The Santa Barbara Foundation (“Foundation”) is a community foundation established in 1928 to serve the needs of the people of Santa Barbara County, California. With nearly a billion in assets, the Foundation offers a variety of giving vehicles, engages in grantmaking, and leads initiatives across multiple basic needs and equitable opportunity focus areas. The Foundation’s mission is to mobilize collective wisdom and philanthropic capital to build empathetic, inclusive and resilient communities.
The Law Firm for Non-Profits (“LFNP”) recently sat down with Jackie Carrera, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation.
LFNP: Could you tell me something about the Foundation’s corporate culture that you think donors, grantees, and other stakeholders don’t know?
Foundation: The Foundation prides itself on creating a very positive culture that is collaborative, both internally and externally. We view our grantees and our donors as partners, and we work very hard to get to know these partners to understand their missions and their charitable goals, so we provide our expertise where it’s needed the most
LFNP: Community foundations solicit funds for their own grantmaking, manage individual and institutional donor funds, but typically don’t provide services as other public charities do. Given the Foundation’s unique knowledge base of the community, if it did provide services to the general public, what would be your dream initiative?
Foundation: I don’t need to ‘dream’ about initiatives because we’re already doing them! We have many tools in our toolbox, and grantmaking is one of them. But we also:
- provide expertise and resources that other organizations may not have the bandwidth to provide;
- convene and facilitate conversations and raise awareness, focusing on policy, data collection, and the analysis of trends; and
- raise funds from national and governmental entities, distributing those funds back out to the community.
As far as initiatives, we are currently working on elevating and amplifying the role of community health workers as they are a critical part of health equity in our county.
We are working with our partners on digital equity and making sure that people throughout our county have the tools, tech, and training to fully access the digital world for educational purposes, healthcare, employment and beyond.
We’re also playing a significant role leading a group that is focused on childcare and ensuring that we, and our local partners, clearly define what’s needed. We’ve done strategic planning, fundraising, and advocated with the county to have resources allocated for this work. As a result, just in the past 2 years, another 1600 infant and toddler spots have been created, as well as several hundred new businesses to facilitate those spots.
Another focus area is housing affordability. We’ve commissioned a report that has recommendations for all sectors to improve housing affordability. We’re working in the philanthropic lane to build a funders’ collaborative and a fund that can support housing that is affordable to the people who live and work in Santa Barbara County.
LFNP: What can the Foundation be doing better?
Foundation: Communication. Because we do so many different things, it’s hard to clearly communicate what we do in our county. It’s an age-old problem for community foundations and we just haven’t cracked that nut yet. There’s room for improvement.
LFNP: What’s on the horizon for the Foundation with respect to grantmaking focus, investment fund rollout, giving vehicles, or partnerships?
Foundation: We have our 100 th anniversary coming up in 2028 and we’re planning our birthday now, because we have a lot to celebrate from the last 100 years! Stay tuned!
LFNP: The Foundation’s balance sheet doesn’t reflect its most valuable asset – its human capital. Can you share something about your team that makes you particularly grateful?
Foundation: I honestly believe that we have one of the most impressive, capable, dependable, smart, passionate, and committed teams I’ve ever worked with. On a daily basis, they go above and beyond to both understand where the greatest needs are and utilize our role in philanthropy to direct resources to make the work of nonprofits just a little bit easier. They’re great partners and amazingly hard-working people who value the nonprofit sector and want to see it strong and thriving.