Private foundation steps in as government pledges slide
Two Santa Monica nonprofits were among 10 awarded a total of $1.2 million earlier this month by the California Community Foundation, an area philanthropic outfit with more than $550 million in assets.
Among the donations: Chrysalis, which helps homeless and poor people find jobs, received $175,000; Upward Bound House, a housing provider for low-income seniors and homeless families, will get $15,000.
With government donations shrinking throughout California, nonprofits are increasingly turning to private groups to help fund social service programs. Local groups are no exception.
Andrew Parker, the executive director of Upward Bound House, said the $15,000 donation is a welcome contribution to his organization’s $1 million budget.
“It’ll be used for core operating costs, staff operating costs for the transitional housing facility,” he said. “We had actually this past year asked the city of Santa Monica for it, but because of their budget constraints they were not able to help us out, so we had to turn to the California Community Foundation.”
A third of the $1 million annual budget for Upward Bound House is funded through private contributions, while the rest comes from grants and government funding. Only $10,000 comes from City Hall, Parker said, adding the money is used almost entirely to run a city-mandated computer system that tracks services in Santa Monica.
With a staff of 13, Upward Bound House, located at 11th Street and Washington Avenue, has served 191 families since it was founded in July, 1997. The average stay is six months, Parker said, adding that his group helps about 100 children a year. Emily Newman, chief operating officer for Chrysalis, which has locations in downtown Los Angeles, Santa Monica and in the San Fernando Valley, said the $175,000 given to her group will be used to hire an experienced site supervisor for the LA office to manage “employment specialists,” who work directly with homeless and poor people seeking jobs.
Chrysalis, with 53 paid workers and 150 volunteers, has an annual budget of $6 million. Last year, the group helped 1,500 land jobs — more than 600 of them through the Santa Monica office, said Newman, adding the success rate is 92 percent.
“Our mission is to help homeless and economically disadvantaged people become self sufficient through employment support,” she said. “We teach the soft skills of getting and keeping a job, and then we provide some of the tangible tools that you would need... in the process of getting a job.”
Newman said that although government grants statewide have been on the slide in recent years, City Hall is one of very few outlets that has kept up its funding despite the downturn.
About half of Chrysalis’ $6 million budget is made up of contracts, mostly from various municipalities and business improvement districts — which offer entry-level jobs doing clean-up and other work. Another 10 percent of the budget is made up of government funding, while 40 percent comes from private donations, Newman said, adding only 10 percent of the money is used to pay administrative costs.
The California Community Foundation grants are issued quarterly for nonprofits that provide programs related to early education, employment, health and neighborhood revitalization. The January grants ranged from $15,000 to $223,000.
Spokeswoman Catherine Stringer said the foundation oversees more than 1,000 accounts from individual donors and also handles accounts for companies and other groups — like police and fire departments, among others. The grants go to nonprofits dealing with everything from visual arts and animal welfare to youth programs and the aftermath of natural disasters.
There are more than 600 community foundations nationwide, Stringer said.
John Maceri, executive director of the Ocean Park Community Center, the city’s largest provider of social services, said the grants from private groups are crucial.
“They’re incredibly important, because they’re providing funds for services that aren’t being paid for from other sources,” he said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 30, 2004. Read the original PDF.