its citizens. Father John estimates that there are approximately 2,000 people without homes in Santa Barbara. e FVCC currently serves 50 to 70 “guests” each day, as Father John and FVCC sta and volunteers call them, refusing to treat them as merely clients but guests, each with their own story and in need of a safe place to feel welcome and rest. e FVCC also attempts to provide things that those who have never experienced homelessness may take for granted, such as ear plugs to block out the noise of the streets when sleeping outside, sleeping bags for warmth, and new socks to replace those worn through by miles of walking each day. To help restore a sense of dignity, the FVCC has made arrangements with a local laundromat to wash their bulky clothing. To foster a sense of community and as a fun break from daily struggles, the FVCC sta facilitate a wide range of activities at the Center, including painting, the creation of ornaments to adorn the Center’s Christmas tree, and writing of Christmas and seasonal holiday greeting cards to communicate with family.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when the FVCC had to temporarily close the Center’s doors to comply with the CDC Health Guidelines, the Center continued to be of service to Santa Barbara’s homeless community by converting its building into a meal distribution center where meals were cooked and assembled to be handed out in Santa Barbara’s parks. More than 500 meals were assembled and distributed each week along with other essentials, such as sleeping

bags and hygiene kits to help the homeless community cope with inclement weather during a period of reduced shelter capacity. e FVCC also provides critical lifelines of communication to help guests reconnect with family and friends, as well as apply for eligible social services and employment and housing opportunities. e guests are encouraged to use the Center’s mailing address to obtain government documents and to be able to send and receive mail from family and friends. Having assistance in contacting family is often essential for disabled guests, who may have di culty using traditional methods of communication such as a telephone. For example, James, who is deaf, had di culty reaching his family as he only had a telephone number. With the assistance of the FVCC sta members, who could relay messages written down by James over the phone, he was able to reconnect with his family and let them know where he was and that he was okay.

Companionship and Community

di erence between hope and despair. Sister Arthur Gordon, who assumed the role of the Center Supervisor three years ago, explains that the Companionship Club may be the rst time that guests feel like they are a member of something. Building a community based on mutual recognition and respect, and where familiarity can become the basis of a support network to build a new future, is the primary goal of the “Companionship Club.”

Meeting Them Where They Are

The

community and a sense of belonging is key to the success of the Fr. Virgil Cordano Center. Guests are asked to become members of the Center’s “Companionship Club,” which includes all sta and volunteers as members, to create a community without labels in a service work that can so often divide those who serve from those being served. Some of those without homes are often so alienated and marginalized that it may be a very long time before they hear their name spoken by another person or are acknowledged directly as a person with a story and dreams. For Father John and the Daughters of Charity who work at the FVCC, service and companionship begin with unconditional love. Many of those living on the streets feel abandoned by society, so just to have a safe place where people know and greet you by your name and who are interested in hearing what you have to say can be the

Fostering

SCAN TO LEARN MORE ABOUT FR. VIRGIL CORDANO CENTER

REGINA RUIZ

Chief Development O cer rruiz@sv-sb.org frvirgilcordanocenter.org (805) 683-6383 4020 Calle Real, Suite #2 Santa Barbara, CA 93110 Tax ID# 95-1643367

FVCC has a small sta of just two employees. Program Director Debbie McQuade came to the Fr. Virgil Cordano Center after working for 25 years at Sarah House, a nonpro t that provides end-of-life care for low-income persons. Her days are spent preparing meals, organizing sta and volunteers, and addressing the other needs of the Center, including greeting and listening to guests who visit the Center each day. Many who regularly visit the Center call her “Sister Debbie,” even though she is not a member of the Daughters of Charity or any other religious order. e heart of the Center is its approximately 35 dedicated volunteers who spend many hours preparing and serving food, assisting with laundry, cleaning, and among many other things, engaging the guests in a simple conversation that seamlessly fosters a spirit of community every day. Indeed, many of the things the guests need are often very simple, modest things, like help with repairing the zipper of a sleeping bag, or a place to wash their clothes or wash their face.

rough these conversations, McQuade knows that the Fr. Virgil Cordano Center could do even more for Santa Barbara’s homeless community with additional support. Your donations can help purchase bus tokens to help guests travel to and from work and the FVCC (which is a 90-minute walk from the nearest homeless shelter). Your donations can also help provide the hundreds of meals served by the Center each week as well as other daily needs such as laundry supplies to help maintain each guest’s dignity and hygiene.

Larger philanthropic contributions can support the Center’s work nding housing for its members and paying rent and utilities. Donations also support the Center’s sta ng and housing coordinators and to provide rental housing conjoined with City and County subsidies to guarantee rent. Longterm, the Fr. Virgil Cordano Center seeks to build a new and larger Center with on-site housing for community members who are in transition to more permanent housing.

Safety for Those Who Need It Most

New Beginnings Executive Director Kris tine Schwarz swung into action after learning that a nursing home was about to release one of the nonprofit’s former clients – a U.S. Navy veteran with debilitating health issues – onto the street.

New Beginnings had helped the unhoused 59-year-old Santa Barbara native get off the streets at the beginning of the pandemic and eventually transition to independent living. When his case worker found him unconscious and unresponsive in his home, he was rushed to the emergency room and eventually to a nursing home for around-the-clock care. Even though the facility deemed him cognitively impaired and unable to take care of himself, they decided to release him to the streets.

“I called the ombudsman, community care licensing, public health department, adult protective services – then I called the social worker, and I said, ‘If you exit him, I’m going to have everybody I can find at your agency within the hour!’” Schwarz recalls.

The facility opted not to release him – a win for New Beginnings and Schwarz, who describes herself as “a fierce advocate” for those who don’t have anyone.

“The number of times I have walked into

an apartment and found incredible illness and frailty where a person is unable to care for him or herself is more than I would like to think exists, but I don’t know of any other way to support our staff and understand the depth of need other than getting involved at that level,” says Schwarz, who has led the organization for 11 years. “All of our leadership and program staff triage at that level. We show up. We take care of very difficult cases.”

Since its inception over five decades ago, New Beginnings has remained a safety net for society’s most vulnerable: Those dealing with homelessness and severe and persistent mental health issues who cannot get help anywhere else.

Sometimes the hours are long and the work thankless, but Schwarz and her team press on. The mission “to provide quality, affordable counseling, shelter, case management, and education that strengthen our community and provide our clients with the ability to lead healthy and productive lives” remains their driving force.

New Beginnings offers several programs, including affordable counseling on a sliding scale to those who don’t otherwise have access, safe parking, and rapid rehousing for those temporarily living in their vehicles, and supportive

services for veterans. Last year, the organization provided over $1 million in direct financial assistance to its clients. Through its various programs, the nonprofit served 1,435 individuals and helped 120 homeless secure housing.

“New Be ginnings reaches out to provide services to members of our community who most need a hand. One of their innovative programs is Safe Parking. My late husband Gary encouraged New Beginnings to write a manual that out lined the details of the program with the intent of sharing it with other cities. That manual and Safe Parking has now gone far beyond Santa Barbara, and is helping hundreds of people. I am pleased to support New Beginnings and all its good works.”

– Mary Becker Donor

(Credit: Genaro Molina; Copyright © 2016. Los Angeles Times. Used with Permission)

Volunteers, staff and Jonny Donahoe and Paddy Gervers at the final perfor mance of Every Brilliant Thing.

What We Need...

One Roof

In 2023, New Beginnings plans to centralize its main office and bring three locations under one roof in Santa Barbara. To do that, the nonprofit will need a commercial landlord willing to rent to an agency that works with veterans, the homeless, and people struggling with mental illness, and financial assistance from generous donors totaling $250,000.

Donations are also always needed to cover things government assistance won’t, like appliances, beds, medical assistive devices, renter’s application fees, renter’s insurance, and more. New Beginnings Executive Director Kristine Schwarz’s other major ask is an appeal to landlords and property managers to help serve the unhoused by making units available for them to rent and live in.

“We need landlords and property managers to work with us,” Schwarz says, noting that they have dozens of people housed all over the county who they provide supportive housing retention services for on a daily basis.

“My husband, Jon, and I believe that New Beginnings provides many vital services to the homeless and un derserved mentally ill in our community through a host of successful and national ly recognized programs. They could do an even better and more efficient job if they could consolidate their outdated office space that is currently spread out in several locations into one location better designed to support their programs. Jon and I are glad to support this important initiative to help New Beginnings relocate into much needed new office space.”

– Sandy Schoolfield and Jon Kechejian

A veteran client at his new hous ing complex

Supportive Services for Veteran Families Program team members table the Annual Veteran Stand Down in Santa Maria in October 2022.

New Beginnings’ Safe Parking and Veterans Program team members sponsor a table at the Housing First Conference in Seattle in April 2022.

Veterans Program Manager Victor Virgen, Safe Parking Program Manager Cassie Roach and Executive Director Kristine Schwarz visit with Congress man Salud Carbajal while attending the annual National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) Conference in Washington, D.C. in July 2022.

The Many Ways to Give...

New Beginnings sbnbcc.org 324 East Carrillo Street, Suite C Santa Barbara, CA 93101 (805) 963-7777

Contact: Kristine Schwarz Executive Director (805) 963-7777 kschwarz@sbnbcc.org

By Check: New Beginnings 324 E. Carrillo St., Suite C Santa Barbara, CA 93101

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 77-0556795

By Credit Card: sbnbcc.org/donate

PATH SANTA BARBARA

Ending the Crisis of Our Time

When your mission is to end homelessness in California, watching the number of unsheltered people continue to climb across the state can be daunting.

In Santa Barbara alone, nearly 2,000 people live without shelter, as evidenced by the number of encampments cropping up along railroad paths, roadsides, and waterfronts throughout the county. When she took over as CEO of PATH (People Assisting the Homeless) at the beginning of 2022, Jennifer Hark Dietz was conscious that to truly end homelessness, you also have to work to prevent it.

“At PATH, I feel we are capable of doing both,” Dietz says. “We can help an individual who is on the street find shelter and at the same time, we can focus on changing the system to prevent homelessness from happening at all.”

In 2021, PATH co-sponsored a state bill that would have provided funding for individuals who were incarcerated for minor o enses to get connected to a housing resource upon their release. The legislation was inspired by data from PATH’s advocacy arm. Their data

showed that recidivism decreases significantly when a release from prison is linked to a housing resource and case manager. The bill didn’t pass, but PATH will not give up on pushing it again.

“I’m most proud of PATH using our data to really inform our advocacy,” Dietz says. “That is what will change the system.”

Alongside its tireless policy advocacy, PATH continues to do what it does best: help people find permanent homes and support them with medical and mental healthcare and employment training support to ensure they remain stable.

Across California, PATH serves more than 25,000 vulnerable individuals each year. In Santa Barbara, PATH serves half of the county’s homeless population, and they permanently housed 65 people in the last year. Attracting resources to Santa Barbara’s homelessness crisis is a top priority for the organization.

“In Santa Barbara, we recognize that the chronicity of the individuals we serve is very high, so the needs of our participants are also very high,” Dietz says.

– John “JB” Bowlin PATH Associate Director of Philanthropy and Community A airs

“P

ATH relies on the generosity of food donations and volunteer kitchen support to make three nourishing meals each day for residents. Being well nourished and cared for can be the first step on a per-

son’s journey to healing and home.”

PATH Santa Barbara’s 100-bed interim housing site has been in operation since 2015. In that time, PATH helped more than 2,000 people make it home.

