In our youth we harbor grand ambitions. My dream was to become a journalist wielding the power of the pen to craft breaking new stories and conduct exclusive interviews. Other than a stint as the sports editor for my local high school paper, the pinnacle of my journalistic career, that dream was thwarted for other career aspirations. Yet, writing has remained a constant beacon.
Fast track 30 years, after a long and fully satisfying career in health care and community outreach and today as CEO of United Way of San Joaquin County, Stocktonia presented me with an opportunity to share stories about our community, particularly our nonprofit organizations. Armed with my laptop and a sharpened blackwing pencil, I eagerly embrace this journalistic adventure.
In this column, Mind What Matters, I will shine a light on the unique and inspiring stories of San Joaquin County nonprofits. I will not only delve into the critical roles these agencies play in our communities but also explore the complexities of an industry that seldom shares its own narratives in an industry that is not for the faint of heart.
In San Joaquin County alone, nonprofits employ over 21,000 people, and across the state, one in 14 people work in the nonprofit sector. From Tracy to Lodi, more than 2,000 nonprofits are integral to our community’s equilibrium. Across our county landscape we have nonprofit organizations both large and small. Many are decades-old institutions such as El Concilio, Goodwill Industries, Hospice of San Joaquin, the Stockton Symphony, Haggin Museum, The Community Center for the Blind or YMCA. With a much larger percentage, over 71% in fact are young and maturing nonprofits.
Nonprofits come in all shapes and sizes. Some have operations managed completely by volunteers, where — and this is an important note — unpaid labor added up to $16 billion due to passionate and dedicated volunteer support. Others have paid staff and hire the most diverse workforces in the county. Some are part of national or even worldwide networks. Or many are state, city, county or academic or healthcare institutions with foundations or nonprofits built into their institutional framework.
All in all, they are our steady backstops for our community with a state economic power supercharged with over $273 billion in annual revenue. And based on data from the San Joaquin County Economic Impact of nonprofits from 2022, over $1 billion in revenue was generated back into our economy in San Joaquin County from nonprofit operations — and that figure is possibly higher today.
A look at the nonprofit landscape
Given that jumping off point, this month launches a series about our local nonprofits landscape where I will share stories about the diverse and dedicated leaders, staff, and systems of those nonprofits whose work holds up half of our social infrastructure. Nonprofit organizations are our prevention and preparation giants, be it personal or natural disaster; our poverty injustice soldiers, our anchor for the arts and the multicultural souls and saviors of humanity.
I am not a professional journalist, but I did get an A in creative writing my freshman year at Lincoln High School and have a deeply rooted vision that fact-based reporting might just save us from ourselves. Journalism is crucial to our current democratic society, which today seems to be dominated by misinformation. It serves as a beacon of truth and credible information so we can navigate the noise of fake news. And equally, open and honest reporting, based on sound interviews, data, and research will always triumph over hearsay and factless garble. As a publication, the crew at Stocktonia shares this same sentiment. Journalism is a community anchor to avoid drift.
Let me provide you with a sneak preview of what to anticipate in Mind What Matters. This first installment is about personal triumph when the victim becomes the victor. Toni McNeil, CEO of Concrete Development Team, and Krista Fiser, CEO of Prevail, formerly the Women’s Center, can today stand on the same stage due to the deep transformative power of how Prevail turned around the life 20 years earlier of Ms. McNeil. Toni McNeil was a woman whose family was torn apart by domestic violence.
Today, she is the CEO of her own nonprofit, Concrete Development, a nonprofit dedicated to helping youth, reducing gun violence and building community stability. Her journey is a testament to the powerful partnerships that exist between our nonprofit institutions and individuals and how their missions change generational poverty and ultimately the quality of life across our neighborhoods.
The heroes of local nonprofits
With this opening story cited, it is easy for us to recognize that our nonprofits manage heroic lifts on a daily basis. Their business models drive essential services and often impact the quality of our lives. This multiplied with their strident strategies to alter policy, advocacy, or research for the betterment of humankind should hold them in the highest of esteem. Yet more frequently than not, nonprofits are not viewed as businesses. While for-profit organizations are often held in high regard, a chasm exists between the for-profit and not-for-profit worlds where the rule books do not apply equally. A wise woman, Kim Tucker from Impact Foundry, a recognized leader in philanthropy, always states that our job as nonprofit leaders are to “Afflict the Comfortable and Comfort the Afflicted.” In Mind what Matters, we will open up the knowing-doing gap, or at least delve into conversations between foundation giving, donor-advised funding, endowments and the long list of culturally important ways nonprofits work. The complexity of nonprofit management is profound, but one that I am willing to study, seek and share.
There are topics Mind What Matters will address.
In the end, I hope you will enjoy this collection of stories about the muscle of the many nonprofits, their capacity, competence, and potential. I will never be at a loss for reader worthy subject material as we know there is a plethora of stories to explore in all segments of the nonprofit sphere. And equity, diversity and inclusion will always be a major foundation of each spirited article.
I hope you enjoy reading Mind What Matters — because nonprofits matter.
Kristen Birtwhistle is a multigenerational Stocktonian, President and CEO of United Way of San Joaquin County and founder of the Nonprofit Leadership Collaborative and the Nonprofit Capacity Building initiative. She spent three decades with Kaiser Permanente as a healthcare administrator and advocate for our community nonprofits.
Was disappointed that Kristen did not mention 2 of the longest and probably more well known non-profits (NP) in our community! Children’s Home of Stockton has been doing the exact same thing as these other less known NP’s for more than 140 years! Not to mention that St. Mary’s Community Services which in the past year has or will grow to housing of 660 beds for homeless men, women, and children! Making them the largest provider of beds, food, hygiene, and other support services for that population in the county.