Why It Worked: Exploring the Foothills Forever Campaign

0:03 Well welcome everybody you're at Visionality's Building forward my name is Emily Barany and I'm the CEO of
0:10 Visionality and I'm really really really excited to talk with our two guest stars
0:16 today Dani Lynch and Nancy Weiss and they are here to talk about the
0:22 incredible success that was the Foothills forever campaign and so I just
0:27 want to open it up to you guys oh whoops start your timers for 25 minutes
0:34 ... and tell me about the campaign tell me about
0:40 how it started why it started ... what's it sort of the root of the
0:45 Foothills forever campaign and you want to go first I'll go first
0:51 yeah I mean I've thought a lot about this because you asked this question yesterday and I you know I want to say
0:56 thanks to everyone for being here and give a big thank you to Visionality for having us
1:03 ... yeah and that's always everyone's first question it's like how did this all start how the heck did you raise 20
1:09 million in 90 days and sitting with us the short answer is passion
1:14 so finding your own personal passion for what you do I believe is the key to success with
1:21 anything that you put energy into so if you aren't leading from a place of love and passion it's really hard for anyone
1:30 to get behind you including yourself so it really is your compass moving into
1:36 anything and it gives you a reason and a purpose and it really forces you
1:41 to make choices from your intrinsic motivation so people really feel that I feel like that's a big reason why our
1:48 community stepped up so quickly they got involved and it was yeah they helped
1:53 lead the charge because of that passion piece so yeah and I think I think the other part is
2:00 understanding where your passion is coming from so really knowing your why and getting really clear about it like
2:07 you know this was really important for me in the beginning of the Foothills campaign to understand and to be able to
2:14 clearly articulate why you know why am I doing this so
2:20 without passion for your why you do what you do it's so easy to give up
2:25 when times get difficult which is you know that will happen we've all been there so I really do believe like being
2:31 clear on your passion and your why as well as sharing it with your community will
2:37 I don't know if Nancy you agree with this but it not only attracted the people that believed in what we believed
2:43 in but it also allowed for those who aren't necessarily sure what they believe in to pause take a moment really
2:52 feel your authentic passion and drive and then possibly get behind it simply because it moved them
2:58 so I feel like I saw that a lot in this campaign ... it was the fire that continually
3:04 fueled our campaign team for lack of a better word we don't want fires there but ... yeah it's just one of the most
3:12 important pieces if you know if not the most important piece
3:17 ... I think with any project or Endeavor and I know without having that passion we would not have been successful in
3:23 Saving the land or raising 20 million in 90 days so I think that's just always a
3:29 good place to start it it sounds really simple but ... that's really I think the the key piece
3:37 there I love it Nancy why don't you just give me like a
3:43 high level snapshot of what was the campaign ... what was the outcome what was the
3:49 goal all just like give me the the high level stuff
3:54 yeah so this was a campaign that ... was you know 90 days right to secure the
4:00 land but but really 20 years in the making ... the ... gosh the land had been you
4:07 know ... you know originally of course umash land so you know super important to
4:12 acknowledge that first ... but you know there'd been development ideas for the
4:18 entire San Marcos what we now think of as the San Marcos Foothills preserve for really Generations ... and the the San
4:26 Marcos Foothills Coalition was able to secure the ... 200 of the approximately
4:31 you know 300 350 Acres 15 years ago and but the kind of the Jewel of the
4:37 property so-called was the West Mesa and they had to kind of let that go ... you know they were able to get you
4:43 know kind of it as far as as they could and it was folks like Dani ... and ... her compatriots with save San
4:51 Marcos Foothills Channel Islands restoration ... folks like Ken Owen and others who
4:57 really you know kind of rang the bell again and said ... you know is this possible to give this this a go and then folks will
5:05 probably remember that of course there were folks who were defending the land basically on the land
5:10 when a bulldozer was starting to roll so there was kind of that very intense and
5:16 and probably to the Public's view dramatic moment some arrests and all of that and behind the scenes there was a
5:22 lot of negotiation going on ... with ... uh you know with the
5:27 developer and kind of the landowner by extension and so it was kind of a this this
5:33 ... a bunch of factors coming together converging all at once that kind of created a bit of an apex moment
5:42 ... and ... transactionally we were gonna we were able to get the attorney Mark
5:47 still was able to negotiate for ... uh a purchase an option to purchase ... if we could
5:56 raise you know ... it's actually 18 million is what the request was or the agreement was and of
6:02 course there's costs and we want an endowment to run with the land and all of that and that equals the 20 million
6:08 ... and so that was the charge right was you know and then we had these different trances people remember where you have
6:14 to had we had to actually put into escrow ... initial million and then another four million another 5 million
6:20 three weeks after that that's just like Breakneck Pace ... but without those frankly we probably
6:26 really wouldn't have done it you know we all know that one of the Beauties ... and and the challenges of capital campaigns
6:32 is is the deadline driven orientation to it and of course the other thing that makes it different from like endowment
6:38 or annual fundraising is you actually are getting something tangible ... you
6:44 know through the campaign so in this case land so all those things really kind of you know helped you know both
6:51 jump start it ... and then of course kind of see it through overview wise so I just love it
6:59 the the sort of Click bait headline of this campaign is 20 million in 90 days
7:08 right crowdfunding this was not crowdfunding tell tell me you know it it
7:15 was that was a component of it you guys had thousands of donations it's incredible
7:21 but but there was so much more that went into this and I love what you said that
7:27 it was a 90-day campaign 20 years in the making so talk me talk me through how it
