Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to conduct an interview with a group of executive directors of some of Sonoma Valley’s larger nonprofit organizations. My goal was to discover the challenges faced by our nonprofit organizations as they continue to serve the vast needs of our community during this tough economic period. The nine executive directors who met with me were Annie Bacon, Seeds of Learning; Patti Cawood, WilMar Center for Bereaved Children; Richard Dale, Sonoma Ecology Center; Kate Eilertsen, Sonoma Valley Museum of Art; Yvonne Hall, La Luz Center; Wendy Peterson, Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau; Dave Pier, Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma Valley; Patricia Talbot, Sonoma Valley Community Health Center; and Kathy Witkowicki, Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance. This month’s column provides a summary of the comments offered by these Sonoma Valley nonprofit leaders.
When asked to identify the single biggest challenge faced by Sonoma Valley’s nonprofit organizations, one of the executive directors immediately said, “We can sum that up in one word…money,” and the others concurred. Kate Eilertsen added that funding is needed “particularly for general operating support…to pay the bills, the mortgage, and salaries.” She added that it’s sometimes easier to obtain funding for special projects than it is to obtain funding for general operating support. Kathy Witkowicki then commented, “Everyone would like (to support a program) that’s new and unique, but if we don’t have our doors open, we don’t need new and unique projects. We need our doors open. We need our staff to be paid. We need our benefits to be paid. We need those things that make an organization worthy of grants and funding. I wish sometimes that some organizations that are giving out money would just look at our general operating needs and allow us to keep doing the good work we’re doing and not always have to make us come up with some new program over and over again.”
Dave Pier commented, “I’m not sure that the concept of financial stability is one that you ever achieve. One of the biggest challenges I see is how do you, year after year, project where the revenue will come from and make sure that it actually comes through. Our monthly expenses are pretty constant – what we don’t know is how much revenue is coming in.” Kate Eilertsen responded, ”I’ve never seen a community that is so event-driven. Diversifying your income streams is the number one thing that executive directors have to work on. I’m shocked and delighted at how much money is raised from special events. It is so much of how so many of us get our money for the year. You don’t know what (a single) event is going to bring in.” Yvonne Hall added, ”The number of staff hours (necessary to execute an event) are staggering.”
Both Richard Dale and Yvonne Hall agreed that another top priority is having adequate facilities. Richard Dale commented, “Our facilities are kind of falling down around us.” Yvonne Hall added, “We have a lot of grant money coming in which requires the addition of staff, but we don’t have any space for the new staff.” Annie Bacon said that a priority for her is “learning how to sustain our model, growing in a way that is responsible, and being more engaged in the local community.” Kathy Witkowicki said that one of her top priorities is “finding quality volunteers, because our program is so based on volunteers.”
The importance of collaboration among the nonprofits was a topic that resonated with the executive directors. The members of the group said that they believe there is a perception in the community that the nonprofits don’t collaborate, but in reality, they said they frequently do. Patti Cawood said, “We collaborate through referrals and joint projects. Nobody pays attention to that – it’s completely under the radar.” Members of the group added that there are additional ways that they might be able to collaborate, including sharing information, employee benefits, and equipment for fundraising events.
The executive directors commented on the economic impact that their organizations have on the local economy. Patti Cawood indicated that the nonprofit organizations of Sonoma Valley collectively serve as a major employment base. Kate Eilertsen clarified, “We run businesses.” One of the members of the group stated, “I think we aren’t taken seriously in the sense of being mini-corporations. We’re not exactly included in the business community.”
Patricia Talbot commented, ”We have 48 employees and 10 contractors…all of the physicians are paid at competitive wages…that’s a huge economic impact.” Wendy Peterson stated, “We really are running businesses that have a bottom line and it’s a pretty serious business that all of us are about.” Wendy added, “When business is bad and your donor money isn’t coming in, there is no option to put up a sign saying Closed for the Week Because Business is Bad.”
Kathy Witkowicki stated, ”It’s a small town with a lot of expectations and some pretty big problems and a lot falls on nonprofits.” She concluded, “We don’t like the word nonprofit; we like the word social profit. Everybody’s profiting.” The social profit that is being created by the local nonprofits and the executive directors who lead them is certainly benefiting all of us who live in Sonoma Valley.
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