Women's Fund Strategic Plan now available
Barbara Andersen, Women’s Fund member and founder/principal of All Points North Consulting, donated her time and expertise to help us complete a three-year strategic plan to serve as a roadmap for our continued success.
The overarching objective of the just-completed Women’s Fund Strategic Plan is to support our mission by increasing the impact we have in our community and establish measurable goals to:
- Grow our membership—in numbers and in diversity
- Grow our grants pool—with increased donations from our members
- Maintain operation efficiency—by keeping expenses low and obtaining underwriters
- Evaluate our impact—investigate methods to measure grant outcomes
- Broaden the distribution of work to manage the WF—by expanding our organizational structure and clarifying roles
- Improve succession planning and nurture volunteer talent—by identifying members' skills and interests and tapping into them for leadership
Any well-run organization uses data to help its leaders make informed decisions, and the Women’s Fund is no exception. We want to identify, gather and analyze information that can help us improve our work and achieve the goals of our strategic plan. So we’ll begin by collecting some very basic data from our members early next year, to better understand the demographics and skills of our members.
In the meantime, we invite you to read the entire Women’s Fund Strategic Plan on our website.
A Snapshot of Early Child Care published
In response to members’ requests for brief reports on areas of compelling need for women, children and families in south Santa Barbara County, the Women’s Fund Research Committee has prepared a snapshot report on early child care and education.
Obtaining quality child care for children from birth to age five is a critical need for working parents in Santa Barbara County. More than 19,000 children need early care and education in Santa Barbara County, according to the Child Care Needs Assessment completed in 2015. Currently, only 10,000 spaces are available. The need is greatest for very young children, aged birth to two years. In this age group, adequate child care is available for only one out of every five children.
Because the needs exceed existing resources, community leaders have formed networks and associations to focus public attention on the problems created by inadequate child care. Government agencies, school districts, businesses, nonprofits, foundations and other community organizations are coordinating their efforts to improve the services available to parents, families and young children in Santa Barbara County. Read More
Mental Health Matters!
When a loved one was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, Women’s Fund member and Researcher, Ann Lippincott, knew very little about mental illness. But, she moved quickly to educate herself and learned it is a chronic mental health condition, characterized primarily by symptoms of schizophrenia, such as hallucinations or delusions, and other symptoms of a mood disorder. She wanted very much to understand the disease so she could help her daughter, but she also wanted educate others about mental illnesses and the social stigmas that can surround them.
Together with the Mental Wellness Center in Santa Barbara, Ann developed a program, Mental Health Matters, an interactive curriculum for sixth-graders, and introduced to Santa Barbara-area schools nine years ago. Now, it is yielding measureable results.
Click here to read more about Ann, her colleagues and the educational program for young adolescents, Mental Health Matters.
We welcomed 22 new members in October
Patricia Aiken, Rebecca Benard, Kelsey Bray, Carol Brumberger, Leisa Cosentino, Eileen Dill, Maureen Ellenberger, Karen Feeney, Tammi Gritters, Susan Gulbransen (returning from 2014), Christina Hammond, Kathy Keller, Maureen Kincannon, Patricia Leontsinis, Christy Martin, Louise Moore, Anais Pellegrini, Patricia San Filippo, Debbi Spungen, Bruna Tripicchio, Dana VanderMey and Mindy Wolfe.
Thank you for choosing the Women's Fund!
Please renew or join the Women's Fund by December 1
We’re nearing the year-end deadline to collect annual dues for our 2016-17 grants pool, which Women’s fund members will vote to distribute to nonprofit agencies next spring. Our Research Committee is working hard to create a ballot of excellent candidates. The larger our grants pool, the greater our impact will be on improving the lives of women, children and families in our community. So that we can assist them, the Membership Committee is asking all Women’s Fund members to kindly make their annual contribution by December 1, 2016.
Click here to renew or join now
so we can Change MORE Lives Together!
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