7:33 is both crowdfunding in 90 days but also like so fundamentally not crowdfunding
7:38 in 90 days
7:43 ... yeah so you know it's a campaign when we needed to do everything right and and
7:48 all at once ... so ... some of us have likened it more
7:54 to a political campaign like trying to get an initiative ... you know pass or a
7:59 candidate in office and one of the reasons I was really super happy that Dani could be here was one of the big
8:06 things you'd have to do in a political campaign is you need name recognition right you need folks to just you know
8:12 think of of the name and understand ... you know what you're talking about and and
8:18 save San Marcos Foothills with Dani and Sam they had this incredible social media campaign
8:24 ... already going before we had that purchase option that went into place and
8:30 that was gigantic ... so ... there's that and then you know
8:36 viability was the big question right and all the way to the very end like is this possible and we had lots and lots of
8:42 people just say no way like this isn't going to happen and there are certainly people in our campaign too that were like yeah we're not gonna be able to do
8:48 it but we're gonna give it a go because we need to because of the passion and the love ... for the land and the
8:54 importance and really you know the sacredness to you know she Mash folks Etc so we had to get give it a go but um
9:02 the the other component and this was part of the reason I jumped in was just applying what I call the science of
9:08 fundraising which is those tried and true methods ... and particularly you know we we had
9:15 to have you know really a gigantic contributions like we you know the the
9:21 community stepped up on a Grassroots level and proved itself proved ourselves right away and without that I mean just
9:30 so much gratitude for the folks who gave multiple gifts the kids who sold you
9:35 know eggs and Montecito to the the Maker's Mark in Isla Vista you know all of that grassroot effort
9:43 ... ... proved up I think to ... people who have more resources who have greater
9:48 resources could make the gifts that were a thousand dollars five thousand dollars all the way up to the the five million
9:54 dollar contributor we hadn't had the final hours ... at all of that so that's the part you
10:01 know Dani and and Sam and others really LED that kind of grassroot you know I
10:06 don't know if crowdfunding is that the right term but more like just come on come all and welcoming in and then there
10:13 were a bunch of us behind the scenes just contacting everybody we knew who could make more sizable contributions
10:19 and invite them also to the table ... Dani I don't know if you want to say anything about the social media because
10:25 that's part that that crowdfunding feeling maybe that Emily you were speaking to
10:31 yeah I think that you know like I was saying you know it started with passion and knowing your why and then from there
10:37 we were able to really educate folks on why the land was so important right I
10:43 mean why this wasn't appropriate to build houses on this land and really go into the ecology and and and all of that
10:50 and so that's what that's kind of the piece where we started and then people really started to understand that this
10:56 this wasn't appropriate for the land and why and got behind us so I mean we
11:02 started with volunteers you have to have your your boots on the ground we were there almost every day in the beginning
11:10 and we were canvassing we made shirts so branding became really important early
11:16 on because to me it it I know yes political campaign it also felt like a movement it was like showing our young
11:24 community that this is the time to step up and you can actually create change
11:29 and this is what it looks like so it was very Hands-On there was a lot of there
11:35 was just a lot of involvement in the beginning and yes Instagram blew up but that again that it was that passion
11:41 piece I mean we were putting reels together that were really moving that really helped we were doing really fun
11:47 creative mini campaigns where it's like tell 10 friends or share this post with
11:53 10 people and donate 10 and showed them in a graph how much that could make in a
11:58 week to two weeks so it was like you know we just knew our audience we knew that we were not gonna maybe get 5
12:05 million from the Instagram but that that it's it's almost like that base that Foundation piece of like okay this is
12:12 where you start and then you can really like Nancy was saying really show that this is the this is what the community
12:18 wants and needs and so anyone will get behind it at that point even if they're like I've never been to the land which a
12:25 lot of people had not been to the land who donated you know pretty large gifts
12:30 I mean it was it was incredible and I mean we could go on for days about like how creative it got and it I mean yeah
12:38 it's there's a lot to unpack there at the heart of this you guys empowered
12:45 the community to to own this movement and, I... I love that word it was a movement
12:54 it was it was the community coming together saying we as a community believe that this is important and then
13:01 you made up I'm getting Goosebumps and then you made space available for every
13:07 person to show up in a way that they were able to show up and maybe that was volunteering maybe that was a one dollar
13:14 gift maybe that was a five million dollar gift maybe that was organizing the maker market and it and I just love
13:23 ... that you guys guided yes there was a huge guidance
13:29 process right but you really allowed the community to show up in the ways that
13:35 they wanted to show up talk to me like what was was there something that was really surprising in the way that the
13:42 community showed up or something maybe that you hadn't seen before
13:52 shout out of course the Santa Barbara Foundation who ... pivoted within hours you know when I
13:58 made the call ... and talked to Jackie Carrera and said would you consider being our fiscal
14:04 sponsor ... and she just said yes I mean it was really no hesitation there and of course
14:10 part of it was the base right and you know and and the knowledge already that
14:16 Dani and others had built for the land but ... shortly after that ... one of the
14:23 staff members reached out ... and and asked you know could you let us know the different events that are happening the
14:29 little fundraisers that were popping up the fish market raffle and got you know so many things in that the early days of
14:36 the campaign ... early hours I should call it right it wasn't very long ... and and we just said we'd love to but
