Orange County Business Journal
by Yuika Yoshida
The Samueli Foundation says donors to nonprofits should be just as informed as investors in the stock market.
Hence, the prominent nonprofit has created a report to help guide philanthropists and charities seeking to raise funds.
The Assessment Report
Its newest focus is identifying gaps in the OC nonprofit sector.
The Samueli Foundation, in partnership with Orange County Community Foundation (OCCF), commissioned what it describes as a first-of-its-kind needs assessment report highlighting systemic challenges nonprofits face to fundraising effectively and where donated money could make the most impact.
Shelley Hoss, Henry Samueli, Susan Samueli, Lindsey Spindle and Anne Olin
The report, which cost $275,000, also involved Charitable Ventures, UCI School of Social Ecology and The Bridgespan Group.
The data was compiled from 607 nonprofit leaders from more than 400 organizations in OC, who were surveyed over the course of two months, in addition to 13 focus groups and a town hall.
It identified four key obstacles for nonprofits: staffing, outdated technology, not enough collaboration and a lack of multi-year, unrestricted funding.
About 82% of surveyed nonprofits reported difficulty accessing multi-year funding, limiting their ability to invest in staff and infrastructure.
“That means they’re getting funding one year at a time,” Spindle said. “If you have no financial certainty beyond a year, it really holds people back.”
Spindle said that they chose to partner with OCCF, the second largest nonprofit in Orange County, because of its large network of philanthropists and nonprofits.
OCCF created OC Nonprofit Central, the only online database of nonprofits in the region. There are more than 500 nonprofits registered in the database, according to OCCF Chief Executive Shelley Hoss.
“Our role was making sure we had a broad reach, so we reached out to hundreds of nonprofits through that,” Hoss told the Business Journal.
