The charitable actions of the local community, as reported in the Sacramento Bee, have helped save open swimming hours at local pools that were scheduled to be shuttered, revealing the open hearts of the community amid tough financial times for the government.
While this is very commendable, it is unfortunate that it probably will not be sustainable over the long haul and one hopes the government funding is able to resume soon.
Building long term sustainability for supplemental funding for publically owned resources requires—in addition to forming a 501 © (3) nonprofit organization independent of government to accept tax deductible donations—professional leadership of the nonprofit utilizing all of the many methods of fund raising on a consistent and innovative basis over the long term.
Fortunately, there are now many graduate degree programs in nonprofit management as well as many experienced nonprofit executives that could be recruited to manage the nonprofit organization we suggest be created to provide supplemental funding for the Parkway, which can be read about in our press release of last month.
An excerpt from the Bee article.
“Open swim times have been revived at two Sacramento pools where funding went down the drain in June, the result of fundraising and financial help from the City Council.
“The cutbacks in pool hours were part of an $8 million hit to the city's Parks and Recreation Department budget. City pools remained open for lessons and specialized programs, but recreational swim times were curtailed.
“The biggest transformation has occurred in the River Park neighborhood of east Sacramento, where the pool at Glenn Hall Park went from being shuttered in early July to offering 10 hours of recreational swim a week a few weeks later.
“And thanks to an $18,000 infusion from a local church, neighborhood residents and City Councilman Steve Cohn, hours for recreational swim will expand to 14 hours a week this month.”