14:44 we don't know what those are like the community just took it because it I think you're right it was it was a
14:50 movement and ... that was for me a really fun moment was basically not only not knowing and
14:59 just appreciating so much effort was just percolating up right ... so much organizing really was
15:05 happening ... that it was it was so exciting to see it and and also though really just
15:12 trusting right and just you know say gosh we'd love to and we don't know and just like putting it in the hands of the
15:18 community alongside our own and that's really the reality is that none of us really own this land right and so there
15:25 was something for me that made me feel ... even more deeply connected to the land
15:32 and the community and very grateful yeah Dani you had something
15:37 oh I mean it was the same it was really the same it was honestly for me it was how many amazing experts like Nancy
15:46 coming together and forming this like rock star campaign team that I mean it
15:52 was just amazing and I feel like the land really brought all of us together and ... the one thing that I will say
15:59 about the businesses is we kind of shifted our perspectives a little bit we
16:04 reached out to all businesses and we were like this is an incredible opportunity that I want you to be a part
16:09 of and not only because it was coveted times it was like we want to support you
16:15 and bringing in more people while supporting a good cause and that was really cool to be able to not only like
16:22 be in this activism moment of the of working on saving the land but supporting the community I mean it was
16:28 really helping businesses bring in ... more people because they weren't
16:33 really you know they barely had anyone there so I don't know there were so many incredible moments well and I want to
16:42 expand on on the professional side of this movement right so we've we've
16:48 covered like How Deeply this movement was embraced by the community but it was
16:54 the foundation of it was deeply professional deeply like intricate
17:01 ... so Nancy you mentioned the Santa Barbara foundation so they were the fiscal sponsor this is
17:07 it makes my heart very sad when I see these GoFundMe campaigns or whatever
17:12 crowdfunding campaigns it's not tied to a C3 and then there are tax implications
17:18 that people you know really well-meaning people and they just don't know what
17:23 they don't know and their heart's in the right place but just like sort of the nuts and bolts of like fundraising
17:31 ... so so you landed the fiscal sponsor which is huge like that's very important
17:37 so that you can legally receive tax deductible donations and manage that
17:42 money professionally and appropriately ... you had a team of attorneys right because there was
17:49 negotiations there were ... option agreements right so talk to me about
17:54 like the the real professional piece what was the backbone of the campaign
18:00 yes well I think in terms of the the
18:06 campaign and the the structure you're right there's a bunch of people fed into it
18:12 ... and and I should say Channel Islands restoration was the original fiscal and actually continued
18:19 ... and to some degree still continues alongside Santa Barbara Foundation ... so ... shout out to them and and their
18:27 leadership you know I think you're right it was first ... Mark chattillo who was kind of
18:32 the architect of of the deal and and and all of us you know as we begin to convene recognizing that we had to
18:39 surround ourselves with ... folks who had a ton of skills in lots
18:45 of different areas and really just like any project building your team who who do you need and I don't know about all
18:52 of you that are here but, I... I don't know how to do a lot of things but I think
18:57 I've learned over my Decades of of being on this planet that I do know how to
19:03 surround myself with people ... who are highly skilled and lovely to work with and that's the beauty of it ... and even
19:11 though it was super intense and ... we were scared a lot I think
19:17 ... you know worried we wouldn't be able to do it or or that we'd have a misstep or something like that it was also very
19:23 exciting and super fun because of the people involved so I like to have fun along the path because gosh there's a
19:30 enough hardship and difficult things and if we can you know live in community we can
19:36 support each other and of course have some fun that would be great so you know that part looks like every any ... in
19:42 some ways almost any other Capital campaign ... and and that was the piece you know
19:48 that that myself and a couple other people including Peter Schuyler jumped in to try to put the structure together
19:54 and support Mark and folks like Dani and Ken Owen at CIR who were busy doing
19:59 other pieces ... so I think all told we we created a you know classic honorary you know
20:06 co-chairs I think there's five or six of those advisory committee members our Leadership Council still exists ... there
20:12 was an executive committee within that and then some folks that were populating different ... committees and then behind
20:19 each of us who were ... fundraising was a whole team of kind of just friends or colleagues that we would call upon uh
20:26 you know I think of our former mayor Helene Schneider right she was kind of part of my team behind the scenes
20:32 ... I don't think she even shows up on the roster right but Helene and I would talk regularly like who do you know and
20:40 can you get these materials to folks you think might be able to make a gift and she'd say sure and then you know I'd
20:46 Circle back with her and all of that so just building that out so probably all told that the team was if I had to guess
20:53 about 120 people ... and ... we met every morning during
21:00 the work week at 8 A.M ... I think that that was my idea because
21:05 the thing that sometimes folks forget in these campaigns is you've got to have excellent internal communication you
21:11 need your external like the stuff Dani ... you know and others put together for
21:16 sure ... but if you're not communicating amongst yourselves then you don't have
21:22 kind of a disciplined ... team and you just you need to be able to share what's going on like did you talk to so and so
21:28 and what's going on with that business and you know did you Circle back with Santa Barbara Foundation about you know
21:33 that wonderful you know stock gift that's coming through all of that and the only way I could think to do with
21:40 that was to call a daily meeting because there wasn't time there just literally was not normally you'd have monthly
