As the entrepreneur movement increases, so have resources and training to help would-be business owners excel and thrive, but in Santa Barbara County there isn’t a lot of support for nonprofits wanting to tell their story. So a group of people organized one. It’s called Fast Pitch SB.
Representatives of 20 Santa Barbara County nonprofits will have the chance to learn from successful business leaders on how to hone their message and tell their story during Fast Pitch SB.
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Maria Valley is one of the nonprofits participating in the event. Kathryn Scott, events and marketing coordinator for the Boys & Girls’ Club, said she is excited to work with the caliber of people involved in Fast Pitch SB.
“I just want to be able to speak on behalf of the kids we serve and to tell their story,” she said.
Scott said her organization works with nearly 1,000 youth a day through the after-school programs the club offers. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Maria Valley has two clubs and has a presence at six school sites. Along with the after-school program, the organization also offers after-school sports, like soccer and basketball. With those programs combined, the organization reaches 9,000 kids a year, Scott said.
“If we didn’t put those on, a lot of kids wouldn’t get to participate in after-school sports,” Scott said.
Ernesto Paredes is Chief Energy Officer for Fast Pitch SB, but he is also executive director of the nonprofit Easy Lift Transportation. He said this is the second year organizers will offer the competition. He said that after last year’s successful event, organizers decided to put out a call to see who would be up for the challenge. They were flooded with applications from nonprofits throughout the county.
Those applicants were narrowed down to 20 finalists, including the Boys & Girls Club, who will participate in a seven-week training program. Each of the representatives from the 20 chosen nonprofits will work with two volunteer coaches with experience running a successful business or nonprofit.
One of those coaches is Kim Davis, executive director of CASA, with offices in Lompoc, Santa Maria, and Santa Barbara. She participated as a finalist in last year’s inaugural competition and had such a positive experience she decided to come back as a coach.
“I just wanted to be able to take some of what I learned last year and help our other nonprofits tell their stories too,” she said.
Davis said she learned how to tell her nonprofit’s story in a succinct and effective manner to an audience unfamiliar with what CASA does. “I gained perspective from actually talking to people who don’t know about my niche and learned how I can get our story across in a short amount of time,” Davis said.
In fact, with the help of her coaches during the seven-week Fast Pitch SB training, Davis created a three-minute pitch, and she and her staff were able to use that pitch in presentations all year long.
Fast Pitch SB’s chief energy officer, Paredes, said that during the competition, the 20 finalists will get narrowed down to a final 10. The 10 finalists will then present their pitches to a panel of judges who will name a first and second place winner awarding them $15,000 and $10,000 respectively. An audience favorite pick will be awarded $5,000. All 10 finalists will leave with at least $1,000.
“At the end is a celebration and there’s cash awards, but really the meat and potatoes of the program is the seven-week training,” Paredes said.
The training is underway now and will culminate in a Shark Tank-style competition, in which the 10 finalists present their pitches on Oct. 15 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Deckers Rotunda in Santa Barbara.
Davis said there was a good representation of nonprofits in this year’s competition but that most are from South Santa Barbara County. “I’d love to see more organizations involved from throughout the county,” she said.
Biz Highlights
• The Sacramento-based California Health Foundation & Trust awarded Cottage Health President and CEO Ron Werft the 2015 Walker-Sullivan Fellowship. The award is given to recognize outstanding health care leaders who are willing to study health care in one or more foreign countries.
The objective of the study is to compare and contrast health care delivery and responsibility in other nations, and how these methods might have applications in the United States. Werft will focus his fellowship on population health and end-of-life care. His intensive study will begin in Prague, Czech Republic. He then will travel to Bratislava, Slovakia; followed by Oslo, Norway; and then London, England.
• Exhibitor space is available for the annual Business Expo taking place Sept. 10 at the Santa Maria Fairpark, 937 S. Thornburg. The expo theme is “Around the World.” Booth spaced is limited. For more information, contact Jennifer Harrison at 925-2403, Ext. 815, or jennifer@santamaria.com.
Editor Shelly Cone can be reached at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Aug 27 – Sep 3, 2015.