Dear Ventura County Community Foundation Family,
I just poured myself a cup of hot tea, turned on my favorite calming album (yes, it is Yo-Yo Ma Essentials, for those who know me well), and felt a deep urge to sit down and write to you. You will understand why it feels so grounding to pause and be with this community after leaving a statewide briefing on budget and healthcare cuts and learning that more than 2 million Californians are expected to lose their health insurance by 2029.
Lately, it feels as though we are living amid a cascade of stories and updates that make the world feel fragile and overwhelming. With the scale and volume of news, it is no surprise that one of the most common questions I am asked is, “Where do you find hope?”
For me, the answer is community, especially each of you.
Recently, your community foundation co-hosted a winter gathering for more than 70 nonprofit CEOs alongside the Cal Lutheran Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Leading from Within. These were colleagues I have known and served alongside for more than a decade, joined by many new leaders carrying fresh energy and hope for their missions.
These leaders are on the frontlines of human and community need. They work where families struggle to afford rent; where children wait for childcare; where people confront illness, hunger, housing insecurity, environmental risk, and increasing uncertainty. As leaders spoke candidly about the challenges of the past year, from natural disasters to insurance instability to inflation pressures to serving more people with fewer resources, and the fear they hold for members of the communities they serve, they also named what keeps them going. Their teams. Their missions. The generous people who make up Ventura County. In truth, their community.
We all need community. In 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General declared a national social disconnection epidemic, warning that nearly 50 percent of adults in the country are struggling with loneliness. Loneliness does not mean there is something wrong with us. It is, in fact, a biological signal indicating our need for human connection. I believe this is especially true now.
What these nonprofit leaders were describing was what it feels like to be caught in a systemic loop of challenges. As Peter Senge, senior lecturer of Sloan School of Management MIT, would remind us, the only way to break such cycles is to refuse to operate in isolation.
This advice echoes the work of Dr. Kathleen Allen, author of “Leading from the Roots.” She describes in her blog earlier eras of leadership as standing on a long road where you could see what lay ahead and plan accordingly. It didn’t mean there weren’t challenges, hardship, or obstacles, but there was greater visibility. She describes this moment differently. It feels more like stepping onto a trail in the Grand Canyon. You can see only to the next switchback. You do not know what lies beyond it. Leadership, she would say, in this moment is about steady footing, shared purpose, and trusting that we are not walking alone.
At the Ventura County Community Foundation, this is how we understand our role. We are here to walk alongside our nonprofit partners, donors, and communities, helping hold complexity, connect people, and build the conditions for resilience even when the path ahead twists out of view. This is why philanthropy matters most in moments like these. Not as a solution to everything, but as a way of standing with one another when the path narrows.
If you are leading an organization right now and feeling the weight of uncertainty, please know this: what you are doing matters, and you are not alone.
If you are a concerned community member wondering how best to help during this time, please know this: we are here to walk alongside you. The greatest gift you can give right now is your attention. When we are at the supermarket, waiting in line at a gas station, or passing one another in our neighborhoods, let us choose to truly see one another. These small moments of connection matter more than we often realize.
I left the briefing feeling the weight of the challenges facing us, yes, but also deeply grateful to walk this trail with people of such courage and care.
Thank you for being part of your community foundation family. It is where I continue to find hope.
With gratitude,
Vanessa
Vanessa Bechtel
VCCF President & CEO
