The situation
A volunteer seat as president of a new Santa Barbara nonprofit that helped people through grief and loss with exercise and the arts, as an alternative to talk therapy. The job was fundraising, governance and partnerships with schools and providers.
A good program and a new board, working on the assumption, mine included, that a good program finds its own families. Grieving families do not find programs. A school counselor or a hospice coordinator hands them one.
An outreach order that made the referral cheap to give, a board that made it safe to give again, and funding that kept the program free.
Lead with cost and access, meaning free, local and no waitlist. Then use the grants and a board that checked its own president to keep the second referral as easy as the first.
I held the seat for four years and four months, through a period of organizational growth, fundraising expansion and stronger board governance.
Read on
The decision and the reasoning
Why we did it this way, told first.
ReadWhat we did and what it produced
The work, decision by decision, and the result.
ReadA slice of the project list
A few related projects.
ReadPrivate side
The full report, the source files on record, the timeline and every figure with its source. Password.
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