21:46 meetings or even weekly meetings or your your core team would meet weekly and everybody else would meet monthly you
21:52 know classic structures for humans to communicate we didn't have time so I know people probably are still mad at me
21:58 about that at some level but that's where Zoom right really showed up and that in the pandemic I just have to say
22:06 I don't know if we could have done this without the pandemic moment you know in
22:11 a way because technology that we'd already all been kind of trained up in to some degree
22:17 helped and folks were accustomed to communicating over text phone zoom and I
22:26 don't think I've ever received texts you know saying I'm in for 100 meaning a hundred thousand dollars I mean when
22:31 have any of us secured gifts over text I've never done that it was amazing yeah
22:38 and I'd just be like great thank you for perfecting my thank you with my thumbs I
22:45 was just but folks were accustomed to that right like it was it's kind of a new a new normal ... and and and I think
22:53 the other reason lots of people hopped in was that it felt good to be part of something positive and like that you
22:59 know even if it was a crazy idea and we had a number of folks that literally in
23:04 the professional world just said no F and way like you're just not going to do this ... but it's like well let's give it a go
23:11 right and it was this kind of positive infectious you know ... feeling as composed to you know covid which was
23:18 truly infectious and killing people right so ... I think that really added something
23:24 right like the unique ingredient you know that you toss on top of your soup and everybody goes wow you know and that
23:30 kind of makes part of it possible yeah ... we have two minutes left in our
23:36 formal presentation so I want everyone to put their questions comments feedback
23:41 Kudos in the chat or come on screen if you want to have a conversation share uh
23:48 your success stories ask questions ... we've got to truly truly gifted
23:54 professionals here with you so come on board, I... I want to ask you one more
24:01 follow-up question about ... we you mentioned needing to be
24:07 disciplined in your Communications and I there was such an interesting Duality
24:13 ... between like the community owning this but also the professional team
24:18 needing to be deeply disciplined in the in the process and the language and the communications and the structure so can
24:25 you guys talk to me sort of about how it was navigating that like tightrope
24:33 theology right daddy so let me give a little backdrop which is that part of
24:39 the purchase agreement mandated ... that ... any of our materials would be
24:45 approved by ... ... Chuck Landy and his attorney
24:52 ... and there were really you know ... and the reason for that you know shout out to to Chuck here
24:58 ... for going along on this ride with us was because you know if we weren't successful then he was still going to
25:06 carry forward with his plans and he needed to be able to sell those lots and those homes and he didn't want anything
25:11 that would jeopardize that so that's his perspective and I think that's a reminder that
25:16 even though people might vehemently disagree with that right you know and
25:22 and that that shouldn't have been developed that's not appropriate for the land you know Etc
25:28 it's just the counter view to that right that's his business that was that's what he does and so how do you then bring
25:34 sides that were kind of diametrically kind of seeming on the opposite right
25:39 how do you get at the interest right mediation parlance we would say instead
25:44 of positions interests and so the the language therefore became kind of that
25:50 meeting place of still helping us pursue what what we thought was right but also
25:57 preserving his ability to move forward if we weren't successful and and while that was super challenging I think
26:04 particularly Dani felt it more than I would ... I did you know the kind of the the
26:10 fundraising science the fundraising side it created a highly disciplined message and materials and limited materials and
26:17 in a way that's easier than than having too much and you're trying to manage all of that right ... but ... and we we also couldn't
26:24 guarantee that the community you know who was involved he wasn't part of our campaign would follow messaging we
26:30 couldn't control that so there was an understanding of that so we we got to let that go right we just had to
26:36 to adhere to the agreement those of us who were formerly part of the campaign but Dani do you want to say anything
26:42 about how that was on the ground ... well luckily we already had a really
26:47 strong Foundation by the time we got the purchase agreement and then that that became a thing
26:53 ... but I think again it's the boots on the ground I mean yes we couldn't we
27:00 couldn't we had to be careful with our language anything that would be print in print or
27:06 ... on Instagram anything like that but if you had one-on-one time with somebody you could really connect with them in
27:11 the way that you wanted to and use the language that you wanted to so for us we just had to kind of move things at that
27:18 point ... not focusing so much on social media because there were so many things that we couldn't say and a lot of the things
27:25 were very triggering for some communities of what we can't say
27:30 ... so it was important that our presence was still there and it goes back to what Nancy was saying about having just
27:38 I mean I almost felt like it was like perfect organization it was so important that we had that clear communication
27:44 every single day because everyone had to know what their role was and stay with it I couldn't have been like focusing on
27:52 other things while doing what I was doing and having making sure that our volunteers were there every single day
27:58 really connecting in a way that that we wanted to that we couldn't do anymore so
28:06 I think that was the important element is still having a presence in the community in whatever whatever Endeavor
28:12 you're in you have to have that peace it's really important and if you can't do it you have to have volunteers that
28:18 can so yeah love it love it I see Taryn put
28:23 in the chat she was a multiple time donor and she really appreciated the tone and frequency of the communications
28:29 it was urgent in tone but not over the top and I wasn't bombarded every day
28:34 great balance that is such a tough balance
28:40 hey Dani well my friends what other questions do
28:48 you have for our amazing guest stars or pop on and share maybe your lived
28:54 experience doing a big campaign or a little campaign or a Grassroots campaign
28:59 or ...
