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Yolo Community Foundation: local philanthropy grows; nonprofit sector reports rising expenses and shrinking reserves
Summary
The Yolo Community Foundation briefed supervisors on growth in local philanthropic assets, a State of the Sector report showing increasing nonprofit expenses and decreasing reserves, and the YoloNeon back-office capacity-building pilot funded by the board.
Jessica Hubbard, executive director of the Yolo Community Foundation, and program manager Carolina Valverde presented a foundation update July 22 and summarized findings from their fifth annual State of the Sector survey and the pilot YoloNeon capacity-building program funded in part by the board.
Hubbard said the foundation now manages roughly $15 million in assets across about 120 funds, up from about $4.5 million in 2019, and that grants to local nonprofits approached $2 million last year. Carolina Valverde said the sector-wide survey of 68 local nonprofits identified three key themes for 2025: expenses continuing to outpace revenue, a decline in reserves (51.5% of respondents reported less than six months of reserves), and staffing sustainability concerns. She said nonprofits reported creativity in volunteer scheduling and increased interest in shared back-office services.
Valverde described the YoloNeon nonprofit-excellence cohort model, funded by the board, designed to strengthen finance, IT and HR functions through expert-led workshops, one-on-one office hours and templates. A pilot cohort of eight organizations participated; the foundation said participants created 12-month work plans and reported needs for nonprofit-specific professional advisors.
Supervisors praised the foundation's role and requested continued collaboration on grant programs, co-location and shared services options to help the nonprofit ecosystem respond to uncertain funding and increased demand. The foundation offered to convene donor education events, oversee board-directed grant programs and host further capacity-building work.
