Report to Members

June 15, 2020

One of TOGETHER Bay Area’s commitments to our 58 members is to be transparent about the health of this regional organization. Especially as we all face a rapidly changing world – socially, economically, ecologically – we want you to know what the Board and staff are doing to steward your membership dues and position ourselves for long-term sustainability. It is with this goal that we share our first annual report with you. 

The short story is that TOGETHER Bay Area is financially healthy, and we are closely monitoring four key performance indicators to ensure that we can adjust our operations if needed. The longer story can be told through the information we share below, including:

  1. Big moves in just six months
  2. Organizational nuts and bolts
  3. Invitations to continue or deepen your involvement

Thank you for being a member. Thank you for contributing financially and with your participation to this regional coalition. Please contact Annie Burke at [email protected] with any questions or ideas that you might have. 

BIG MOVES IN JUST SIX MONTHS

Over the past 6 months, TOGETHER Bay Area has stepped up to connect, convene and catalyze change while our region confronted the COVID-19, economic, and social inequities crises. Since January 2020, we have:

  • Established our coalition as an important ally and powerful influencer in Sacramento.
  • Grew our membership to 58 members including 20 that were not members of the Bay Area Open Space Council, 62% nonprofits and 38% public agencies, and two Indigenous Tribes / Bands.
  • Catalyzed a significant increase in collaboration across organizations and jurisdictions.
  • Begun to center equity and inclusion on our Board of Directors, through our two programs (policy and convening), and within our operations.

Just some of the tangible examples of our work include:

  1. Produced the Bay Area Green Stimulus Opportunities report which revealed that with sufficient funding our members could create at least 10,500 jobs on 620 projects in the next 12-18 months.
  2. Launched BayAreaOutdoors.org to encourage safe park usage and respect of other park users, and coordinated a regional public education campaign with shared messaging and materials. As of June 12, BayAreaOutdoors.org has had 21,000 unique visitors and been profiled in the San Francisco Chronicle and on KRON-4.
  3. Coordinated on policy and advocacy with 38 members of our Policy Committee to leverage our members’ local knowledge and relationships at the regional scale.
  4. Leveraged data from the Conservation Lands Network to make the case for support for climate change risk mitigation and preservation of biodiversity.
  5. Facilitated dozens of regular meetings with senior leaders at public land management agencies, nonprofit executive directors, communications and public affairs professionals, and stewardship and restoration practitioners.
  6. Convened webinars on resilience, privilege, state funding, fundraising, and equitable park access with leaders including Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino from Café Ohlone, Dr. Nooshin Razani from UCSF, and Sam Schuchat from the Coastal Conservancy.

Please learn more about our Programs for more.

ORGANIZATIONAL NUTS AND BOLTS

As a coalition, how we do our work is just as important as what we do. We want our members to be aware of some of the financial and operational aspects of this organization. In addition to the materials below, we will share financial reports for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2020 when they are complete later this summer. 
 
  • Policy Committee Charter. With input from the Policy Committee, Board of Directors, and full membership, we have developed a draft of the Charter. 
  • Key Performance Indicators. We have established four KPIs to inform the Finance Committee and Board on the financial health of the organization, and we will monitor the KPIs on a monthly basis. These metrics reflect the drivers of our business model and they are: months of cash on hand, number of members with budgets over $1 million, amount of funds raised in addition to membership dues, and variance of budget to actuals.
  • FY2020-2021 Work Plan. The work plan for the coming year is relatively high-level because we want to adapt to a changing world. We lead two programs: Advocacy for Funding and Policies and Convening a Powerful Coalition.
  • FY2020-2021 Budget. The Finance Committee developed and Board approved a budget for the coming fiscal year, which starts July 1. Note that we will launch our membership campaign in early September and the dues will increase for members with budgets of more than $1 million (see dues levels here).

KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING 

We are just getting started, and we need your involvement. We have two invitations for you: consider joining our Board and contributing to our Momentum fundraising campaign.

Call for nominations to join the Board

We will to continue to build our Board with 3-4 new members joining as a new cohort in the fall of 2020. We encourage anyone working for one of our member organizations to nominate themselves to join!

Learn more about joining the Board
Raise $50,000 to build the momentum

TOGETHER Bay Area was built for this moment in our region’s and country’s history. And we need to raise $50,000 from foundations, companies, and others this summer to keep our critical work going. Solano Land Trust has kickstarted the campaign with a $2,500 contribution. Thank you!

Help us build our momentum by contributing today. 

Learn more and contribute