Montecito Bank & Trust hands out $1M
Montecito Bank & Trust bank officials handed out $1 million in checks to 163 organizations located from Solvang to Westlake Village.
Giving more than time: Tech companies lend their skills to nonprofits
When businesses think about giving back to their communities, they typically turn to giving cash or volunteering to help build houses or serve up food. But tri-county technology companies are finding they can have a big impact in just a few hours by donating their skills and expertise. In San Luis Obispo, Hathway, a Web Read More →
Nonprofit seizes opportunity to turn hassle into new facility
Question: The city wants to extend a road through your property, right through a corner where several key buildings are located. What do you do? (a) Put up a fight. (b) Sell the city the land, and use the proceeds as seed money to build a new facility on your remaining property. Santa Maria-based VTC Read More →
Hoping for
At The Good Cookie, a new Santa Barbara bakery with its products now on the shelves at Whole Foods Market, the employees are clients of the Casa Esperanza Homeless Center. They work nights in the center’s kitchen, where they learn job skills and earn money to get themselves off the streets. The revenues support Casa Read More →
SLO nonprofit guides way to green
Green Building Pages, a nonprofit based in San Luis Obispo, was started by architect Marilyn Miller Farmer with a simple goal: to make sustainable building more accessible. When Farmer first started as an architect, she wanted to focus on sustainable design, but she kept running into trouble finding reasonably priced green materials. Her brainchild, Green Read More →
Keeping the seats full: Arts organizations battle the recession
A recession is never a pretty picture, especially for arts and culture nonprofits, which rely heavily on private donations and visitor attendance. Arts organizations around the country laid off workers last year, adopted hiring freezes or cut other expenses in response to a falloff in private donations and government grants. In California, the Santa Read More →