29:06 perhaps we've done it we've answered all the questions about fundraising ever
29:13 here he is put in the chat if ... those of you who were donors
29:18 ... and I see Llewellyn raising her hand so I'm gonna bring her on
29:23 I thank you so much for the awesome presentation so I have a question about
29:29 ... how you were able to find a balance in fundraising there's so much pressure by
29:36 certain ... like belief systems to just chase the really big donors and I can imagine that
29:42 the pressure for that ... was really real for you since your timeline was so tight
29:49 ... but then also it sounds like Grassroots was so so ... impactful so how did you kind of
29:56 navigate that of like with little time did you turn away from
30:02 opportunities that seemed like they wouldn't yield enough results like I guess I'm such a champion of the
30:08 Grassroots fundraising and would love to know how that ... played out in your tight timeline
30:13 situation now we did it all we had no time to turn anything down
30:20 yeah and the way I mean we just we bifurcated it right so actually Dani uh
30:25 and and some other folks were part of ... ... a committee right the subgroup
30:30 that focused on ... gifts that were under I think we had ... under 25 000 or 50 000 and the par
30:37 was pretty high he normally you wouldn't call that a Grassroots gift but in our case because we had such a short time as
30:43 you said but also such a high bar we had to meet so quickly we didn't you know to
30:49 to not not overwhelm or dilute ... any individual's efforts ... like for
30:55 me I had to hold myself back from doing kind of the Grassroots fundraising which is a lot of what I've done you know as
31:01 part of my career and really focus on on the more you know the larger gifts to
31:06 people who happen to have greater resources ... and that's the other point I want to make is that one of the beauties of this
31:12 campaign and this is true for folks who gave some of the higher amount was that
31:18 the the tenor we wanted to set and we we still you know work hard for this and a
31:24 lot of the donors feel this too is that ... no individual gift is more worthy
31:30 than somebody else's and we know this right we all contribute what we can and ... whether it was you know one dollar
31:37 and we had lots of folks you know putting money in at farmers markets we can never really thank them except with
31:42 a shout out like here right or you know ... and and then you know we had folks
31:47 who went all the way up to five million and you know the county and the state are involved too right we're waiting for
31:53 their big gifts to still ... their contributions to come in but none was more worthy than the other and I think
32:00 you know kind of that as our our ... sensibility and our approach to it as
32:06 well as bifurcating the work and having different groups focus on different levels
32:12 ... made it just possible ... because we were tired right it was kind of exhausting it was exhilarating but
32:19 there's no way personally for me I could have done both and so I needed Dani right and the crew that was focusing on
32:25 the Grassroots and leading Instagram and some of these mini campaigns like we've got a little match you know of blah blah
32:31 you know show your friends you can contr you know that and that all builds the momentum together
32:37 very cool thank you thank you ... I see two questions in the chat so
32:44 Dani can you ... talk about why why it was inappropriate to build housing on the
32:50 land like the the real core of why this work was really important
32:55 ... well I mean first and foremost it had a personal place in my heart so that was
33:01 the passion piece it was it it that land was so important to me from the moment I
33:06 moved to Santa Barbara so obviously I had a personal reason but then as you
33:11 start to really educate yourself on the land there was a lot of ecological significance there
33:18 that so many people didn't really know I mean that's that's where some of the last of our native grasses were there's
33:25 a lot of restoration happening to bring those back it was a it's a connecting Corridor for lots of really important
33:30 birds that we have ... and there's cultural significance and so it's important that we understand
33:37 it's also a buffer for our community a fire buffer so that piece of land is
33:42 really important to protect those houses down below ... yeah so those are some of the reasons
33:49 ... and we're losing a lot of our open space I mean that was that was just something I mean listening it's
33:54 important to listen to the community and what is needed and this just wasn't
34:00 also not the best place for houses I mean if you really think about it so I'd
34:05 say some of those those are some of the elements that that really drove us to really push us forward great thank you
34:13 ... Katie wants to know did you have time to do a feasibility study before launching the campaign
34:19 no but but it's a great question Katie I've been using on it while I was listening to Dani multitasking as we do
34:26 ... there was a small period when I reflect back where ... Channel Islands
34:33 restoration I think it was Ellie hooga verts and others floated the idea of trying to raise money for the last 101
34:41 Acres ... and it was a time where they had reached out to the developer and landowner were hoping to have a
34:47 conversation that was a period where those conversations weren't happening ... behind the scenes what folks probably
34:54 don't know and I was part of some of these conversations is that that there that created some chatter amongst open
35:00 space Advocates and donors people who do watch for these campaigns you know
35:05 they're watching for what might pop on the gavio to Coast right a lot of us wondering what's going to happen there more Mesa another property these are
35:12 folks who have been involved with Elwood with with Douglas family preserve you
35:17 know formerly known as the Wilcox cart Bluffs right so some of those folks we're all talking to each other right
35:24 off and on ... again people weren't necessarily seeing each other much ... but I do remember during that that
35:31 phase actually taking a day trip for my ... anniversary was my partner to Anna Kappa and running into a couple
35:38 of folks who happened to be contributors to those sorts of campaigns and them saying what do you know about this so I
35:45 think in a way I hadn't really thought about it as feasibility but there was a little bit of chatter
35:50 ... and I think that helped a bit and that actually we were able to recruit some of those folks in who had brought
35:57 it up ... said you know would you come help with this effort once it it popped and
36:02 we actually had an option to purchase before that it just was hopeful but no in in terms of a typical
