Following four years of intensive outreach, the San Geronimo Valley Community Center has produced a strategic plan that seeks to bolster the community hub’s viability.
The report, dubbed a “Deepening Roots Campaign,” is three-pronged: it outlines the creation of a $2 million endowment for both savings and disaster relief, an outreach campaign to donors and philanthropic groups, and the preservation of the 1924-built, Spanish mission-styled building that houses the center.
This week, the county’s Board of Supervisors pledged $125,000 toward those efforts.
“We want to be here for another 50 years,” said executive director Dave Cort. “That’s what this is really all about.”
The community center acts as an unofficial town hall for the valley’s unincorporated communities, supporting senior and youth services, recreational programs and providing a building for local nonprofits, Mr. Cort said. Yet the report found that even though the center has shown vibrant growth in recent years, there’s a serious question as to the resiliency of its programs and services. “When we built the gym in 2010, we had accelerated growth. But after strategizing, it became clear that essentially we’re one major grant away from having to cut back on programing,” Mr. Cort said.
Supervisor Steve Kinsey, who has been involved in the strategic plan since its conception, said county government is “a natural partner with these facilities because they bring people together, often provide lifeline support services and provide a great leveraging effect of about 3:1 for every public dollar invested.”
The creation of an endowment, the first objective of the strategic plan, kicked off in May and has already reached $600,000. If the $2 million goal is met, half will be untouched. The other half will allow the community center board some flexibility in its budget and provide a safety net for potential disasters. “Essentially, we’re trying to be prepared, so if something happens we can step our game up,” Mr. Cort said.
This week’s grant from the county will primarily benefit the next objective of the plan by increasing staffing in fund development. The center hopes to create a donor database and host donor events, as well as allow board members and staff to attend professional development conferences and trainings.
Mr. Cort said he reached out to the Marin Agricultural Land Trust for development advice. “MALT has been the standard. Organizations like us are all about delivering programs, delivering programs, delivering programs, but you have to pay attention to supporters and donors,” he said.
On the back burner is the community center’s building, which it has occupied since in 1969. (Previously it served as the original Lagunitas School building.) It’s less than a decade shy of reaching its centennial and Mr. Cort said the center plans to modernize it with bathroom renovations and accessibility improvements. “It has good bones, but it’s held together by duct tape and wire,” he said with a laugh.