The appointment of Jackie Carrera to succeed Ron Gallo as president and CEO of the Santa Barbara Foundation on a permanent basis is a true milestone.
Lanny Ebenstein (UC Santa Barbara Department of Economics photo)
For more than 90 years, the Santa Barbara Foundation has led the local nonprofit community. There is scarcely a part of Santa Barbara county that the foundation has not touched and benefited.
Carrera has big shoes to fill. Gallo was a transformative leader. His positive personality, high intelligence and deep commitment has made our county a better place.
Current projects of the Santa Barbara Foundation include responding, together with other nonprofit organizations and foundations, to the coronavirus pandemic and its effects locally. Carrera has led this effort in bringing together a funder’s collaborative of 26 members that has raised more than $2.3 million.
She was selected as the new president and CEO from a field of almost 100 candidates. She has been in nonprofit leadership for 30 years and has been with the Santa Barbara Foundation the past two years as chief revenue and business development officer.
Carrera will continue and expand the Santa Barbara Foundation’s long-term efforts to improve Santa Barbara County. Founded in 1928, the foundation seeks to be a catalyst for change. Working inclusively and cooperatively, it identifies issues, solutions, resources, stakeholders and leaders.
The Santa Barbara Foundation’s key priorities, as outlined in its 2018-2023 Strategic Priorities master plan, are to maintain a “safety net for our most vulnerable residents while persistently and creatively finding solutions to those problems that impede our working families — who are always the backbone of every community — from fulfilling their potential as fully engaged members of a vibrant community.”
It’s hard raising kids in Santa Barbara county today. Poverty rates for children locally are among the highest in California. It is inevitable that there are cracks in the government-funded social service system. That’s where the Santa Barbara Foundation and other local nonprofit organizations come in.
Approximately 10 percent of the population in the county — almost 45,000 people — are food insecure. Almost 1,500 people are chronically homeless. Mental health services require more resources and more effective use of existing resources. More than 10 percent of adults in the county don’t have health insurance.
Among the foundation’s priorities to assist working families are increasing affordable and accessible quality child-care opportunities, building job skills through effective workforce development and creating more workforce housing. As the needs of the community have changed, so has the role of the Santa Barbara Foundation and other nonprofit organizations.
The foundation’s goals include strengthening alliances and collaboration among businesses, nonprofits and government organizations. There is increasingly a holistic approach to nonprofit services — both to recipients and from support entities. The Santa Barbara Foundation seeks to make local nonprofit organizations more effective.
The Santa Barbara Foundation believes that as Santa Barbara County’s leading regional foundation, it has a special responsibility to build regional philanthropic capital. New president and CEO Jackie Carrera will play a vital role in our community in the years ahead as she serves as the focal point for countywide community improvement.
— Lanny Ebenstein is a lecturer in the UC Santa Barbara Department of Economics and a former Santa Barbara Unified School District trustee. The opinions expressed are his own.
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Lanny Ebenstein: Jackie Carrera the Right Choice to Lead Santa Barbara Foundation - Noozhawk
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