36:10 campaign no time normally you would take at least two years for something like this right at least two years
36:16 ... and ... literally when I could tell the ... purchase ... option option
36:23 purchase agreement look like it might go and what I heard was 90 days I said so
36:30 would it be helpful if I hop in and help maybe put some structure together for the fundraising part and we just started
36:37 laughing it was like yeah like now and basically like started like that minute ... before it was even public that we had
36:44 it and so yeah not really feasibility doesn't go for it like yeah here we go
36:50 into the pool setting out to raise 20 million dollars without a feasibility study is a terrible idea but it worked
36:57 great job and and so I know that you had an agreement right with with the donors
37:03 can you guys shed some light on on that what do you mean which part oh many
37:10 agreements about if we weren't successful oh yeah yeah yeah yeah that was pivotal
37:16 ... yeah so ... yeah ... we just put out very quickly
37:24 I mean this is part of the work that we're able to do behind the scenes with Santa Barbara foundation and with Channel Islands restoration was not only
37:30 that we wanted to be able to say if we're not successful ... we could return the money but also that we could take
37:37 pledges and not push go on those until we were close right to certain benchmarks
37:43 ... and the tricky part of that behind the scenes is that that's very easy well not very it's easier to do with larger
37:51 sums of money right because there's fewer a and because you can kind of
37:56 track it and and there's costs you know the things with with campaigns is there's costs associated with these
38:01 things and most of us were volunteers but we had to have some paid structure and you know Sandbar Foundation needs to
38:08 cover its core costs for instance things like that so we actually had to get kind of creative ... and bifurcate how we took
38:16 contributions in because of that promise so ... anything above 250 you know would go
38:22 to Santa Barbara foundation and Channel Islands restoration via Paypal interest you know we had to like hunt around and
38:28 ... Ken and Mori were great about this or like what's the best mechanism for ... being able to kind of hold the money and
38:35 return it without any fees and PayPal is still up on the website and that was
38:40 great because Santa Barbara Foundation they were saying we hate to say this but we still need to
38:45 charge a fee and so for 250 we don't feel like we could make good easily on
38:52 that promise we want to and we appreciate it and so we had to get creative so that was that stuff behind
38:57 the scenes where we just scratch our heads and then we do a bunch of research then we just go okay we're gonna do it like this and ... Mary Rose who was our
39:04 campaign is still you know ... with us a campaign director and a campaign manager
39:10 and again she does this for political campaigns so she was super hopeful in that way because it was very Akin
39:16 ... she had a reporter once say you know what's what's the scariest moment for for you with this campaign and she
39:23 didn't answer publicly but really it was having to give the money back you know for her for the behind the scenes team
39:29 lead right it's like oh my God to have to return the money like that would be months in the making you
39:35 know you'd want to get it right you'd have to double triple check everything's like no please please please give the
39:41 money back it wasn't an option yeah in my mind I was like not an option no we
39:47 must succeed yeah ... so Stanley I'm gonna ask you to join us you had a handful of questions so thanks for being
39:54 here ... well yeah thanks so much for practicing this this is this is a really
40:00 fascinating window into an incredible campaign ..., I... I put here in the chat, I... I was
40:08 really encouraged to hear and I'm not surprised at all but to hear you Nancy
40:14 talk about releasing firm in this kind of right
40:19 this set of values around honoring the inherent ... value of any donation right and I
40:26 think one thing that struck me was right you had these five million dollar contributions or a ten thousand dollar
40:32 ... you know text pledge but you also had like the bake sale you had the activists like camping out on the land
40:39 ... you don't see that very often right and, I... I certainly I haven't and
40:44 I guess one I'm just like that is just so impressive but two how how do you I
40:51 don't know if there's any more detail on like how do you what does that look like on a day to day like how do you honor
40:56 those five dollar donations and the five thousand dollar fifty thousand Etc dollar donations
41:02 ... it almost to me I would I would guess it's almost like a a discipline in the way that you
41:08 were talking about messaging and all that but also maybe a discipline in like the way you interact with donors yeah so
41:14 that's that's just one set of thoughts that I was kind of never clunking around my brain right now
41:22 yeah, I... I think that's it I mean I don't know about y'all but the only way I've been able to fundraise is recall that
41:28 it's not for me right and that's a big hurdle especially for a lot of board members who don't want to do it you know
41:33 they're scared to do it for instance when working in non-profits but also that you know leading with respect and
41:40 love and acknowledging that you know everybody's resources are precious to them right
41:46 ... and it's it's their choice if they if they want to give so
41:51 ... that's kind of how I do it but I gotta say my kind of North Star on on how how how to relay the Deep connection
42:00 to the land and ... and the communication around that really
42:06 fell for me to two ... two or three folks one was Ernestine DeSoto
42:12 ... and ... you know the Chumash Elder who you know who who's who's been kind of
42:17 spiritual guide for The Campaign and Mariam para who's ... Family descends from the closest
42:23 Village site ... her her grandmother six times back ... lived there and Dani to you
42:30 ... Dani and and the messaging that was already in place ... via social media and
42:36 also just Dani how you communicate ... it has just taught me so much about
42:43 how to actualize that sensibility which I share but I don't always have the
42:48 right words ... right so Dani you were so helpful and just a shout out to Dani now too
42:54 that on the land if folks haven't been there for a little bit we've placed some Boulders that we got ... for free from
43:00 the debris flow actually because they're going to be our gratitude Boulders we wanted to put something natural in the
43:06 land to to thank everybody ... but we wanted to fit into the natural
