{"id":454413,"date":"2026-09-05T10:48:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T10:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/454413\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T10:48:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T10:48:28","slug":"new-program-helps-san-diego-regions-nonprofits-partner-up-to-boost-impact-and-efficiency-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/454413\/","title":{"rendered":"New program helps San Diego region\u2019s nonprofits partner up to boost impact and efficiency \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mainly Mozart, a longtime San Diego classical music nonprofit, knows that collaborating can be a key to success. Years ago, its youth orchestra merged with another, and it has closely worked for decades with an arts nonprofit in Tijuana.<\/p>\n

So when Nancy Laturno, Mainly Mozart\u2019s founding CEO and artistic director, learned about a new \u2014 and new to San Diego \u2014 program created to help nonprofits team up for greater impact and effectiveness, for long-term success, and in some cases perhaps for survival, she was thrilled.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sounded like it was meant for us,\u201d Laturno said. \u201cWe were gratified to see that the funders see the importance of these significant and sustained collaborations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laturno was referring to The Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative San Diego, launched this week, funded by seven foundations and run by Catalyst of San Diego and Imperial Counties. The program aims to make it easier for nonprofits in this region to pool resources or partner in various other ways. Nonprofits across the U.S. have faced two giant funding crises roughly five years apart: the COVID-19 pandemic and the current shift of federal funding from nonprofits to other priorities.<\/p>\n

A study published early this year by The Nonprofit Institute at University of San Diego<\/a> details the effect on San Diego\u2019s nonprofits. As a result of more than 50 executive orders and actions, and hundreds of pieces of federal legislation introduced that concern nonprofits, 81 percent of San Diego\u2019s nonprofit leaders said they experienced a decrease in funding from at least one major revenue source. In parallel, 13% of the surveyed nonprofits said their financial health was very strong, down from 18% a year earlier.<\/p>\n

Connie Archbold Robinson, the San Diego initiative\u2019s director, said funders wanted to come together to help nonprofits broaden their impact at a time when demand has grown and resources have fallen.<\/p>\n

\"ConnieConnie Archbold Robinson, director of Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative San Diego, speaks during an event hosted by Catalyst of San Diego and Imperial Counties. (Luke Johnson \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in a moment right now where many of our local nonprofits, because of the national shift in policy and funding priorities, their ability to raise money and sustain their services has shifted, at the same time that there\u2019s a lot more demand and community need for the types of services that they are providing,\u201d she said. Local foundations, she added, \u201care at this table because they\u2019re seeing day to day how much the need and the demand actually is, beyond their capacity as philanthropy to fill those gaps.\u201d<\/p>\n

A number of nonprofits here, she added, \u201care really facing tough decisions around \u2014 whether it\u2019s decreasing their capacity around program delivery (or) rethinking and cutting back on staffing. In some cases, nonprofits may still have funding, but they can see on the horizon that a funding stream they\u2019ve relied on from the federal level is not going to be coming again. Unless they\u2019re able to fill that gap, it\u2019s going to have a really significant impact on their organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the fiscal landscape, the institute\u2019s leaders say nonprofits can learn from one another and share resources in order to be more effective.<\/p>\n

The program gives San Diego area nonprofits financial backing in two formats: one is grant money for exploring collaboration options \u2014 by hiring a consultant, checking compatibility and doing due diligence between potential partners. If a collaboration is the way to go, a second grant is available to help make that partnership happen. The grants, which come from local foundations, range from $10,000 to $50,000.<\/p>\n

The initiative is new to San Diego but part of a larger trend of nonprofit collaboration funds. Similar programs exist in Arizona, Illinois, Texas, the Pacific Northwest and parts of New England. A fund in Los Angeles established in 2012 serves as a model for others, including San Diego\u2019s.<\/p>\n

At a kick-off event Wednesday at Catalyst\u2019s University City offices and over Zoom, around 80 nonprofit leaders came to learn about the initiative. They work in many fields, including education, arts, refugee support and workforce issues.<\/p>\n

Otha Cole, a nonprofit development expert who helps lead the Los Angeles initiative, outlined about a dozen ways nonprofits can collaborate, from creating loose networks and coalitions, to sharing resources, space or staff, to a deeper integration of organizations through mergers or joint-venture partnerships.\n<\/p>\n

He noted that teaming up not a sign of weakness and advised the nonprofits to use the program to explore these options as part of long-term strategic planning. Other reasons to team up \u2014 outside revenue loss \u2014 include executive transition, demand exceeding capacity, implementing policy changes and a desire to scale up.<\/p>\n

Arnali Ray told the audience how the food rescue nonprofit she leads went through the Los Angeles program and found three other nonprofits to collaborate with. They now share warehouse space. To get there, they talked about what they could share.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need equipment, we need space, we need staffing. We don\u2019t need it all the time,\u201d she recounted. The initial question for her nonprofit, Ray said, was \u201cHow can we find ways to reduce our cost but not lose the impact?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ArnaliArnali Ray, executive director of
\nHollywood Food Coalition, speaks to nonprofit leaders. (Luke Johnson \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

Megan Thomas, Catalyst\u2019s CEO and president, said the ideas around collaboration had been circulating in her sector and took flight given recent pressures.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are excited about this fund because it is something that the community of funders and nonprofits \u2014 and really anybody interested in the social change ecosystem \u2014 has been talking about for a very long time. But the moment we\u2019re in seems to have created the sense of urgency and the coming together of folks that makes it possible to actually put it into action.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Mainly Mozart, the initiative popped up right as Laturno was in talks with another organization, in the health space, about a collaboration. It would be a way to share different strengths.<\/p>\n

\"MainlyA Mainly Mozart performance. (J. Kat Photo)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was almost as if somebody was listening to our conversations and answering our needs. Like, the timing couldn\u2019t have ben more fortuitous for us,\u201d she said. Past experience has shown her that partnering is a way to grow. \u201cWe\u2019re accustomed to these strategic alliances, and it\u2019s very much how we build our business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both grants, exploration and implementation, are valuable, Laturno said. But the chance to hire a consultant, as part of the first grant, is an unusual privilege.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to underestimate how valuable a really talented consultant is,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause we don\u2019t \u2014 and most of us don\u2019t have \u2014 the money to invest in that. So on the one hand, I would say that the implementation money is going to be most valuable to us, because I can look at that and know how I would envision it being applied. But I think I\u2019m most excited by the opportunity to work deeply with a consultant.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Wednesday\u2019s event, Cole talked about setting up a successful collaboration. Have enough runway. Involve your board. Hiring a good third party consultant is \u201creally really important,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Laturno, later, offered this advice: \u201cI think making sure it\u2019s the right partner, and the right chemistry between boards and leadership, is key. If it\u2019s not, it shouldn\u2019t be pursued.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mainly Mozart, a longtime San Diego classical music nonprofit, knows that collaborating can be a key to success.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[387,181,23,74,76,75,1696],"class_list":["post-454413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-business","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454413","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=454413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}