Larry Gwilt spent 35 years in corporate accounting before making the switch to nonprofits.<\/p>\n
The moving company he served as West Coast regional finance director for began relocating roles back to Florida, leaving him in search for a new position.<\/p>\n
It was a call from his wife, Kathy, that led to an unexpected opportunity.<\/p>\n
She was working on an interim basis at Tustin-based Orange County Rescue Mission, a faith-based homeless and rehabilitation services provider, and needed some help with the finances.<\/p>\n
Gwilt didn\u2019t see it as a permanent role, but over time, was convinced to stay.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere I am 10 years later, and I just couldn\u2019t work anywhere else,\u201d Gwilt told the Business Journal.<\/p>\n
Gwilt serves as chief financial officer for OC Rescue Mission and Hurtt Family Health Clinic, a federally qualified health center (FQHC) that provides care to Rescue Mission residents and other underserved members of the community\u2014overseeing financial operations for a combined 250-plus staff.<\/p>\n
Three years ago, the clinic was losing roughly $800,000 a month. Under Gwilt\u2019s leadership, the organization has stabilized and added two new facilities, with the potential to acquire another.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got the infrastructure now that we never had before to be able to do that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Gwilt\u2019s turnaround efforts and stewardship of the two nonprofits earned him a Business Journal CFO of the Year Award in the not-for-profit organization category on May 12.<\/p>\n
Breaking the Cycle of Homelessness<\/p>\n
The people who seek services at OC Rescue Mission are often survivors of abuse, addiction or homelessness.<\/p>\n
The program, which lasts between 18 to 24 months, is intended to help them regain independence.<\/p>\n
Everyone admitted is referred to as students.<\/p>\n
They range from people who have never been able to hold a steady job due to housing instability to former white-collar professionals who find themselves homeless after personal hardships, Gwilt said.<\/p>\n
While at OC Rescue Mission, students receive room and board and are assigned to different tasks, including working in the warehouse, kitchen or a 33-acre ranch in Silverado Canyon where they can learn to nurture horses and other animals.<\/p>\n
Additionally, they provide workforce training and send some students to Saddleback College, which recently opened a culinary and auto repair schools across the street from OC Rescue Mission\u2019s main campus in Tustin.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re really trying to do is get folks to the point where they are employed and get a quality of life after they leave here,\u201d Gwilt said.<\/p>\n
On average, 85% of graduates of the program remain employed, stably housed, and sober, according to OC Rescue Mission.<\/p>\n
To graduate, Gwilt said that students must have a certain amount of money saved up with the hope that they can move into transitional housing.<\/p>\n
The nonprofit does offer an alumni program to check up on graduates and provide accountability; however, there are instances where some do return.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are addictions out there that are strong and pull on folks, so we do allow them to go back through the program,\u201d Gwilt said.<\/p>\n
Leading Clinic Turnaround<\/p>\n
Aside from occasional requests to purchase farm animals on credit, Gwilt said there isn\u2019t that much of a difference working at a for-profit company and a nonprofit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t make money, you don\u2019t stay in business,\u201d he quipped.<\/p>\n
OC Rescue Mission solely relies on private donations and volunteers to operate; its main campus sits on land once used as a Marine base that was donated by the city of Tustin.<\/p>\n
Hurtt Family Health Clinic, on the other hand, receives federal funding\u2014making up a large part of Gwilt\u2019s job as CFO.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe deal with a lot of government money, and there\u2019s a lot of reporting that goes on from that standpoint,\u201d Gwilt said.<\/p>\n
The clinic has four locations in Santa Ana, Anaheim and two in Tustin, as well as a mobile clinic. They offer a \u201cfull spectrum of health care services\u201d including dental, mental health and optometry, according to its website.<\/p>\n
Gwilt said that about 10% of the population it serves are uninsured or underinsured, while 80% are on Medi-Cal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re required to see anyone, whether they can pay for service or not, so that gives us a special place in the community to be able to do that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The clinic receives a fixed amount for each patient on Medi-Cal that comes in to visit. Since the clinic became eligible for federal funding in 2012, that amount has not been updated, according to Gwilt.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can imagine, costs have gone up significantly from that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we engaged a group that we know that has a great reputation to help us put together all the numbers do a filing to request higher rates from the Department of Health Care Services.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another factor that helped the clinic\u2019s turnaround was appointing a new chief executive, L. Jina Lawler, in 2023.<\/p>\n
Lawler, who has about 30 years of experience in healthcare, joined Hurtt from a larger FQHC in Long Beach.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the first time we\u2019ve had a CEO that actually had experience in our industry,\u201d Gwilt said.<\/p>\n
Gwilt said the clinic is currently setting aside funds for next year in anticipation of changes to Medi-Cal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Larry Gwilt spent 35 years in corporate accounting before making the switch to nonprofits. The moving company he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-336107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}