PATH is always looking for volunteers to help serve daily meals to our residents!

What We Need...

Help PATH Do What It Does Best

Responding to Santa Barbara’s homeless crisis requires a robust fundraising operation. For 2022 alone, the overall goal is to raise $700,000.

A portion of this comes from PATH’s annual event in June, A Toast to Home, in partnership with Sunstone Winery. PATH’s annual holiday campaign, which launched in November, also aims to raise much-needed funding.

Individual donations will help PATH strengthen its services like its food rescue program and invest in improving its interim housing facility in Santa Barbara, which provides shelter and case management for up to 100 people. PATH recently completed the first phase of a three-part renovation to the facility. A second phase will overhaul the bathrooms to ensure the site becomes, as CEO Jennifer Hark Dietz puts it, “a trauma-informed space.”

“By donating, you are part of the solution to ending the crisis of our time,” Dietz says. “By giving, you are helping someone make it home.”

The 2022 Point-In-Time count results showed that over 2,000 people in Santa Barbara County are experiencing homelessness, a 4% increase from the number of individuals counted in 2020. We need the support now more than ever to help the most vulnerable in our community.

PATH Santa Barbara

816 Cacique Street #3622 Santa Barbara, CA 93103 (805) 884-8481

Contact: John "JB" Bowlin Associate Director of Philanthropy & Community A airs (805) 979-8710 johnb@epath.org

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check:

PATH Santa Barbara 816 Cacique Street, #3622 Santa Barbara, CA 93103

| www.thegivinglist.com |

Through PATH’s Permanent Supportive Housing Program, Michael and his cat, Whiskey, now have a safe place to call home. Michael experienced homelessness and substance abuse, but turned his life around and is now in school to become a Drug and Alcohol Counselor.

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 95-3950196

Memo: Santa Barbara

PATH Santa Barbara's essential team members help provide case management, housing navigation, and employment support to our residents. The pandemic provided major challenges, but our teams persisted, keeping our sta and residents safe and healthy.

Shannon Brunner, Director of Programs, meets with Alice, a participant who recently moved into her own apartment after staying at PATH. Alice stayed at PATH Santa Barbara for nearly a year after losing her family support system. Thanks to the dedication of our case managers and housing navigators, more people like Alice are making it home!

Nourishment

The health of a community and the people in it comes down to food. These organizations are nourishing us and our region.

Nutrition to Thrive During Cancer

Malnutrition is one of the most common – and most serious – side e ects of cancer and its treatment. It a ects up to 80% of cancer patients according to the National Cancer Institute. Victor Bartolome, Santa Barbara resident and former NBA basketball player, knows this better than anyone. After experiencing five years of chemotherapy and its debilitating side e ects, including no appetite and weight loss, he was at great risk of malnutrition. “I was in dire need of nourishment,” he says. “There wasn’t a better medicine imaginable than Organic Soup Kitchen.”

Victor is far from the only cancer survivor who has relied on Organic Soup Kitchen’s (OSK) nutrient-dense SoupMeals for lifesaving nutrition. Since 2009, the organization has served over a million bowls of nutrient dense soup to community members battling cancer and chronic illness. “You saved me,” says cancer survivor Sherilyn Pearson. “During my cancer treatments, I lost a ton of weight and OSK gave me the nutrition I wouldn’t have otherwise had. I’ve never been on the receiving end of something like that and it made a huge di erence in my recovery.”

At the age of 36, Danielle Netko received the worst news of her life, a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma with a seven-millimeter tumor. After months of alternative treatment and a regular diet of Organic Soup Kitchen soups, her tumor shrunk

to 2/3 millimeter. She shares her story to give others hope after a devastating diagnosis. She firmly believes that the combination of Organic Soup Kitchen soups and holistic therapies were the magic ingredients in her recovery.

This year marks 13 years that Organic Soup Kitchen has been providing clinically formulated SoupMeals for community members struggling with cancer or other chronic illnesses.

The only one of its kind in the nation, Organic Soup Kitchen provides nutrition to thousands of residents throughout Santa Barbara County. “We’re so fortunate to have this incredible resource in our backyard,” says Brooke Johnson, Medical Social Worker. “For so many people fighting a serious illness and going through intense treatments, completing the most basic task such as cooking a meal can feel like climbing a mountain. OSK relieves some of that stress and burden with their soup delivery, while also providing vital nutrition that is so important to building up our clients’ immune systems.”

Organic Soup Kitchen’s service provides not only nutrient-dense complete meals, but crucial human interaction for their clients, including many low-income and isolated seniors. Their growing, dedicated team of volunteer drivers, who deliver the handcrafted SoupMeals directly to their clients’ doorsteps, is augmented by partnerships with 25 other health and human service organizations.

"I am a caregiver for a dear friend whose breast cancer has metastasized, Stage IV, to her bones and elsewhere. I first made contact with the Organic Soup Kitchen via email to Andrea. These organic soups and the multitude of recipes provide life sustaining nutrition to cancer and other seriously ill patients. And they are delicious. With the focus to provide this invaluable service to low-income patients as well as others who are recipients of the Organic Soup Kitchen soups serves a noble purpose. The friend that I care for and myself express our gratitude and thanks beyond measure to OSK's sta , drivers and volunteers for the life saving work they do. And they do it with love. The Ridley-Tree Cancer Center of Santa Barbara lists the Organic Soup Kitchen as a valuable nutritional resource for patients and care givers to consider.

“I recommend to anyone who is looking to make a charitable contribution to a local nonprofit look no further than the Organic Soup Kitchen. Your contribution will help many people. Thank you Organic Soup Kitchen!”

– Gary Villalba Caregiver

“Our population is aging at a rapid pace and, unfortunately, with that the incidence of illness increases,” says Andrea Slaby, co-founder and Chief Operating O cer. “Organic Soup Kitchen has the expertise and capacity to help more people and is actively looking to expand its operation.”

hen someone is going through chemotherapy, they need healthy and nourishing food more than anything, but most of the time they don’t have the physical and mental energy to get up and do it for themselves. Organic Soup Kitchen does it for them with so much love and care! They work tirelessly in rain or shine to make sure that all their clients get their nutritious soup on time. I feel so blessed and privileged to be a small part of this gem of an organization in our community! I joined hands with them a few years back and I am happy to say that I am here to stay and support this wonderful organization in the years to come!”

– Sharmila Gunasekara Monthly Donor

“W

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY FOOD ACTION NETWORK

Cultivating a Robust Local Food System

J ackie Carrera, President & CEO of the Santa Barbara Foundation, sits in the Santa Barbara City College Permaculture Garden. "Connecting residents to food grown in our region is common sense. Santa Barbara Foundation invests in the Santa Barbara County Food Action Network (SBCFAN) to improve food systems and provide better access to food, especially for Santa Barbara County’s low- and middle-income residents. The work SBCFAN does today will secure a healthier, sustainable, and more food-secure Santa Barbara County (and beyond) for generations to come."

– Jackie Carrera President and CEO, Santa Barbara Foundation

We all know the basic needs of life: air, water, food, and shelter. Here in Santa Barbara County, all four are at our fingertips, although not always in our grasp. The Santa Barbara County Food Action Network (SBCFAN) is working to ensure that food is not as fleeting. Their work is cut out for them: 99% of the produce we grow is exported while 95% of the produce we eat is imported.

SBCFAN Executive Director Shakira Miracle points out that this drastic imbalance between what we grow and what we eat is due to such things as a need for regional infrastructure, access to resources, and updated policy.

In order to have a robust local food system, Miracle believes Santa Barbara County will need to develop these three areas to build resilience and sustainability into our communities across the region.

Farmers Mike and Lorena Iñiguez of Ebby’s Organic Farm have leased farmland

in Goleta for 42 years, but recent problems severely threatened their livelihood. In a onetwo punch, climate change lessened rainfall while city water prices soared. Mike stopped growing vegetables that demand more irrigation. He focused on crops that require little water and provide a stable revenue stream. But that wasn’t enough. They were forced to lease less expensive farmland that included water access – both in short supply throughout our region.

SBCFAN connected Mike and Lorena with both immediate and longer-term support: legal consultation; emergency and longerterm funding; support with farming methods; marketing; and secured new revenue streams through SBCFAN’s video storytelling.

As the Thomas Fire and Montecito Mudslide took their toll, Leslie Person Ryan quickly realized that Summerland had no grocery store or access to fresh produce.

Digging into her farming roots, Leslie decided to help ensure that food access wouldn’t be an issue during the next disaster. According to Ryan, it was SBCFAN that helped her raise $2 million to purchase the last remaining acres of farm-ready land in Summerland. As a result, Leslie was able to secure Sweet Wheel Farms in Summerland, an educational farm just a few blocks from her farm stand. Leslie was able to expand the farm stand o erings and build long-term sustainable food security for the local community.

Miracle sums up just how much we are all connected in good times and bad. “People know what they need,” she says. “They just need help accessing it. SBCFAN navigates the food system for individuals and communities to create direct access to information, people, resources, and policy. Together, we’re rebuilding a stronger, more resilient food system, from the ground up.”

SBCFAN is helping Mike access funding, legal services, and find long-term sustainable farmland – as well as amplifying his story across multiple media channels to increase awareness of common challenges small farmers face.

Sorongon

What We Need...

Help the Local Food System Thrive

SBCFAN is a hub for regional food system information, resources, and policy navigation. Granted 501(c)(3) status in 2022, the network needs $30,000 per month to support the activation of the Food Action Plan’s four areas: Economy, Health, Community, and Foodshed. Current and/or developing projects include: financing and impact investment; workforce development; farm to school; processing and distribution of seeds, grains, meat; medically supported food interventions; community kitchens; farmland preservation; food waste.

As the stories on this spread illustrate, SBCFAN is working – and succeeding –to develop a robust local food economy, a healthy and just community, and a wellstewarded, resilient foodshed. $30,000/ month ensures that this critical work continues – for years to come.

KEY

Santa Barbara County Food Action Network sbcfan.org 133 E. De La Guerra St. #268 Santa Barbara, CA 93101

Contact: Shakira Miracle Executive Director (805) 705-5452 smiracle@sbcfan.org

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check:

Santa Barbara County Food Action Network

133 E. De La Guerra St. #268 Santa Barbara, CA 93101

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 87-1266678

By Credit Card: sbcfan.org/donate

“T

–Melissa

Jerry Mahoney of Blosser Urban Garden in Santa Maria shares strategies for building a sustainable operation with fellow farmers at an SBCFAN-organized Farmer Gathering. These events provide a space for farmers to share experiences and knowledge, discuss how they can directly a ect policy and systems change, and access resources.

The Arts

The arts, and aligned artistic pursuits, breathe imagination and inspiration into communities. From the design of our open spaces to giving young people an avenue of expression, the arts are far more than additive; they are essential to the human experience.

Extended Family

By Steven Libowitz

Palmer Jackson Jr. comes by his fondness for philanthro py honestly. In fact, the concept of giving back through donating dollars and volunteer time has been passed down through the generations like a valuable heirloom or a middle name, a part of the fabric of the family.

The Montecito native was just 13 years old in 1978 when his fa ther, Palmer Jackson, Sr., created the Ann Jackson Family Founda tion, named in honor of Senior’s mother, who provided the initial seed money to continue Ann and her husband Charles’ philan thropic commitment in perpetuity. Ann Gavit Jackson herself was already a second-generation philanthropist as her father, Palmer Jr.’s great grandfather E. Palmer Gavit, an early settler of the area, who for 23 years owned the property now known as Lotusland, was one of the founders of the Santa Barbara Foundation.

