Comstock's magazine 0619 - June 2019 | Page 17

this month's CONTRIBUTORS JUDY FARAH Judy is a veteran journalist and writ- “Shooting for Success” er who has worked in the New York, pg. 38 St. HOPE Public Schools is one of our four entities and while we receive state education funding we pay the Sacramento City Unified School District nearly $1 million each year for our fa- cilities, rent and operations because we are a charter-school network. This significantly cuts into our per pupil funding, our ability to cover costs and provide the additional support services our students deserve. In the past, we have had to fundraise to help close this gap. However, by leveraging the power of our business enterprises, we have been able to generate revenue that can offset these costs and find economies of scale, decreasing overall over- head and providing more resources for our schools. St. HOPE isn’t the only nonprofit with a self-sustaining model; Goodwill and PRIDE Industries are other examples of nonprofits doing good work in our community that are not solely dependent on philanthropic contributions to sustain their operations. This dual-track approach that incorporates revenue genera- tion into an organization’s mission is a model other community development nonprofits should consider. Nonprofits can be most effective when, instead of focusing on fundraising to power their vision and maintain their operations, they can direct phil- anthropic contributions to support new capital projects and their endowment. There are many pieces to the puzzle to fully implement a community-wide vision for a safer and stronger Oak Park. While there has been enormous progress over the last 30 years, there still is work to be done. There are pressing issues regarding home- lessness, housing affordability and unemployment, all of which affect quality of life for residents and prospects for economic development. We hope other nonprofits will take a holistic look at opportunities to strengthen communities. An important first step is to look at revitalization through both an economic de- velopment and education lens. Then there should be concerted efforts to put into place a self-sustaining business model that en- sures a singular focus on community betterment is not distracted by fundraising efforts. Jake Mossawir is president and CEO of St. HOPE. Previously, he was the founding executive director of City Year Sacramento and his board service includes the Sacramento Asian Chamber of Commerce, College Track and the American Leadership Forum. He graduated from Lead- ership Sacramento, Nehemiah Emerging Leaders Program and is an American Leadership Forum Senior Fellow. Jake received his B.A. from UC Davis and his MBA from Drexel University. Los Angeles and Sacramento mar- kets. She has been a news director/ senior editor of KFBK radio, a report- er/editor for The Associated Press in Los Angeles and a contributor to The Huffington Post. “I’ve covered every- thing from presidents to serial killers and the Olympics to the Oscars,” she says. “I see stories everywhere and love writing about them.” Judy has won several Edward R. Mur- row awards, including one for Best Writing, and has been honored with journalism fellowships to Europe and Asia. Read more of Judy’s work at www.judyfarah.com and find her on Twitter @newsbabe1530. RUSSELL NICHOLS Russell has been a long-time con- “Slow Progress for Fast tributor to Comstock’s and is leading Speeds" our coverage of the roll-out of 5G in pg. 44 Sacramento, which includes a story in this month’s magazine. “We live in an age of hype, so I think ana- lysts play a crucial role in helping parse fact from fiction,” he says of his story. Russell also writes Com- stock’s’ monthly “Seed Round: Meet the Founder” and “Startup of the Month” columns. His work has ap- peared in the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, Governing Magazine and Government Technology. He is traveling the world with his wife. KEN JAMES Ken is a 24-year veteran photo- “Fit for a Spin” journalist who has contributed to pg. 96 Comstock’s since 2006. He started his career with the Fairfax Newspa- per Group in Sydney, Australia. Since relocating to California in 2002, Ken has contributed to many newspa- pers and news services, including Bloomberg News, United Press Inter- national, The New York Times and The San Francisco Examiner. In 2005, Ken spent six months covering the Iraq war and later documented the after- math of Hurricane Katrina. Ken has actively covered state politics and gubernatorial elections. For more, visit www.kjamesimages.com. June June 2019 2019 | comstocksmag.com | comstocksmag.com 17