The month of November ends the year for the Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara. It has been an excellent year of growth, in large part because of our collaboration with the Orfalea Fund, which is matching member contributions up to $300,000! We are grateful to the Orfalea Fund and to our members for their collective trust in the Women’s Fund to impact needs in our community. Thank you all so much!
The month of November ends the meetings of the Research and Oversight Committees that govern our Fund. Both committees are preparing to make awards totaling more than $580,000 for the 2007 Fund. Agencies with critical needs for 2008 have been identified and the ballot for membership voting is almost finalized. Members will receive this ballot in early January, vote, and return it by Tuesday, January 15, 2008.
New Donor Relations Officer Hired: Our partner and advisor, the Santa Barbara Foundation has hired a new Donor Relations Officer to replace our former liaison with the Foundation, Laura Wyles, who remains with the Foundation as Development Services Coordinator. Our new liaison, Gregg DeChirico, begins his position on Monday, December 3. He has prior experience in development from the Peninsula Community Foundation where he worked as a development officer in major gift development and strategic endowment building. He also worked at the San Francisco Foundation as a planned giving coordinator. He received his bachelor’s degree from Hofstra University and his Masters in film and video production at New York University. We welcome Greg and look forward to working with him!
Demolition finally to begin: Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) will begin using our 2006 grant for space renovation of its new headquarters with demolition of their new space, now scheduled for mid-December. For an excellent story of how CASA serves children, see this month’s Gifts in Action (click to read).
Presentation of Funds: Diane Morgan and her committee are preparing the invitations to the big event of the Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara—The Presentation of Funds on Monday, January 28, 2008. Any member who contributed $250 or more will receive an invitation the beginning of January. John and Meredith Scott are once again underwriting the luncheon at their El Paseo restaurant. The Presentation of 2007 funds that will be used for programs in 2008 promises to capture the hearts of members when the recipients are revealed and awarded their gifts.
Thanks to each member of the Oversight and Research Committees. See below the list of wonderful women who have contributed so much to the Women’s Fund and what each committee accomplished in 2007. We have had A LOT of laughs while seriously growing the fund and identifying community needs! Each Women’s Fund member is invited to join one of the two committees for 2008, to enjoy the camaraderie and learn about our community while “taking care of business.”
End of year giving: Reminders are being sent to women whose pledges for this year remain unfulfilled. Checks made payable to the Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara need to be sent to the Santa Barbara Foundation by Monday, December 17. Individual members who have not renewed yet will be receiving a phone call from the Oversight Committee. Parm Williams and Meredith Scott have almost completed finalization of groups for this year. Contact them by email (info@womensfundsb.org) if you want to be in a group for 2007. The cutoff for donations to the 2007 Fund is Monday, December 17.
On behalf of the Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara, we wish you a most joyous holiday season. Also, we wish a better year and holiday season to all our recipients and the women, children, and families they serve. There will be no newsletter in December.
Jo Gifford, Chair
Oversight Committee
Oversight Committee Oversees the Fund
This group of women not only did each of their “working group” areas well, but revised, streamlined, and generally improved each area! The Women’s Fund is very grateful to each woman. Moreover, each one will tell you that she enjoyed being on the committee, and because each member did her part, no one woman was overtaxed!
The Committee: standardized individual and group membership reports from the database kept so well by Laura Wyles of the Santa Barbara Foundation; developed and monitored the 2007 budget; developed a 2008 proposed budget; established financial procedures under the new Memo of Understanding between the Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara and the Santa Barbara Foundation; held two joint meetings with the Research Committee and changed two policies. Under previous policy only one member of a group could serve on the Research or Oversight Committee. For 2008, any number of women in a group can serve on either of the two committees. Under previous policy the ballot for groups was sent only to the group captain. For 2007, the ballot will be sent to each individual and group member.
Jo Gifford, chair, began a monthly e-newsletter emailed on the 15th of each month except December.
Jan Baxter coordinated the largest Site Visit in the Women’s Fund’s four years.
Patty Bliss devised an organization plan and memorialized the year’s history in a very large binder.
Kay Bruce sent out all press releases and we received a lot of publicity from her excellent writing.
Dale Kern wrote an ad for the newspaper and presented excellent ideas for policy.
Carole MacElhenny coordinated the successful Site Visit and underwrote the food and beverage for it.
Diane Morgan chair of the Presentation of Funds, is now planning for every detail as we expect record attendance.
Carol Palladini, founder, coordinated the membership mailing and served as mentor and advisor.
Elna Scheinfeld, helped with the membership mailing and served as past chair and advisor.
Meredith Scott coordinated group membership and underwrote the Presentation of Funds.
Judy Stapelmann revised mid-year and year-end reports from the 2006 recipients, making the reports more detailed and easier to track for required reports to the Orfalea Fund and our members.
Rachael Steidl led us in launching our website, performing invaluable service.
Parm Williams, vice-chair, coordinated groups that grew tremendously this year, maintained the group membership spread sheet, stood in for the chair when she was absent, and advised the chair.
Fritzie Yamin coordinated hand-written thank you notes sent to each new member and renewing member, and began editing Presentation of Funds videos into a short, recap video for 2008.
Research Committee Finds the Needs
This group of women has been dedicated and diligent. They became passionate as they researched various nonprofits and community needs and formed a special bond during this quest. This year, members had their turns at co-chairing the committee, taking responsibility and ownership for leading the group. Many thanks to each of you.
The Committee conducted extensive research on dozens of agencies within this year’s focus and made presentations of its findings; it streamlined procedures and honed interview questions to better compare “apples to apples.” It presented The Efficacy of Prevention, an educational forum for the entire membership; incorporated suggestions from members and the larger community for potential projects to fund. The Committee also prepared the Areas of Interest Card whereby the voting members narrowed the voting focus this year to Family Support Services, Education for Success and Empowerment, and Housing and Poverty. It deliberated on the most critical needs of agencies within this focus based on careful, independent research and prepared the ballot for membership voting.
Melissa Brooks, chair, wrote and sent reports to the Orfalea Fund and prepared grant proposals to the Orfalea Fund asking for a renewed matching grant for 2007 and for continued collaboration in 2008.
Kathleen Barnato, co-chair for October, helped enormously with her even-handedness and willingness to roll up her sleeves and dig into the research process.
Kathryn Calise, shared her insightful observations willingly with a fresh pair of eyes despite joining later in the year.
Stina Hans, co-chair for September, was involved at the height of the research process and helped drive the presentation meetings by keeping us focused. She will serve as co-chair of the Research Committee in 2008.
Jane Honikman, co-chair for May, served as co-moderator at the Efficacy of Prevention panel discussion and helped to motivate and inspire the group.
Shirley Ann Hurley traveled quite a bit but was always in touch on her Blackberry, and contributed her expertise and knowledge of nonprofits in Santa Barbara.
Judy McKee served as co-chair in February and in March and assisted with preparing agendas and editing documents.
Regina Roney, co-chair for December, will help coordinate ballot packet printing with the Santa Barbara Foundation as well as tabulation of the votes.
Sarah de Tagyos, co-chair for July and August, paid attention to essential details and shared her experience in the research process.Sarah will also be the Research Committee co-chair in 2008.
Sue Vincent, was co-chair for April and, as a new member, displayed insight, clarity and incisiveness.
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