Palmer Jackson, Sr., not only ran the foundation and helped to dramatically increase its endowment, but also served on numerous nonprofit boards all over town. Palmer Jr., his two brothers, sister, and two cousins got involved in the family foundation early and have kept at it all their lives.

“The foundation was the catalyst for us to learn about so many nonprofits in Santa Barbara, which has more nonprofits per capita than any other city in the country,” he says. “The foundation makes grants to about 150 organizations around town so we really got to know quite a few of them. Then we followed in my dad’s footsteps by joining a bunch of different boards ourselves.”

Over the years, Palmer Jr. has donated thousands of hours on the boards of the Cate School and the Santa Barbara Boys & Girls Club as well as indulging his passion for culture and the arts by joining the boards of the Museum of Natural History –he’s a lifetime trustee – and the Lobero Theatre.

Now Jackson not only serves as the managing trustee of the Jackson Family Foundation – his dad is still an active member at age 92 – he’s also the chairman of the Granada Theatre’s Board and recently joined the Santa Barbara Symphony’s board.

Why such a passion for the arts?

For one thing, Jackson is himself a musician, still getting to gether regularly with the Doublewide Kings, his band of 20 years, who play gigs for benefits as well as clubs and theaters all over town, including the Lobero.

“Of course I’m going to care a lot about music and the arts. That’s just natural,” he says.

But Jackson also considers culture and the arts as essential, something as admirable and important as human services, to continue to prop up the philanthropic sector.

“The thriving arts community is part of why people move here in the first place and stay for a long time,” he says. “We have a way outsized quality of arts in town, and that attracts a lot of the more philanthropically oriented people. That helps everybody in turn because once they’re living here, they support lots of other non profits, giving to health services and education and food organi zations – whatever else they care about. It’s not a zero-sum game.”

During the pandemic, Jackson’s love for the arts propelled him to put forth an even greater effort to protect presenters and arts organizations in town from the economic ravages of the COVID closures, stepping up his own giving in emergency grants to encourage colleagues to do the same. It’s part of the reason why every single arts and cultural organization in town survived the pandemic and have reopened their doors – some thing not every town can say.

Now, more than four decades since his first introduction to philanthropy through his family’s foundation, a great number of Jackson’s friends have joined the ranks as board members, nonprofit executives, and arts organization staffers he’s served with over the decades.

“There are so many interesting and powerful people and we forged a lot of relationships doing the work together,” he says. “I’ve gained a lot of good friendships.”

You might even think of them as extended family.

During the pandemic, Jackson’s love for the arts propelled him to put forth an even greater effort to protect presenters and arts organizations in town from the economic ravages of the COVID closures, stepping up his own giving in emergency grants to encourage colleagues to do the same.

“As residents of both Pasadena and Santa Barbara, we listen to KPCC, Southern California Public Radio, a trusted source of information, on 89.3 and 89.9. Every day we learn something interesting and important. We’re especially proud of the measurable impact of KPCC’s investigative reporting team, which helps to make sense of complex issues and shines the light of truth in dark places.”

- JANE AND RON OLSON Donors & Philanthropists

Southern California Public Radio Is What Democracy Sounds Like in Santa Barbara

When Herb Scannell took the helm at Southern California Public Radio (SCPR) nearly four years ago, he found himself scribbling down the words “democracy needs to be heard.”

The longtime industry executive, who once led Nickelodeon and BBC Worldwide America, had been thinking in early 2019 about the striking rise in partisanship and polarizing discourse playing out across the country. Scannell, SCPR’s president and CEO, had no idea then that the slogan he created, which was used in the company’s capital campaign brochure and radio mes saging, would ring prophetic. The need for journalism to be “a stalwart of democracy” is more important today than ever, he says, and lives large in local communities.

“Local elections and school boards are hav ing a profound impact on what books your kids read or don’t read,” Scannell says. “Elec tion officials who were not high profile… are all of a sudden being named and are sources of criticism and even threatened.”

Founded in a broom closet in 2000 at Pasa dena City College, SCPR has since blossomed into the most-heard public radio news service in Southern California with some 700,000 lis teners and 80,000 annual members.

The public media company purchased its Santa Barbara station in 2014, where it has 6,000 listeners and another 8,100 listeners in the Ojai, Oxnard, and Ventura markets. The award-winning public media company also includes the news site LAist.com and a growing slate of popular podcasts. Across plat forms, SCPR reaches an audience of 3.5 mil lion people a month.

SCPR started thinking about its role as a guardian of democracy more earnestly after the January 6, 2021 insurrection on Capitol Hill rocked the nation. People had converged on Washington, D.C. from around the coun try, including California, and it felt like the time was ripe for the media agency to embody the mission of strengthening civic engagement and civic culture.

“When you see an insurrection like that play out on live TV, it begs the question, ‘What are we doing to help people understand how we got here and what changes are taking place?’” says Kristen Muller, SCPR’s chief con tent officer.

When their longtime political reporter left for another job, they seized the opportunity to re-in vent the beat. Frank Stolze was tapped to be come their civics and democracy correspondent to produce voter-centered political coverage.

“... the empathy that will hopefully come as we walk in others’ shoes, will help us all to live in peace together. That’s important in a well-functioning democracy.”

– GORDON CRAWFORD SCPR Active Life Trustee

“The thought was that doing the tradition al campaign and horse race coverage was not centered on voters but focused on politicians and power brokers,” SCPR Managing Editor Tony Marcano explains. “Why should we con tinue to report on that?”

So, they shifted their focus to down-ballot races, including local judges and city control lers, and watched their digital traffic soar.

SCPR has also beefed up its Voter Game Plan, which includes not only candidate in formation but what each elected official is responsible for and what qualities to look for in a candidate.

The agency has also produced some Santa Barbara-specific coverage in recent months. It covered the destructive Alisal Fire in 2021

and, in its Imperfect Paradise podcast, The Lost Revolutionary, it probed the mysterious death of Oscar Gomez, a young Chicano ac tivist whose body was found on a Santa Bar bara shore.

“This system takes a lot of work and up keep,” Muller adds. “It’s not just about elec tions coverage. It’s about a free press and checks on power.”

Defending democracy is especially import ant as journalism disappears or is gutted with the rise of corporatization, Scannell says. Be cause SCPR is member-supported, it doesn’t have the dependence on advertising that has undermined traditional media.

Journalism has been under siege as TV and radio stations have resorted to car chases and the Kardashians to boost their ratings while cable networks passionately espouse political positions and commentary over news, notes Gordy Craw ford, an active SCPR life trustee, philanthropist, and retired senior vice president of Capital Re search and Management Company.

Meanwhile, he says, social media algo rithms feed users their own viewpoints – along with extreme and controversial posts – to keep them engaged.

SCAN TO SUPPORT

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PUBLIC RADIO

For more information contact: Carla Wohl

Senior Vice President of Development at SCPR cwohl@scpr.org

Checks can be mailed to:

SCPR, 474 S. Raymond Ave Pasadena, CA 91105-2629

Attn: Development

In contrast, Southern California Public Ra dio offers in-depth and unbiased news about the region’s most important issues, including natural disasters and police shootings, which is vital to democracy, Crawford says. It’s also done in a manner that’s – ahem – civil.

“The tone and the quality of the coverage is critical,” Crawford says.

SCPR’s second essential role is that it serves as “a centering institution” where diverse com munities can hear or see stories that relate to them while allowing others to learn about what’s happening across their community.

“That knowledge, and the empathy that will hopefully come as we walk in others’ shoes, will help us all to live in peace togeth er,” Crawford says. “That’s important in a well-functioning democracy.”

“W hen you see an insurrection like that play out on live TV, it begs the question ‘What are we doing to help people understand how we got here and what changes are taking place?’”

- KRISTEN MULLER SCPR chief content officer

SCPR newsroom on election night.

Civics and Democracy Correspondent Frank Stoltze and Engagement Producer Brianna Lee.

CAMA (COMMUNITY ARTS MUSIC ASSOCIATION OF SANTA BARBARA, INC.)

A Classical Tradition

Considering the caliber of classical music concerts they attract every year to the Granada Theatre and Lobero Theatre, you might expect the brains behind Commu nity Arts Music Association of Santa Barbara (CAMA) to be a deep roster of booking agents and programming managers. But in fact CAMA is a close-knit family guided by the wisdom of a powerful and dedicated Board of Directors. Un der the direction of the Board, a full-time staff of just four organizes and produces one of the world’s finest calendars of classical performanc es. Not bad for a small nonprofit with a history dating back to 1919, the same year as the found ing of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

“We are an organization that also is a community – some of our subscribers have been attending CAMA concerts for decades,” says Elizabeth Alvarez, CAMA’s director of development. “With our illustrious history and our fantastic programming, which continues year after year, CAMA has demonstrated a focus on presenting the pinnacle of classical music artistry in the world to Santa Barbara.”

A secret to CAMA’s endurance is its small and seasoned team of professionals, beginning with

President Mark Trueblood, who has been with CAMA for 25 years and whom Alvarez praises as “the rock” of the organization. Equally important, twenty years ago the Board had the wisdom to start an endowment fund that kept CAMA viable through the difficult 18 months of the pandemic, the longest ‘dark’ period in CAMA’s history.

“Between the endowment fund and our enthusiastic, loyal supporters, we are holding our own in these challenging times. The people who go to CAMA concerts are a part of a community,” Alvarez says. “We look forward to seeing each other and we follow up on each other’s lives.”

Another secret is CAMA’s deliberately small calendar of just nine or ten concerts a year. A city as culturally rich as Santa Barbara could attract more, but CAMA focuses its resources on booking the pinnacle talent among orchestras, chamber musicians, and soloists, even if it means they travel from the other side of the world.

Mark your calendar, for example, for January 25, 2023, when the illustrious Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Music Director Riccardo Muti, returns to perform at the Granada Theatre as part of a rare West Coast tour.

“Live performances are a conversation

ver 100 years ago, the found ers of Santa Barbara’s Civic Music Commit tee, which would be come CAMA, chose to invest in the cultural life of the community. Through peace, war, pan demic, and great economic change, CAMA has continued to present the world’s finest classical artists and orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, our century-long partner. CAMA looks forward to presenting the pinnacle of clas sical music excellence to the Santa Barbara com munity for many years to come.”

between the performers and the audience,” Alvarez says. “As the great past conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Esa-Pekka Salonen said, ‘We need each other to perform to you and for you to hear us.’”

“O

– Robert K. Montgomery Chairman, CAMA Board of Directors

CAMA’s mission is to enrich Santa Barbara’s cultural life by bringing live performances by world renowned classical artists and orchestras of the highest artistic excellence to our community and by providing creative, focused music education programs for individuals of all ages. [Photo of the Montréal Symphony Orchestra on the Granada Theatre stage by David Bazemore.]

What We Need...

Reaching Out to New Audiences

Like most performing arts organizations nationwide, as a result of the pandemic CAMA has experienced a decline in audience attendance as older patrons often choose not to attend performances for reasons of personal safety. This has presented not only financial challenges but an opportunity – even a necessity – to find new audiences for classical music, and in so doing to build new sources of financial support.

For CAMA, this has involved enhancing its community connections to reach out to a wider and more diverse local population and bring them classical music for the first time. The result has been attendance at recent concerts by people of all ages and backgrounds who may not have had the means to purchase tickets nor indeed felt that they were welcome to attend.

