New Capacity-Building Initiative Seeks to Strengthen Nonprofit's through Sustained Collaboration

In Sept. 2026, Catalyst of SD & IC Counties launched a new fiscal program called the Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative of San Diego to help the region's 14,000+ nonprofits discover new ways to overcome fiscal, personnel, infrastructure and capacity limitations due to shifts in the giving landscape. During this episode of "Cause San Diego's Social Impact Spotlight" series, Staci Reidinger, Founder of Cause San Diego and Director of the Cause Conference, discusses the Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative SD with Program Director Connie Archbold Robinson. They explore how other cities and states in the U.S. are sprouting similar programs to help the nonprofit sector find more effective and impactful ways to collaborate across public and private sectors. Connie and Staci also discuss the hurdles that prevent collaboration, why nonprofits might think twice before seeking collaborative models, how they can overcome this and why moving through the process of h uncovering what's possible could be what a nonprofit needs to shift into a new mindset for mission success. For more information about NSI San Diego visit their website at https://catalystsd.org/nsi-san-diego/ As of Sept. 1 they are now actively accepting applications for up to $50,000 in grant funding to explore how a nonprofit can collaborate with one or more for profit or nonprofit organizations. NSI San Diego helps close that gap by supporting a range of collaboration models, including: Jointly managed programs Back-office consolidations Shared ventures Full-scale mergers With the right support in place, organizations can reduce duplicative work, strengthen internal operations, and focus more of their time and energy where it matters most: serving their communities.