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Nonprofit Support Center is ready to help
It is often said that Santa Barbara has one of the highest numbers of nonprofit agencies per capita in the United States. That not only means a lot of helping hands and changed lives; it also translates into a great deal of well-earned knowledge and experience about the nonprofit sector gathered here in our comparatively small community.
Evidence of this collective wisdom is found in the Nonprofit Support Center of Santa Barbara County, an agency that exists as a training, consulting and resource center for nonprofits.
Sheridah Gerard, the center's executive director for the past year, said recently that while many nonprofits receive government and foundation grants to operate, they also need more than money. Gerard, a native of Santa Barbara and graduate of UCSB, previously worked for the county of Santa Barbara, overseeing 70 contracts with human service agencies. It was especially in that capacity that she noticed the need that nonprofits have for management assistance.
 The staff of the Nonprofit Support Center, from left; Kathy Mohammadi (standing), Bev Braun, Sheridah Gerard, Charlien Church, Lindsay McTavish and Sharon Kayser (standing).
The support center presents a steady offering of workshops and speakers on a variety of topics, including board development and leadership, technology, fiscal and volunteer management, marketing and fund-raising. There are also periodic networking roundtables where nonprofit leaders can gather and exchange ideas. In addition, the NSC, which also serves clients in San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties, offers consulting, board/staff retreats and reference information. The latter service is in the process of being expanded significantly by a recent grant from the Santa Barbara Foundation. The grant will soon enable the NSC to turn its Resource Center into a nonprofit management library. Until recently the Resource Center had a single searchable database of foundations on one computer, for which members had to reserve a time to use. Soon there will be five new PC workstations with multiple databases for grant searches and other information. Reservations will not be necessary. The center's small collection of circulating books, journals, audiotapes and videos on various nonprofit management topics will also grow substantially to include many more topics. The library will become a "virtual library" through which users will be able to gain access to nonprofit management resources available on the Internet. The NSC has more than 160 member organizations. Annual memberships range from $75 to $300 depending on the size of organization's budget. A staff of seven serves nonprofits ranging from start-ups with little or no funds to organizations as large as Cottage Health Systems with multimillion-dollar budgets. The center's main office is at 2950 State St., Suite A, and it also has a satellite in Santa Maria. For more information call 687-8560 or visit www.nscsb.org. |
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