Forever Balboa Park

1. Build relationships both within and outside the park.
2. Add value to our community by creating a welcoming and accessible park space for EVERYONE.
3. Complete park rehabilitation, restoration, and enhancement projects with our partners and the city.
4. Deliver first-rate placemaking programs featuring a rich diversity of content, vendors, and performers.
5. Provide opportunities for youth to share their voices and develop as future leaders in the community.
6. Achieve organizational excellence in everything we do.

• Foster next-level reciprocal relationships with the City of San Diego and our collaborators, focusing on deep, meaningful conversations about our shared concerns and potential solutions.
• Cultivate relationships with funders who care as much about Balboa Park as we do.
• Focus on transparency to ensure that our community feels a part of all that we do.
• Secure funding for park maintenance projects by investing in our internal capacity for fundraising, grant writing, City/Forever Balboa Park collaborations, and revenue opportunities.
• Deliver value by connecting our collaborators to key audiences through targeted, multi-channel communications.
• Provide value through advocacy on behalf of Balboa Park.
• Showcase Balboa Park and the work of Forever Balboa Park to a variety of key audiences.
• Oversee the renovation of the Botanical Building by providing support, collaborating with stakeholders, engaging the general public, and working with the City of San Diego.
• Create a decision-making framework for assessing current and potential projects in relation to our vision and our resources.
• Complete projects currently underway that align with our vision and resources—on time and on budget.
• Assess and reconcile the needs for internal capacity building against projects and programs, creating a plan to align staffing needs with the operating budget and other resources and making the most of current funding by reallocating resources across the organization.
• Assess and reconcile the ability of our Board to meet the needs of our vision and incorporate this into Board-member succession planning.
• Assess and reconcile the ability of our volunteers to meet the needs of our vision and incorporate this into a volunteer-development plan.

Our board and staff were part of the strategic planning process, so they are invested in the outcome. Additionally, together, the trustees and staff of the newly merged Forever Balboa Park organization have the skills and resources required to achieve the key objectives.

• We have successfully come through the merger process of two park nonprofit organizations that share a similar vision and approach, to better serve our park and maximize our fundraising initiatives.
• We are actively engaged in a multi-million-dollar public works project and a capital campaign to restore the Botanical Building & Gardens, in partnership with the City of San Diego.
• We have completed major structural renovations on the historic Balboa Park Carousel.
• We have completed an organizational excellence exercise with our Board of Trustees, the implementation plan is set.
• We have launched multiple volunteer initiatives, including the Garden Stewards, Trail Stewards, and Tour Guides, to help improve the park experience for all visitors.
• We are engaging youth in a variety of development opportunities (internships, service days, creative activities).
• We are partnering with a variety of park and community organizations to create initiatives that share resources and expertise for the benefit of park visitors.