Capital Region Cares
A grant from the Placer Community Foundation helped Kitten Central stay afloat when it had to cancel its biggest fundraiser last year .
PHOTO COURTESY OF KITTEN CENTRAL
agreed to shift the intake of kittens and pregnant cats to Kitten Central . “ We were the only rescue taking in kittens , probably until July , before anybody else ( re ) opened ,” says Kitten Central founder Penny Dougherty .
Canceling its biggest fundraising event of the year left a sizable hole in the nonprofit ’ s budget . A video tour of Kitten Central ’ s facility on its website and Facebook helped spur an additional round of donations , and Dougherty was fortunate to secure a grant from the Placer Community Foundation that replaced most of what the fundraiser normally earns . She said what was most surprising — and gratifying — over the past year was how many people offered to foster kittens and do whatever they could to help .
“ We got a rash of new volunteers because they were stuck at home with their kids ,” Dougherty says with a laugh . “ So we ’ d give them a litter of kittens .”
Walter Dario Di Mantova , a futurist and CEO of an “ eclectic collective of thinkers and doers ” at The Gen Lab in Sacramento , thinks one of the pandemic ’ s biggest impacts on the nonprofit sector will be some necessary attrition among organizations . Some will shut down altogether , some will be forced to adopt new business models and others will be absorbed by more successful groups .
“ There ’ s just no way we can continue to have the number of nonprofits we have ,” he says , adding that there are over 14,500 nonprofits in the triangle between Sacramento , San Francisco and Silicon Valley . Di Mantova also serves as board chair of the Youth and Family Collective , a cooperative of 41 nonprofits that share administrative services such as office space , communications systems and accounting . He believes this collaborative approach — which also involves the members working together to generate funding — can be a lifesaver for many nonprofits .
“ Instead of thinking , ‘ I can only be successful with my own building and my own CFO ’ — do you want to survive ?” he says . “ Enter into larger , looser collectives . I think that ’ s the future of these smaller , more struggling nonprofits .”
For long-term success , Di Mantova says it is vital for a nonprofit ’ s CEO to run the organization like a business , which includes seeking ways to cut costs and knowing when to say no . It ’ s also important to keep moving forward . “ Simply because something worked two years ago , don ’ t assume it ’ s going to work now ,” he says . “ That means look to new funders , look to new programs , look to new partners … I know what we want to do is go back to our safe space , but there is no safe space anymore .”
Ken Smith is a freelance writer , public relations consultant and video producer who is also managing editor of Sierra Sacramento Valley Medicine magazine . More at kdscommunications . com .
14 comstocksmag . com | 2021