43:11 landscape ... ... and now we have the tough chore frankly of what do you put on those
43:17 plaques we have 5500 owners how do you first begin to convey that's your
43:23 gratitude and like amazement of that right but not only that we don't we can't fit everybody's names let's just
43:30 we'd have to have tons of Boulders so how do we do that and ... Dani I'd like to hear hear how how
43:37 you how you how you navigate that but I just wanted one more shout out to you
43:43 the thing illustration for me how Dani guides me she said you know when we're
43:48 on the land looking at these Boulders and talking together what are we you know we're gonna put on him she said my
43:53 my deepest you know desire is to have a way to convey that you know to the
43:59 community not only our gratitude for the donations but to everybody that this is possible that anybody can do this you
44:06 know banded together we can achieve change we can achieve great things so Dani that's enough for me what what
44:14 helps you tap into that deep space to guide us in that room honestly it's that
44:20 it's that piece that I was mentioning in the beginning you have to know your why you like and it changes almost every
44:27 week I mean this was this was the most intense thing I've ever experienced in my life because not
44:32 only was it 90 days ... we had to raise that 20 million it was like we had every week we had to
44:39 send him a certain amount or if the deal was done so it wasn't even that we had 90 days we
44:45 had three it was like you had I can't even remember I mean I think I've compartmentalized some of it but
44:51 we it was so it was every day connecting with the land and making sure that I'm
44:57 coming from a pure place of what is the best thing for this land what it what is
45:02 the best thing for the community and asking yourself that before you go into anything even before I'd have
45:08 conversations with major donors like we had one amazing
45:13 who's now a close sister of mine her father ... you know he he loaned a good amount
45:20 of money it was just amazing he's with Alima foundation and it was like before I went into the conversation with him
45:25 he's like all right you have two minutes sell me on this land and that was him that's his personality and I was like
45:32 okay here we go and you know it's like you have to take that moment to know why you're doing this and really check in
45:39 with yourself every single day before you before you even ask anyone like you know to be involved and
45:46 ... so yeah that that's the only piece that I feel like is important just every day checking in with yourself like why
45:52 am I doing this why am I here is this for the greatest good yeah
45:59 yeah thank you so much ... so Lauren you put a ... question in the
46:08 chat about sort of expanding on what we were just talking about how do you with with
46:13 5500 donors how do you say thank you that's a lot of thank you notes so can
46:20 you go go ahead Lauren I'll turn it over to you to ask your question yeah thank you thank you so much for
46:27 sharing all this I'm so intrigued by everything and I know there was like a massive time crunch for everything and
46:33 I'm just curious if ... there was like a process during the time
46:38 crunch where you had ... like a plan in place for thinking donors making sure they felt the love ... I'm just I'm just
46:45 so intrigued by how ... that kind of played out ... during the time crunch piece of it
46:52 ... yeah so I think again multiple levels ... you know ... Dani via social media
47:00 Dani and Sam ... really handled that kind of quick
47:05 community outpouring and keeping folks updated ... ..., I... I think all the donors
47:11 understood there wasn't a lot of time you know so so the pressure was off in that regard because normally, I... I don't
47:17 know but you all as fundraisers but you know my practice is I try to get something in the mail or some some
47:23 acknowledgment Within you know preferably a week couple weeks three weeks is the outlier for me if it
47:29 gets longer than that then I start wiggling in my chair and I'm not comfortable with it
47:34 ... I think it's how I was raised or something it's very old old school but ... but sincere
47:41 ... so I think that for me you know seeing what Dani and others were
47:46 putting out really helped and making sure donors were tapped into that
47:51 ... we had something a little bit of email stuff going out but we really didn't have the list together and it was
47:57 moving so fast ... Santa Barbara Foundation ... ... had in place their usual
48:03 acknowledgment process so they handled that big stuff and part of the reason
48:09 they were so pivotal and and those of us who've done capital or endowment campaigns or major just major give
48:14 campaigns we knew we needed an entity that could manage like the stock transactions and you know other types of
48:21 of higher level gifts that could come in and we could have set that up right but we don't we'd have time to set it up and
48:27 that's not ... you know we're not prosatic and you know but somebody like you know Andrea light and Jessica
48:33 Sanchez huge shout out to to that team that some of our foundation handled that
48:38 so we knew that those big that their thank yous would come and ... and that they'd be gracious on the
48:44 phone and all of that ... but the the other shout I want to say is when we after we've you know hit the the marker
48:53 and we actually closed escrow we did throw a party
48:58 ... ... and and Peter Schuyler and Lisa Stratton let lent their Garden a number of times as as we all figured out that
49:06 maybe we could be outside maybe masked and stuff we started to have some little groupings to build momentum ... particularly for
49:13 for major gifts and then we threw a party at the end so that felt good and then again Peter
49:19 ... it was really a professional fundraising volunteer right ... just because he cares he he and Mary
49:25 Rose just masterminded the the big list any name that we could find ended up in
49:32 not a database we you know Sandbar Foundation has a semblance of one but we
49:37 ended up dumping them all into a huge Excel spreadsheet it's crazy right it's not what you normally want to do but it
49:43 was the most efficient way in a way that Peter could control that list check for duplicates and all that and we
49:49 had this massive massive ... uh you know kind of Serial parties or
49:57 get-togethers where we did go through you know the list and send either postcards or cards to everybody
50:04 ... and we also came up with these stickers ideas I don't know who who came up with it Dani was that you
50:11 Peter would he put the list together and he's he he would hear facts like we had
50:17 one household people who happened to live together in kind of a shared housing situation not all of the same