“This is really fun for me because it’s brought in new people, some people who have never been in the theater before, and our older donors and sponsors absolutely love the energy in the theater,” Elizabeth Alvarez says. “It is a treasure to see a concert hall filled with people who reflect our community.”

The CAMA Board of Directors is committed to continuing CAMA’s 104-year legacy of presenting the pinnacle of classical music excellence to our Santa Barbara community. CAMA receives vital support from its loyal patrons as well as from foundations and community institutions.

Since the 1970s, orchestra fees have increased from an average of $70,000 per year to over $600,000 per year. Pre-pandemic, ticket sales generated less than 50% of total production fees, and that gap has increased over the last two seasons.

CAMA, Santa Barbara’s oldest arts organization, brings the finest classical musicians from around the globe to Santa Barbara, California. CAMA presents an exciting mix of internationally acclaimed orchestras and soloists in two concert series, at the Granada Theatre and Lobero Theatre.

CAMA www.camasb.org 2060 Alameda Padre Serra, Suite 201 Santa Barbara, CA 93103 (805) 966-4324

Contact: Elizabeth Alvarez Director of Development (805) 966-4324 x104 Elizabeth@camasb.org

always been a great pleasure for me to perform on the CAMA series and I’m looking forward to many more visits. I send you my heartiest congratulations... Bravo!”

– Itzhak Perlman

Violonist, conductor, teacher, and friend of CAMA

Since the 1920s, CAMA has presented such legendary artists as Pablo Casals, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Vladimir Horowitz, Jascha Heifetz, Igor Stravinsky, Artur Schnabel, Isaac Stern, and Marian Anderson, with yearly performances from the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Since the 1950s the orchestra series has expanded and the concert annals now include virtually every great orchestra of the world, from the New York Philharmonic to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. [Photo of Marion Anderson from UCSB Special Collections, Lobero Theatre Scrapbook (1936–1938).]

KEY SUPPORTERS

Northern Trust

The Elaine F. Stepanek Foundation

Esperia Foundation

Mosher Foundation

SAGE Publications

Towbes Fund for the Performing Arts, a field interest of the Santa Barbara Foundation

Bitsy & Denny Bacon and The Becton Family Foundation

Marta Babson

Alison & Jan Bowlus

Robert & Christine Emmons

The Stephen & Carla Hahn Foundation

Bob & Val Montgomery

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check:

Community Arts Music Association

2060 Alameda Padre Serra, Ste. 201 Santa Barbara, CA 93103

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 95-1816010

By Credit Card: camasb.org/give

“It’s

The Granada Gets Its Groove Back

"I love The Granada because I’m one of the founders! We started it as a true grassroots community project. Now, every time I come in, I still get goosebumps because of how beautiful it is, and how much it is used."

When The Granada Theatre reopened its doors in October 2021 after a long, dark 18-month closure, did the audiences rush right back to the local landmark and longtime venue? As Granada Chairman Palmer Jackson, Jr., would tell you, it didn’t happen overnight. It took nearly another year for audiences to shed pandemic caution enough to resume filling up the 1,500 seats of the ornate

theater for the city’s premier performing arts –from State Street Ballet to Opera Santa Barbara to The Santa Barbara Symphony.

By September 2022, The Granada was back to bustling operation in time to host its annual fundraiser, the Legends Gala, for the first time in three years, to roaring fanfare. The event paid tribute to Jackson Jr.’s parents, Palmer and Joan Jackson, as “legendary” Santa Barbara area

philanthropists and longtime supporters of The Granada, as well as to five-time Grammy-winning sound engineer and producer Allen Sides, and presenting organization State Street Ballet. The Legends Gala raised a record $500,000.

While audiences were gradually returning to live performances, the enduring success of The Granada’s fundraising enabled it to invest in ambitious upgrades to the theater and programming. That included a transformed sound system designed by Sides that’s now wowing performers and patrons alike. The Granada has also deepened its support of its resident companies. That paid o spectacularly in a recent tour-de-force performance of Carl Or ’s cantata Carmina Burana, a collaboration of The Granada Theatre, The Santa Barbara Symphony, and State Street Ballet.

Indeed, the Granada’s 2022-23 calendar has never looked more robust, featuring the traditional fare on which the theater has built its fame and prestige, and also plenty of non-classical acts that reveal its versatility. Palmer Jr. is particularly proud of pulling in blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa, a virtuoso who might more typically be lured by larger venues.

“We’d like to get more of those types of shows,” Palmer Jr. says. “The rock shows are not easy to get.”

And the audiences are back in the proverbial droves, with many shows selling out well in advance. As a sign of the changing times, Jill Seltzer, Granada’s Vice President of Advancement, points to a recent performance of the contemporary swing dance show SW!NG OUT, in which audience members were welcomed on stage to dance with performers.

“I’m told by some people who attended the performance that it was the most fun they’ve ever had at The Granada,” Seltzer says. “It’s an example of the wide range of programming that is attracting new audiences as well as loyal patrons to The Granada.”

– Susan Miles Gulbransen Founding Granada Theatre Board Member

Upstairs at the G

Following a successful fundraising season, The Granada Theatre plans a revival of its popular series Upstairs at the G, hosting musical acts in the McCune Founders Room of the historic theater in an intimate setting of fewer than 100 seats.

Kicking o in March, The Granada will host three concerts over three months, featuring performances by saxophonist favorite Jessy J, Alpha Rhythm Kings, and country singer Philip Claypool. “These invited concerts are one of the ways we thank our loyal donors, and they’re also great for inviting new friends and potential supporters to experience what The Granada o ers in an up-close and personal way,” says Granada Chairman of the Board Palmer Jackson, Jr.

The Granada Theatre granadasb.org

1214 State Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101 (805) 899-3000

Contact: Jill Seltzer Vice President for Advancement (805) 899-3000 jseltzer@granadasb.org

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Palmer Jackson, Jr. Chairman

F. Robert Miller III Vice Chairman Dan Burnham

Past Chair

Gri n

Snow

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check:

Santa Barbara Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.

dba The Granada Theatre

1214 State Street, 6th Floor Santa Barbara, CA 93101

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 95-3847102

By Credit Card: granadasb.org

"Representing the style of Santa Barbara and its commitment to culture, The Granada Theatre is a superb venue in which to present world-class talent."

– Scott Reed Music Academy President & CEO

SANTA BARBARA MUSEUM OF ART

A Place for Art Lovers of All Ages

The Santa Barbara Museum of Art has distinguished itself through its track record of informative and fascinating exhibitions and programs of international significance. These shows have covered almost the entire range of the history of art, from ancient works (Chinese, Greco-Roman, and Pre-Columbian) to the contemporary and diverse. Highlights of the permanent collection on view include a reimagined installation of the Museum’s monumental Roman marbles, intermixed with African and pre-Columbian antiquities. Galleries dedicated to the Museum’s superb Asian collection celebrate the region’s diversely rich aesthetics with selections from China, Japan, and Korea, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas. A new installation in the Preston Morton and Ridley-Tree Galleries highlights the influence of American and European women artists, as well as the impact of women donors whose gifts to the Museum helped shape the permanent collection. In 1959, Sophia ‘Preston’ Morton funded the 3,200-squarefoot Preston Morton wing of the Museum, with one of its galleries later named to honor the support of Lady Leslie and Lord Paul Ridley-Tree. Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree continued to support the work of the Museum in many ways throughout her life and was a major supporter of the recent $50 million renovation. More information about current and upcoming exhibitions can be found on the Museum website.

BECOME A MEMBER!

Art lovers of all ages are invited to join as members to enjoy free admission; discounts on programs, lectures, workshops, and shopping at the Museum Store; as well as access to events that celebrate and honor art for all in the community. Philanthropic support membership as a Museum Circles Patron provides donors with additional opportunities to meet artists, curators, and fellow patrons.

Installation view of the Ridley-Tree Gallery

"W e believe that integrating works of art into students’ lives is an important aspect of social and emotional learning. Looking at art – seeing art – can be a communal or a solitary experience. Art is one of the most important vehi cles by which we come to understand one another. It makes us curious about that which is different or unfamiliar, and ultimately allows us to accept, even embrace, differences and new ideas. Through art, we can deepen curricular connections, explore expanded narratives, raise questions, and spark conversation.”

– Patsy Hicks Director of Education

What We Need...

Program Support

The Museum provides education programs to over 25,000 students in Santa Barbara County each year, including free admission for all local students and teachers, free transportation for school groups and after-school groups, and free California State Standard based education programs for Santa Barbara School district students in grades K-12. These include art lessons that increase student awareness on a range of topics, including social justice, mindfulness, nature, science, and ethnic studies. Your gift to the Annual Fund supports educational programs and opportunities for the community: including classroom and after–school activities for students; in-person and virtual school field trips; adult studio classes and workshops; free community days and outreach programs.

“The Santa Barbara Museum of Art continues to provide one of the most effective and comprehensive visual-arts education programs in the country; creative, innovative, aimed both at and beyond the art itself and, above all, making a real difference in people’s lives. Our education programs have expanded to include more students in surrounding counties. Membership has tripled since reopening in the summer of 2021. Exhibitions, events, trips, and activities are more popular than ever. We are grateful to the many generous donors for their support. We will continue to use the Museum’s art and resources to transform and enrich the lives of people in our community and beyond.”

– Larry J. Feinberg Robert and

2022-2023 BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Nicholas Mutton, Chair

Richard De Schutter, Vice Chair

Bruce Worster, Secretary

Marta Holsman Babson

Karen Lombardo Brill

Lynn Cunningham Brown

Robert Castle

John Mike Cohen

Joan Davidson

Kathleen Feldstein

Martha Gabbert

Christine Vanderbilt Holland

Santa Barbara Museum of Art sbma.net/support

1130 State Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101 (805) 963-4364

David Jackson

Junie Prewitt Jinkins

Norman A. Kurland

Michael C. Linn

Kandy Luria-Budgor

Carol MacCorkle

Betsy Newman

Doug Norberg

Jeanne Towles

Martha Townsend

Michael G. Wilson

Barry Winick

Contact: Susan M. Bradley

External Affairs Deputy Director (805) 884-6427

sbradley@sbma.net

Mercedes Eichholz Director and Chief Executive Officer

Installation view: Forrest Kirk, Farewell to the Flesh, 2020 Acrylic and gorilla glue on canvas. Santa Barbara Museum of Art purchase with funds provided by the Luria/Budgor Family Foundation.

SANTA BARBARA SYMPHONY

Bringing Joy, Engagement, and Connection – Through Music

studies have shown.

Nir Kabaretti and the Santa Barbara Symphony have made it their mission to connect audiences to experience the joy and power of music. Being a sponsor myself, it is thrilling to know that over 4,000 children a year benefit from their award-winning music education programs. Please help make a di erence and support these programs for the community’s youth as the benefits will stay with them forever.”

– Anne Akiko Meyers

Music is the soundtrack of our lives. From the morning radio alarm, to the headphones fueling your run, to your favorite film, cartoons, and commercials, music—symphonic music—is everywhere.

The Santa Barbara Symphony shares the power of symphonic music with the local community and beyond. Conductor and Music & Artistic Director Nir Kabaretti has been with The Symphony since 2006 and regularly collaborates as guest conductor with some of the world’s most renowned orchestras and opera companies. This year, Kabaretti leads The Symphony in its 70th anniversary season.

