The Santa Barbara Foundation awarded more than $15 million in grants to more than 1,700 nonprofits last year. Nearly 70 percent of that total came from donor-advised funds, and despite the difficult economic times, it was a record year in terms of donor investment, President and CEO Ron Gallo said Tuesday.
“We’ve been able to do this because the many people who have invested in us over the past 80 years,” he said. “It was a record year last year, which gave us the fuel to let us do our work.”
The foundation allocated 41 percent of the grants toward health and human services, 30 percent toward youth development and education, 19 percent toward art and culture, 7 percent toward the environment and historical places, and the rest toward economic growth and civic engagement.
“Health and human services is fairly large, as you can see,” Senior Vice President Martha Harmon said. “With the economic downturn there are so many of our neighbors who have great need and who didn’t need access to these services before.”
Gallo said the foundation spends 5 to 6 percent of its total assets a year to reserve money for future generations.
“People need to recognize that our best future is only a good one if all residents of Santa Barbara have access to things that allow them to develop themselves and their community,” he said. “So sometimes I think we’re really playing the role of educator and conveying that these things won’t happen on their own.”
Although some of the area’s nonprofit organizations are communicating better, collaboration could improve, Gallo said. When the Santa Barbara Foundation brought about 15 people together to discuss environmental education in the Santa Barbara Unified School District, many people didn’t know what the others were doing — and that’s a problem, Gallo said.
“We have to improve through more creative partnerships,” he said. “Going in alone is not the right way.”
One of the ideas three nonprofits proposed was a Let’s Dance initiative that aims to use physical education curriculum to bring arts education to kindergarteners through sixth graders, according to Santa Barbara Foundation community investment officer Sharyn Main.
“It’s really exciting because there’s such a limited opportunity for arts education with limited teaching hours and budget constraints,” she said. “Dance has a lot of different elements that stimulates cognitive thinking and other areas.”
The foundation strives to build philanthropy, steward funds wisely, support and enliven the nonprofit community, and help engage on the county’s most pressing challenges.
Gallo said that despite prevailing connotations when it comes to giving, people on the lower end of the economic spectrum donate a higher percentage of their time and money than anyone else.
“Giving will continue and increase even during times like these if we tell the stories of the great nonprofits and how people are doing wonderful things and those inspire people,” he said.
— Noozhawk business writer Alex Kacik can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
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