50:22 family who gave 16 times within that three months and the gifts totaled less
50:27 than a thousand dollars so they dipped in over and over and over again and so
50:33 ... somebody came up with the idea of having a sticker that got slapped on the
50:39 ... the cards that said thank you for your multiple gifts like a way to acknowledge so we just again the
50:45 creativity of the team coming from that place of we want to acknowledge this is so hard to know how to do it
50:51 ... and that massive mailing party and we we got all of those out so that's kind of and then Dani actually for
50:57 businesses you you created tell them about the the kind of weekend of
51:02 appreciation that was brilliant yeah so we we also were really keeping in touch
51:08 ... through email as well we were were thinking so many people through emails and ... and then we had what we called a
51:14 kickoff party and I think we did this twice where ... it was basically just a
51:19 big celebration for anyone who participated no matter what that looked like whether they you know gave their
51:25 time or they gave money and it supported all the businesses that also
51:31 participated in the campaign and so we had this amazing three-day like kickoff
51:36 where you could go to Santa Barbara kayak or Santa Barbara Adventure or in
51:42 like Rincon Brewery and you get discounts at all of these places so it was a really fun way to thank everyone
51:48 at least in the community that lived here yeah I was just all about getting creative and I loved our handwritten
51:55 notes that was really fun to do as well yeah awesome thank you so much all right my
52:04 friend Stanley has another question hello
52:10 ... I was just I can't help but wonder if you all have a sense of if there's more
52:15 momentum building for ... sort of campaigns not quite like this
52:22 necessarily but of campaigns to to make land ... kind of more accessible for the
52:28 public good ... after this or was it kind of like this incredible Sprint a huge exhale
52:35 ... I just wonder if there's been kind of an any ongoing conversations around that whether it's for for housing or open
52:40 space or yeah no I you know and and I still say
52:48 this because by the way you know ... we're we're in the final push to
52:54 close the gap for the endowment we want a million dollar endowment at minimum to run with the land and so it's called the
52:59 restoration endowment so we have we we still have 700 000 ... we're trying to raise we're not going to go back public
53:06 you know to the Grassroots communities because everybody gave so much we called that off right like thank you thank you
53:12 but please you know take care of yourselves right ... and yeah maybe wait for it for the
53:17 next thing but ... you know the highest aspiration ... that I think we we all had was to do
53:23 even though it was Breakneck pace and I'm sure we made some mistakes along the path how could you not ... but that to
53:31 end the campaign you know conclude the campaign with everybody feeling like wow look at what's possible like Dani said
53:36 that sensibility like any of us can can make change can make big things happen when we work together and ... with you
53:43 know with purpose ... and and you know from shared values and all that ... but also that that
53:49 campaign's kind of ethics and and ... that we would have done a really good job with it
53:56 ... and ... that that's personally super important to me to just hold ourselves
54:01 to a very high standard ... and and make sure that it says feel good at the end not just for the
54:08 campaign and for me personally but for everything else all the other dollars all of you try to raise all of the time
54:14 right all the the smaller efforts and then maybe for the next big one ... and yeah we you know there we had so
54:21 many folks it was a first time donation for them right ... ... and
54:28 we hope that we've built the capacity kind of shown that folks can contribute
54:33 and make big things happen like I said so that you know when cause does something that somehow that reverberates
54:38 out a little bit let alone maybe a more Kindred campaign for open space
54:44 ... and you know that that's my highest you know hope ... that that people saw
54:50 what's what's possible and that we energize more people into philanthropy right that's really you
54:57 know the big big term you'll see
55:03 all right thank you what other questions or shared successes does the group have
55:10 and and it's possible that we have come to the end ... thank you guys so much
55:18 ... of course for joining us and sharing your experience and your expertise but thank you for what you have done for our
55:25 community like you it's it's breathtaking and I am really
55:31 grateful to each of you so well I'm sure there's other donors to
55:37 the campaign in our little audience here today so I want to call that out ... Taryn said she gave multiple times
55:44 and ... couldn't have done it without you this was truly you know the big team right capital T capital c community so
55:53 ... that's what takes my breath away right like just people pouring in ... just felt like a lot of love and a lot
55:59 of belief right in in a time where it's kind of hard to hold the faith about a lot of things so maybe that Stanley is
56:07 ultimately the biggest takeaway right that Dani speaks to and keeps guiding neon is we can all be part of the change
56:13 we want to see right you know kind of butchering Gandhi's quote here but you
56:19 know that's what we're trying I think all of us on this call are trying to do like we just want you know we want to
56:24 live in a community where we're taking care of each other we're taking care of nature we're commenting combating some
56:29 of the big challenges of our time ... and ... yeah like I said maybe have a little
56:35 fun along the way I think that's part of taking care of myself anyway is some good laughter
56:42 we had a lot of fun okay well thank you both so much for
56:48 your time today and your expertise and I appreciate all of you and thanks for joining us
56:54 and I just I want to thank the everybody too and just say come walk on the land and and if if you have more kind of
57:00 especially mechanics or you know questions that didn't get answered today or you you know want to talk one-on-one
57:07 I'm personally available to you know ... talk about it and and just share what
57:13 kind of worked and what didn't work and ... yeah so just an open invitation thank
57:19 you thank you we can include ... some information about the ongoing endowment campaign we can include some
57:26 information about the land in our follow-up email so thank you guys just so much all of you for being here thank
57:33 you Nancy all right thanks Dani see ya take care you too