Symphony President and CEO Kathryn R Martin indicates that this October to June season o ers seven Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon concerts. Showcasing global guest artists, our own accomplished musicians, and Santa Barbara professional arts and nonprofit collaborations, these concerts feature diverse themes—with local connections—such as Wisdom of the Water, Earth, Sky; Planes, Trains, and Violins; and John Williams: A Cinematic Celebration. In addition, two onenight-only concerts are planned: New Year’s Eve with The Symphony and An Evening with

Sinatra on June 15. According to Martin, the diversity of music is an important aspect of The Symphony.

“Nir’s programming is expansive and tailored for our community,” Martin says. “With influence from other musical genres and the talent connected to Santa Barbara, we—as a ‘local’ symphony orchestra—are able to create unique programs that are just not possible for others in our field to do.”

Besides delivering world-class performances, The Symphony’s mission aims to inspire a passion for music in the next generation. The Symphony’s Youth Ensembles, serving elementary through high school, and wideranging youth education programs help to fulfill that mission. These are the only regional programs connecting students directly to a professional symphony orchestra. Needsbased scholarships funded each year through donations to The Symphony are one way students benefit from this connection.

According to Dr. Nick Fuentes, Vice President of Community Education & Enrichment, the Music Van, a mobile music education classroom for area third-grade classrooms, is one of the more unique Music Education programs that

The Symphony o ers.

“The van is replete with instruments typically played by a symphony,” explains Fuentes. “The kids tactilely interact with the instruments and discover how they’re played. For many children, the Music Van experience is their first introduction to music and often inspires them to continue their musical journey.”

“We are very lucky to serve a community that sees art as important and understands that having a professional symphony orchestra adds a lot to the quality of the community,” notes Music & Artistic Director Nir Kabaretti.

“M usic education and enrichment programs for our youth are critical to one’s overall wellness and health, as many

Internationally Esteemed Violinist and Santa Barbara Symphony Supporter

Since 1978, The Symphony’s Music Van program has been delivering meaningful mobile music classroom experiences for Santa Barbara County’s 3rd graders, and utilizes over 35 community volunteers.

Santa Barbara Symphony Principal players and Maestro Nir Kabaretti (far right) are among the most sought-after orchestral musicians on the West Coast.

What We Need...

Attendance and Support

Celebrating its 70th Anniversary, the Santa Barbara Symphony delivers artistic excellence through inspiring performances, outstanding music education programming and stewardship, and community collaboration, a pillar of The Symphony on- and o -stage. “We benefit by having both high caliber, professional arts organizations and visionary supporters in this community who help us bring projects to fruition that would not be possible for one organization alone,” emphasizes Symphony President & CEO Kathryn R Martin.

Located between the major metropolitan areas of Los Angeles and San Francisco, the Santa Barbara Symphony competes vigorously for funding. Even with sold-out performances, ticket sales cover less than 30% of the total operating budget. This is why The Symphony relies heavily on community donations. Whether performing live onstage or inspiring youth through music education programs, the Santa Barbara Symphony unites the community through the common language of music. Donations can be made online, by phone, by mail, or through donations of stock. For more information, visit: TheSymphony.org.

We invite you to be an integral part of this milestone 70th Anniversary Season! As a $3.2 million nonprofit, even with sell–out concerts, ticket sales can cover only 30% of the costs to create and produce symphonic programs for thousands to experience each month, create award-winning music education programs, and o er needs-based scholarships. As an economic driver in our community, your support has a direct impact on the lives and futures of youth and the cultural landscape of Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara Symphony

TheSymphony.org

1330 State Street, Suite 102 Santa Barbara, CA, 93101 (805) 898-9386

Contact: Juli Askew Development Manager (805) 898-8785 jaskew@TheSymphony.org

Santa Barbara Symphony

receive high quality, inclusive, and accessible experiences fostering collaboration, confidence, and community through the Music Van Program (3rd grade) and its Youth Ensembles, including Camerata Ensemble (beginner), Philharmonia Orchestra (intermediate), and the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony (advanced)

"Our family has a deep appreciation for the enormously positive impact The Symphony’s Music Van, Concerts for Young People, and especially the Youth Symphony have had on my wife and me when we were members many years ago, and on our three children, who continue to play viola, cello, and bass, even as adults now. This is why we have included a bequest for The Symphony in our estate plans, to help secure the future of The Symphony and the education programs that have so enriched our own family."

– Dr. Don Gilman

Past President Board of Directors, Santa Barbara Symphony

KEY SUPPORTERS

Executive

Janet Garufis, Chair of the Board Christopher D. Harris, Treasurer Michelle Richardson, Secretary Dan Burnham, Chair of Governance Kathryn R. Martin, President & CEO, Ex-O cio

Nir Kabaretti, Music & Artistic Director, Ex-O cio

Directors

Todd Aldrich

Mashey Bernstein

Sarah Schlinger Chrisman Stephen W. Erickson

Nancy McAleer Golden

Sam Hedgpeth III

Palmer Jackson, Jr. Rachel Kagano Stern Simon Knight

George Konstantinow

Isabelle Meyer Stapf

Anne Sage

Howard Jay Smith

Dr. Robert Weinman

Bethany Mennemeyer, Orchestra Committee Chair, Musician Liaison

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check: Santa Barbara Symphony

1330 State Street, Suite 102 Santa Barbara, CA 93101

By Phone: (805) 898-9386

By Credit Card: donate.thesymphony.org

Dr. Don Gilman

Music Education students

2022-23, an Incredible Run For UCSB Arts & Lectures

The stage is set, the curtain has been raised, and live performances are back for UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) devotees.

At the helm of this cultural renaissance for Santa Barbara is Celesta M. Billeci, UCSB Arts & Lectures Miller McCune Executive Director.

A&L’s 2022-2023 programming theme is Leadership & Vision. “At a time of seismic cultural and political shifts,” Billeci says, “we look to visionaries and innovators who show us that the impossible is truly attainable.” A&L hopes the community will join them as they examine leadership and vision from the personal to the global, to help us move forward with strength, determination, and hope.

There are over 45 events slated for the new season, offering a dynamic series with titles that speak to their wide range: Dance, Great Performances, Word of Mouth, World Arts & Music, Jazz, Chamber Arts, Hear & Now, Americana, Vanguard, and Young at Heart.

Ballet Preljocaj presents their twist on the classic Swan Lake as 26 dancers take to the stage juxtaposing Tchaikovsky’s lauded composition with new arrangements as modern dance choreography explores motion through new gestures.

Nina Totenberg, award-winning legal affairs correspondent, talks about her new memoir, Dinners with Ruth. Totenberg has won every major journalism award in broadcasting. Her new

memoir details her decades-long friendship with the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg and how together they tore down professional and legal barriers for future generations of women.

The Great Performances Series features four stellar events: An unforgettable evening of chamber music with the “dream team” of Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos and Yo-Yo Ma; world renowned pianist Lang Lang’s first Santa Barbara performance in eight years; the delightful artistry of the Wynton Marsalis Quintet; and the awardwinning Joyce DiDonato in EDEN, a masterful fusion of music, movement and theater.

Additionally, A&L regularly commissions new works and this season they have co-commissioned Mark Morris Dance Group’s “The Look of Love: An Evening of Dance to the Music of Burt Bacharach,” among other projects.

“It is worth your time, and it is worth investing in this program because it is a phenomenal gift to the community. We have something for everyone,” Billeci says.

So, whether you want to catch a wave with surf legend Laird Hamilton, soak in the comic stylings of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, gain timely insight from global political risk expert Ian Bremmer, or laugh with one of the best stand-up comics such as Tig Notaro, there has never been a better time to mark your calendars and make a date for an illuminating experience presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures.

Ballet Preljocaj Le Lac des cygnes (photo: JC Carbonne)

Joyce DiDonato (photo: Eden Sergi Jasanada)

Lang Lang (photo: Gregor Hohenberg)

Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos (photo: Nigel Parry)

Wynton Marsalis (photo: Steve Lawrence)

Nina Totenberg (photo: Allison Shelley NPR)

& Lectures

brings our com munity, the Univer sity, and its students an incredible array of artistic offerings that are unequaled in any other community of our size in this country. A&L always manages to present the kind of material that appeals to thousands – I don’t know how they do it! Their robust education outreach, presented to both English- and Spanish-speaking audiences, en riches younger students immeasurably. We are incredibly fortunate to have such a varied and stellar program right here on our doorsteps!”

– Sara Miller McCune A&L

Member and Former Co-Chair

What We Need...

Sustain Cultural Excellence in Santa Barbara

Arts

& Lectures remains a beacon of hope in Santa Barbara, connecting art and education to the community. But they are still struggling with the impact of COVID-19 on their programs. Your support will allow Arts & Lectures to continue to play a pivotal role in the vibrancy of our community.

“Access for ALL is Arts & Lectures’ suite of education and community programs, making inspirational, enriching, and dynamic learning opportunities possible for classrooms, campus, and the community,” says Celesta M. Billeci, UCSB Arts & Lectures Miller McCune Executive Director.

Arts & Lectures hosts field trips for local K-12 students to see the most notable artists and thinkers of our time and also offers substantial discounts (and often even free admission) to students, as well as opportunities to learn from some of today’s hottest musicians, renowned dancers, revered authors, and more.

Over the past few seasons, A&L has reached nearly 450,000 people and with your help they can offer life-changing opportunities and continue to transform the community.

Yo-Yo Ma teaching a public master class with UCSB students.

KEY SUPPORTERS

Advisory council members and leaders who have helped make A&L a vibrant part of Santa Barbara: Jody & John Arnhold

Loren Booth

Marcy Carsey

Marci & John Mike Cohen

Audrey & Timothy O. Fisher

Connie Frank & Evan Thompson

Martha Gabbert

Eva Haller

Luci & Rich Janssen

Dorothy Largay & Wayne Rosing

Kath Lavidge & Ed McKinley

Patty & John MacFarlane

Manitou Fund

Sara Miller McCune

Jillian & Pete Muller

Natalie Orfalea & Lou Buglioli

Maxine Prisyon

Heather & Tom Sturgess

Anne Smith Towbes

Sherry Villanueva

Lynda Weinman & Bruce Heavin

Bridget Yin & Russell Steiner

Merryl Snow Zegar & Charles Zegar

The Many Ways to Give...

Arts & Lectures

University of California, Santa Barbara www.artsandlectures.ucsb.edu

Santa Barbara, CA 93106-5030

Contact: Stacy Cullison Senior Director of Development & Special Initiatives (805) 893-3755

By Check: UC Regents Arts & Lectures

University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-5030

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 95-6006145

By Credit Card: www.artsandlectures.ucsb.edu

“Arts

Council

La Santa Cecilia performs in an assembly for hundreds of local school children at the Granada Theatre (photo by David Bazemore)

Youth Development

Young people’s minds are plastic; they live in the throes of “developing” every day.

In this tender development, these organizations are all doing their part to ensure the generation coming of age has the tools it needs to be better than the last.

The Power of Volunteering

Years ago, I was incredibly fortunate to attend a won derful college in Northern California. I got a stellar education that helped set me on a path to success. Many years later, my own son was equally fortunate to attend an excellent university on the East Coast. He, too, received an unparalleled education that has helped steer him towards a successful, happy career.

For years I have felt beyond grateful for these blessings and wanted to find a way to pay it forward. But, more importantly, I wanted to find a way to give every high school student what my son and I had – the power of higher education. I just didn’t know how I could best do this.

