Amid financial challenges, and a week after its executive director stepped down, the Santa Maria Valley Humane Society announced it’s merging with the Santa Barbara Humane Society.
The organizations announced this change on Feb. 4. This move comes after 18 months of discussions among various animal welfare groups throughout the county about how to work together to stretch resources further. Kerri Burns—who was leading the Santa Barbara Humane Society and will now serve as the president of the expanded organization—said other organizations chose not to participate in the merger at this time, leaving just the North and South County nonprofits to combine efforts.
Burns said as the number of animals entering shelters decrease nationwide, it makes sense for organizations to consolidate. The Humane Society of the United States estimates that about 6 million to 8 million cats and dogs enter shelters annually, which is down from 13 million in 1973.
“In our industry, and in any nonprofit, I think the future is organizations merging,” Burns said. “There’s not going to be, I don’t think, in the future, a whole lot of standalone nonprofits that can really survive.”
Santa Maria Valley Humane Society’s former Executive Director Sean Hawkins stepped down from his position on Jan. 29. Burns said Hawkins—who has accepted a position with an animal organization in South Carolina—leaving the nonprofit was due to personal reasons, and not the merger. She said Hawkins wanted to move closer to his husband who works in Orlando, Florida.
Hawkins’ last day at the nonprofit occurred more than a week after the Santa Maria City Council approved a measure allowing the Santa Barbara Humane Society to take over the Santa Maria Valley Humane Society’s lease of city-owned property on West Stowell Road. A staff report from this Jan. 21 meeting states that financial challenges the North County nonprofit is experiencing led to this merger.
Burns said that because she wasn’t with the Santa Maria Valley Humane Society previously, she isn’t sure what led to these funding issues. However, she said that with the two organizations joining together, the Santa Barbara Humane Society’s funding—including a significant endowment—will ease the financial strain on the north campus.
“We can use our endowment to help get programs back up to speed,” Burns said. “And the donor dollar goes twice as far now. You’re helping twice the number of animals across the entire county.”
Burns said during this first year, she plans to assess the programs the North County Humane Society offers—as well as its existing staffing levels—to see if either needs to be increased. Later down the road the new organization will look into choosing a new name and maybe a new look.
But throughout this process, Burns said, nothing will change from the public’s perspective when they visit either Humane Society to adopt an animal or have their pet spayed or neutered. However, she’s using this opportunity to remind the public that the Humane Society is a local nonprofit that relies on donations for about half of its funding and doesn’t receive state or federal aid.
“We are your own local backyard nonprofit,” Burns said. “That’s the only way we survive.”
Highlights
• The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians donated $100,000 to the Los Padres Council of the Boy Scouts of America to help rebuild Camp Rancho Alegre. The school was damaged in a fire in 2017, and repairs are estimated to cost $18 million.
• The Santa Barbara County Fire Department announced the installation of the county’s ninth remote automated weather station near Vandenberg Village. Officials with the department can use this station to assess real-time weather conditions that could help determine fire danger ratings.
Zac Ezzone wrote this week’s Spotlight. Send tips to spotlight@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 20-27, 2020.