Until one day, I was standing on a train platform coming back from visiting my son at college in New Jersey, when I got to talking to a pair of total strangers who were also wait ing for the train. I don’t normally talk to strangers on a train platform. Even though I’m from California, I know enough East Coast train etiquette to know you don’t talk to people on the platform and that pushing people out of the way to get off the train car is totally acceptable. But on that day, that couple, who turned out to be from the Midwest, started up a conversation. East Coast etiquette be damned.

As we sat together on the train, opening small talk long exhausted, we got down to more interesting personal details. And, lo and behold, this couple from Missouri ran a nonprofit called Mentors for College. And that nonprofit just happened to offer free mentoring services to underserved high school kids who needed help with their college application process.

I’ve never been that “kismet-believing” kind of person. But

there had to be a reason I was on that train, at that time, on that day next to that couple. We talked all the way into New York City and I signed up to volunteer with them just before I pushed them out of my way to get off the train. Okay… I didn’t really push them out of my way. They were from the Midwest, and so nice, so I let them off first, even though other die-hard New Yorkers were glaring at me.

I’ve been volunteering with their nonprofit ever since, about seven years now. They trained me to be one of their mentors to work with students and their families to help them navi gate the often-overwhelming college application process. I’m part of a cadre of volunteer mentors who are helping level the playing field for high school students who don’t have the abundance my son had. It’s my dream “volunteer” job. I’m euphoric every time our students are accepted to colleges they had never dreamed of applying to. I’m also now on their Board of Directors.

You don’t need to stand on a train platform in New Jersey to find an organization you can be passionate about, volun teer for, and make a difference with. We have a book for that. From donating an hour a month to something more substan tial such as becoming a board member, or making a financial contribution, every organization in these pages can use your passion, your skill set, your dedication and your wisdom.

As for me, I’m still mentoring. And I do find myself talking to more strangers on train platforms now and, frankly, that hasn’t gone as well. My last conversation, a month ago, ended with me “losing” my wallet and some young man in Connecti cut getting a new iPhone at Best Buy.

– Vicki Horwits Associate Editor

Saying Yes to Santa Barbara’s Nonprofit Needs

by Tom Dibblee and Steven Libowitz

When Monte and Maria Wilson moved to Santa Barbara in 2010, the idea was that this beachside community would be the place where they would eventually wind down their careers for good. It’s been almost 13 years, and that has yet to be true. In fact, the Wilsons are busier than ever, both deeply involved in Santa Barbara’s philanthropic community while still engaging in business endeavors.

Back in 2010, Monte, who hails from the American heart land city of Peoria, Illinois, had parlayed his tech career, which included stints at industry giant Oracle and start-up style firms Documentum and Initiate Systems, into a role in Denver with Adobe. That’s where he met Maria, who is from the South American country of Colombia, but had spent a formative decade in Santa Barbara into her mid-twenties be fore moving to the Rocky Mountains.

Denver was also where the couple’s philanthropic efforts, that had begun a few years earlier, amped up exponentially in 1997 when their infant daughter, Alex, was hospitalized with health issues.

“We met a few people at the Denver Children’s Hospital that really went that extra mile,” Monte says. “You could tell they were working so hard and cared so much because, deep down, they really wanted our child to be healthy. It was inspiring to see what they did, and we knew immediately we wanted to help out.”

Using Monte’s longtime hobby of racing cars as a cata lyst, the Wilsons launched The Children’s Hospital Race of Champions, a benefit to support the facility and medi cal team that had helped Alex, who is now a healthy adult working for a Santa Barbara tech firm. The couple initial ly thought they might raise a few thousand dollars, but the benefit grew quickly and by the time they moved on, the Race of Champions had become a nationally televised Indy Car event and one of the largest fundraisers of the year for the hospital. It exists today as the Morgan Adams Concours D’Elegance.

When the couple moved here more than a dozen years ago, with Monte still working for Adobe, Maria founded The Painted Cabernet, where guests sip wine while painting, with locations on State Street and in Oxnard. Monte soon retired, but within two years had jumped back in with some ex-Adobe friends at Sitecore (where he was the CRO) before

forming his own consulting firm that specializes in launches, turnarounds, and rebuilds of tech organizations.

“It’s never boring, and just when I’m ready to take a step back, new things happen and it gets really exciting and I jump back in,” he says.

That’s the same level of enthusiasm the Wilsons exhibit with their Santa Barbara philanthropy, which still has the car community as a centerpiece of how they give back. The couple helped establish Rally4Kids, a road rally through the backroads of the Central Coast that culminates in a gala, which serves as a benefit for the United Boys & Girls Clubs. They also created Santa Barbara Cars and Coffee, which has supported charities like the Santa Barbara Police Founda tion, Police Activities League, and Unity Shoppe. Maria, whose Painted Cabernet has hosted innumerable benefit

events over the years, also joined the board of the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation and chairs, among many other events, The Teddy Bear Picnic.

The thread in their choices of nonprofits to sup port is that they always involve children. Monte likes to quote Michael Baker, the CEO of United Boys & Girls Clubs, to explain why.

“Kids are the innocent victims,” Monte says. “They don’t ask for these things. They had noth ing to do with getting sick, having their parents get divorced or losing their job. They’re just the innocent victims. Maria and I share that we want to do what we can to give them a break.”

In the nonprofit world just as in business, the Wilsons love finding creative ways to meet chal lenges, making an impact on the world they’re liv ing in, and connecting with people through causes about which they’re passionate. The business expe rience helps with having an outsized impact with the boards on which they sit.

“People join boards because they want to help but can get very shy about speaking up because they’re not sure what they offer,” Maria says. “I understand it because I had that feeling as a kid because I spoke a different language. And the first time I sat in a board meeting, I really felt out of my element. But we’ve run businesses, so we’re not afraid to be assertive and try new things, and be willing to take a chance.”

Both of the Wilsons stressed that running a business isn’t necessary to make a difference, though.

“Neither of us came from wealth, but we benefited from friends, mentors, and a bit of good luck and hard work to get where we are today,” Maria says. “We know how important it is to pay that forward. The key is that you just say yes and get involved.”

“Neither

Building Peace, One Teen at a Time

In our divided and bellicose world, peace can seem like an amorphous and unattainable concept. AHA! Peace Builders serves as a reminder that peace begins within each of us and only then can it emerge between individuals and eventually grow to be fostered among more and more people.

Rooted in AHA!’s five pillars of Mindfulness, Resilience, Awareness, Empathy, and Connection, AHA! Peace Builders o ers an inspired and tangible strategy to support participants in building positive relationships and promoting environments of belonging at school. Teens learn the skills needed to become leaders on their school campus, participating in events where their empowered leadership o ers support to better and uplift their community.

"I

t’s never been harder to be a teenager. Social isolation, skyrocketing gun violence, social media divisiveness, bullying and discrimination, and persistent anxiety about an uncertain world have led to unprecedented levels of mental health issues in youth. For me – as a donor, volunteer, and now board member of AHA! – I know we must show up for our teenagers now more than ever, and this program is the surest way I know to make a profound di erence. AHA! provides lifetime tools for social and emotional well-being, enabling teens to better care for themselves, each other, and their communities."

– Justine Roddick AHA! Board Member

“The whole point of Peace Builders is to impact the climate of the school,” says Brandon Battle, AHA! Director of Programs. “It’s about learning how to dive inward and become really self-aware and socially aware… to become your most genuine self. Then you serve as a role model and leader who brings that out in other people.”

AHA! Peace Builders participants:

• Practice being an active participant in creating a positive, welcoming campus climate

• Meaningfully, authentically connect with each other while building selfawareness and social-emotional, leadership, and community-building skills

• Learn and practice Connection Circle leadership to help others feel safe, seen, and appreciated

• Help build the world they want to live in through the language they use and the choices they make – including peacefully yet powerfully intervening or speaking out when necessary

AHA! Peace Builders is just part of AHA!’s array of in-school and o -campus programs. The organization has provided social-emotional learning (SEL) to more than 55,000 middle and high school students since its founding in 1999.

It’s a big number and the organization’s e ectiveness is even more impressive. At one struggling high school that received AHA!’s inschool programming, for example, suspensions dropped 70 percent and standardized test scores rose by 11 points.

In all its programs, AHA! works to help teenagers remember what it’s like to connect in person, human to human, deeply and vulnerably – the most important antidote to the distress of separateness and fear. A goal of all AHA! programs, according to Executive Director Roxana Petty, is “to dismantle hate and counteract disconnection and despair… the root causes of heartbreaking school shootings.”

With your help, AHA!’s legacy can continue for generations to come.

AHA!

The AHA! Peace Builders Mid-Year Conference unites junior and senior high school students for one Saturday each spring. They connect via games, experiential activities, and connection circles, building inspiration and skills to create a kinder, more inclusive community. PHOTO: Carly Otness

In June 2022, AHA! o ered two four-day sessions of the Digital cleanse retreat, giving a diverse group of teens a respite from their digital devices and o ering an opportunity for deep connection – with themselves, their peers, and the natural world. (photo by Carly Otness)

What We Need...

Providing a Path to Peace

All donations to AHA! go to direct services for its programs, as one of the nonprofit’s longtime supporters continues to cover operational expenses. A gift of $25,000 enables AHA! to o er one school a customized AHA! Peace Builders curriculum emphasizing empathy, agency, and kindness; this would serve up to 40 students for the full school year. Gifts of any size are more than welcome and allow AHA! to continue to provide all of its SEL-based in-school, afterschool, and summer programs for students, parents, and teachers.

came to my school when I was a first-year high school student and I couldn’t in a million years have imagined how it would shape my life and the person I am today. With the mentorship of facilitators in AHA!’s Peace Builder program, I was able to grow as a person, building my confidence, my public speaking abilities, and most importantly my awareness of the importance of social emotional-learning. AHA! Peace Builders brought together a group of diverse students from di erent backgrounds with di erent interests who all wanted to see a more inclusive campus. Those connections extended outside of the school halls and through this program I have made long-lasting relationships with friends and mentors that I cherish very deeply."

– Talia Sanchez

AHA! Alumna, UVA graduate

AHA! Attitude. Harmony. Achievement. www.ahasb.org 1209 De La Vina Street, Suite A Santa Barbara, CA 93101 (805) 770-7200

Contact: Molly Green Senior Director of Development (805) 570-7200 x2 molly@ahasb.org

KEY SUPPORTERS

Lisa and Bryan Babcock

Susan Budinger

Jennifer and Peter Bu ett Daun and Daniel Dees Lucy and Mary Firestone

Lisa Foley Kerrilee and Martin Gore

Nancy Grinstein and Neal Rabin Karen and Bayard Hollins Beryl and Neil Kreisel Jill Martin

Natalie Orfalea and Lou Buglioli

here has this incredible group been all our lives? I am so very grateful for the level of quality leadership at AHA! My teen loves it and I learned a lot at the Parent Group. Every community needs a youth group like AHA!… It’s a valuable means for making new friends and learning important life values."

- AHA! Parent

Nora McNeely Hurley and Michael Hurley Marla McNally Phillips and Lee Phillips Stacy and Ron Pulice

Justine Roddick and Tina Schlieske Rand Rosenberg

Leanne Schlinger

Susan and Bobby Shand Regina Scully

The Smidt Family Norm Waitt

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check:

AHA! Attitude Harmony Achievement

1209 De La Vina Street, Ste. A Santa Barbara, CA 93101

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 204418873

By Credit Card: ahasb.org/donate

"AHA!

"W

Thanks to a multi-year grant covering administrative costs, every dollar raised goes directly to AHA! programming. Together, we can transform our community into one where every teen feels safe, seen, and emotionally connected.

Talia Sanchez with AHA! Peace Builders Groups at SBHS in 2014. (Photo: Jill Martin)

PHOTO: Carly Otness

Giving Young Gearheads the Green Light to a Better Future

Santa Barbara native Kevin Haeberle has been a self-described “gearhead” ever since his dad taught him how to work on cars while back in grade school.

“I got hit with the passion and it just kept growing,” Haeberle says. After honing his skills in shop class at the local high school, he received accreditation as a fabricator and body/ paint technician at Wyoming Technical Institute.

Then, after graduating top of his class, he was selected to be one of eight people chosen each year to attend the BMW STEP program, where he built prototypes and movie cars and eventually went on to work building specialty cars for Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Aston Martin. He even restored and painted famed racecar driver Carroll Shelby’s personal Cobra, the Super Snake, among multiple other historically significant vehicles throughout his career.

But school-aged gearheads, like Haeberle, simply don’t have the opportunities he had. In the late 2000s, Santa Barbara high schools cut auto shop and many vocational training programs from the curriculum.

“Kids are pushed to go to college and go get a degree,” Haeberle says. “It’s created a void for people who want to work in the trades, get their hands dirty, and work hard at actually making or fixing things. And now there’s a real shortage of technicians in the workforce.”

Wanting to pass on his knowledge and his passion, Haeberle turned a casual conversation with another car enthusiast at his church into the catalyst for creating The Community Hot Rod

We held our Annual Auto Expo Car Show at Glen Annie Golf Club and hosted the largest car show in Santa Barbara, 400 vehicles and over 7,000 spectators.

Project. The nonprofit’s free programs teach youth, and the young at heart, automotive vocational skills and how to build, restore, and fabricate classic cars and more in a positive, supportive environment.

Launched in 2021 with five friends in Haeberle’s living room, The Community Hot Rod now boasts almost 100 all-volunteer members – including mechanics, business owners, aerospace engineers, law enforcement, and church members.

“One of our mottos is, put down your phone and grab a tool. There’s nothing like getting your hands dirty and working next to others in getting a job done,” says Haeberle. “It’s not just how to work on cars – we’re teaching lifebuilding skills.”

Dana Newquist is a major advocate for our nonprof it and a certified car enthusiast. Dana has had a major role in helping the growth of our organization since its inception and with his continued support and mentoring, we see a bright future for those in our local community.

Volunteer Mentors (right to left): Scott Brown, Steve Ford (The Car Guy), and Steve Heintze pose with participants at Our Community Outreach Service day.

When Jeff Clark, owner of Montecito Customs in the Upper Village, heard about our nonprofit, he knew he had to join our cause. Jeff wakes up early every Sunday morning and hand-brews Gearhead Brand cof fee to co-host Santa Barbara County Cars and Coffee in Montecito with us. Jeff's selfless and giving nature has donated more volunteer hours and has gone above and beyond to help in everything he can. As a former techni cal institute graduate himself, he knows the importance in educating our youth in the vocational arts.

What We Need...

Car CENTER-ed

The Community Hot Rod Project is seeking $1.5 million to develop and build a vocational training center and outdoor event center. With no facility of its own, the nonprofit currently is limited to working out of its founders’ garages and driveways while also hosting events at South Coast Church and public parks.

The organization envisions the state-of-the-art facility as a Southern California epicenter for both education and car culture, housing workshop space, classrooms, offices, and a conference center in a vintage speed shop design.

“With your help, we will build an amazing facility to educate and mentor the next generations of creative automotive minds, and put Santa Barbara back on the automotive map,” says The Community Hot Rod Project Founder Kevin Haeberle.

With vocational trades removed from local schools over 10 years ago, it has created a significant gap in the work force. The Community Hot Rod Project plans to change that by opening our Vocational Training Center here in Santa Barbara, which will be open to all ages.

Participant and Mentor working together changing oil in a car for a person in need at our Service Day Event.

KEY SUPPORTERS

Southcoast Church Montecito Customs P.A.L. Santa Barbara's Police Activities League

Santa Barbara Boys and Girls Club Bunnin Chevrolet Sol Wave Water

Gearhead Coffee Co.

Santa Barbara Region AACA Crown Classics

Thomas Towing Loves Towing Larry's Auto Parts Milpas Motors Moss Motors

Blu Faro Giffin Rental

Kinecta Federal Credit Union

Draughtsmen Aleworks

Colberns Detailing

Dave's Dogs

Wolfs Head Barbershop 92.9 KJEE

Santa Barbara Industrial Finishing Golden 1 Credit Union

Corvette Service Company

Murphy Automobile Museum

Montecito Motor Classic

Foster Construction

The Community Hot Rod Project Inc. www.TheCommunityHotRod Project.com 4593 Hollister Ave. Santa Barbara, CA 93110 (805) 280-8745

Contact: Kevin Haeberle

Founder & President (805) 280-8745

Kevin@TheCommunityHotRod Project.com

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check:

The Community Hot Rod Project Inc.

4593 Hollister Ave. Santa Barbara, CA 93110

| www.thegivinglist.com |

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 86-2043210

Tools donated to our organization at our Tool Drive Car Show at Southcoast Church in Goleta.

Santa Barbara’s African American Youth Making the case for Community Success

ommunity

In the 36 years since the Endowment for Youth Community (EYC) was founded, Santa Barbara’s Black community has shrunk from 3% of the population to about 1%. During that time, the EYC has tightened its focus to not only uplift the next generation of local Black civic leaders, but also unify the community as a whole.

“Community is a verb and it requires active participation from those who claim to be a part of that community,” says the nonprofit’s President Warren B. Ritter II. “EYC looks to create opportunities and spaces for our community members to be engaged in meaningful ways. Whether through specific cultural events, supporting our youth programs, or by philanthropic means. By being a connector of people, ideas, and resources within the Black community, we then can positively impact the broader Santa Barbara Community which makes us all stronger, together.”

EYC’s mission is to unlock the full potential of young African Americans by providing opportunities that maximize shared

community, prosperity, and personal growth goals and objectives.

A key part of that is ensuring that Black students on the Central Coast have every opportunity to excel, including the attainment of a college degree.

Through its EYC Scholars program, the nonprofit provides scholarships and other financial support for graduating high school students to support their postsecondary educational goals including but not limited to colleges (i.e., trade schools or certificated programs).

“We also feel that we have a responsibility to support other African American facing organizations in the community that share our goal of building a vibrant Black community on the Central Coast,” Guy Walker, EYC’s past president, says.

Walker, who recently handed the reins over to Ritter, underscores the need to both invest in Black students while also connecting them to partners across Santa Barbara. Walker points to the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara (SFSB). Any student applying for an

EYC Scholarship is also encouraged to apply through SFSB, helping them gain access to other valuable scholarships.

“For me, engagement with EYC is really about visibility and letting people know that we are here to serve and support the youth in our community,” Ritter says.

The ‘Community’ aspect of EYC reflects the organization’s belief that it is both a unique community with its own culture, traditions, issues, and resources while also being a vital part of the broader Santa Barbara County community as well. Through its EYC Presents initiative, it is creating community engagement programs to drive connections and better understand the needs, concerns, and strengths of the African American community.

“One of the goals of EYC is to build a stronger alliance within the Black community countywide. Our service area currently includes both North and South County. EYC recognizes that the Black Community is not a monolith. We embrace the full diaspora of descendants of Africa who have found their way to the Central Coast,” Ritter says.

“C

Wealth is created when people come together to support one another simply to enjoy the opportunity to be connected to one another.”

– Guy R. Walker, President of Wealth Management Strategies, with Nella Kitchen & Bar owner Michael Gordon and President of Allan Hancock Community College, Kevin Walthers.

Changing of the Guard – Outgoing board president Guy R. Walker, on the right, and incoming board president Warren B. Ritter have enjoyed a mentor/mentee relationship for several years. Walker says, "I can't think of a more capable person to follow me in the leadership role of this wonderful organization."

What We Need...

Supporting EYC Scholars

The heart and soul of Endowment for Youth Community is the EYC Scholars program. Under the leadership of its Program Director, Shevon Hoover, the EYC Scholars program o ers its young scholars a broad range of cultural, social, and educational experiences designed to prepare them for a successful life as each individual defines it for themselves.

During the 1990s, Hoover herself was an EYC Scholar. Now after completing college and having run her own business, she has come back to lead the very organization that inspired her to achieve her own goals.

“Coming from my own personal experience as a former EYC Scholar, all of the assistance that I received, both culturally and financially, propelled my educational and work career to eventually land into the Program Director role with none other than EYC. In turn, this allows me to be a true representative of why becoming an EYC Scholar is important – I can now provide the same level of service to our youth that was so kindly a orded to me,” says Shevon Hoover, EYC’s program director.

She adds, “I was made to feel included within the Santa Barbara community and felt a sense of belonging that I had never felt before. EYC gave me a voice and a boost of confidence that no other organization had previously a orded me. It is our hope that we can continue to be an avenue of access to our past, present, and future EYC Scholars facilitating a sense of purpose, direction, and community.”

Your support of the Endowment for Youth Community is an a rmation of the importance and value of the young people that we serve. It also says that you recognize and believe in the power of community. Thank you for your support.

KEY SUPPORTERS

Endowment for Youth Community e-y-c.org 606 Alamo Pintado Road #3274 Solvang, California 93463

Contact: Shevon Hoover Program Director eycsbinfo@gmail.com

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check: Endowment for Youth Committee 606 Alamo Pintado Road #3274 Solvang, California 93463

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 77-0202584

J.S. Bower Foundation Ann Jackson Family Foundation Hutton Parker Foundation Santa Barbara Foundation

Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara Southern California Gas Company Montecito Bank & Trust

Kros and Rosa Andrade of UVA Designs are longtime supporters. "EYC reflects the type of organization that teaches a person how to fish, so that they can thrive instead of just survive..."

EYC Presents – A platform used to support the agency's "Community Engagement" initiative. Photo above was the organization's inaugural event introducing educational leader Kalyan Balaven of Dunn School to the Santa Barbara community via an in-person interview/discussion between Balaven and James Joyce III, of Co ee With A Black Guy.

Credible Messengers

"Our foundation supports the frontline work of Free dom 4 Youth because our community is stronger when all youth have the opportunity to engage in healthy, meaningful rela tionships. They are adept at collaborating with a myriad of organizations in the community to maximize support and resources for the youth they serve, resulting in meaningful connections and partnerships that support our youth and their families."

– Elisabeth Fowler Key Supporter & Advisory Council Member

Much of the Freedom 4 Youth Family, including staff and members of our Lived Experience Executive Division (L.E.E.D.), who mentor youth, advocate for changes to the justice system, lead our culinary efforts, and co-create the vision and strategic plan for the organization.

At first blush, Yaskin Solano may seem like a typical native of Santa Barbara. He grew up here, and he attended local schools.

He is representative of Santa Barbara’s unique socio-economic makeup. Santa Barbara County certainly has a reputation for its affluence, but according to statistics published by the Public Policy Institute of California, it has the third highest rate of poverty among 58 counties in the state. It’s something Solano knows too well. Growing up in a low-income household, he soon found himself getting into trouble and in a several-year relationship with Santa Barbara County’s juvenile justice system.

That’s when he met Dr. Billi Jo Starr, who had encountered the justice system from a different perspective. Starr moved to Santa Barbara in high school, and often found herself in situations where her friends were arrested, and she was told to go home. A key difference was that she had race and gender privilege, being a white girl. Sensitive to this disproportionate and inequitable treatment, along with her own family experience – her uncle Billy, after whom she is named, was murdered in prison – Starr

knew that she wanted to work with youth who were involved in the system.

Starr, Solano, and other youth who were incarcerated with Solano, founded Freedom 4 Youth, a community-based organization that serves people, mostly ages 13-26, who are currently or formerly incarcerated or otherwise impacted by the justice system throughout Santa Barbara County.

“Our approach is to meet people where they’re at, not some kind of cookie-cutter program,” says Freedom 4 Youth Director of Development & Advocacy, Dylan Griffith.

Freedom 4 Youth concentrates on four main program areas: education, career, leadership, and mutual aid. Upon meeting a young person who might benefit from their programs, Freedom 4 Youth goes right to work, Griffith says.

“We hook youth up with someone, co-create a plan together, help them identify their longterm and short-term goals and needs, and then we go about meeting those needs, whatever they may be,” he says. Often, those needs are essential: access to housing, food, or clothing.

Freedom 4 Youth refers to their approach as

the “credible messenger model.” “We want to make sure that people who have been impacted by the system have the opportunity to serve the next generation of people,” he says.

Many of Freedom 4 Youth’s mentors are alumni who have been through the justice system themselves. They are “credible messengers,” successful at reaching youth because they have been through similar experiences. The program’s success is statistically indisputable. The recidivism rate of youth who participate in their program is 45%, as compared to the state average of 79%.

After Solano was mentored by Starr and helped co-found Freedom 4 Youth, he graduated as valedictorian of his high school, became an accomplished mixed martial artist, and has recently graduated magna cum laude from UCLA on his way to medical school. He currently works in the emergency room at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara.

His involvement with Freedom 4 Youth as a credible messenger remains high on his priority list. As he explains, when he deals with a youth in the program, he can look at them and say, “I was once in your shoes, anything is possible.”

Executive Chef Jean Paul Lu Van Vi (middle) working with L.E.E.D. members Angel Sanchez (left) and Jordan Warren (right) as they plate the second of four courses for a private dinner

What We Need...

Expansion

Freedom

4 Youth is in the midst of a significant and longneeded two-year expansion project.

Their office is merely 1,360 square feet, shockingly small for an organization of their reach and magnitude. They plan to take over an empty space adjacent to their current office, where they will build a commercial kitchen and begin a catering and meal delivery service fully operated by people who are formerly incarcerated.

It will also house a multi-purpose educational and mixed martial arts space.

The expansion is in two initiatives, split by calendar year. 2022’s goal is budgeted at $713,572, so Giving List donations will be gratefully put towards this expansion.

In 2021,

Freedom 4 Youth

www.freedom4youth.org

187 S Patterson, Suite A Santa Barbara, CA, 93111 (805) 708-1292

Contact: Dylan Griffith Director of Development & Advocacy (805) 708-1292 dylan@freedom4youth.org

"I love Freedom 4 Youth (F4Y). They have been there for me since I was a kid locked up at Los Prietos Boys Camp. Because of F4Y I met my mentor Scott Budnick from Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC) and they helped me move to L.A. Now I'm studying film at West L.A. City College and working on my portfolio to finish the Hollywood Cinema Production Resources program. Without F4Y I wouldn't be where I'm at today. I'm always part of F4Y advocating for youth that come out of the same place I do. Being able to focus on my career and future is a blessing and I'm grateful for F4Y and ARC for always being with me and giving me endless support and opportunities."

– Samuel Chavoya

Lived Experience Executive Division Member

KEY SUPPORTERS

Board Chair Susan Washing Elisabeth Fowler

Tom Washing

Santa Barbara Unified School District Zegar Family Fund McCune Foundation Fund for Santa Barbara Santa Barbara Foundation Women's Fund of Santa Barbara Elizabeth Calvin & Human Rights Watch Children’s Rights Division National Child Traumatic Stress Network

Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office

Santa Barbara County Probation

Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors

Tides Foundation

UCSB Blum Center

Santa Barbara City College Foundation

Anti Recidivism Coalition

Homeboy Industries

F4Y's Board of Directors

F4Y's Advisory Council

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check:

Freedom 4 Youth PO Box 2096

Santa Barbara, CA, 93120

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 27-4437945

By Credit Card: freedom4youth.org/donate

Lived Experience Executive Division Members Daniel Palma, Jordan Warren, and Nathan Contreras.

we served 224 people. In 2022, we've already served 397 people. We project to serve 510 people – that's 53% of the people who are incarcerated county wide – in 2024 if we are able to reach our expansion goal!

UNITED WAY OF SANTA BARBARA COUNTY

A Century of Service

"What I appreciate most about United Way's approach to programming and outreach is that there is an organizational insistence on engaging the whole community. What that means for me personally is that United Way makes it fun and easy to support Fun in the Sun as it encourages more direct donor involvement with the program. This gives me a hands-on and close-up view of the work being done to support both our public schools and students. United Way makes it easy for donors to access all the programs and it involves members of our community at all levels in contributing, volunteering, and active learning about how we can collectively make our wonderful city and county an even better place for all."

– David Jackson Zegar Family Foundation

grams and initiatives to rapidly respond to a massive increase in need. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, UWSBC again marshaled its resources, leadership, and collaborative partnerships to develop programs supporting thousands of local families with emergency childcare services, remote and hybrid learning support, and rental and utility assistance.

United Way of Santa Barbara County (UWSBC) marks its 100-year anniversary in 2023. As the organization celebrates this century of service to the Santa Barbara community, UWSBC is looking back at its history of community-building and forward to continued work on behalf of the thousands of students and families they serve each year.

Innovation and quality programming has always been UWSBC’s way. UWSBC consistently creates and leverages e ective community partnerships to deliver direct programs and services to thousands of residents in need throughout the county each year. Throughout the last 100 years, UWSBC has built a proven model of community organizing, fundraising, and program development to strategically target the community’s evolving needs.

In the wake of the twin disasters of the Thomas Fire and Montecito debris flow, UWSBC expanded its crisis response pro-

“The beauty of the flexibility of our model is that we’re able to quickly address any major issues within our scope of work that suddenly arise,” says President and CEO Steve Ortiz, who joined UWSBC in 2005. “There’s recognition and trust in our brand, strength in our existing relationships, and faith in our ability to coordinate large e orts in a way that allows all the players in a robust collaboration to employ their best resources.”

Recent years have seen UWSBC achieve record levels of annual revenue and program support – its crisis response e orts alone mushroomed from $4 million in 2020 to more than $53 million in late 2022. Over 8,000 local families have been the beneficiaries of this e ort, building more resilient foundations for household and financial stability.

“Thanks to our partners and supporters, we’ve experienced incredible growth, and we will continue to evaluate and improve our structure to maintain our role as a key leader

in impacting needs to keep our community strong, safe, and healthy,” Ortiz says. “Whatever the need, people can expect that the United Way will be there.”

What We Need...

The Next 100 Years

In addition to its celebration of the 100-year anniversary alongside the volunteers, sta , partners, and supporters who have made the milestone possible, United Way of Santa Barbara County is also undertaking its first endowment campaign since 1982.

“Our success in launching new programming and establishing new projects and partnerships are a benefit of that campaign 40 years ago,” President & CEO Steve Ortiz says. “With an evolving community, we need to prioritize maintaining UWSBC’s responsive and innovative programmatic infrastructure to adapt to changing needs. Endowment gifts or special anniversary donations will help UWSBC to stay strong for the next 100 years and sustain our impact on behalf of individuals, children, and families countywide.”

UWSBC BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Cli Lundberg, Chair

- Vice President Emeritus, Westmont College

Diane B Doiron, CLU, Vice Chair

- Owner, Doiron Financial Associates

Susan Hersberger, Vice Chair

- Retired Public Relations Executive

Leo Hamill, Treasurer

- Senior Vice President/Regional Manager, City National Bank

Steve Ortiz, Secretary

- President & CEO, United Way of Santa Barbara County

Rick Scott, Immediate Past Board Chair

- Nonprofit Executive

Tim Armour

- Retired Executive

Sue Birch

- Retired Educator

Lance Connor

- Reliable Engineering Services

David Flattery

- Vice President of Business Development, DuPont Displays

Robert Hollman

- Commercial Real Estate Developer & Owner

Alex Koper

- President & CEO, MoXi, Global Mortgage Group

Shari Liu Fellows

- Co-Founder/Principal, The Grayson Agency

Terri Maus-Nisich

- Assistant CEO, County of Santa Barbara

Art Merovick

- Retired Executive

Kevin Nelson

- Director of Corporate Compliance, Cottage Health

Patrice Ryan

- Retired Executive

United Way of Santa Barbara County www.unitedwaysb.org

320 East Gutierrez Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101

Contact: Steve Ortiz President & CEO (805) 965-8591 sortiz@unitedwaysb.org

The Many Ways to Give...

By Check:

United Way of Santa Barbara County, Inc.

320 East Gutierrez Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101

By DAF or Stock Transfer: Tax ID# 95-1641968

By Credit Card: unitedwaysb.org/give

Index

AHA! 184 C.A.R.E.4Paws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

CAMA 170

Charlotte Gullap-Moore: Profile 144

Clean Coalition 78 Common Table Foundation 72 Community Environmental Council 96 Community Hot Rod 186 Congregation B’Nai B’rith: Faith-Based Philanthropy . . . 120 Cottage Health 132 Court Appointed Special Advocates 60

CSUN: Social Sector Leader 40 Direct Relief 122 Dunn School 84 Endowment for Youth Community 188 Explore Ecology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Family Service Agency 110

Father Virgil Cordano Center: Faith-Based Philanthropy 152 Freedom 4 Youth 190 Fund for Santa Barbara 38 Granada Theatre 172 Hillside . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Hiroko Benko: Profile 94 Hospice of Santa Barbara 112 Human Rights Watch (HRW) 124

J.P. Morgan: Social Sector Leader 42

Jackie Carrera: Profile 66

Kalyan Balaven: Profile 82

Leading From Within . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Legal Aid Foundation of Santa Barbara County 34 Lotusland 100

Marine Conservation Network 102

Michael Brinkenhoff: Profile 130

Monte and Maria Wilson: Profile 182

Montecito Bank & Trust: Social Sector Leader 18

Nancy Sheldon: Profile 58

National Disaster Search Dog Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

NatureTrack 88 New Beginnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Organic Soup Kitchen 160

Palmer Jackson Jr.: Profile 166 PATH 156

People Helping People 114

Planned Parenthood California Central Coast . . . . . . . . . . 36

RiteCare Childhood Language Center 62 Rona Barrett Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Sansum Clinic 134

Sansum Diabetes Research Institute 138

Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade 76

Santa Barbara City College Foundation 86

Santa Barbara County Food Action Network . . . . . . . . . . 162

Santa Barbara Education Foundation 90

Santa Barbara Foundation: Social Sector Leader . . . . . . . .26

Santa Barbara Museum of Art 174

Santa Barbara Symphony 176

Savie Health 140

Southern California Public Radio: Social Sector Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

St. Vincent’s: Faith-Based Philanthropy 70

The Shared Crossing Project: Social Sector Leaders . . .108

UCSB Arts & Lectures 178

United Way of Santa Barbara 192

Unity Shoppe 116

VNA Health 136

White Buffalo Land Trust. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Wilma Melville: Profile 48 World Telehealth Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

photo by Blake Bronstad Photography